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0304 The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.2
The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.2 / Page 304 (Grayscale High Resolution Image)

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doi: 10.20676/00000269
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forward, whereby it often shall stave in some part of the
ship). In such case the water that enters the leak flows
to the bilge, which is always kept clear; and the mariners
having ascertained where the damage is, empty the cargo
from that compartment into those adjoining, for the
planking is so well fitted that the water cannot pass from
one compartment to another. They then stop the leak
and replace the lading.³]

The fastenings are all of good iron nails and the sides
are double, one plank laid over the other, and caulked
outside and in. The planks are not pitched, for those
people do not have any pitch, but they daub the sides
with another matter, deemed by them far better than
pitch; it is this. You see they take some lime and some
chopped hemp, and these they knead together with a
certain wood-oil; and when the three are thoroughly
amalgamated, they hold like any glue. And with this
mixture they do paint their ships.⁴

Each of their great ships requires at least 200 mariners
[some of them 300]. They are indeed of great size, for
one ship shall carry 5000 or 6000 baskets of pepper [and
they used formerly to be larger than they are now]. And
aboard these ships, you must know, when there is no
wind they use sweeps, and these sweeps are so big that
to pull them requires four mariners to each.⁵ Every
great ship has certain large barks or tenders attached to
it; these are large enough to carry 1000 baskets of
pepper, and carry 50 or 60 mariners apiece [some of them
80 or 100], and they are likewise moved by oars; they
assist the great ship by towing her, at such times as her
sweeps are in use [or even when she is under sail, if the
wind be somewhat on the beam; not if the wind be astern,
for then the sails of the big ship would take the wind out
of those of the tenders, and she would run them down].
Each ship has two [or three] of these barks, but one is