Sailing sGraven Stroom : The appropriation of nautical space in fifteenth-century Flanders

Abstract

Shipping along the medieval Flemish coast was of vital importance. Bruges and the communities along the Flemish coast could not afford to abandon the sailor to his fate, nor did the sailor leave the shipping enterprise to chance. Little attention has been paid by historians to the human dimensions of the nautical space, the material and immaterial constructions that had been erected by people to assure a seagoing venture. The lack of attention has been caused by the limited number and types of written sources. This text tries to overcome the epistemological problem with knowledge of the ship-to-shore interfacing process that shipping ultimately is. I argue that the Flemish coast was a layered nautical space in which various nautical practices and authorities were active. The authority was comital, seigniorial, ecclesiastical, urban, corporate, but also personal, through the expertise of the sailors, pilots, lighthouse keepers, etc.