Longship
Another form of cargo ship was the horse transports used by William the Conqueror in 1066. In the ship list it gives a total of 776 vessels in the Conqueror's fleet. Many were for the knights and soldiers but others were used to haul the supplies and horses they needed. Earlier Vikings did not use horse transports and usually used the horses they found in the places they invaded. The Normans, however, used cavalry and needed to transport their war horses and palfreys. But the Normans in Sicily had used horse transports (1060–61) before possibly based on Byzantine ships of a similar design. The Byzantines had ships called hippagogoi designed to land horses which could go right into battle. Guy of Amiens observed that William's invasion force included men from Apulia, Calabria, and Sicily. William had shipbuilders familiar with building horse transports at his disposal. How many he built is unknown, but he did have such ships in his fleet.