COLUMBUS REDISCOVERED:
The Sailors of the Era of Discovery By Peter Copeland
sharecropper, for whom life aboard ship was an acceptable alternati ve to the drudgery and poverty of life as hore. The seafarer of the day was usuall y illiterate, as were the great majority of people in general. Geoffrey Chaucer, in the fo urteenth centu ry, described a "shipman" in the Canterbury Tales, a subject of jest to hi s fellow pil grims because of hi s rough and home ly attire, hi s awkwardness on horseback, hi s weatherbeaten complex ion and hi s seafaring speech. Yet he was a jov ial companion fo rthe pil grims and "certainl y he was a good fe lawe." An excellent description of a medieval seafa rer is contai ned in the twelfth century Life of St. Godric: " He was vigorous and strenuous in mind, who le of limb and strong in body ... in labor he was strenuous and assiduous above a ll men; and when by chance hi s bodil y strength proved insuffi cient, he compassed hi s ends with great ease by the skill which hi s dail y labors had given. He knew, from the as pect of the sea and sky, how to foretell fa ir or foul weather. " Some as pects of the medieval seaman are seen in a mora lity play g iven in the City of London in 1415 by the G uild of Shipwri ghts. The subject is Noah bu ilding the ark. The seamen we re portrayed as di stinctly d iffere nt fro m the shore fo lk. The ir humo r is ro ugh and boisterous and they show contempt fo r the soft and she ltered life of the landsmen. T he sail ors speak using the "quaint express ions of their profess ion," and di spl ay di stincti ve manners, customs, dress and language. Shipboard accommodations were extremely primi tive. The captain and sailing mas ter probably had small cabins, each with barely enough room for a narrow bunk and sea chest. Other offi cers slept on mattresses under the quarterdeck forward of the helmsman. When not in use, the mattresses were