In a beautiful French manuscript of the fifteenth century similar ships to those in Memling’s work are shown with considerable ability.[58] Perhaps these French vessels show the Viking influence somewhat more certainly, especially in their bows. We are shown in one illustration a scene of the river Seine at Rouen. A ship with a sterncastle, now modified rather to a square platform, is seen by the shore. She appears to be carvel- and not clinker-built; this is a notable fact. She has shrouds at the sides, a forestay, and also an additional stay coming forward from the mast to a spot midway between amidships and the bow. This may have been in the original ship to act as a further support to the sail or it may only be the product of the artist’s imagination. If the former it would be analogous to the lee-runner but placed forward, and must have chafed the sail a good deal. The latter is furled to the yard in the usual way. We see in the same MS. ships starting forth bound for the Crusades. They are fine, bold vessels, broad of beam, with plenty of freeboard, clumsy but probably good sea-boats. These French craft appear to have a certain amount of overhang at the bows and some of them carry a large fighting-top, partly supported by means of a stay coming up from both bow and stern. [Illustration: FIG. 42. SEAL OF LA ROCHELLE (A.D. 1437).] Such seals as the following throw light on the ships of England in the fifteenth century. That, for instance, of Richard Clitherowe, Admiral of the West of England, 1406, shows a decorated sail and flies an ensign at her stern. The reason for this flag being always placed aft lies in the fact that the raised poop was the place of honour reserved for the commander. Similar ships are seen in such seals as those of Thomas Beaufort, Duke of Exeter, Admiral of England, Aquitaine and Ireland (1416-1426): John Duke of Bedford, Regent of France, Lord High Admiral of England, Ireland and Aquitaine (1435): John Holland, second Earl of Huntingdon, Admiral of England, Ireland and Aquitaine (1435-1442). This last seal shows the Admiral’s lantern hanging over the poop. Similar ships may be seen in the seal of Richard Plantagenet, third Duke of Gloucester, Admiral for Dorset and Somerset (1461-1462); in the seal of Rutherglen (co. Lanark), 1493; in that of the English merchants of Holland—a fifteenth century seal found at Harrow and now in the British Museum—and in various others of this period. Their general characteristics include a crescent-shaped hull with forecastle and sterncastle, fighting-top, sail decorated with the arms of France and England, &c., forestay, two backstays, and a rudder at stern. The seal of Rye, belonging to the fifteenth century, shows three rows of reef-points, an ensign with the cross of St. George as well as streamers on the mast. Fig. 42 represents the seal of La Rochelle of the date 1437. It is interesting as showing that while in England, in Damme, in Paris