SPANISH SEAMEN IN THE NEW WORLD 635 



lated in the Consulado was mild. The mariner was bound to 

 make compensation to the owner for all losses incurred as a 

 result of the desertion, and in case he was unable to do so, he 

 could be imprisoned until such time as he was able to pay. 17 

 And mariners who took away a ship without the consent of the 

 owner were similarly bound to make losses good, and could be 

 imprisoned, and a demand made against them, "just as against 

 persons who renounce their lord and dispossess him of his 

 authority." 



Discipline aboard ship was of course to be very strictly en- 

 forced. Necessarily much authority was left to the master, and 

 the mariner must be extremely careful in his conduct towards 

 him. A mariner who quarreled with the managing owner lost 

 half his wages and the goods he had in the ship. 18 And heavier 

 penalities were exacted in proportion to the gravity of the 

 offense. 



.... And if he raises a weapon against the managing owner, all 

 the mariners ought to seize him and bind him and put him into 

 prison, and take him before the local authorities, and those who will 

 not seize him ought to lose their goods and the wages which they will 

 receive or ought to receive for the voyage. 19 



Thus it was made the duty of the crew to assist actively hi dis- 

 ciplining itself. But the paragraph of the Consulado which deals 

 with the limits of the mariners' right of self defense, shows most 

 clearly his real status aboard ship. 



Further, a mariner is bound to bear with the managing owner of a 

 ship, if he reproaches him, and if he runs to attack him the mariner 

 ought to run away to the bow of the ship and place himself by the side 

 of the chain. And if the managing owner passes the chain, he ought to 

 run away to the other side, and if the managing owner passes to the 

 other side, he may defend himself, calling persons to witness how the 

 managing owner ought not to pass the chain. 20 



17 Ibid., Ch. cxiii. in Black book, III. 221. 



18 Ibid., Ch. cxviii. in Black book, III. 227, 229. 

 "Ibid. 



" Ibid., Ch. cxx. in Black book, III. 229. 



