The Travels of Marco Polo Volume I Part 24

We know nothing more of Polo till we find him appearing a year or two later in rapid succession as the Captain of a Venetian Galley, as a prisoner of war, and as an author.

[1] Marco Barbaro's story related at p. 25 speaks of the Ca' Million as _built_ by the travellers.

From a list of parchments existing in the archives of the _Casa di Ricovero_, or Great Poor House, at Venice, Comm. Berchet obtained the following indication:--

"_No. 94. Marco Galetti invests_ Marco Polo _S. of_ Nicolo _with the owners.h.i.+p of his possessions_ (beni) _in_ S. Giovanni Grisostomo; _10 September, 1319; drawn up by the Notary Nicolo, priest of S.

Canciano._"

This doc.u.ment would perhaps have thrown light on the matter, but unfortunately recent search by several parties has failed to trace it.

[The doc.u.ment has been discovered since: see vol. ii., _Calendar_, No. 6.--H. C.]

[2] --"Sua casa che era posta nel confin di S. Giovanni Chrisostomo, _che hor fa l'anno s'abbrugi totalmente_, con gran danno di molti."

(_Doglioni, Hist. Venetiana_, Ven. 1598, pp. 161-162.)

"1596. 7 _Nov. Senato_ (a.r.s.enal ... ix c. 159 t).

"Essendo conveniente usar qualche ricognizione a quelli della maestranza del-l'a.r.s.enal nostro, che p.r.o.ntamente sono concorsi all'

incendio occorso ultimamente a S. Zuane Grizostomo nelli stabeli detti di CA' MILION dove per la relazion fatta nell collegio nostro dalli patroni di esso a.r.s.enal hanno nell' estinguere il foco prestato ogni buon servitio...."--(Comm. by Cav. Cecchetti through Comm. Berchet.)

[3] See a paper by G. C. (the Engineer Giovanni Casoni) in _Teatro Emeronitio Almanacco par l'Anno 1835_.

[4] This Cross is engraved by Mr. Ruskin in vol. ii. of the _Stones of Venice_: see p. 139, and Pl. xi. Fig. 4.

[5] Casoni's only doubt was whether the _Corte del Millioni_ was what is now the Sabbionera, or the interior area of the theatre. The latter seems most probable.

One Ill.u.s.tration of this volume, p. 1, shows the archway in the Corte Sabbionera, and also the decorations of the soffit.

[6] See _Ruskin_, iii. 320.

[7] Comm. Barozzi writes: "Among us, contracts between husband and wife are and were very common, and recognized by law. The wife sells to the husband property not included in dowry, or that she may have inherited, just as any third person might."

[8] See Appendix C, No. 16.

V. DIGRESSION CONCERNING THE WAR-GALLEYS OF THE MEDITERRANEAN STATES IN THE MIDDLE AGES.

[Sidenote: Arrangement of the Rowers in Mediaeval Galleys: a separate oar to every man.]

25. And before entering on this new phase of the Traveller's biography it may not be without interest that we say something regarding the equipment of those galleys which are so prominent in the mediaeval history of the Mediterranean.[1]

Eschewing that "Serbonian Bog, where armies whole have sunk" of Books and Commentators, the theory of the cla.s.sification of the Biremes and Triremes of the Ancients, we can at least a.s.sert on secure grounds that in _mediaeval_ armament, up to the middle of the 16th century or thereabouts, the characteristic distinction of galleys of different calibres, so far as such differences existed, was based _on the number of rowers that sat on one bench pulling each his separate oar, but through one_ portella _or rowlock-port_.[2] And to the cla.s.ses of galleys so distinguished the Italians, of the later Middle Age at least, did certainly apply, rightly or wrongly, the cla.s.sical terms of _Bireme_, _Trireme_, and _Quinquereme_, in the sense of galleys having two men and two oars to a bench, three men and three oars to a bench, and five men and five oars to a bench.[3]

That this was the mediaeval arrangement is very certain from the details afforded by Marino Sanudo the Elder, confirmed by later writers and by works of art. Previous to 1290, Sanudo tells us, almost all the galleys that went to the Levant had but two oars and men to a bench; but as it had been found that three oars and men to a bench could be employed with great advantage, after that date nearly all galleys adopted this arrangement, which was called _ai Terzaruoli_.[4]

Moreover experiments made by the Venetians in 1316 had shown that four rowers to a bench could be employed still more advantageously. And where the galleys could be used on inland waters, and could be made more bulky, Sanudo would even recommend five to a bench, or have gangs of rowers on two decks with either three or four men to the bench on each deck.

[Sidenote: Change of System in the 16th century.]

26. This system of grouping the oars, and putting only one man to an oar, continued down to the 16th century, during the first half of which came in the more modern system of using great oars, equally s.p.a.ced, and requiring from four to seven men each to ply them, in the manner which endured till late in the last century, when galleys became altogether obsolete. Captain Pantero Pantera, the author of a work on Naval Tactics (1616), says he had heard, from veterans who had commanded galleys equipped in the antiquated fas.h.i.+on, that _three_ men to a bench, with separate oars, answered better than three men to one great oar, but four men to one great oar (he says) were certainly more efficient than four men with separate oars. The new-fas.h.i.+oned great oars, he tells us, were styled _Remi di Scaloccio_, the old grouped oars _Remi a Zenzile_,--terms the etymology of which I cannot explain.[5]

It may be doubted whether the four-banked and five-banked galleys, of which Marino Sanudo speaks, really then came into practical use. A great five-banked galley on this system, built in 1529 in the Venice a.r.s.enal by Vettor Fausto, was the subject of so much talk and excitement, that it must evidently have been something quite new and unheard of.[6] So late as 1567 indeed the King of Spain built at Barcelona a galley of thirty-six benches to the side, and seven men to the bench, with a separate oar to each in the old fas.h.i.+on. But it proved a failure.[7]

Down to the introduction of the great oars the usual system appears to have been three oars to a bench for the larger galleys, and two oars for lighter ones. The _fuste_ or lighter galleys of the Venetians, even to about the middle of the 16th century, had their oars in pairs from the stern to the mast, and single oars only from the mast forward.[8]

[Sidenote: Some details of the 13th century Galleys.]

27. Returning then to the three-banked and two-banked galleys of the latter part of the 13th century, the number of benches on each side seems to have run from twenty-five to twenty-eight, at least as I interpret Sanudo's calculations. The 100-oared vessels often mentioned (e.g. by _Muntaner_, p. 419) were probably two-banked vessels with twenty-five benches to a side.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

The galleys were very narrow, only 15-1/2 feet in beam.[9] But to give room for the play of the oars and the pa.s.sage of the fighting-men, &c., this width was largely augmented by an _opera-morta_, or outrigger deck, projecting much beyond the s.h.i.+p's sides and supported by timber brackets.[10] I do not find it stated how great this projection was in the mediaeval galleys, but in those of the 17th century it was _on each side_ as much as 2/9ths of the true beam. And if it was as great in the 13th-century galleys the total width between the false gunnels would be about 22-1/4 feet.

In the centre line of the deck ran, the whole length of the vessel, a raised gangway called the _corsia_, for pa.s.sage clear of the oars.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

The benches were arranged as in this diagram. The part of the bench next the gunnel was at right angles to it, but the other two-thirds of the bench were thrown forward obliquely, _a, b, c_, indicate the position of the three rowers. The shortest oar _a_ was called _Terlicchio_, the middle one _b Posticcio_, the long oar _c Piamero_.[11]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Galley-Fight, from a Mediaeval Fresco at Siena. (See p.

36)]

I do not find any information as to how the oars worked on the gunnels.

The Siena fresco (see p. 35) appears to show them attached by loops and pins, which is the usual practice in boats of the Mediterranean now. In the cut from D. Tintoretto (p. 37) the groups of oars protrude through regular ports in the bulwarks, but this probably represents the use of a later day. In any case the oars of each bench must have worked in very close proximity. Sanudo states the length of the galleys of his time (1300-1320) as 117 feet. This was doubtless length of _keel_, for that is specified ("_da ruoda a ruoda_") in other Venetian measurements, but the whole oar s.p.a.ce could scarcely have been so much, and with twenty-eight benches to a side there could not have been more than 4 feet gunnel-s.p.a.ce to each bench. And as one of the objects of the grouping of the oars was to allow room between the benches for the action of cross-bowmen, &c., it is plain that the rowlock s.p.a.ce for the three oars must have been very much compressed.[12]

The rowers were divided into three cla.s.ses, with graduated pay. The highest cla.s.s, who pulled the p.o.o.p or stroke oars, were called _Portolati_; those at the bow, called _Prodieri_, formed the second cla.s.s.[13]

Some elucidation of the arrangements that we have tried to describe will be found in our cuts. That at p. 35 is from a drawing, by the aid of a very imperfect photograph, of part of one of the frescoes of Spinello Aretini in the Munic.i.p.al Palace at Siena, representing a victory of the Venetians over the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa's fleet, commanded by his son Otho, in 1176; but no doubt the galleys, &c., are of the artist's own age, the middle of the 14th century.[14] In this we see plainly the projecting _opera-morta_, and the rowers sitting two to a bench, each with his oar, for these are two-banked. We can also discern the Latin rudder on the quarter. (See this volume, p. 119.) In a picture in the Uffizj, at Florence, of about the same date, by Pietro Laurato (it is in the corridor near the entrance), may be seen a small figure of a galley with the oars also very distinctly coupled.[15] Casoni has engraved, after Cristoforo Ca.n.a.le, a pictorial plan of a Venetian trireme of the 16th century, which shows the arrangement of the oars in _triplets_ very plainly.

The following cut has been sketched from an engraving of a picture by Domenico Tintoretto in the Doge's palace, representing, I believe, the same action (real or imaginary) as Spinello's fresco, but with the costume and construction of a later date. It shows, however, very plainly, the projecting _opera-morta_ and the arrangement of the oars in fours, issuing through row-ports in high bulwarks.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Part of a Sea Fight, after Dom. Tintoretto]

[Sidenote: Fighting Arrangements.]

28. Mids.h.i.+ps in the mediaeval galley a castle was erected, of the width of the s.h.i.+p, and some 20 feet in length; its platform being elevated sufficiently to allow of free pa.s.sage under it and over the benches. At the bow was the battery, consisting of mangonels (see vol. ii. p. 161 seqq.) and great cross-bows with winding gear,[16] whilst there were shot-ports[17] for smaller cross-bows along the gunnels in the intervals between the benches. Some of the larger galleys had openings to admit horses at the stern, which were closed and caulked for the voyage, being under water when the vessel was at sea.[18]

It seems to have been a very usual piece of tactics, in attacking as well as in awaiting attack, to connect a large number of galleys by hawsers, and sometimes also to link the oars together, so as to render it difficult for the enemy to break the line or run aboard. We find this practised by the Genoese on the defensive at the battle of Ayas (infra, p. 43), and it is constantly resorted to by the Catalans in the battles described by Ramon de Muntaner.[19]

Sanudo says the toil of rowing in the galleys was excessive, almost unendurable. Yet it seems to have been performed by freely-enlisted men, and therefore it was probably less severe than that of the great-oared galleys of more recent times, which it was found impracticable to work by free enlistment, or otherwise than by slaves under the most cruel driving.[20] I am not well enough read to say that war-galleys were never rowed by slaves in the Middle Ages, but the only doubtful allusion to such a cla.s.s that I have met with is in one pa.s.sage of Muntaner, where he says, describing the Neapolitan and Catalan fleets drawing together for action, that the gangs of the galleys had to toil _like_ "forcats" (p. 313).

Indeed, as regards Venice at least, convict rowers are stated to have been first introduced in 1549, previous to which the gangs were of _galeotti a.s.soldati_.[21]

[Sidenote: Crew of a Galley and Staff of a Fleet.]

29. We have already mentioned that Sanudo requires for his three-banked galley a s.h.i.+p's company of 250 men. They are distributed as follows:--