In case of collision by a ship under sail running on board on at anchor, owing to bad steering, if the former were damaged, the cost was to be equally divided; the master and crew of the latter making oath that the collision was accidental. The reason for this law was, it is said, "that an old decayed vessel might not purposely be put in the way of a better." It was specially provided that all anchors ought to be indicated by buoys or anchor-marks, and buoys were to bear upon them the name of their ship and her port.
Mariners of Brittany were entitled only to one meal a day, because they had beverage going and coming; but those of Normandy were to have two meals, because they had only water as the ship's allowance. As soon as the ship arrived in a wine country, the master was, however, to procure them wine.
Several regulations occur respecting the seamen's wages, which show that they were sometimes paid by a share of the freight. On arriving at Bordeaux, or any other place, two of the crew might go on shore, and take with them one meal of such victuals as were on board, and a proportion of bread, but no drink; and they were to return in sufficient time to prevent their master losing the tide.
If a pilot, from ignorance or otherwise, failed to conduct a ship in safety, and the merchants sustained any damage, he was to make full satisfaction if he had the means; if not he was to lose his head. And if the master, or any one of his mariners, cut off his head, they were not bound to answer for it; but before they had recourse to so strong a measure "they must be sure he had not wherewith to make satisfaction."
The articles of the code prove that from "an accursed custom" in some places, by which the third or fourth part of ships that were lost belonged to the lord of the place, the pilots, to ingratiate themselves with these nobles, "like faithless and treacherous villains," purposely ran the vessels on the rocks. It was therefore enacted that the said lords, and all others assisting in plundering the wreck, should be accursed and excommunicated, and punished as robbers and thieves: and that "all false and treacherous pilots should suffer the most rigorous and merciless death," and be suspended to high gibbets near the spot, which gibbets were to remain as an example in succeeding ages. The barbarous lords were to be tied to a post in the middle of their own houses, and, these being set on fire at the four corners, all were to be burnt together; the walls demolished;
