Users Guide to SOLM-2024 database

This is the start of the Users Guide to the SOLM-2024 database

Overview of the database

- Technology: Excel Workbook
- Size: 22 MB
- Dimensions: 23,715 rows; 320 columns
- Sheets: One
- Conceptual structure: Flat semi-structured database
- Author: Colin Greenstreet
- Date started: 2017
- Latest version: SOLM-2024 Ver.14.1 15/04/2024

---

Conceptual structure

- The primary dimension is formed by the personal depositions of PEOPLE

- There are six secondary dimensions, of which the SHIP secondary dimension is the dominant one. This is formed by the named ships with which most of the personal depositions of people are associated.

- The five additional secondary dimensions are MATERIALS; INFORMATION; FINANCING; LABOUR; and LEGAL

- The primary and secondary dimensions have sub-groupings of related characteristics, which are descibed belowd

People

PEOPLE: BASIC
-- Name [Forname; Surname] [TEXT]
-- Age [Years; Estimated birth year] [NUMBER]
-- Gender [Male/Female] [TAB]
-- Marital status [Bachelor; Spinster; Married; Widowed] [TAB; TEXT]
-- Relationships with other people [Father/Son/Daughter; Husband/Wife; Uncle/Nephew; Cousins] [TEXT]
-- Age married [NUMBER]
-- Religion [TEXT]

PEOPLE: GEOGRAPHY
-- Current residence [Street/Hamlet; Parish; Town; County/Province] [TEXT]
-- Current state [e.g. England; e.g. France] [TEXT]

PEOPLE: GEOGRAPHY ADVANCED
-- Place of birth [Parish; County; Province; State] [TEXT]
-- Length of time in current residence [NUMBER; TEXT]
-- Approximate age when moved to current residential area [YEARS]

PEOPLE: IN PLACE
-- Activities at the Exchange, London; Exchanges outside London overseas [TEXT]
-- Activities at Customs houses [London; Kinsale; Emden; Paris; Rouen; Boulogne; Saphia; Constantinople; Scanderoon; Cyprus; Messina; Barbados; Elsewhere] [TEXT]
-- Activities at taverns, inns and victualling houses, cook shops [TEXT]
-- Activities at private homes [TEXT]
-- Activities at warehouses; cellars [TEXT]
-- Activities at wharves and keys [TEXT]
-- Activities at shops [TEXT]
-- Activities in prisons [TEXT]

PEOPLE: OCCUPATION
-- Main self-described occupation [TEXT]
-- Further more detailed self-described occupations [TEXT]
-- Additional work related activities described in text [TEXT]
-- Detailed self-described occupations normalized [TAB]
-- Years in occupation [NUMBER]
-- Age started occupation [NUMBER]

PEOPLE: OCCUPATION: APPRENTICES AND SERVANTS
-- Apprenticeship/Servant status [TAB]
-- Age became apprentice [NUMBER]
-- Years as apprentice [NUMBER]
-- Age became servant [NUMBER]
-- Years as servant [NUMBER]

PEOPLE: OCCUPATION: MARITIME
-- Years at sea [NUMBER]
-- Approximate age first went to sea [Years] [NUMBER]
-- Approximate years at sea before made master [NUMBER]
-- Approximate years master of ships [NUMBER]
-- Approximate age first master of ships [NUMBER]
-- Months master of most recent ship [NUMBER]
-- Months in company of most recent ship [NUMBER]
-- Length of most recent voyage in which deponent present [NUMBER]
-- Number of known voyages by deponent in named ship

PEOPLE: SKILLS
-- Literate - Signature [TAB]
-- Illiterate - Initial(s) [TAB]
-- Illiterate - Marke(s) [TAB]
-- Language, reading & writing skills, quantitative skills; weighing; navigation skills; mapping skills; schools [TEXT]

PEOPLE: HEALTH
-- Medical; Sickness; Injury; Disability; Deaths on ship; Health; Surgeon's expenses [TEXT]
-- Prisons; Imprisonment; Punishment; Torture; Galleys [TEXT]

PEOPLE: FINANCE: WAGES
-- Wages (£) [per day] [CURRENCY]
-- Wages (£) per week [CURRENCY]
-- Wages (£) [per month] [CURRENCY]
-- Wages (£) per voyage [CURRENCY]
-- Wages (£) per year [CURRENCY]
-- Wages and/or Profits [TEXT]

PEOPLE: FINANCE: TAXES
-- Subsidy assessment (£) [CURRENCY]
-- Subsidy assessment [TEXT]

PEOPLE: FINANCE: INVESTMENT
-- Private adventures + clothes, instruments and other personal items [£] [CURRENCY]
-- Private adventures + money + clothes, instruments and other personal items [TEXT]
-- Small loans and debts between mariners and mariners and passengers [TEXT]
-- Worth (debts paid) (£) [CURRENCY]
-- Worth (debts paid) [TEXT]

PEOPLE: RELATIONSHIPS
-- Relationships [TEXT]

PEOPLE: CATCHALL CATEGORY
-- Seafaring record or other commercial record [TEXT]

Ships

SHIPS: BASIC
-- Name of ship [TEXT]
-- Place of affiliation of ship [e.g. the Seaventure of Yarmouth] [TEXT]
-- Name of master of ship [TEXT]
-- Man of war voyage [TAB; TEXT]
-- Ship type [Frigate; Brighantine; Galleon; Carvell; Pinnace; Pink; Flute; Galliott; Flyboat; Ketch; Bark; Smack; Patash/Potash; Hoy; Barge; Billander; Lighter; Gaber; Packet boat; Tide boat; Ferry; Wherry; Lighthorseman; Sculler; Crayer; Cock boat; Pete boat; Trink boat; Trawler; Hebber; Stowe boat; Oyster dredger;Dogger boat; Herring busse; Busse; Fishing boat] [TAB]

SHIPS: VOYAGES
-- Extent of voyage knowledge [None; Partal; Full] [TAB]
-- Voyage nodal points [Named nodes in route order, if known] [TEXT]

SHIPS: PHYSICAL
-- Ship burthen [Tons] [NUMBER]
-- Ship ordnance [Guns] [NUMBER]
-- Ship decks [NUMBER]
-- Ship age [YEARS; TEXT]
-- Ship length [NUMBER]
-- Ship breadth [NUMBER]
-- Ship depth [NUMBER]
-- Height between decks [NUMBER]
-- Where ship built [TEXT]
-- Where ship bought [TEXT]

SHIPS: PEOPLE
-- Name of master of ship [TEXT]
-- Ship company size [including master and boys] [NUMBER]

SHIP: OTHER CHARACTERISTICS
-- Ship details [burthen; manning; ordnance]; Furniture; Apparrell; Sails; Rigging; Hull; Anchors; Value of ship; Freight rates; Demurrage; Size of ship's company; Owners of ship [TEXT]
-- Damage to ship; Repairs to ship; Ship building; Leakiness; Pumping of ship; Weighing of ship [TEXT]
-- Ships provisions [Food; Drink; Iron work; Ropes; Sails etc.] [TEXT]
-- Passengers; Indentured servants [TEXT]
-- Weather [hurricanes; monsoons; tempests, gale; storms; frost; ice; tropical heat; wind; fog; tide]; Severity of weather [stress; distress; extremity; (very) foul; thick; contrary; bad; wet]; Impact of weather on ship [leakage; steering errors; casting away; running ashore; driven ashore]; Seasonality [TEXT]
-- Planned and/or actual voyage details and key voyage dates [TEXT]

SHIP: SEA BATTLES AND AND PREDATION AT SEA
-- Deposition contains sea battle [YES/NO] [TAB]
-- Length of sea battle [HOURS] [NUMBER]
-- Dead [COUNT]
-- Wounded [COUNT]
-- Sea battles; Rules of war [TEXT]
-- Nature of interaction with Turkish men of war; Barbary; Sally; Argiers; Tunis; Santa Cruz; Marrocoes; Galleys; King of Spain's galleys; Slavery [TEXT]
-- Suprisals and Seizures [TEXT]

Materials

MATERIALS
-- Materials handling [on shore and on ship]; dennaging; theft; weights & measures standards; rats and cats; damage to goods; inspection by masters of the Trinity House [TEXT]
-- Theft of goods; Embezlement of goods; Fraud; Evasion of custom and impost; Contraband [TEXT]
-- Seasonality; Vintage; Time to market; Price arbitrage between markets [TEXT]
-- Details of ship's lading and her laders; including value of lading; and freight charges [TEXT]
-- Textiles (bay(e), callico, cloth, damask(e), diaper, dozens, kersey, lace, silk, taffaty(e); Cambrick stuff(e), Northern kersey, serge, Spanish cloth, tapestry ); Raw materials (cotton wool(l), flax, wool(l)); Dye stuffs: (woad(e); indigo(co); speckled wood; red(d) wood; Yarn; Garments; Household textiles (boulster, napkins, pillow) [TEXT]

Information

INFORMATION
-- Transmission of information between locations; Publique and Notorious [TEXT]
-- Public speaking on ship and in port; Overheard speech; Consortships at sea; Consultation with Company and Passengers [TEXT]
-- Documents [letters; books; journals; notes; verbal contracts]; Making & Use of documents [TEXT]

Financing

FINANCING
-- Financial structures [bills of exchange; lending; assurance]; Late payments for freight; Legal agreements; Verbal contracts; Bonds; Debts; Bankruptcy; Currency exchange; Trading profit calculations [TEXT]

Labour

LABOUR MARKET
-- Labour market; Where hired; Where left ship; Where wages paid; Nationality of ship's company; Men pressed from ship [TEXT]

Legal

LEGAL: BASIC
-- Event triggering legal case in High Court of Admiralty [TEXT]
-- Short form case description [TEXT]
-- Folio mark [TEXT]
-- Date of deposition [Modernized English calendar] [TEXT]

LEGAL: ADVANCED
-- Disputes in English law courts or arbitration; Commissions; Protests; Examinations on ships; Examinations on shore; Commissions of Inquiry [TEXT]
-- Disputes in non-English law courts or arbitration outside England; Law of Olleroon; Includes Ireland; Scotland; Wales; Inquisition, Embargos, Sequestration, Consuls; Viceconsuls; Commissions; Foreign Notaries; Protests; Foreign licences; Foreign Permissions [TEXT]

LEGAL: CUSTOMARY BEHAVIOUR
-- Customary behaviour in non-English ports [TEXT]
-- Customary behaviour on River Thames [TEXT]
-- Customary behaviour on high seas; Prize law at sea [TEXT]
-- Customary behaviour amongst merchants [TEXT]

LEGAL: NORMATIVE BEHAVIOUR
-- Behaviour of mariners on ship; Behaviour of other men and women; Abilities/Skills; Duties; Roles; Consent [TEXT]
-- Reputation and credit worthiness of mariners on ships; tradesmen; merchants [TEXT]

Linkages between dimensions

NOTE: one deponent can have multiple linkages to a ship
-- Deponent sailed in ship as one of company (includes pilots and factors) [TAB]
-- Deponent is passenger in ship [TAB]
-- Deponent is part-owner of ship [TAB]
-- Deponent is freighter of ship [TAB]
-- Deponent had goods in ship [TAB]
-- Deponent is shore based supplier to ship [TAB]

Scoping of the textual and numerical resources in the database

The two primary types of data in the SOLM-20124 database are textual and numerical

Below are tables describing these data in terms of cell counts as of April 11th 2024:

TEXTUAL

NUMERICAL

Sorting the database

- Use of filters

- Use of sort buttons

- Use of F5 function

[THIS SECTION IS UNDER DEVELOPMENT]

Questions and Answers

QUESTION 1. How reliable are the data in your database?

ANSWER 1:

QUESTION 2: I have found several interesting short text extracts in the database which include references (for example HCA 13/58 f.8r). What do these references mean and how do I find an image and full transcription of the page from which the short text extracts come, so I that can check and contextualize the extracts?

ANSWER 2:

• Let's start with the referencing system. "HCA" = "High Court of Admiralty". This was the top Admiralty Court in the Admiralty Court system in England in the C16th and C1th. For much of this period the Court was physically located in the Doctors Commons near Saint Paul's church. "HCA 13/58" refers to volume 58 in the HCA 13 series and follows the naming convention used by the National Archives at Kew, where the physical documents are stored and are viewable. Volume HCA 13/58 consists of witness statements or depositions submitted in the English High Court of Admiralty between the years 1642 and 1644. "f.8r" refers to the recto (front) side of the eighth folio in that specific volume.

QUESTION 3: I am interested in medical care on board commercial ships in the C17th. Where can I find information about this topic in the database?

ANSWER 3:

• We already have a good deal of information the SOLM-2024 database on medical care. We need to hear your research questions to help us expand this coverage. We have detailed descriptions of good and poor care by chirurgeons on board commercial ships, caring for both mariners and passengers at sea and in ports. We have estimates of the value of chirurgeon's chests, including instruments, books and medicaments. We have descriptions of medical certificates being granted and refused according to the health of a ship's company, and ships being forced to quarantine when coming from ports known to be affected by the plague. We have descriptions of battles between ships and estimates of dead and wounded, together with injuries sustained by men in these battles.

QUESTION 4: I am looking at private investment behaviour by non-elite men and women. Can your database help me?

ANSWER 4:

• This is an interesting topic, which has been neglected by historians. It takes a lot of data to say anything meaningful about non-elite investment activities. And that's after you have got over the big hurdle and are considering that non-elite men and women may have been active investors. The SOLM-2024 database offers a unique and extensive set of data on private adventures by non-elite men (and some women) just waiting to be used by an innovative doctoral student or post-doctoral fellow. Do get in touch with us and we will guide you through what we have already calendarized and what else exists in the 30 million plus set of English Admiralty Court depositions, 1570 to 1688, and how you can unlock these data.

QUESTION 5: I am looking at the connection between Atlantic trade routes and the Mediterranean in the late C16th and early C17th. How should I get started looking for data in your database?

ANSWER 5: [INSERT TEXT]

QUESTION 6: Can your database help me compare wage levels of mariners in England and the United Provinces in the first half of the C17th?

ANSWER 6: [INSERT TEXT]

QUESTION 7: How can I investigate behavioural norms, non-conforming behaviour, discipline and punishment amongst mariners using your database?

ANSWER 7: [INSERT TEXT]

Exercises

1. Using the SOLM-2024 database to analyse trade flows

- Example: Brazilian/Portuguese/Mediterranean
- Example: Hamburg/Lisbon-Cadiz/Mediterranean
- Example: English East Mediterranean

2. Using the SOLM-2024 database to compare and contrast shipping size and types in different geographies

- Question: Size and character of English East Mediterranean English shipping versus English Atlantic shipping
- Question: Size and character of English Atlantic shipping on Newfoundland versus Virginia versus Barbados routes

3. Using the SOLM-2024 database to study the roles, duties, and tasks of different occupations

- Question: How did people in specific mariner sub-occupations self-describe their office, places, tasks?
- Question: How did people evaluate the performance of others in specific mariner sub-occupations?
- Question: What can be quantified in terms of skill levels and wage levels for different mariner sub-occupations?

4. Using the SOLM-2024 database to study predation by galleys in the Mediterranean and the Atlantic in the 1H C17th

- Question: Where do you find galleys and war ships geographically active in seizing commercial shipping in the 1H C17th [Turkish galleys; galleys of Argiers; galleys of Tunis; galleys of Sally; Spanish galleys; French galleys]

5. Using the SOLM-2024 database to look at the use by English mariners of international legal jurisdictions

- Question: How can we use the data within SOLM-2024 to identify legal cases in non-English legal jurisdictions invollving English commercial shipping?
- Question: How can we systematically examine the strategies used by mariners and factors to access legal systems and arbitration in non-English jurisdictions?
- Question: What was the role of Consuls and Consular assistance outside England and how did mariners interact with Consuls?

Providing feedback

- We encourage all our users to provide feedback and to make special requests to us

- The SOLM-2024 database can improve by being used as much as possible for a wide range of research tasks