Increase of the English fleet, A.D. 1066.
The accession of William the Conqueror to the
throne of England produced important changes in
the maritime affairs of that country, and gave to its
over-sea commerce greatly increased security and
stability. In their anxiety to recover the throne of
Canute, the Danes had prepared a fleet for the
purpose of invasion, which obliged the Conqueror to
summon to his aid the whole of the naval resources
of the island. Dover, Sandwich, and Romney were
each called upon to provide, at their own expense,
twenty vessels, equipped for sea, with crews of
twenty-one men and provisions for fifteen days.[1]
Rye and Winchelsea rendered similar assistance, and
in return had conferred on them privileges similar to
those which had been granted to the former places by
Edward the Confessor. These ports were then for
the first time styled the Cinque Ports, by which
distinctive title they have ever since been known.
Other ports had also to provide their quota. The
fleet thus provided by the Conqueror was so fully
maintained by Rufus, his second son and successor,
that the learned Selden dates England's maritime
supremacy from that very early period. Still, for more
than a century after the Conquest, her ships seldom
ventured beyond the Bay of Biscay on the one hand,
or the entrance to the Baltic on the other; and there
is no record of any long voyages by English ships
until the time of the Crusades, which, whatever they
may have done for the cause of the Cross, undoubtedly
gave the first great impetus to the shipping of
England. The number of rich and powerful princes
and nobles, who embarked their fortunes in these
- ↑ Domesday Book.
