![\"Image\"](\"http:\/\/nonsolusblog.files.wordpress.com\/2014\/03\/pre-1650_ms0211_manwayringbriefe_-_8-copy.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nThe 1644 printed text is considered the first authoritative treatise in seamanship in English.\u00a0 It was written by Sir Henry Manwayring, a famous seaman of the Jacobean era, who happened to be an infamous pirate for a few years.\u00a0\u00a0Manwayring was a Shropshire lad, born in 1587.\u00a0 And lest you think your own children or grandchildren are precocious, consider Manwayring, who matriculated at Oxford at the age of 12, received his B.A. three years later, and was admitted to the Inner Temple as a lawyer at 17. He soon became a naval officer, chasing pirates in the British Channel and off the coast of Newfoundland.\u00a0 But a few years later, he took offense when King James I buckled under Spanish pressure and prevented him from fulfilling one of his naval missions.\u00a0 He took out his frustrations on the Spanish, becoming a notorious pirate on the Barbary Coast.\u00a0 He bedeviled the Spanish navy for several years and annoyed the French with his swashbuckling, though he claimed never to have attacked English ships.<\/p>\n
Fearing reprisals from France and Spain, King James eventually offered\u00a0Manwayring pardon if he gave up piracy. He came back to England in 1616, received knighthood in 1618, and dedicated his “Discourse on Piracy” \u2013 an insider’s perspective, obviously \u2013 to the King.\u00a0 In that book, by the way, he warns the King against granting pardons to pirates.\u00a0 He later served in Parliament and received an honorary doctorate of physics from Oxford.\u00a0 Needless to say, there is more to tell about our pirate-knight, but let’s get back to our manuscript.<\/p>\n The 1644 imprint is very small, just 20 centimeters, a handy vademecum <\/i>\u00a0for a sailor to carry on board.\u00a0 Though small, there is a bit more text on the title page of the printed book than the folio manuscript, but that’s to be expected since it includes publication information.\u00a0 The manuscript is twice the size and the title is a little different: \u201cA Briefe Abstract, Exposition, and Demonstration of all Termes, Parts, and Things Belonging to a Shippe, and The Practick of Navigation.\u201d\u00a0Manwayring is noted as the author.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n