MRP: Synthesis

Synthesis

Editorial history

26/04/12, CSG: Created page

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Suggested links

Transcription

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Current topics for synthesis

Characteristics of a good ship

• "att such tyme as the sayd shipp Free trade now seized at Lisbone as aforesd she was a strong and tight shipp and had bene but one voyage before att sea from the tyme of her sd building"

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Commercial failure

• Examples

- "at Genoa this rendent tooke in some pte of her lading & was to goe to Legorne to take in y:e remainder, & at his arrivall at Legorne the merchant who freaighted this rendents ship failed so that this rendents designe was overthrown" [Answer given June 1659]

- "hee doth beleive the said de Silvera not knowing the said ffrancis Pardini was failed did send the bill of lading unto him as he beleiveth but hee doth not beleive the said John Tha?cker did really buy the said wood of the said M:r Pardini or pay him any thing for the same, neither doth hee beleive that the said M:r Pardini or any other merchant that is failed hath a legall power to make any sale of any goods that come to him during the time they absent and are not able to pay their debts, but hee doth beleive the said M:r Thacker being imployed by y:e said M:r Pardini as his sollicitor to make his composicon with his creditors hee & the said M:r Pardini did contrive together to gett the said goods into their hands if possibly they could and in order thereunto he beleiveth the said M:r Pardini did colourably, and fraudulently signe the bill of sale or schedule alleadged and deliver the same for his XXX as hee beleeveth...

To the sixth hee answeareth that hee doth beleive that the said M:r Pardini did in further ?prosequucon of the said fraudulent contrivance betweene him and the said M:r Thacker his sollicitor endorse the bill of ladeing as is alleadged but hee being soe failed & absented hee doth beleive the same is utterly voyd and of noe effect." [Answer given June 1659, referring to events in 1649]

- "4 Itmm interr. Whether before the shippe Stockholme came from Stockholme, and before the Iron in controversie was Laden aboard, was itt nott commonly and generally reported that the said Godfrey Deleau was bankrupt or failed in his estate and in what moneth did the said wittnesse first heare that the said deleau was failed. Et fiat ut supra."

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Fish

• Salmon

- "y:e sayd shipp came from and began this her outwards voyage from Stockholme with her p:rsent lading of goods being Iron pitch tarr Copper shott andSalmon...all to be unladen att this port of London whither she was bound and where she now is the foresayd Salmon excepted which is to be transported to Burdeaux and there unladen and delivered to Jan Van Pullen a facto:r for y:e sayd Swedish merchants there resideing."

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Insults made at sea

• "the Captaine of the sayd Golden Starr in stead of showing submission to the authority of this Commonwealth being upon the Coasts of Englands as was demanded of him and is usuall did in a contemptuous manner returne skurrilous and base language and in an unbecoming and skornefull and reproach full way turned downe his breeches, and held upp his bare ?bumme or breech to the sayd Captaine Mill and Company, and waved his Cuttle axe bidding the sayd Captaine Mill Come to Leeward, all which this deponent saw and observed."

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Port Time Sources

• Unlading & Relading time in Lisbon port, 165X

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Shipping charges

• "it being very notorious & well knowne to the sd M:r Wayn Wright & all other mrchants that use the East countrey trade that every Last of wheate payeth one dollar the charges at Stettin & Stralsound & the charges for Smacks & boates to bring y:e sd corne on board, & petty pilotage & other dutyes, all w:ch heethis rendent did really pay

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Ship prices

• "a stXXX shipp of the burthen of 200 tunnes and upwards: and was worth with her tackle and furniture having bene newly fitted and equipped the summe of one thousand pounds ?sterl in the Judgm:t of this deponent"

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Travel Time Sources

• Inverness to Rochell

- "he answereth & beleeveth That the weather ?serving a ship doth usually & may saile from Innvrnes to Rochell in ?20 dayes or thereabouts"

• Lisbon to Brazil (exact Brazilian destination unspecified)

- "y:e sd ship the Scipio did enter upon & begin her voiage for Brazeel to wit in y:e lading of her goods for that place the 3:d of September 1649. and that y:e sd ship did dept from Lisborne upon y:e sd voiage the 5:th day of November arlate 1649 & ?arrived at Brazeele the 6:th day of March 1649 [i.e. 1650] & there discharged her lading about y:e end of Aprill 1650 & that upon the 20:th of June 1650. y:e sd ship did set saile in company of the portugall fleete for Lisborne againe, and was afterwards put back with the rest of y:e fleete by the command of y:e Admrall for Brazeel where they arrived againe about the first or second of July 1650."

• Gravesend to coast of Greeneland and back to Gravesend

- "the sd ship sett sayle from Gravesend upon or about the fourteenth of Aprill 1656. & not before as they beleeve at w:ch time & not before the sd monethly pay was to begin in case the sd pties had behaved themselves as they ought to have done, & these rendents further beleeve that y:e ship the Greyhound came back againe into the River of Thames & was here discharged upon or about the fowrteenth day of September 1656 as they beleeve"

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Wages

• Pay rates in sample ships

- The Content (London to Gambo (Africa) to Barbados (then lost at sea); wage schedule for twelve persons (1658/59)

• Seamens' wages to travel from Lisbon to Brazil and back

- "some consideraccon extraordinary above what they were in the first place hired
for"

• Customary exchange rates for mariners

- "thereupon y:e sd M:r did pay themoff freely Eight moneths pay in dollars at foure shills six pence per dollar, which is y.e usuall rate that English marrin:rs receive their wages at in dollars"

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Possible topics for synthesis

• Attitudes and behaviour towards negroes by sailors and ship masters

• Brazeele trade

• Corruption and kickbacks (prevalence; function)

• Fish

- "he answereth & beleeveth that Salmon & herings were no vendible commodity at Rochell in y:e moneths arlate" (HCA 13/19)
- Relative price of fish
- Whaling described as "fishing"
- Oysters
- Lobsters

• Geographical language

- Areas
- Linked to commodities (Rhenish wine; French wine)
- Non-port towns
- Ports
- Seas

• Greenland fishing

• Insults made between ships during conflict at sea

• Port to port routes

• Ship age

- "an old shipp being about the Age of thirteen or fourteen yeers old" (the Mayflower, ca. ?1659)

• Ship prices

- Create table of price of ships per ton (by age and burthen)

- Prices outside England, e.g. Surat (the Mayflower, 280 tonnes, 13 or 14 years old, badly damaged, valued with tackle and provisions at 910:li sterling by Capt. Robert ffisher, commander of the Smirna Merchant (£3.25 per ton)

• Timber merchants

• Time

- Between ports
- lading in port
- Unlading in port

• Wages

- Levels by job function
- Variances within and between job functions, & over time, & according to perceived risk and supply/demand

• Workings of Vice Admiralty courts outside London

- Regional courts

-- Example: Leith, Scotland
-- Example: Court of West England

- Process

- Registry