Page:History of merchant shipping and ancient commerce (Volume 1).djvu/582



The public navy of Florence, consisting originally of only two galleys, had been now increased to eleven, besides fifteen "Fuste," or smaller vessels. Though manned and armed as ships of war, they were principally employed in the conveyance of merchandise to all places beyond Rome on the one side, and Genoa on the other, trading eastward with Constantinople, Kaffa, Trebizond, Alexandria, Tunis, Tripoli, and Sicily; and westward with Minorca, Majorca, Bona, and the western coast of Barbary, as well as with Catalonia, England, and Flanders. These voyages were timed so as not to interfere with each other. When there were no private bidders for the public galleys put up to auction for hire, which seldom happened, the voyage was made on account of the government. The sea-consuls settled the number of the crew and the armament of each galley, and nominated the captain, supercargo, and other officers, none of whom were allowed to be in any way connected with the consuls, or to own any part of the cargo: the consuls, too, were not permitted to share in this trade, except when the vessels were freighted on account of the government. The galleys bound westward sailed in September, and those for the Levant in February.

"On the day of sailing," remarks Napier, "the various ports at which the galleys were to touch,