pointed out that he had not funds in hand to justify him in launching upon so considerable an outlay. Workmen would not work a moment after the cessation of their pay. One William Arnold, of Saubagnac, had offered to provide half the desired squadron for 20,000 marks a year, but Montegauger did not like his conditions. The indulgence was absolutely necessary if good men were to be obtained.
Details of the squadron sent against Anglesey, during the Welsh War in 1277, are also of interest. The squadron consisted of eighteen ships, all of which were furnished by the Cinque Ports, together with one dromon of Southampton, and four other vessels, one of which was the Rose. It was commanded by two "captains over the fleet of eighteen ships of the Ports"; each large ship had two officers styled rectors, one of whom commanded; each smaller ship had one rector, and one constable;[1] the crews varied from twenty to twenty-eight men; and the total number of mariners in the squadron was 419. Of the ships not belonging to the Cinque Ports, the dromon carried but nineteen mariners. The pay, as at a later period, was: each captain (admiral), 12d.; each rector, constable, and the master of the dromon, 6d.; and each sailor, 3d. a day.[2]
The craft purchased in 1282 for the Welsh expedition were small, their price varying from £4 to £13, at a time when anchors and cables for one of the king's large ships cost twice as much as the larger sum, and when a new barge built and fitted out at Winchelsea cost £80 9s. 11d. Of the vessels of the Cinque Ports employed on that occasion, one was La Vache, and another, the Holy Cross. The crews of all were paid by the crown, the total expense being £1404 9s. 10½d.[3]
Among the stores purchased by Sir Matthew de Columbers in 1290 for the ship which was to go to Norway to bring thence the Lady Margaret, who, had she not died prematurely, would have married Prince Edward, were: wine, ale, corn, beef, pork, bacon, stock-fish, sturgeons, herrings, lampreys, almonds, rice, beans, peas, onions, leeks, cheese, nuts, salt, vinegar, mustard, pepper, cummin-seed, ginger, cinnamon, figs, raisins, saffron, ginger-bread, wax torches, tallow candles, cressets, lanterns, napkins, wood, biscuit,
- ↑ It is doubtless owing to its ancient connection with the rank of a constable that the family of Constable, of Wassand, bears as its crest "a ship with tackle, guns and apparel all Or."
- ↑ Roll of the Wages, etc. (10 Edw. I.), in the Carlton Ride Repository.
- ↑ Roll of the Purchases, etc. (18 Edw. I.), in the Carlton Ride Repository.
