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.
Extra ordinary display on the departure of any important expedition.
The reception of the commander,
and his plan of inspection.
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[1]
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,
- ↑ Chronicles of the Crusades, p. 391, Bohn's edition.
