MARITIME HISTORY 



Dorset waters." But in many instances the so-called piracies were merely 

 cases of seizing enemy's goods in neutral ships and would, later, have merely 

 provided suits in the Admiralty Court. Others can have had no such 

 explanation. In 1322 a Plymouth ship was attacked for a whole day by 

 crews hailing from Weymouth and Portland who, having at last driven her 

 to Lyme, there boarded, ransacked, and scuttled her. 



The constant warfare of the reign of Edward II caused continual 

 demands to be made upon the ports. In 1308 Poole, Weymouth, and Lyme 

 were each ordered to send one ship manned by 42 men for the Scotch war;'- 

 in the following year Wareham is named among the passage ports of the 

 south coast.'^ A large fleet was required in 13 10, so that Poole, Wareham, 

 Weymouth, Melcombe, and Lyme were assessed for one vessel each.^* A 

 still greater effort was necessary in i 3 1 1 ; Poole was linked with Lymington 

 for three vessels, Wareham was again asked for one, Lyme for two, and 

 Weymouth, no doubt with Melcombe, for two.'^ In this case Southampton 

 and Dartmouth were the only towns on the south coast, exclusive of the 

 Cinque Ports whose organization does not admit of comparison, which sent 

 three vessels each, so that we have here a measure of the relative importance 

 of the ports. In i 3 i 3 thirty of the best ships between Plymouth and Shore- 

 ham were selected for service, for which Dorset may have supplied one or 

 more ; in 13 14 there was another heavy levy for the Scotch war, for which 

 Poole and Wareham sent one ship each, Lyme two, and Weymouth and 

 Melcombe two."* The exhaustion of the exchequer now forced the king to 

 obtain vessels from the ports at their own cost, a demand in such contrast to 

 the methods of Edward I that it must have brought home to shipowners the 

 possible disagreeables of the crown service. In this way John de Norton 

 was sent to the towns between Southampton and Falmouth in 13 16 to 

 persuade them to set out as much shipping as they could at their own 

 expense 'for better keeping of the English sea.'" This was a request ; the 

 next year came a command for ships to serve one month at the charge of the 

 towns, and afterwards at the king's cost ; Wareham was coupled with 

 Beaulieu Abbey for a vessel, the other Dorset ports being set down for one 

 each.'' In 13 19 the period of service at the expense of the towns was extended 

 to three or four months,"' and the coast, generally, must have welcomed a two 

 years' truce in 1320 with Scotland. 



Besides their warfare in the service of the state several of the counties 

 found themselves strong enough to carry on private wars of their own. In 

 August, I 32 1, the king issued inhibitions to the men of the Cinque Ports on 

 the one side, and on the other to those of Poole, Lyme, Weymouth, and 

 Melcombe in Dorset, ordering them to desist from the mutual homicides, 

 robberies, and ship-burnings which they had been perpetrating.*" The 

 Dorset ports were not fighting alone, for Hampshire, Cornwall, and probably 

 Devon, were their allies in this county war, but that they should have 

 been sufficiently strong and wealthy to contend with the Cinque Ports at this 

 time shows their rise into importance. 



=' Pat. 5 Edw. II, pt. i, m. 24. =" Close, 2 Ediv. II, m. 22 a'. 



" Ibid. 3 Edw. II, m. I9«'. " Rot. Scot. 3 Edw. II, m. I. 



" Pat. 4 Edw. II, pt. ii, m. 7. '= Rot. Scot. 7 Edw. II, m. 6. 



" Close, 9 Edw. II, m. i 3 </. '* Rot. Scot. 1 1 Edw. II, m. 17. 



" Ibid. 12 Edw. II, m. 3. "Close, 15 Edw. II, m. 32^., 31^. 



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