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View of the Ark

Historic St. Mary's City

A full-rigged ship, the Ark of London (a.k.a. Ark of Maryland) was about 350 tons. It was to carry the first 130 to 150 settlers and supplies to the new colony. (Tons refers to tons burden, a measure of space available for cargo unless said to be weight).

In August 1633 the Ark lay in the river Thames at Blackwall, downstream from the Tower of London, fitting out, loading, taking on a crew of about forty, and otherwise preparing for the voyage to America. (All dates are by the Julian calendar in use at the time unless marked "ns" for the modern calendar). Provisions and supplies taken aboard included beer, wine, water, salt beef, pork, fish and firewood for use during the voyage. To support the settlement the Ark carried sawn timber, materials to build a barge, tools, a year's worth of supplies for each settler and eight large cannon for a fort.

Cross-section of the Ark

Historic St. Mary's City

The most informative and accurate representations of the Ark currently available are reproduced from paintings made by Peter Egeli in 1970 and 1972. The carefully worded text on Figure 1 reads: "The Ark of Maryland. A reconstruction of a Kingbuilt merchantman of 1633 and the size of Baltimore's ship. Length 125 feet, beam 32, draft 15, tons 358." Her total length is shown as 175 feet and her main mast pennant flies more than 100 feet above the waterline. Figure 2 shows a layout of spaces inside the ship. The master's cabin was the highest and furthest aft. It was small but provided easy and quick access to the quarterdeck. The main cabin, the large one directly below the master's cabin, provided quarters for owners and ranking officers when present, and there was enough room in it to lay out charts for plotting progress and courses. The paintings are notably consistent with shipbuilding and rigging practices of the time.

The names of only three of the forty or so crewmen for the voyage of 1633-34 have been found: the master, Richard Lowe, the purser, John Bowlter, and the ship's surgeon, Richard Edwards. Others of the crew would have included master's mates and a steward, a boatswain, sailmaker, gunner, and a carpenter, each with one or more mates, as well as a cooper, trumpeters, at least three quartermasters, and a cook and his helpers. That would account for about half the number. The others would have been able or ordinary seamen, apprentices, and ship's boys. At Lord Baltimore's request, the Privy Council of England issued a warrant on July 31, 1633, to prevent the crew of the Ark from being pressed (taken away) to serve in the Royal Navy. Had his sailors been pressed, the voyage of 1633 might have ended before it started for lack of qualified seamen.

The Ark may have been in service in 1649. On May 21 of that year the Royalist ships at Kinsale, Ireland, included "the Ark, a prize taken from a merchant" that had 26 pieces (guns). No other contemporary ship named Ark has been found that comes close to matching the characteristics implied by this description.

The Ark was a merchantman armed to repel pirates or enemy ships and "Kingbuilt" to serve as a warship if commandeered by the navy. For her first and second voyages from London to Maryland in 1633-35 the Ark had fifteen large carriage-mounted cast-iron cannon and other guns, probably some combination of demiculverins, cutts, sakars, and perhaps minions or falcons. To repel boarders she would have had small swivel mounted antipersonnel guns called "murderers." In August 1635 before her third voyage she added eight sakars and two cutts.

Guns of the seventeenth century were not standardized. Demiculverins might weigh 3,000 to 3,500 pounds, be nine to ten feet long, have a 4 to 4 ¾ inch bore and throw an 8 to 9 1/2-pound ball more than a mile. Sakers commonly weighed 2,000 to 2,500 pounds, were seven to nine feet long, had a 3.5 to 4 inch bore and a 5 to 6 pound shot. Cutts were demiculverins, with the barrel shortened by about six feet with little loss in range. They might throw a 9-pound ball about a mile but had extremely violent recoil and, as was the case with the sakers, were not accurate enough to have an effective range of more than about 500 yards. Minions could weigh 1,000 to 1,200 pounds, be 6 feet long and throw a 4 to 5 pound ball. Falcons weighed 600 to 800 pounds and used a 4 to 5 pound ball.

The armament of the Ark was important. Spain considered it her right to seize or sink any English ship found south of the "tropike" (of Cancer) and west of the "Grave Meridian" (probably considered by the Spanish to be by 18 degrees west longitude). The Ark was headed for the West Indies and would be in that area for weeks. Another danger was piracy. In 1631, the most dreaded of all pirates, those of Sallee, a port on the Atlantic coast of Morocco, held as slaves some 2,000 captives from English ships and the coasts of England and Ireland. In 1634-35 pirates captured some 2,000 people from English ships and towns.

Richard Lowe, the Ark's master, had reason to be wary of pirates. In March 1628, he was captured at sea by "Frenchmen" while master of the 130-ton Anne of London. In November 1630 he was master of the 160-ton Charity of London when she fought two Dunkirk pirate ships in the Narrow Seas for "two hours but quitted herself with some hurte."

—William W. Lowe