The Matthew Story: Past, Present & Future

PAst: The original Matthew

Bristol played a major part in transatlantic voyaging from 1476 until the early 1500s. Contemporary accounts tell us The Matthew was a commercial goods ship before and after its famous 1497 transatlantic voyage.

Pre-1497

Little is known of The Matthew before Cabot’s 1497 voyage – it is unknown where, or when, the ship was built. From what we can tell from accounts of the time, The Matthew was an ordinary commercial ship that carried goods between Bristol, Ireland and Biscay before its famous voyage across the Atlantic.

The Matthew was a type of ship called a caravel, which was popular in medieval times due to its speed and manoeuvrability. Contemporary accounts describe it as a ‘little ship’ of 50-tons burden, which meant the ship was capable of carrying 50 tuns of Bordeaux wine below decks. The Matthew was larger than the 10–20-ton boats typically used for navigation around the Bristol Channel but much smaller than the 300–400-ton merchantmen the port’s traders employed for the long voyages to Lisbon and Seville.

In the later 1400s, Bristol merchants were convinced that at some time in the past, Bristol mariners had discovered a new land to the West – the Isle of Brasil. Bristol sent out several exploratory expeditions to the Atlantic during the later fifteenth century to search for this land and its highly valuable brazilwood.

The earliest of these expeditions took place sometime before 1476, and at least two more were launched in 1480 and 1481, before the groundbreaking transatlantic voyage made by Cabot in 1497.

1497: John Cabot and the exploration of the Americas

Of all of the many expeditions that sailed from the port of Bristol, John Cabot’s voyage aboard The Matthew was the most successful and is still the most well-known.

‘This year, on St. John the Baptist’s Day [24 June 1497], the land of America was found by the Merchants of Bristow in a shippe of Bristowe, called the Mathew; the which said ship departed from the port of Bristowe, the second day of May, and came home again the 6th of August next following.’ 

– G.E. Weare, Cabot’s Discovery of North America, (London, 1897).

JOHN CABOT: EXPLORER AND ENTREPRENEUR

‘Cabot is called the Great Admiral and vast honour is paid to him and he goes dressed in silk, and these English run after him like mad.’  

– Soncino, Milanese Ambassador to England, 23 August 1497.

Like The Matthew itself, much knowledge about John Cabot has been lost (see Who Was John Cabot? for a short history of the Venetian explorer). However, we do know that he arrived in England as an ambitious entrepreneur who needed to pay off some fairly hefty debts. Clearly a smooth talker, he managed to convince Henry VII that he could voyage to find new lands and establish a new and quicker overseas route to the Orient to trade in valuable silks and spices.

Cabot was granted ‘letters patent’ to sail by Henry VII, which stated that he, his heirs and deputies could hold any new lands they found in the name of the king, plus receive a monopoly over any trade that they opened up. This meant that others would not be able to muscle in on the trade once it was established without having to incur the early exploration costs. The licence also carried a condition that any subsequent trade resulting from his expeditions would have to pass through the port of Bristol.

Cabot used these conditions to convince Bristol merchantmen and Italian bankers based in London to finance his voyage as an investment opportunity. The merchants agreed, but only if they were promised a high return on their investment as it was such a high-risk venture. Given his risky financial situation, Cabot had no choice but to agree.

His first voyage attempt in 1496 was unsuccessful. John Day, a Bristol merchant, wrote to fellow explorer Christopher Columbus to say, ‘Since your Lordship wants information relating to the first voyage, here is what happened: he went with one ship, his crew confused him, he was short of supplies and ran into bad weather, and he decided to turn back.’ But his attempt the following year famously succeeded.

On 24 June 1497, Cabot landed in North America, most probably on the island of Newfoundland. He then explored the coast for a month, before returning to England in August. In terms of discovering the Orient, the expedition was a flop – but Cabot was the first European to make landfall in what would become known as the Americas. He also discovered what would become the highly lucrative cod nurseries off the Eastern North American coasts.

Following Cabot’s success in finding new lands, Henry VII granted permission for a five-ship expedition from Bristol the following year to explore further. This time, the King helped finance the expedition and also gave Cabot a pension of twenty pounds per year.

By May 1498, Cabot had left with his Bristol backers and with Brother Giovanni Antonio de Carbonariis, an Augustinian friar who hoped to bring Christianity to the New World.

WHAT HAPPENED TO John CABOT?

We still don’t know exactly what happened to John Cabot and his 1498 expedition. Current theories include:

• The expedition was entirely lost with all crew lost at sea;

• A religious colony was established at what is now the modern town of Carbonear; or

• Cabot returned to England, only to die in a plague outbreak during 1500.

Post-1497

After its glory year at sea crossing the Atlantic in 1497, The Matthew was owned by the Bristol merchant, John Shipman. He was the port’s richest shipowner, being the owner or part-owner of five great ships by 1513.

According to contemporary records, The Matthew was back to normal duties in the port of Bristol by the end of 1498. The records show that goods were seized from the vessel because the owner had failed to pay his customs duties on them – The Matthew might have been involved in smuggling! From then until about 1507, the ship was used as an ordinary merchantman, after which it seems to have gone out of service.

Many more expeditions to the New World were launched from Bristol in the decade after Cabot’s voyages but they generally seem to have employed much larger ships, such as the 120-ton Gabriel and the 130-ton Jesus Bonaventure. Bristol’s merchants probably chose to use larger vessels for the later expeditions to carry enough food, stores and goods to maintain themselves through long voyages and to trade with the people they encountered on their arrival.

In 1499, the Bristol merchant William Weston (a close associate of Cabot) undertook the first English-led expedition to the ‘New Found Land’ and was well-rewarded by the king as a result. Other prominent Bristol merchants, such as Hugh Eliott and Robert Thorne, led further expeditions there a few years later under a new royal licence. By about 1505, Bristol was the main player in transatlantic voyaging and even formed the ‘Company Adventurers to the New Found Lands’ which was dedicated solely to organising further expeditions.

The last Bristol expedition of this era was undertaken by John Cabot’s son, Sebastian, in 1508. By this time it seems that the port’s explorers had established that a large continent – America – blocked the route to the Orient. Bristol’s merchants considered this land to be of little value, inhabited by what they believed at the time to be primitive people who lived simply and had little worth trading, and so Bristol left the New World to Europe’s fishermen.

The Future for The Matthew…

The Matthew of Bristol is now mainly based at Bristol’s historic Floating Harbour where it has a permanent mooring on Princes Wharf. The ship is skippered by well-known local sailor Rick Wakeham, ably assisted by his crew of dedicated volunteers.

Maintaining The Matthew for future generations

Every winter, The Matthew undergoes a thorough annual maintenance programme to keep it in tiptop condition and safe for our passengers and crew. Over the last ten years, the skipper and chief engineer have overseen repairs and refurbishments in every area of the ship. Over the winter of 2021-2022, as well as the usual repairs and maintenance, the ship also underwent a complete overhaul of its hydraulic pumps and the main mast was refurbished.

As we look to the future, The Matthew of Bristol Trust intends to continue improving and updating the ship and its systems, ensuring that The Matthew of Bristol can continue to delight and educate visitors and passengers for at least another 25 years!