I looked carefully at the best book on 14th century merchants for the meaning of a ship's 'master'. Carus-Wilson's Medieval Merchant Venturers (pp.84-6) explains explicitly that owner, captain and merchant are all synonymous with 'master'. Ships were often jointly owned, as seems the case with our St. Mary, and certainly many ships carried consignments of other merchant's goods. According to Carus-Wilson, not until a century later did the ship, its navigation and its goods become separate businesses. So we Carpenters can claim our ship, the St. Mary, a true Carpenter ship! Sincerely, Bruce Carpenter