Matthew of Bristol Moors in Toronto 451 Years Later: Schooner Days DCCCXXX (830)

by C. H. J. Snider

Courtesy of SIGMUND SAMUEL, LL.D.

FIRST of all sailing ships to come to our part of this continent (the rowing vessels of the vikings, had sail as an auxiliary) was a short chunky little vessel rather on the lines of a lightship. Lightships are built full-ended to be buoyant and ride like a gull, rather than pitch like a helldiver. They are built high-sided to keep the water out. And not too wide, so as to present less windage and bulk to opposing gales, tides and currents, and put less strain on their anchors.

Such, we may well believe, was also the basis of the design of the ships of the first explorers. Details peculiar to this particular first ship were the broad wales, or extra-thick strakes of planking running around her in a double girdle, and three heavy fenders built into each side, both to take the rub from rocks and wharves and to stiffen her vertically. She had little overhang forward and till less aft. She was sawed off at the stern even shorter than one of the "butts" of the Gaspe coast, about which we were speaking recently. Her rudder hung outside as much as a barn door.

She had three masts and five sails: a three-cornered mizzen on a lateen yard. A square main course, with square topsail above it. A square fore course. And a square spritsail or watersail, hanging from a yard slung under her long bowsprit.

Her water supply was carried in a huge tun or hogshead which occupied much of her waist. Her cockboat took up most of the rest of it.

Her quarterdeck was raised above the waist to provide headroom in her cabin, and the bulwarks were carried out over the rudderhead to protect it.

She had straight-armed anchors with wooden stocks and hemp cables, and her rigging was of hemp rope, not of wire. Her lookout was kept from a cylindrical crows nest on the mainmast, not unlike a lightship's lantern.

We are led to believe that this was what this first ship was like, not from having seen her, or even a fragment of her, but because Toronto has this week acquired a replica of her model.

By a happy coincidence, just when we have been discussing the very first sailing craft on the Great Lakes the "brigantine" Frontenac, which came to Toronto in 1678, and the "barque" Griffon, which sailed from Niagara in 1679, never to return, the Royal Ontario Museum has received a replica of a model of what might be called on the Children's Page of the Tely the "very firstest" sailing vessel to come to the shores of Canada and the North American continent.

This was not the Santa Maria of Columbus, as might be supposed, for Columbus never reached North America. He discovered some island in the Bahamas group in 1492, and his Santa Maria was wrecked soon afterwards, not far from where our Bluenose closed her honorable career. The first sailing vessel to come after Leif Ericson's rowing ship was the Matthew of Bristol, John Cabot master, and the date was 1497. It is her model that the Museum has received.

The model is part of the Canadiana gallery of Sigmund Samuel, LL.D., and reached Toronto on Monday. Dr. Samuel procured it in Bristol, in England, It is the work of J. Claridge of Bristol, an expert, and is a replica of another model which he made, which was on display and much admired when a meeting of the Bristol branch of the Royal Empire Society was held at Bristol on Jan. 6, 1947, to commemorate the 450th anniversary of "the voyage and the discovery of American terra firma."

It was reports of this meeting and the speech delivered there by Col. E. W. Lennard, Sheriff of Bristol, that attracted Dr. Samuel's interest. He thereupon wrote to Col. Lennard and asked him to commission someone to make a model for the Royal Ontario Museum. This week's arrival of the Claridge model completed this transaction. Cabot's ship came across the Atlantic this time without parting a ropeyarn.

At the commemorative meeting mentioned, Col. Lennard said:

"I propose to deal firstly with Bristol links with the American colonies. In discovering in 1497 the mainland of America, John Cabot and a Bristol ship and crew preceded Columbus by more than a year and Vespucci by more than two years.

'Thus,' says Bancroft in his History of the United States, 'the discovery of our continent was an exploit of private mercantile adventure, and the possession of the new found land was a right vested by an exclusive patent in the family of a Bristol merchant. He gave England a continent, and no one knows his resting place'."

To this one is tempted to add Cabot's sole record in royal remembrance for the discovery of New Found Land: "To him that found ye ile V pound."

The entry is from the privy purse accounts of that heroic tightwad Henry VII, who rewarded the discoverer of a new world with £5 or $22—if you can get that much for it out of the Exchange Control Board.

Col. Lennard went on to state that it was no accident that Cabot should have come to Bristol in his search for a backer, for Bristol at that time was already a great seaport and many voyages of exploration had already been organized there. "The idea of a westward ocean pathway to other lands was as firmly rooted in the countinghouses of the city as in its quayside taverns. For many years after the Cabot voyages Bristol continued to be a leader in organizing such voyages. Because of the Cabot connection, Bristol may truly claim to be "the cradle of the Empire."

On the authenticity of the model which Dr. Samuel has procured, Schooner Days need not be taken as an authority. The artist who made it, Mr. Claridge, may be supposed to have known his subject, although he would have nothing to go on beyond the information in the possession of the Society for Nautical Research and their admirable collections and those of the South Kensington Science Museum. The Bristol branch of the Royal Empire Society would not be satisfied with mere guesswork. But the purpose of the model he made must be taken into consideration. Was he giving a general impression of a sailing ship of 1497, for decoration or demonstration, or seriously attempting a scale model from which Cabot's ship could be built and rigged.

There are no specifications or dimensions of the Matthew on record, as far as we have been able to discover, and as even the name of her commander was not considered of sufficient importance for mentioning in the king's petty cash book it is not likely that we shall find more about the ship.

The model conforms to contemporary images of small ships on seals, coins and decorations, and to the usage of other makers of early models. To modern eyes the hull seems twice too high for its length or its breadth, but the old artists drew them that way. This one's gunwale is carried along straight from stem to stern instead of dropping between the fore and main masts, which makes her appear particularly high-waisted and excludes the expected forecastle head.

Both stem and rudder blade appear to be disproportionately wide and the waling and fenders too heavy for practical purposes. They would create great disturbance outboard. The reinforcements shown like patches nailed across the rudder blade are not so arranged as to strengthen the pintles on which the rudder is hung.

Some would question the square tuck of the sawn-off stern, and the carvel arrangement of the planking, that is, edge-to-edge instead of overlapping in what is known as the clincher or lapstrake style. This is certainly ancient and even prehistoric practice, but the smoother carvel style was, we believe, in use also in the 15th century, and we believe the square stern with square tuck was also employed quite early in the class of small vessels called cats and barques. The round stern, which some would insist on, was in general use in northern Europe at this time, but not exclusively so.

As to the rigging, the spritsail on the bowsprit at this date maybe open to question, but as the Romans had used it it may have been revived by 1497. It survived into the 19th century. The foremast seems too lofty and too far inboard and the mizzen also is unnecessarily lofty. These masts usually raked slightly in opposite directions. The main shrouds should be carried further aloft and the head of the mainmast should have more support, both by backstays and forestay. A rigging feature missed is the "crow-footing," prominent in 16th century pictures and supposedly in use in the 15th. The model is painted black, with quarter gallery and gunwale finished in brown wood color, as are the spars and deck. The companions or scuttles on the quarterdeck and forecastle are also brown wood. They are open to question. Plain hatches, with covers called hatchboards by Shakespeare, were in use in the 15th century.

Judgment is reserved upon the position and proportion of the masts and their rigging. After seeing the actual craftsmanship on a Roman-British galley built a thousand years earlier than the Matthew, and on three Viking ships built about 900 A.D., one is inclined to disagree with the impression of crudity which this model gives, particularly in the sleigh-box appearance of the quarters. Undoubtedly this is through no lack of skill on the part of the model maker, who shows himself an expert artist. The impression is probably deliberate, intended to emphasize the fact that this ship of 1497, four hundred and fifty years old, is an "antique." But crudeness and antiquity do not necessarily go hand an hand; antique workmanship particularly in wooden ships, was frequently superior in detail and in finish to best modern products.

The model was placed on view today.

THE MATTHEW OF BRISTOL, 1497, from a water color in the John Ross Robertson Collection in the Toronto Public Library, with this inscription: "With his son Sebastian and a crew of 18 men Cabot set sail in the Matthew from Bristol, May 2nd, 1497. On June 24th he sighted Newfoundland, probably at Cape Bonavista, thereby establishing a claim to the discovery of the northern half of the American continent. Returned to Bristol Aug. 6th, 1497, and. the following year, having interested Henry VII in his expedition, again set sail for the New Found Land, this time with a fleet of five vessels."

This picture coincides with the model as to sails. The flags it shows, the Red Cross of St. George on a white field, were the ancestors of the White Ensign of the Royal Navy. The hull shown follows closely the design of the replicas of two of Columbus' vessels, the Santa Maria and Pinta, which crossed the Atlantic in 1893 and visited Toronto and the World's Fair in Chicago in that year. They were the product of prolonged research by Spanish naval architects, but have since been criticized as being more typical of the 16th century than of the 15th to which they, and the Matthew, belonged.

The Santa Maria, largest of the Columbus fleet, 100 tons burthen, was 90 feet long and drew eight feet of water, The Pinta, 40 tons, was 58 feet in length and drew six feet. She was probably larger than the Matthew, for she had a larger crew.

The Mathew model is 14 inches long on the keel, which on a scale of 1/4-inch to the foot, would make the original 56 feet long on the keel and 70 feet over all. This scale, however, is a mere guess.

FIRST to the NEW FOUND LAND

Miniature impression of Cabot ship MATTHEW just arrived at Royal Ontario Museum of Archaeology.