ABSTRACT

From the later middle ages through the eighteenth century seamen in northern Europe experienced a fall in their status, in their social, legal and economic position. The standard source which confirms the change in the status of seamen is the codes of sea-law used in the high middle ages. In the fifteenth and early sixteenth century while all factors were made more productive by the introduction of the full-rigged ship to the North and Baltic Seas crew sizes changed little. The process appears to have started later in the Netherlands and Germany than, for example, in the Mediterranean. The change may be a result of the increasing importance of authorities in dealing with the legal problems of skippers. The men who worked ships, whether they were on board or on shore, were in guilds and those guilds—economically, socially and religiously—were very much a part of the lives of those northern European sailors before the industrial revolution.