26S 



THE SEA. 



Messina, where the fleets combined. It was not till seven months later that the fleet 

 got under weigh for the Holy Land. It numbered 100 ships of larger kind, and 

 fourteen smaller vessels called "busses/' Each of the former carried, besides her crew 

 of fifteen sailors, forty soldiers, forty horses, and provisions for a twelvemonth. Vinisauf, 

 who makes the fleet much larger, mentions that it proceeded in the following order : 

 three large ships formed the van; the second line consisted of thirteen vessels, the 

 lines expanding to the seventh, which consisted of sixty vessels, and immediately 

 preceded the king and his ships. On their way they fell in with a very large ship 

 belonging to the Saracens, manned by 1,500 men, and after a desperate engagement 

 took her. Richard ordered that all but 200 of those not killed in the action should 

 be thrown overboard, and thus 1,300 infidels were sacrificed at one blow. Off Etna, 

 Sicily, they experienced a terrific gale, and the crew got " sea-sick and frightened ; " 



SHIPS OP WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. (From the Bayeux Tapestry.) 



and off the island of Cyprus they were assailed by another storm, in which three 

 ships were lost, and the Vice-Chancellor of England was drowned, his body being 

 washed ashore with the Great Seal of England hanging round his neck. Richard did 

 not return to England till after the capture of Acre, and the truce with Saladin; he 

 landed at Sandwich; as nearly as may be, four years from the date of his start. As 

 this is neither a history of England, nor of the Crusades, excepting only as either are 

 connected with the sea, we must pass on to a subject of some importance, which was 

 the direct result of experience gained at this period. 



The foundation of a maritime code, by an ordinance of Richard Coeur de Lion, a 

 most important step in the history of merchant shipping, was due to the knowledge 

 acquired by English pilgrims, traders, and seamen at the time of the Crusades. The 

 first code was founded on a similar set of rules then existing in France, known as the 

 Holes d'Oleron, and some of the articles show how loose had been the conditions of the 

 sailor's life previously. The first article gave a master power to pledge the tackle of a 

 ship, if in want of provisions for the crow, but forbad the sale of the hull without the 

 owner's permission. The captain's position, as lord paramount on board, was defined; no 

 one, not even part-owners or super-cargoes, must interfere; he was expected to understand 

 thoroughly the art of navigation. The second article declared that if a vessel was held 

 in port through failure of wind or stress of weather, "the ship's company should be guided 



