Records: the Royal Navy

## **Strength Upon the Seas**

### ***The Leadership***

Seymour Warwick was filling the post of Secretary of the Navy, which had folded in the position of Lord High Admiral, created some 103 years prior by Edward I. Prior to his appointment, there was no one in the post. The Clerk of the King's Ships, a post that had been created in 1344 by Edward III, was currently held by Robert de Crull a loyal but fading man.

The Clerk, or more fully, the “Keeper and Governor of the King's Ships and Warden of the Sea and Maritime Parts,” de Crull was a victim of bad financial management and support. Unfortunately, he was also a poor advocate for his charge, and both the Royal Navy and English Merchant Marine had languished. October 1376, the Clerk was gently eased out of the position, given a retirement pension and an advisory stipend as the roles were reworked into a modern, functional administration.

### ***The Situation***

The old problems of money and politics were replaced by the chief problem of *time*. The shipyards had been undergoing their own renaissance for the better part of a year, with the ***Royal Company Shipworks*** blazing a trail for the whole of the English Merchant Marine. The *Guarantee of Naval Limitation* had sparked confidence that the Crown wouldn't absorb all English shipping capacity for sea lifts. After that, the Crown Prince stepped aside and allowed the staff to execute their directive.

Connotation counted, so Admiral Warwick started his own campaign to update even the name "Ratcliffe" into a more modern "Redcliffe." The rat struck too close to home to what the dilapidated Royal docks had become.

*Redcliffe* was a former hamlet lying by the north bank of the River Thames between Shadwell and Limehouse. It is now a district in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, and is located to the south of Stepney. The name derives from the small sandstone cliff that stood above the surrounding marshes, it had a red appearance, hence *Red-cliffe*.

No place demonstrated more the futility of feudalism than on the Royal docks. When Edward III had destroyed the French fleet in the Battle of Sluys in 1340, the English fleet had been strong. Since then, the responsibility had fallen to a pressed-service merchant trade and chosen nobility, essentially outsourcing the maritime defense of the realm. Since 1340, the French had rebuilt, taking pride in their port at Harfleur, and the English hadn't.

The French now controlled the local seas and it was a maritime embarrassment.

Privateers were availing themselves to fill the need, such as the two sailing ship + 5 oared barges assembled by rich Dartmouth shipowner John Hawley. Southampton and Bristol were coming together to defend their coasts. The privateers were comparatively cheap, but they weren't amenable to strategic direction and were apt to embroil the Crown with neutral powers.

### ***The Recent History***

Nearly 30 years prior, the Clerk was in charge of some 34 royal vessels out of a potential navy (counting the merchant marine) of some 700 ships.

From some 670 Merchant Marine ships, the civilian fleet had wasted to 250 ships by 1370, falling to 150 in 1377. Further, over the same period, the average carrying capacity of these ships had declined from from 70 to 55 tons. The losses and depreciation were not being made good, especially among the largest ships.

The 1376 capacity, just prior to the maritime rebirth, of charterable ships was 4,000 fully equipped troops (not 35% of what it had been when mid-century) – and that was if they commandeered the *entirety* of the English merchant fleet. Considering the amount the merchant navy was alternately commandeered or chartered just for John of Gaunt’s foray into Castile, it left resources for transporting troops to Calais, Brittany, Aquitaine or Ireland (all brewing trouble spots) dangerously thin… *and also meant that there would be no income from outgoing foreign trade.* This was already part of the cycle that led to the decline of English shipping*.*

Merchants had objected to the continual borrowing of their ships, especially when they came under fire as they had sealifting English armies around the coast. In fact, the constant pressure of service (and losses in battle) had led many ship owners to abandon ocean-going, deep-hold ships and concentrate on oared barges (which didn't go as far or hold as much). Even when the royal vessels did set out to sea, the only "king's sailors" were the ship masters – the crews were pressed (arrested, essentially) from the ships of merchantmen, making it another bone of contention from private shipowners.

The *Guarantee of Naval Limitation* was just what was needed to boost merchant confidence.

As for the once-regal fleet, most of the 34 Royal vessels had simply rotted away. The Crown didn't have any specialized repair facilities, such as the French had Rouen or the Castilians had to service their galleys at Seville. At most, they had a storage depot and a yard at Ratcliffe in Stepney (London), where most of the commercial shipbuilding and repair was taking place (and it wasn't maintained).

Digging deeper, England had no native tradition of operating oared vessels. Conscripting seamen merely diverted the available manpower from requisitioned merchantmen without achieving any net increase in the number of operational ships. Without adequate crews, it was hardly worth spending money on maintenance.

### ***The Fleet***

By 1376, it was down to 4 Royal ships.

* Three (3) cogs
	+ A single-masted clinker-built vessel used until the 15th century. The Cog originated in Northern Europe and spread throughout the Baltic and to the Mediterranean. The first mention of a cog is from 948 AD in Muiden near Amsterdam. Even though the usual clinker construction limited the ultimate size of a cog, the English chronicler Thomas Walsingham speaks of great cogs in 1331 with three decks and over 500 crew and soldiers. A cog is characterized by high sides, a relatively flat bottom, rounded bilge and a single square sail Also Kog (Dutch).
	+ The three cogs had been magically overhauled and donated as instructional vessels for the *London Nautical College*.
* One (1) 300-ton sailing carrack; the *Dieulagarde*
	+ Carrack: A large sailing vessel developed from the earlier cog, in use from the 14th to the 17th century, usually with elevated structures known as castles at the bow and stern.
	+ The Dieulagarde was the only Royal ship that was truly seaworthy. It was an early carrack design, departing from the size-limited cogs, and was truly huge for its era.
	+ The Dieulagarde had been magically overhauled and deployed, including the Florentine debt repayment mission.

### **The Home Port: *Redcliffe***

Prior to 1376, the shipwrights based in the London Docklands were underperforming and underproducing, no match for the shipbuilding in Rouen and Seville.

The Royal Company led the way, having transformed marshlands just downriver from Redcliffe. The RC had built their area into the premiere commercial ship yard, including the first dry dock in the world.

The now-chartered (and no longer "provisional") Royal Navy experienced a rebirth of their own shortly after, where they could produce and repair their own vessels. A near-mirror of the RC yards, the RN yards were built with active and passive defenses, including towers and walls that both patrolled by *Marines* and prevented more sensitive construction from being easily visible.