The Ships of the Port of London: Twelfth to Seventeenth Centuries AD

This report is the first full study of the remains of the twelfth- to seventeenth-century ships and boats from the port of London. Using evidence from the vessels, from waterfronts, and from contemporary manuscripts Peter Marsden has reconstructed the design, construction, and use of these ancient vessels. The book focuses on the substantial remains of three local vessels. The earliest, the Custom House boat, was built in 1160-90 and was found broken up and reused in a waterfront revetment dating from a century later. The other two were wrecks discovered in the River Thames: Blackfriars ship 3, a fifteenth-century sailing barge, and Blackfriars ship 2, a barge which sank about 1670 with a cargo of bricks for rebuilding in London after the Great Fire of 1666.