Early mediaeval fishing and transporting horses over areas of water

Nettle Mooneye · Sep 8, 2007

I'm new here, so hello all.

I have been trying to find information about early mediaeval - or possible earlier - fishing and water transport for a story of mine. The setting of the story is fantasy, so that gives me some leeway with the exact timing and culture. I would really appreciate it if any of you would be able to help me with some of the things I have been trying to figure out.

Here's background information:

The story is happening near a small island, surrounded by sea. The distance to the next island over is not huge, but the waters are dangerous enough to keep non-islanders away. The islanders travel to the other island now and then to trade, but do not interact with other people much. The climate of the island is moist with snowy winters. There are no forests, just few small trees growing here and there.

The islanders consist mainly of the population of a small fishing village. The villagers have some horses - or possibly ponies, - sheep and goats. The main diet consists of fish and other sea dwelling creatures.

When the story happens, it is early summer. It is early in the morning, shortly before dawn. There has been a thunderstorm during the night, but now the rain has ceased, and there's only distant rumbling of thunder to be heard.

The questions:

The main character needs to get herself and a horse to the next island. She can have the help of some fishermen, but I would rather the whole village wasn't needed to operate the ship. How big a boat and what kind would be required to ferry a horse from one sea island to the next? How many people would be required to operate such a vessel?

I also have questions of the fishing. Would it make more sense to fish near the shore, or go to the open sea? The population of the village isn't very large, and the fishing only needs to support the people there. And what would be a feasible reason to sail right after the storm, that early in the morning? Would the waters be too muddled to fish? Or would they just be required to check their fishing equipment? Other reasons?

ishtar'sgate · Sep 8, 2007

You could use something really interesting from ancient times. They used goat-skins. If your people ate goat meat it would work quite well. The head and hooves were cut off, the skin was inflated so it preserved its shape and people sort of lay across the inflated belly part and held onto the sealed up head section. You could use the same technique for the horse by making a raft of wood and attaching inflated goat skins around the edges. The horse could travel on the raft. For that matter, they both could.
Linnea

JoniBGoode · Sep 9, 2007

Nettle Mooneye said:
I'm new here, so hello all.

The questions:

The main character needs to get herself and a horse to the next island. She can have the help of some fishermen, but I would rather the whole village wasn't needed to operate the ship. How big a boat and what kind would be required to ferry a horse from one sea island to the next? How many people would be required to operate such a vessel?

Does she need a ship at all? Maybe the horse can just swim across with her swimming alongside or clinging to the horse, especially at low tide. I know you said that the current is strong, but maybe there is a calmer part that only the locals know about.

This question reminded me of my youth, when for a short time I lived near Chincoteague, VA. It's a small island off the VA coast, a fishing village. The entire island is about 7 mi. x 1.5 mi. In the early 1900s, it was quite isolated, even though it is just a few miles offshore. Even in the 1960s, a few of the older people who were born on the island had never been off it.

Chincoteague is near the uninhabited island of Assateague, a wildlife refuge. There are two herds of hardy wild ponies on Assateague. According to legend, they are the descendants of horses from wrecked Spanish Galleons. Once a year, the Volunteer Firefighters on Chincoteague round up the ponies on horseback and swim the herd across the channel (of the Atlantic Ocean) to Chincoteague, where a few colts are sold each year. The round-up begins very early in the morning, usually the last weekend in July.http://www.chincoteague.com/ Look at Pony Penning under "events."

I'm thinking that if wild ponies and even their foals can swim across an ocean channel, it should be no problem for your horse.

Kentuk · Sep 9, 2007

Horses get seasick and their guts aren't made for barfing, deadly combination. Some horses do better then others, so your horse will need to have survived an earlier encounter with the sea. The are a few accounts of Vikings traveling with horses. Vikings would be your most likely model for that time period. I know with latter military expeditions that transported horses, the wasteage was high and horses that have suffered a lengthy sea voyage need a period of rehab before they can go campaigning.

What kind of island? Check out the coastal islands between Holland and Denmark, not too different then Chincoteague. If you decide to swim don't stay in too long, that water is cold.

pdr · Sep 9, 2007

Nets and traps...

for fishing in estuaries. Torches and spears for night fishing. Using the tide to drive fish in to net and traps or a dammed up a pool. Horse hair made fishing line and a strong wooden pole with a flexible hazel or willow tip attached made a fishing rod. Don't forget all the shellfish and crabby type things living in the tidal region and easy to get at low tide.

frimble3 · Sep 9, 2007

Or the little islands off Scotland and Ireland, which sound similar: isolated, fishing, etc. Does she really need the horse? It might be simpler to hire or borrow one at the far end of the trip. There isn't much use for a horse on a small island, unless you have something heavy to haul.

Leva · Sep 10, 2007

Ditto on the horse swimming -- horses swim very well. They have a great deal of endurance, too -- horses are biologically designed for sustained periods of exercise.

Re: horses barfing -- I've never heard that. Horses were transported by sailing ship fairly routinely -- the Spaniards who discovered South America had horses with them -- though I've always wondered what they fed them and how many died of infectious crud.

Deleted member 42 · Sep 10, 2007

You should research life in the Hebrides, and Connemara horses, in Ireland.

The horses are still taken back and forth on small boats, rowboats, as they were in the past.

Nettle Mooneye · Sep 10, 2007

Thank you all for comments! I did some reading on Vikings, and will look up the other things, too. The fishing info was helpful as well.

I'm not sure they would use a raft in my story, since, for some reason, I see some sort of boats for that scene in my mind's eye. And the main character definitely can't swim to the other island, even if the horse could, since this is early summer, and the water would still be cold. Her spare clothes would also get wet, so she couldn't warm up after getting ashore, either.

She needs the horse, because she has no money and she thinks she will have to sell it. So I can't leave the horse out, either, even though it certainly would make matters easier.

Evaine · Sep 13, 2007

If you've got spare clothes to transport, it would make sense to swim holding onto a barrel with your stuff inside it. If it's not full, it will still float, and it will be watertight.

Early mediaeval fishing and transporting horses over areas of water

Nettle Mooneye

ishtar'sgate

living in the past

JoniBGoode

Kentuk

I want to write what I want to write

pdr

frimble3

Heckuva good sport

Leva

Deleted member 42

Nettle Mooneye

Evaine