Page:History of merchant shipping and ancient commerce (Volume 1).djvu/550

 other cabins, where the passengers had the greatest convenience, down to the berths in the lower hold, where they were exposed to stifling heat or offensive smells. In the case of three-decked vessels, or more likely of those with lofty towers or poops, the cost of passage from Marseilles to Syria averaged about four livres tournois in the "paradises" or best parts of the vessel, sixty sous tournois on the main-deck, and forty sous tournois on the lower deck. It is not stated whether the rates of passage included provisions and other necessaries, but these were probably provided by the passengers themselves. The conditions of the charters made at Venice and at Genoa were similar to those entered into at Marseilles.

It is a remarkable fact, that the seamen were occasionally obliged to pay for their berths. Besides having a limited space in the hold allowed for their clothes, they had a space on deck allotted to them for sleeping; but if the mattress of any one of them exceeded, in however small a degree, the regulated weight of fifteen pounds, or, if placed upon a bed, the seaman was called upon to pay not only for the excess, but for the total weight of his mattress, according to the rate at which passengers were charged for their accommodation. The law, indeed, provided sleeping places for the seamen; but the owners seem

as the poop in modern vessels.]
 * [Footnote: situated, but they, no doubt, occupied the best part of what is known