Page:History of merchant shipping and ancient commerce (Volume 1).djvu/551

 to have expected them to spread their mattresses upon the sails or coils of rope, or at least in places passengers would not occupy, and it is certain that those who insisted on their legal rights were thus punished whenever they in the slightest degree infringed them.

In the case of vessels of war, or rather those vessels whose services were more required for warlike than for commercial purposes, even greater formalities were made use of when they took their departure for a distant voyage or for an important expedition. When the hour for departure arrived the commander came on board, preceded by trumpeters, and followed by the officers of his staff. The most perfect silence prevailed on board, and every man was at his post ready to answer any question the commander might be pleased to put to him. The account, in Join-*ville of the scene on board of the galley of the Count de Japhe describes what probably often took place. "This count," he says, "had disembarked in a most grand manner, for his galley was all painted within side and without with escutcheons of his arms, which were a cross pattée gules on a field or. There were full three hundred sailors on board the galley, each bearing a target of his arms, and on each target was a small flag with his arms likewise of beaten gold. It was a sight worthy to be viewed when he went to sea on account of the noise which these flags made, as well as the sounds of the drums, horns, and Saracen nacaires (tymbals or tambourines) which he had in his galley." The captain, seated in his state chair, having received the homage of his officers,