LUBECK is a city in Schleswig-Holstein, northern
Germany, and one of the major ports of Germany. In the 14th century
Lübeck became the "Queen of the Hanseatic League", being by far the
largest and most powerful member of that medieval trade organization,
capital of the Wendish and Pomeranian Circle .
However, even after the de facto
disbanding of the
Hanseatic League in 1669, Lübeck still remained an
important trading town on the Baltic Sea. After the decline of the
Hanseatic League the flax trade followed the existing routes which has
been well mapped and used many centuries before and lots of the
practices used at the ports would still have been in use in the
18th/19th century. .. if it wasn't broke they tended not to fix it.
The League's ships plied the major trade routes across the North Sea and the
Baltic, and the cog was its tramp cargo vessel. First records of the cog
appear in the 10th century. Previous Viking longships had little
space for cargo. The cog, or cogge, was rounded, tub-like, with a high
clinker-planked hull, a high stern and a deck which covered a considerable
hold. Early accounts indicate that it had a steering rudder on the starboard
side, though by the mid 13th century this had been replaced by a stern rudder.
There were eventually small raised decks at the bow and the stern.
Later the boats were developed for purely trading purposes and were called
Galliots or Galeas.
