Henning Henningsen: Rejs ud til Vagt! - Handels- og Søfartsmuseet

gives for the first time the names of some of the watches and a description of the
ceremonies used when posting the night-watch.
The various pieces of evidence about the watch on board which we have found up
until approximately 1550 are presented in chronological order in the table in the
Danish text (O = warship, H = merchant or expedition ship). Compared to the
amount of intensively studied source material there may not be very many references
offering concrete proof, but presumably there are enough to give a pretty clear idea of
where and when the system might have arisen. The list gives an unequivocal answer:
it must have happened in the English Navy, probably towards the end ofthe 13th
century. It cannot be pure coincidence that precisely in the 50-year period starting in
1295 a whole series of examples from England mention the presence on board ofthe
hourglass, even though we must allow for a more copious publication of English
source material than that of other nations. Naturally we do not go so far as to claim
that the well-known English King Edward I (1272-1307), who among other things
reorganized England's national sea defence, had anything to do with it. But certainly
we may presume that the creator ofthe system must have been a brilliant Organizer
who had a strong state behind him and who could see the possibilities which there
were in the system. However, this is still just a theory. And whether or not everything
really went as smoothly as presented here also remains an open question, since we
know nothing whatsoever about the sequence of events. It is possible, as we have
implied, that the night-watch in the beginning was the primary watch, while the day
watch was first introduced later. It would be highly desirable if more sources could
be traced shedding light on this problem.
Once the system had been invented it spread to other countries, especially to the
navies, and later to the big merchant and company vessels as well. In France it
appears that the system was introduced in the 1370's and in the German Hanseatic
ships certainly before 1400. On Spanish ships we have documented its use around
1436. Strangely enough, our sources say nothing about such out-and-out seafaring
nations as Portugal and the Netherlands, but this must be pure chance because the
system was almost certainly in use here at the same time. In Denmark the system was
definitely known at the beginning ofthe 16th century, if not before.
A watch-system was also known on large Muhammadan ships, in the 17th century
at least. They did not, however, use the ship's bell, which they regarded as a Chris­
tian symbol, but instead indicated time by drumbeat.
Travellers' descriptions ofthe ships of various countries where no watch-system
was known, e.g. Chinese junks and Arabic dhows, show how haphazardly the work
was carried out on board these ships and how slack discipline was. The watch-system
has without a doubt been one of the most important factors contributing to the
impressive expansion of shipping over the Seven Seas through the centuries.
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