(April 10) that the fleet actually got under weigh for the Holy Land, numbering one hundred ships[1] (that is, of a larger kind), and fourteen busses. Each of the large ships carried, it is said, besides her crew of fifteen sailors, forty soldiers and forty horses, and provisions for one twelvemonth. The commander was also aided by fourteen other picked men, whom the chronicler calls "slaves." But these, and other accounts of the capacity of ancient vessels are, like too many of the tales about shipping, not now reconcilable. We can only account for the numerous discrepancies as to the size of the vessels and the number of men and horses embarked, by some misapprehension on the part of the writers, or by some confusion in their application of the nautical expressions used by ancient writers, few of whom had any practical knowledge of the subject.
Their order of sailing. Vinisauf describes the fleet as proceeding in the following order. Three large ships, filled with soldiers and stores, formed the van. The second line consisted of thirteen vessels, described as "dromons and busses;"[2] the third of fourteen vessels; the fourth of twenty; the fifth of thirty; the sixth of forty, and the seventh of sixty; the king himself, with all his galleys, forming the eighth line, and thus
- ↑ These numbers are given from Richard of Devizes (p. 17), who appears to be the only writer who gives details of the fleet at Messina. The number given subsequently, during the passage of Richard to the Holy Land, by Vinisauf and others, is considerably larger, and probably comprehends vessels of all descriptions.—Sir H. Nicolas's "Hist. Roy. Navy," vol. i. p. 77, &c.
- ↑ Buss, Bussa, Buscia, or Burcia, and Dromon, or Dromond, seem to have been used indifferently for large vessels. As the specific name given to the large ship belonging to Saladin which Richard I. captured, it has been supposed that the word Dromond is of Arabic origin.—Spelman in voc. Dromunda.
