SHIPS AND SEAMEN 



from punishment for blasphemy or breaches of discipline down to the 

 victuals of the crew. They put a legal end to the contention that all 

 shipwrecked vessels became the property of the finder — a natural 

 incentive to wrecking — and to prevent pilots acting as accessories the 

 laws provided that if one ran his ship ashore and merchants sustained 

 any damage they had the right of redress from his estate and that if this, 

 were not sufficient the crew had the right to behead him on the spot. 

 Any landsman who, in order to gain possession of shipwrecked goods, 

 " should murder or destroy poor shipwrecked seamen " had to expect 

 to be immersed in the sea until he was half drowned and then stoned ta 

 death on the shore. 



Mediterranean Ships. 



There can be no doubt that in the early days the Mediterranean 

 ships were far more highly developed than ours, although they were, 

 built for comparatively calm waters while ours had to face the North 

 Sea and Atlantic. When Richard I was on his way to the Crusades in 

 1191 his fleet met a huge Turkish ship with three masts and carrying 

 1,500 men, and the whole fleet had their work cut out to sink her, finally 

 sending her down with her flag still flying. Her sides were far too high 

 for her to be boarded from the English ships, which were nevertheless 

 big enough to carry their people through the Ray of Biscay. It was 

 many years before a ship was built in England capable of carrying 

 1,500 men. 



Seamen's Affrays. 



The earliest history of Britain was certainly a succession of tribal 

 affrays and when ports had been established round the coast there is 

 little doubt that the custom remained and that there was a good deal 

 of raiding and counter-raiding within the country. In particular 

 the men of the Cinque Ports began to get a very bad reputation for 

 attacking the French at every opportunity from the very beginning of 

 their history, and the fact that it was regarded as a somewhat venial 

 oflfence is shown by the special order of 1293 in which they were solemnly 

 warned to leave the men of Normandy alone, apparently being left quite 

 at liberty to do what they could against other Frenchmen. Soon after, 

 however, so many affrays occurred between British, Flemish, Portuguese 

 and Bayonnese seamen that special commissions were told oflf to deal 

 with them, although they still went on. Later we came to a definite 

 treaty with Bayonne and Flanders which established regular grades of 

 seamen's quarrels and provided for punishment. A murderer was 

 executed and anybody who maimed another was mutilated in precisely 

 the same fashion. The fights still continued, however, intermingled 

 with piracy and national quarrels. 



The Mariner's Compass. 



The original invention has been attributed to Chinese, Arabs, 

 Greeks, Etruscans, Finns and Italians. It is claimed that the Emperor 



171 



