ABSTRACT
Historiography reflects the complex nature of the maritime community. Scholars have tended to look at specific strands of maritime society by examining the demographics of coastal communities, the social world of sailor towns, naval service, and shipman guilds. Geoffrey Scammell did much to lead the way in investigating the English maritime community. He showed how mariners sought work in numerous locations, how they were pressed into naval service, and how they endured arduous voyages. Maritime family groups have been the focus of previous research, but such work has centred on inheritance strategies, marital relationships, and how kinship groups provided the connection between the often absent mariner and land-based society. The Tudor shipmasters who chose to focus on coastal or short-range European voyages were essential cogs in England’s history of maritime expansion. Tudor shipmasters have often been portrayed as landless, itinerant drunks.
