The Earliest Original English Seaman's Rutter and Pilot's Chart

Abstract

This article reports the discovery of two documents of considerable interest in the early history of navigation in England. When Henry VIII was planning to send ships of the royal fleet to Harderwijk in Guelderland in 1539, no pilot's book or chart of this part of the coast of northern Europe could be found in England. Therefore two experienced shipmasters, John Aborough of Devon and Richard Couche of Dover, were sent in haste to the Low Countries to make a survey of the coast and chart the route the king's ships would have to follow. Working with speed and secrecy, they compiled and brought back to the king a rutter giving sailing directions for Zeegat van Texel and the Zuider Zee and also a rough chart showing in detail the channels through the Haaks Banks, the entry to Marsdiep and the channel from thence to Enkhuizen. These two documents are the earliest original examples of such navigational directions drawn up by Englishmen which have so far been discovered. Both are reproduced in full and discussed in detail in this study. Among the Marquess of Salisbury's family archives at Hatfield House is a document of great interest in the early history of navigation in England. It is a seaman's rutter giving directions for the navigation of Zeegat van Texel and the Zuider Zee which was compiled by two English shipmasters in 1539 on direct orders from King Henry VIII. A narrow roll of manuscript fashioned by roughly sewing four strips of parchment end to end, being not quite 6 in. wide and nearly 3½. long when fully opened out, this appears to be the earliest original English rutter which can be found today. It is true that the well-known set of fifteenth-century ‘Sailing Directions’ published by the Hakluyt Society in 1889 were compiled at an earlier date. But these have only survived in a copy transcribed by a professional scribe, William Ebesham, among a number of treatises on heraldry, chivalry and similar matters contained in a volume called the Great Book, part of the library of a country gentleman of East Anglia, Sir John Paston. The parchment roll at Hatfield would appear, therefore, to be the earliest example of an original English rutter which has yet been discovered.

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