Hanseatic cog
Coca hanseática
- Date
- c. 1200 · confidence medium
- Place
- Lübeck, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany
- Credited to
- Frisian and Hanseatic sailors and shipyards
- Field
- Movement
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
A flat-bottomed merchant ship with straight clinker-laid sides, a single mast with a square sail and a stern rudder. Its large hold made it the workhorse of Hanseatic trade in the Baltic and the North Sea.
Its origin (Frisian or Dutch) and date are debated; the Bremen cog (1380) is the best-preserved example and the earliest images are 13th-century town seals.
What it led to
- Baltic trade of the Hanseatic League
- greater medieval cargo tonnage
- a forerunner of the carrack