Page:History of merchant shipping and ancient commerce (Volume 1).djvu/537

 less doubt, as there is ample evidence in confirmation of this opinion. Twenty years after the period when the Venetian merchants resident at Constantinople found refuge in the large vessel to which we have just referred, mention is made of five of their ships which returned from Constantinople to Venice, carrying seven thousand men-at-arms; or fourteen hundred men to each, if equally distributed. Although, in this case, the length of the voyage and the class of men are supplied, the mere fact of a ship being able to carry so many persons furnishes, in itself, a very imperfect idea of her dimensions, as they may have consisted of cabin or steerage passengers, troops, or pilgrims, to whom very different extents of space would be allotted. Even at the present day the Muhammedans, in their over-sea pilgrimages to the tomb of Muhammad, are satisfied with one-eighth of the space which the law of England requires for the transport of her meanest subjects; while the amount of space varies in different nations, and materially depends upon the length and character of the voyage.

The only definite information we possess with regard to the actual dimensions of the vessels built by the Venetians during the periods of their prosperity, is to be found in a contract which their shipbuilders made to furnish the king of France, in 1268, with fifteen ships. Of these vessels M. Jal has furnished a minute description, together with their dimensions, as specified in the contract. The largest, the Roccaforte, was 110 feet in length over all, and only 70 feet length of keel, with 40 feet