SHIPPING IN THE DAYS OF THE CRUSADES. 267 



Lindsay, who thoroughly investigated the subject, says that "The Norman merchant 

 vessels or transports were in length about three times their breadth, and were some- 

 times propelled by oars, but generally by sails; their galleys appear to have been of two 

 sorts the larger, occasionally called galleons, carrying in some instances sixty men, 

 well armed with iron armour, besides their oars. The smaller galleys, which are not 

 specially described, doubtless resembled ships' launches in size, but of a form enabling 

 them to be propelled at a considerable rate of speed." Boats covered with leather 

 were even employed on the perilous Channel voyage. 



The Conqueror soon added to the security of the country by the establishment of 

 the Cinque Ports, which, as their title denotes, were at first five, but were afterwards 

 increased in number so as to include the following seaports : Dover, Sandwich, Hythe, 

 and Romsey, in Kent; and Rye, Wiuchelsea, Hastings, and Seaford, in Sussex. On 

 their first establishment they were to provide fifty-two ships, with twenty-four men on 

 each, for fifteen days each year, in case of emergency. In return they had many 

 privileges, a part of which are enjoyed by them to-day. Their freemen were styled 

 barons ; each of the ports returned two members of Parliament. An officer was 

 appointed over them, who was "Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports," and also Constable 

 of Dover Castle. 



" For more than a hundred years after the Conquest," says the writer just 

 quoted, "England's ships had rarely ventured beyond the Bay of Biscay on the one 

 hand, and the entrance to the Baltic on the other; and there is no special record of 

 long voyages by English ships until the time of the Crusades ; which, whatever they 

 might have done for the cause of the Cross, undoubtedly gave the first impetus to 

 the shipping of the country. The number of rich and powerful princes and nobles 

 who embarked their fortunes in these extraordinary expeditions offered the chance of 

 lucrative employment to any nation which could supply the requisite amount of tonnage, 

 and English shipowners very naturally made great exertions to reap a share of the 

 gains." One of the first English noblemen who fitted out an expedition to the Holy 

 Land was the Earl of Essex ; and twelve years afterwards, Richard Co3ur do Lion, on 

 ascending the throne, made vast levies on the people for the same object, joining 

 Philip II. and other princes for the purpose of raising the Cross above the Crescent. 

 Towards the close of 1189 two fleets had been collected, one at Dover, to convey 

 R'clurd and his followers (among whom were the Archbishop of Canterbury, the 

 1}'. ').>p of Salisbury, and .the Lord Chief Justice of England) across the Channel, and 

 u :;:::;>ml and still larger fleet at Dartmouth, composed of numbers of vessels from 

 A [t.iliiine, Brittany, Normandy, and Poitou, for the conveyance of the great bulk o 

 t!u Crusaders, to join Richard at Marseilles, whither he had gone overland with the 

 F. j-.K-li king and his other allies. The Dartmouth fleet, under the command of Richard 

 LI 3 Camville and Robert de Sabloil, set sail about the end of April, 1190. It had a 

 disastrous voyage, but at length reached Lisbon, where the Crusaders behaved so badly, 

 and committed so many outrages, that 700 were locked up. After some delay, they 

 sailed up the Mediterranean, reaching Marseilles, where they had to stop some time 

 to repair their unseaworthy ships, and then followed the king to the Straits of 



