Page:History of merchant shipping and ancient commerce (Volume 1).djvu/541

 PRESENT GONDOLA.



republics, especially the Genoese, possessed merchant galleys, which were named Taridas, and were chiefly employed in the trade between the Levant and Constantinople. Marino Torsello recommended the use of the Tarida, which had been previously known under the name of Galata, to Pope John XXII. towards the commencement of the fourteenth century.

During the tenth century the Zelander, or Galander, figures with the Dromond and the Pamphyle; but three centuries afterwards these vessels had discontinued the use of oars and had become sailing vessels under a somewhat similar name. The accounts which have been preserved of the Zelander describe her as a vessel of extraordinary length and great swiftness, having two banks of oars, and a crew of one hundred and fifty men. Contemporary with the Zelander we have the Huissier, a vessel of