BAYEUX TAPESTERY detail shipbuilding.

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aukepalmhof
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Joined: Thu Apr 02, 2009 1:28 am

BAYEUX TAPESTERY detail shipbuilding.

Post by aukepalmhof » Tue Sep 05, 2017 9:38 pm

This stamp shows us a detail of shipbuilding depict on the Bayeux Tapestry.

The five men working over the nearly completed pair of ships raise questions. The two shipwrights in the foreground, hammering nails, are bearded; and so in the art form utilized in the Tapestry to portray with stereotypes they could be Englishmen. If so, then William had perhaps more support in England itself than has been accepted. If he knew that the commoners were divided in their opinions about him, it would have given encouragement in the belief that his enterprise actually was practical of success.
Some of these ships are built to use oars, some are without oar tholes. It is doubtful that most of William's 700-odd ships were actually built. Normandy's forests would have been seriously denuded of trees. The bulk of them must have been commandeered by the duke from ports in his own and his vassals' lands, and borrowed from his allies of Boulogne, Brittany and Flanders. But the ships building here certainly catch the eye - while a scene of some Norman requisitioning ships would hardly appeal.
A little detail I wonder at here is the shaping axe used by the right-hand figure (straddling the plank): it is the same "tool" as that in the hands of my executioner (just before the "Aelfgyva" figure in the lower margin). Would such an instrument evolve into the headsman's axe? The length of blade would make missing a decapitating stroke less likely. But the blade would have to be deepened to reach all the way through the neck without striking the shaft. (I would have interpreted the "executioner" as a carpenter, except for his nakedness and the mask.)
Some of the ships have figureheads and others do not. But all of these finished ships have oar tholes. In fact, out of the 24 depicted vessels of the Norman fleet 13 of them are so equipped. But none are showing oars being used in any of the following scenes. The crews depend on sail power alone. As earlier noted (when Harold was making his Channel crossing to Ponthieu) the oars seem to be used mainly for maneuvering only in coastal waters.

http://www.angelfire.com/rnb/bayeux_tap ... 25_27.html
Denmark 1970 50 Ore sg 521, scott473.
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bayeux tapestery shipbuilding.jpg
Image (17).jpg

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