The Social History of English Seamen 1485-1649, Edited by Cheryl A. Fury

Abstract

The Social History of English Seamen 1485-1649, Edited by Cheryl A. Fury. Woodbridge and Rochester, The Boydell Press, 2012. x, 350 pp. $115.00 US (cloth). This social history is more accurately a collection of discrete essays that range from methodology (the application of forensics to naval history) to historiography. Despite their heterogeneity, the contributions are configured expertly by Cheryl Fury. Each chapter transitions logically into the next, making this a cohesive if eclectic reading experience. The tome commences with an over-arching characterization of the world of English seamen by David Loades (author of the definitive monograph on the Tudor navy) that emphasizes the variety and breadth of the maritime community, as well as considers the inherent problems of definition regarding inclusion (for example, dependents and associates that never actually put to sea but were inextricably part of the maritime socio-economic fabric). Complementing this backdrop, Fury provides historiographical context by paying homage to the late Geoffrey Scammell, who produced a wealth of seminal articles. Fury identifies six themes permeating Scammell's work: the English merchant service, seamens' maritime aptitude in peace and war, ship-owning and seamanship, the professionalization and emergence of an officer class, provisioning, and mutiny. These common denominators further unify the anthology as they are frequently incorporated in the essays that follow. Osteoarcheologist Ann Stirland produces scientific evidence illustrative of the lives of early-modern English seamen, demonstrating how human remains can confirm and embellish manuscript evidence. Using skeletal characteristics of experienced archers, Stirland reveals the fighting capabilities of the men of the celebrated Mary Rose. Similar detective work on bones found in proximity to the artillery of the sunken Henrician vessel (where the iron oxide of rusting cannon tinged the skeletons of the presumed gun crews) imparts better understanding of how Tudor sailors achieved their so-called military revolution in shipboard gunnery. J.D. Alsop, whose analyses of the Tudor Exchequer earned him acclaim, contributes to methodology by examining ninety-three wills drawn up by Tudor seafarers, eighty-six of which were composed at sea. Such intensely personal legal documents reveal the concerns, living conditions and experiences of seamen. The expansion of overseas trade, in this case with Guinea, necessitated that seamen and traders negotiate a mutually beneficial arrangement by which a merchant marine could function competitively. Alsop elucidates the dynamics of the terms of shipboard service, with wills documenting the aspirations of sailors within the framework of early capitalism. Dovetailing with the spiritual, social, economic, and physical world of Tudor seafarers, Fury then readdresses the macrocosmic problem of identifying the Elizabethan maritime community, building upon Loades's initial chapter. A profile emerges that demonstrates how war affected the maritime community by imposing harsh demands on common folk, and thus sculpted the mental world of Elizabethan sailors and their dependents. The latter theme further unfolds in Vincent Patarino's rendering of shipboard religious practice (especially illuminative of literacy and the sacraments), which shows how the individualism and egalitarianism of the seafarer's cosmos derived from both pre- and post-Reformation culture. …