In the same way there are references to facilities known by some variant of ‘arsenal’, (arsene, drassanes, tarsianatus, tersana) in many other Mediterranean ports. In some the area formerly occupied by the arsenal is known and there are occasionally some surviving remains of the buildings. Accounts relating to the building of galleys and other ships, usually for the ruler concerned, can also be found. It is, however, very hard to get any clear picture of the operation of these shipyards over a period of time or the nature of their workforce. It is probably the case that, given the perishable nature of wooden ships, most ports of any size had facilities of some sort for the repair and even the building of ships.

War fleets often benefited from these facilities or rulers established state dockyards in much the same part of the port. There were certainly yards of this kind in Sicily, at Palermo and Messina. That at Messina which may have had as many as ten galley sheds, was used by Charles of Anjou in the later thirteenth century when he pursued an active policy of galley building both here and at Marseille.11 In the western Mediterranean both Pisa and Genoa, great rivals for the domination of the trade routes of the area, also had shipyards described as arsenals. In Pisa some sort of communal facility seems to have existed.

The earliest mention of a ‘tersana’ dates from 1200 with officials from the Opera della Tersana in charge of the yard and the building of galleys. Later in the same century a wall was built around the yard with a tower and a chapel, but by 1325 when Pisa had not only been decisively defeated by the Genoese at the battle of Meloria (1284) but had also lost its position in Sardinia, their naval power (and the arsenal) was in decline. The survival of some fragments of the wall is probably due to the use made of Pisan naval ex pertise b y the Florentines in the fifteenth centur y.

The galle y sheds drawn in 1685 b y Edward Dummer, an English visitor to the newly-renamed Grand Duchy of Tuscany, give some idea of the extent of these later facilities.

More is known about the situation in Genoa. As Lane has pointed out, however, the attitudes of the two most important maritime states, Venice and Genoa, to the operation of galleys were fundamentally different. In Genoa the galleys were owned ‘by the managers of their mercantile voyages’ and hired by the government when needed for naval expeditions, while in Venice the galleys were owned by the state and ‘rented for mercantile uses when they were not needed for war ’.14 The same differences seem to have applied to the operation of a state run arsenal or dockyard. We have already seen the degree to which the Venetian authorities saw it as their duty to set up and manage the building and supply of galleys and the supply of the necessary raw materials. In Genoa there are early references to shipbuilding at Sarzano outside the first city walls15 and by Caffaro to ‘scarii’ on the shore of the bay.

These may have been slips for building ships or even wharves for landing goods. These were, however, private activities with the comune being involved only in the building of the Molo to provide more shelter for ships at the eastern end of the bay. Near the Molo the comune also built the Loggia Sancti Marci where all galley arrivals were recorded. Within the arm of the Molo the darsena davanti S. Marcowas set up around 1276, but this was a small enclosed anchorage not a shipyard nor did it have any association with war galleys. Shortly afterwards, at the other end of the bay at Porta dei Vacca another darsena was established largely for the use of wine ships.

In Majorca some sort of shipyard existed from Moorish times, as was also the case in many of the ports on the Andalusian coast.18 In 1348, the governor of the island proposed to Peter III the building of a shipyard with covered berths for twenty galleys but lack of funds ensured that no progress was made with this plan.19 The centre of naval and maritime activity in our period was undoubtedly the city of Barcelona. The arsenal there first appears in a document in 1243. In 1328 the custom dues from trade with the Mamluks of Egypt were assigned to the support of this facility. This implies a degree of support by the crown but later references give the impression that the shi pyard was a joint enter prise

between the crown and the city authorities. It is certainly the case that it had no monopoly over ship construction. Galleys and other vessels, which might be used for war, were built all along the coast wherever there was a suitable harbour at places like Blanes and San Feliu. The fifteenth century archives of the crown of Aragon contain three volumes of galley inventories from 1421–71 which give full details of the value and nature of the vessels and their equipment. These galleys were valued when on loan by the General de Cathalunya to various citizens of Barcelona. It was not unusual for state owned vessels to be hired to merchants at this period but the process does imply that there was also a continuing state involvement in some form of galley base where these vessels could be prepared to go to sea and where supplies could be stored.

From Valencia there is some evidence of co-operation between the royal and civic authorities in the provision of port and dockyard facilities for ships used in a war-like manner. An arsenal had first been established outside the town walls at Villanova del Grau in 1284 but no permanent squadron of royal ships was based there. Galleys prepared for war were sought in time of need, usually being merchant galleys with increased numbers of armed men on board. These galleys were financed by the city and the generalidad acting in concert.21 This method of providing for the defence of the city and its commerce, most often from the activities of corsairs and pirates changed somewhat in the fifteenth century.

The bailo granted licences to shipmasters from Valencia and nearby ports to pursue pirates but between 1456–60 the city owned a galley of its own for the same purposes.22 We must suppose that this galley was kept in repair and supplied with the necessary munitions and other stores at the public expense. This would not require, however, separate facilities from those used by trading ships and galleys.

中世纪欧洲海军的作战手段是弓箭对射吧

It seems therefore that while the term arsenal, in its various linguistic variations, was widely used in the Mediterranean during the period 1000– 1500 it did not always signify the same kind of establishment. Its use in Venice for the state shipyards and all their ancillary functions has perhaps created the impression that other maritime powers in the same region possessed similar facilities albeit on a smaller scale. It is clear that some rulers, whether of city states or kingdoms, usually at times of particular need, did undertake shipbuilding and organise supply and repair bases. None of these bases, however, before the sixteenth century can be shown to have had a long separate existence.

The Channel and Atlantic waters In more northern waters the evidence for royal dockyards which lasted for more than brief periods is also patchy and often unsatisfactory. If we consider the main maritime states of this region, England and France, it is clear that their rulers did at various periods control quite large groups of ships. It is not, however, always equally plain how these ships were built, or came into royal ownership, in the first place and were then maintained and supplied with war matériel and victuals. More is known about the details of administration, the names of officials and mechanisms of payment than about the organisation of dockyards.

In England, Henry II probably owned at least one ship sometimes described as an esnecca, and certainly employed a certain Alan Trenchemer as the commander of ships in the royal service on more than one occasion. The payments listed in the Pipe Rolls do not, however, hint at the existence of any one base for royal ships or storehouse for supplies.24 Crusader has a considerable maritime element,25 His son, Richard I, whose fame as a is, perhaps, responsible for the first beginnings of something worthy of the name of a royal dockyard in England. Gillingham has associated the granting of a royal charter to Portsmouth in May 1194 with the establishment of the town as a base for military operations across the Channel.

The town (only forfeited to the Crown earlier in the same year) soon included not only a palace for the king but also a storehouse for military and naval supplies and some facilities for ships.26 Much more is known about the considerable development of these facilities under John. In May 1212 the sheriff of Hampshire was ordered by the king to build a good strong wall around what is called an esclusa to protect the royal vessels at Portsmouth. It is not at all clear what is meant by this. The word itself is normally used of a dam or sluice raising the possibility that there was at Portsmouth an enclosed dock with a lock gate controlling the entry and exit of the ships (mainly galleys in this case).