A HISTORY OF DORSET 



required from the shipowners that their vessels would appear because some of 

 the ports, amongst them Lyme and Poole, had neglected the orders of the 

 previous year. Two of the king's clerks were sent round the coast to punish 

 the defaulters at their discretion," 



Probably both shipowners and seamen found piracy or privateering more 

 attractive than the royal service, but notwithstanding occasional disobedience 

 there was no general disinclination to respond to the demands of the crown. 

 The yearly levies of ships and men would seem to be destructive of commerce, 

 but in reality were not nearly so injurious to it as they appear, for it was 

 only during the summer months that the king's fleets were large in the 

 number of ships. Moreover a trading voyage involved great risk of loss from 

 ' wreck, piracy, and privateers, or in the sale of the cargo ; the king's service 

 meant certain pay for the fitting and hire of the ship, besides sixpence a day 

 for the officers, and threepence a day for the men — very liberal wages allow- 

 ing for the greater value of money. Thus both owner and sailor were on a 

 safer footing in serving the king than in trading for themselves. The 

 incessant embargoes that harassed commerce — then much increased — under 

 Edward III were not yet common, and the alacrity with which most of the 

 ports answered the demands made upon them shows that the assistance 

 required was not oppressive, nor even unwelcome, especially as those who 

 contributed to the sea service were freed from any aid towards that by land. 

 There was no permanent naval organization at this time. The king possessed 

 some ships of his own, and the commanders were usually charged with their 

 maintenance. When a fleet was to be raised from the merchant navy a 

 certain extent of coast was allotted to one of the king's clerks, or to a serjeant- 

 at-arms, who acted with the bailiffs of the port towns in selecting ships and 

 men and seeing them dispatched to the place of meeting. If a ship did not 

 appear, or the men deserted, they or the owner might be required to find 

 security to come before the king ; and although there was as yet no statute ■* 

 dealing with the offence they might, as we see, be punished at the discretion 

 of the king or his representatives. 



Wrecking and piracy were recognized, it illegal, industries, and the 

 Dorset men were no better than their neighbours in practising them. The 

 character and conformation of the coast must have provided much material 

 for wreckers, for the clumsy mediaeval ship was doomed if caught 

 either side of Portland in a gale from an unfavourable quarter. In the 

 human factor appetite grew with what it fed upon until the deeds of the 

 Dorset wreckers were notorious even in the nineteenth century. In 1305 a 

 Spanish ship was wrecked near Portland ; the crew escaped, but a commission 

 of oyer and terminer names 235 persons known to have plundered the ship 

 and broken it up.-' In the following year a Bordeaux vessel was lost under 

 Corfe, and although some of the crew and two dogs escaped alive the people 

 thereabouts carried away the cargo and destroyed the ship.^° Piracy became 

 so prevalent that in 131 1 the county had a commission of inquiry to itself 

 in order to ascertain why so many foreign merchantmen were plundered in 



" Pat. 30 Edw. I, m. 14. 



" The first statute was 2 Ric. II, st. 1, cap. 4, by which deserters were fined double their wages and 

 imprisoned for a year. 



" Pat. 33 Edw. I, pt. i, m. 13 d'. '" Ibid. 3+ Edw. I, m. 28 </. 



182 



