Two separate accounts have been transcribed and translated here. Both are preserved in The National Archives at Kew and come from the records of the Exchequer. Both date from the reign of Edward III and relate to the affairs of Thomas de Snetesham who was Clerk of the King's Ships in the early years of this office. He was first appointed in 1336 but at times shared the title and the duties of the office with William de Clewere and Matthew de Torksey whose accounts at times cover periods overlapping with those of Snetesham. Similarly towards the end of the reign of Edward III the office seems to have been shared to some extent between Robert Crull and John de Haytfield.

The duties of the office seem not to have been clearly defined until the end of the century with each clerk having a slightly different set of responsibilities. Generally, the duties of the Clerk of the King's Ships extended to the repair of royal ships, sometimes to the building of a new one, the provision of supplies like cordage and caulking materials and occasionally victuals, and the organisation of ship keepers to care for the vessels when they were in harbour or laid up in an anchorage. The Clerks were not concerned with operational matters although some mention is often made of the voyages for which a vessel was being prepared. A particular value of these accounts is to allow some conclusions to be drawn about the ships themselves, their design and their equipment. They also allow us to understand how a medieval monarchy approached the expensive and onerous task of keeping a royal fleet in a seaworthy condition and the way in which this had become of much greater concern than previously in the reign of Edward III.

The first account edited comes from the Accounts Various class of the Exchequer (TNA E101) and consists of the particulars of account kept by Snetesham for the year 18 Edward III, that is 25 January 1344–25 January 1345. He is described as Clerk of the ship George, not as Clerk of the King's Ships in this particular instance. From the account it is not clear whether this refers to the ship called George , formerly in French ownership, which was captured at the battle of Sluys by the English and which sank in Winchelsea harbour in 1346.