Ralph Davis
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780986497384
- eISBN:
- 9781786944467
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5949/liverpool/9780986497384.003.0003
- Subject:
- History, Maritime History
This chapter explores the development of ships and the role of shipbuilders across England during the seventeenth century. It begins by examining the technical changes to ships in the sixteenth ...
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This chapter explores the development of ships and the role of shipbuilders across England during the seventeenth century. It begins by examining the technical changes to ships in the sixteenth century, with major elements including the transition to three-masted ships and the lengthening of ships in relation to their beams. It examines the seventeenth century struggle to trade coal in English vessels due to their structural unsuitability in comparison to superior European flyboats. It then explores the British use of Dutch bulk-carriers taken as prizes during the Dutch Wars; and the reasons for the reluctance of British shipbuilders to alter their methods. It concludes with the collapse of East Anglian shipbuilding due to the preference for Dutch prize-ships, and the realisation that British shipbuilding needed to develop in order to expand.Less
This chapter explores the development of ships and the role of shipbuilders across England during the seventeenth century. It begins by examining the technical changes to ships in the sixteenth century, with major elements including the transition to three-masted ships and the lengthening of ships in relation to their beams. It examines the seventeenth century struggle to trade coal in English vessels due to their structural unsuitability in comparison to superior European flyboats. It then explores the British use of Dutch bulk-carriers taken as prizes during the Dutch Wars; and the reasons for the reluctance of British shipbuilders to alter their methods. It concludes with the collapse of East Anglian shipbuilding due to the preference for Dutch prize-ships, and the realisation that British shipbuilding needed to develop in order to expand.