Obrazy na stronie
PDF
ePub

family of Bawde,⁕ are presumed to be intended for stockfish, an article of commerce productive of great wealth.

Fishing vessels form a charge in the heraldry of families derived from ancestors who were bound to perform service to the king on account of their maritime lordships, or in consequence of the insular position of their fiefs. Small undecked vessels, containing not more than two or three fishermen, were originally used on the north-western coasts of Great Britain: the fishermen were, however, skilful and dexterous in catching the different species of the finny tribe which abound in the lakes and rivulets of the Orkneys and the seas around.

Azure, a ship at anchor, her oars in saltier, within a double tressure counterflory or, are the arms of the Sinclairs, ancient Earls of Orkney; now borne by their descendant the Earl of Caithness, Lord Lieutenant of that county. The first Earl of Caithness, Lord Chancellor of Scotland, was the third Earl of Orkney, but surrendered that title to the crown when those islands devolved to King James III. on his marriage with Margaret of Denmark.

Argent, a lymphad, or fishing galley, sable, with pennant gules, were the arms of the Mac Dougals, ancient Lords of Lorn, in Argyleshire, bounded by the sea: these arms are now quartered with those of Campbell by the Duke of Argyll, Marquess of Lorn, &c. and hereditary Sheriff of Argyleshire; his grace being descended from Isabel, daughter and heiress of Lord Lorn, who married the first Earl of Argyll, and also inherited the estate of the Mac Dougals.

The lymphad, or galley, which occurs so very frequently in Scottish heraldry, is the Highland fishing boat, one of which is

represented on a sculptured fragment in Iona or Icolmkill, a celebrated island of the Hebrides. The original is cut into the *Bedfordshire Pedigrees.-Lansd. MS. 864.

+ Macculloch's Western Islands, 1819.

stone, nearly in the manner of the Egyptian hieroglyphics, and the same form was doubtless used by the ancient Greeks in the construction of those

Sea-wandering barks that o'er the Ægean sail,

With pennants streaming to the northern gale.

A seal of the family of Campbell of Craiginch, where the fishery is a source of considerable revenue, bears a shield gyronny of eight, hanging on the mast of a vessel.*

[graphic][subsumed][ocr errors][subsumed]

A pair of oars in saltier is the crest of the Campbells of Skipness, in the district of Kintyre, assumed with reference to the situation of their domain on the sea coast; the remains of Skipness Castle are said to be of high antiquity.

Argent, a ship with her sails furled sable, is the ensign of the Earldom of Arran, an island on the western coast of North Britain, and is borne with the arms of his paternal house by the Duke of Hamilton, K.G., premier peer of Scotland.

Azure, in the base waves vert, a ship in full course or, rigged gules, are the arms of the family of Craike, a name derived from Carack, a ship. It was from the nautilus, a shell-fish, and a representative in miniature of a ship, that the primitive idea of navigation was acquired: man first

Learnt of the little nautilus to sail,

Spread the thin oar, and catch the driving gale.

The primeval boat may have been an excavated tree, but ves*Nisbet's Heraldry.

sels were soon afterwards formed of small planks: the rigging of boats on Egyptian monuments proves that they were intended for the river. Some of the boats of the Britons were sufficient for voyages from Orkney to Ireland; in the western islands they were built of oak planks, and carried one mast and sail, with which the intrepid mariners boldly launched into the ocean, neither intimidated by danger nor subdued by difficulties.

The mode practised by the bold navigators of the stormy northern ocean of steering their course, before the mariner's compass was in use, was exceedingly simple. Flok, a Norwegian, when sailing from Gardarsholme, in Shetland, to Iceland, took on board some crows; and, after making part of his course, he threw up a crow, which seeing land astern, flew to it: keeping his course some time longer, the second crow sent out, seeing no land, returned to the vessel: the last crow thrown up, seeing land ahead, immediately flew for it; and Flok, following his guide, fell in with the eastern part of the island.⁕

The invention of the mariner's compass is ascribed to Flavio di Melfi, a Neapolitan, about the year 1302, and in commemoration of this discovery, the territory of Principato, where he was born, assumed the compass for an armorial distinction. The variation of the compass was unknown till Columbus, in his first voyage, observed that the needle declined from the meridian as he advanced across the Atlantic; the dip of the magnetic needle was discovered by Robert Norman in 1576.

Even at the close of the fifteenth century England possessed no royal navy; her fleets were hired of the Venetians, Genoese, and Hanse Towns, or provided by the merchants, and the Cinque Ports. No ship carried three masts before the year 1488, when the "Great Harry" was launched, and which appears to have been the first with that number. In 1515 the "Henri Grace de Dieu" was built with port-holes; previously ships had but one deck, and by the invention of ports the number of decks was increased to two, and even three. Queen Elizabeth, being aware how much the defence of her kingdom depended on its naval armaments, encouraged every attempt to increase its force and promote the arts of navigation and commerce.

A ship under reef, drawn round the globe with a cable by a hand out of the clouds, and over it this motto, "Auxilio DiMacpherson's Annals of Commerce 1805.

*

N

vino," is the crest of the family of Drake of Buckland, in Devonshire, heirs and representatives of the celebrated circumnavigator, Sir Francis Drake, who was knighted by Queen Elizabeth on board his own ship, the Golden Hind, at Deptford, 4 April 1581.

The impressions of the seals belonging to the corporations of the Cinque Ports, and their dependencies, show the form of the earliest ship, the tenure by which their privileges were held. These were, Dover, Hastings, Romney, Sandwich, Feversham, Hythe, Pevensey, Rye, and Winchilsea. Upon the seal of the Barons of Dover is a faithful representation of the fishing vessel of the time of Edward I.

[graphic][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed]

The Barons of the Cinque Ports in the reign of Edward III. were bound to furnish the King with fifty-seven ships, when summoned, to go to war. Shoreham, at the mouth of the Adur, as well as Seaford and Tenterden, bears the fishing vessel, as an ensign, on the town seal. The same emblem of maritime importance is to be found on the early seals of the ports of Yarmouth and Ipswich, of Newport and Newtown in the Isle of Wight, of Lymington, Lyme, and of Portsmouth. In Wales, the corporation seals of Haverford West and Beaumaris are also so distinguished.

The mottos of some towns in Scotland are assumed with a similar view. Renfrew, the ancient inheritance of the royal

house of Stuart, and formerly of more consequence as a port, bears "Deus gubernat navem," God steers the vessel; and the royal burgh of Montrose, one of the best harbours on the eastern coast, and which gives title to a dukedom, bears as a motto "Mare ditat, rosa decorat," the sea enriches and the rose adorns.

Lordships, or fiefs, situated on the sea-coast possess various rights of anchorage, salvage, and fishing; not only all kinds of ships and boats, but their several parts, are consequently found in the heraldry of lords of maritime manors. Shields of arms are charged with hulls, stems, sterns, and rudders, masts with their tops and tackling, sails, oars, cables, and anchors. It is of parts of a ship also that the naval crown is formed.⁕

The buoy of a ship, blazoned or, is a cognizance of the Nevilles, in allusion to the office of Admiral, held by their ancestor under the Norman kings. The Earl of Abergavenny also quarters with his paternal arms, or, fretty gules, on a canton per pale ermine and of the first, a galley sable, for Neville the admiral; the charges bearing allusion to the net and the fishing vessel, pressed into the king's service on occasion of war.

A ship under full sail was the device of Andrea Doreo, Admiral of Spain, with the motto "Omnia fortunæ committo," I commit all to fortune. Gules, the hull of a ship, having only a mast without rigging or, were the arms of the Duke Albertus de Alasco, of Poland, with the motto, " Deus dabit vela," God will give sails.

The stern of the Spanish line-of-battle ship "San Jose" was granted to Admiral Lord Nelson in 1801, after the victory of the Nile, as a crest, with a motto, said to have been chosen by the King himself, " Palmam qui meruit ferat," let him who merits bear the palm. The stern of his own flag-ship, the Royal Sovereign, was, in like manner, granted as a crest to Admiral Lord Collingwood in 1807. Some British admirals have assumed the name of the ship in which they gained their renown, as a motto, when it happened to convey some other meaning, as, "Zealous," "Téméraire," "Superb," &c. A ship's mast, the top and sail down, was used as a cognizance by René d'Anjou, the father of Margaret, queen of Henry VI. A mainmast, the round-top set off with palisadoes or, and a lion issuant sable, is the crest of the family of Carew of Devonshire.

* See page 44, a naval crown, part of the crest of Admiral Sir William Burnaby, Bart.

« PoprzedniaDalej »