What was a tudor sailors life like

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Life at sea was risky and dangerous, but it also offered, fame and riches. From the end of the 15th century English sailors started on a series of daring and dangerous expeditions.

Why did the Tudors risk their lives to find and explore other countries? How did people explore the world in Tudor times? There were no planes, trains or cars. Tudor explorers used sailing ships. They were powered by the wind and each voyage could take several years. What were Tudor ships called? The best means of avoiding risk was to sail well armed, well manned and in convoy a lone target was more vulnerable. Navigation by celestial bodies was slow to catch on in England.

They stuck to short routes, and tried to keep the coast in view. Richard Chancellor, chief pilot in , was the first of a new breed: an English sailor who was practical and intellectual. Not only was he literate, he studied maths and astronomy, and he built instruments to measure the sun and the stars.

Although he died young, his influence lived on, not least in the persons of men like Stephen and William Borough, who sailed with him. Knowing how to navigate was no guarantee of safety.

And while men could calculate their latitude, no one could measure longitude, but it helped. Surprisingly few Tudor-era sailors knew how to swim. In some cases there was a strong superstition against learning: to fall in and survive was felt to deprive sea gods of a body to which they were entitled, and for which retribution would be exacted from the entire crew. Contact with the New World had increased awareness of men who could swim, though Cabot still warned his crews against attacks by people who did.