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| The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.1 |
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Citation Information
36 INTRODUCTION
gunnel-space to each bench. And as one of the objects of the
grouping of the oars was to allow room between the benches for
the action of cross-bowmen, &c., it is plain that the rowlock
space for the three oars must have been very much compressed.*
The rowers were divided into three classes, with graduated
pay. The highest class, who pulled the poop or stroke oars,
were called Portolati ; those at the bow, called Prodieri, formed
the second class.-
Some elucidation of the arrangements that we have tried to
describe will be round in our cuts. That at p. 35 is from a draw-
ing, by the aid of a very imperfect photograph, of part of one of
the frescoes of Spinello Aretini in the Municipal Palace at
Siena, representing a victory of the Venetians over the Emperor
Frederick Barbarossa's fleet, commanded by his son Otho, in 1176;
but no doubt the galleys, &c., are of the artist's own age, the
434.) I imagine that
* Signor Casoni (p. 324) expresses his belief that no galley of the 14th century had more than loo oars. I differ from him with hesitation, and still more as I find M. Jal agrees in this view. I will state the grounds on which I came to a different conclusion. (1) Marino Sanudo assigns 18o rowers for a galley equipped ai Terzaruoli (p. 75). This seemed to imply something near 18o oars, for I do not find any allusion to reliefs being provided. In the French galleys of the 18th century there were no reliefs except in this way, that in long runs without urgency only half the oars were pulled. (See ilfénz. d'un Protestant condamné aux Galères, etc., Réimprimés, Paris, 1865, p. 447.) If four men to a bench were to be employed, then Sanudo seems to calculate for his smaller galleys 220 men actually rowing (see pp. 75-78). This seems to assume 55 benches, i.e., 28 on one side and 27 on the other, which with 3-banked oars would give 165 rowers. (2) Casoni himself refers to Pietro Martire d'Anghieria's account of a Great Galley of Venice in which he was sent ambassador to Egypt from the Spanish Court in 1503. The crew amounted to 200, of whom 15o were for working the sails and oars, that being the number of oars in each galley, one man to each oar and three to each bench. Casoni assumes that this vessel must have been much larger than the galleys of the 14th century ; but, however that may have been, Sanudo to his galley assigns the larger crew of 25o, of whom almost exactly the same proportion (18o) were rowers. And in the g aleazza described by Pietro Martire the oars were used only as an occasional auxiliary. (See his Le;ationis Baby/mica' Libri Tres, appended to his 3 Decads concerning the New world; Basil. 1533, f. 77 ver'.) (3) The galleys of the 18th century, with their great oars 5o feet long pulled by six or seven men each, had 25 benches to the side, and only 4' 6"
(French) gunnel-space to each oar. (See lliém. d'un .Protest., p.
a smaller space would suffice for the 3 light oars of the medieval system, so that this need scarcely be a difficulty in the face of the preceding evidence. Note also the three hundred rowers in Joinville's description quoted at p. ¢o. The great galleys of the Malay Sultan of Achin in 1621 had, according to Beaulieu, from 700 to Boo
rowers, but I do not know on what system. .
t Illarznzzs Sanzrtius, p. 78. These titles occur also in the Documeztz d'Aî;zor e of Fr. Barberino referred to at p. 117 of this volume :—
" Convienti qui manieri Portolafti e firodieri E presti galeotti
Aver, e forti e dote.
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