Introduction

To modern historians, the phrase ‘naval warfare’ conjures up a picture of a fleet action or of patrols, and blockades. We may think of ships of the line in the days of Nelson, sailing majestically out of harbour or bearing down on the enemy at Trafalgar, or in more recent times, of minesweepers in the Channel on a raw January day, or of vessels bristling with aerials and missile launchers. Despite their evident differences all these vessels are part of an organised service with clear lines of command, dedicated personnel and the support of offices, dockyards, and the government of the day. The distinction between naval vessels and the merchant marine is clear. No modern trading vessel, even if requisitioned as a transport, in any way resembles a warship. None of these assumptions hold good for the period with which we are concerned, c.1000-c.1500. For the greater part of our period there was little if any structural difference between ships primarily engaged in warlike activities and those engaged in trade.1 Individual ships could and did perform both functions at various times during their career, while if we consider ship types in general, it is hard to isolate any features that belonged exclusively to one category or the other. In the same way the commanders and crews of ships would seldom have been able to describe themselves as members of an organised service and the support from dockyards and administrators would often be at best haphazard and intermittent. It is even perhaps unsafe to say that ships engaged in aggressive activities were always clearly acting with the knowledge of a ruler. The distinction between outright piracy and the actions of privateers, conveniently described by the phrase ‘guerre de course’ was blurred and might change according to circumstances.2 Certainly the same individual might be a respected renowned naval leader at one point in his career and the leader of at least quasi-piratical raids at another.