830 Notes on a Shipwreck near Bamburgh. 



A more explicit account of this event may be obtained by 

 examining the original historians. Sir James Balfour in his 

 " Annals of Scotland," vol. I., p. 197, says, " This zeire, 

 1472, that grate shipe, bult by James Kennedey, Bishope of 

 St. Andrews, laded with riche merchandize, coming from 

 Flanders, perished by tempest, neir Bambrughe one the cost 

 of England ; all perishning except some few that saued ther 

 lieues in the ships boate, amongest quhom was the Abbot of 

 St. Columbane " (Inchcolm). The date which Lesley gives 

 is March 12th (" De Origine, Moribus, &c, Scotorum," p. 

 304, Romse, 1675). The English, he says, divesting them- 

 selves of every shred of humanity, fell upon the cargo, and 

 plundered it. The abbot of St. Colomb, after escaping the 

 perils of the deep, was made prisoner by James Carr, and 

 could not be released till £80 sterling of ransom was paid. 

 This circumstance produced much ill-will between the two 

 countries. " Restitution," says Buchanan (vol. II., p. 201, 

 by Aikman), " had often been sought for in vain, and this 

 for some period caused considerable irritation ; but at last, an 

 honourable embassy was sent to Scotland, at the head of 

 which were the Bishop of Durham and Lord Scroop. . . . 

 The truce was easily renewed, upon condition that an esti- 

 mate should be made of the value of the vessel which had been 

 destroyed, and the goods which had been taken away, and 

 reparation faithfully made.'' In the following year, Edward 

 IV. ordered a partial compensation of 500 marks, with per- 

 mission to the Scots to sue for any further redress in the 

 courts of law (Pinkerton's " Hist, of Scotland," 1., p. 280). 

 A fuller account of the negotiations may be seen in Ridpath's 

 " Border History," pp. 437-439. 



This famous vessel, "the largest," says Buchanan, "which 

 at that time had been seen upon the ocean," was popularly 

 known as " the Barge," or " the Bishop's Barge " (Lesley). 

 It cost him a sum equivalent to what he had disbursed to 

 found and endow St. Salvador's College, and to that of the 

 cost of his own tomb therein.* Pitscottie thus .quaintly puts 

 it (p. 167, 8) : " He foundit ane triumphand colledge in 

 Sanct Androis, called Sanct Salvitouris colledge, quhairin he 

 maid his lear (burying-place) verrie curiouslie and coastlie, 

 and also he biggit ane schip called the bischopis barge, etc., 

 and when all thrie wer compleit, to witt, the colledge, the 



* The cost of the tomb, according to Grierson's " Delineations of St. 

 Andrews," p. 159 (1849), was about £2220 sterling. 



