![medieval ship construction basics medieval ship construction basics](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/NXz3qi9KVKs/maxresdefault.jpg)
It is then to "Evidence" that the author turns in his initial chapter, after an Introduction that sets out his temporal parameters: the early thirteenth century and "the sundering of the Anglo-Norman 'cross channel' state" (11), and the early sixteenth, by which time most English vessels were skeleton-built and multi-masted. A principal merit of Friel's book, which joins a number of recent publications in a rapidly expanding discipline, is its exploitation of written documentation.
![medieval ship construction basics medieval ship construction basics](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/--wi-WoK-To/mqdefault.jpg)
![medieval ship construction basics medieval ship construction basics](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/28zta_KYL5E/maxresdefault.jpg)
But these bas-relief engravings are a stylized medium, and the town emblem is by its nature often a historically conservative statement. The town seals of English ports, for example, take on primary importance as testimony to ship construction, fitting, and not least rigging, otherwise so scant in the physical record. Given that these are only a fraction of the vessels in use during these centuries and almost invariably represent English ships, rather than the countless merchant craft of other countries that called on British ports and stimulated British nautical technology, the maritime archaeologist's search for relevant evidence must extend in many directions. The intellectual environment from which Ian Friel's fine book springs is the Maritime Museum in Greenwich, and its material antecedents are the some 45 wrecks, always only partially preserved, of boats and ships from the often former banks and shores of medieval Britain.