These vessels were built with round sides, and broad throughout; short, high out of the water, and of considerable draught when laden. The Venetians had also a merchant vessel called the Buzo, or Busse, which was not unlike the galleon, with the sides bulging out and sitting well upon the water, capable of carrying very large and heavy cargoes. According to Matthew Paris, Richard I. had several busses in the fleet which he took to the Holy Land. Although they had three masts, they were, he says, “scantily provided with sails.” It is not known precisely in what manner the ships (nefs) differed from the busses, but the Italians mark the union of the two ships in their buzo-navi. A Venetian statute of 1255 makes mention of these, together with the busses and the nefs or nés, each class being distinctly specified. Like the nefs, and the common busses, the buzo-navi had two masts, and carried lateen sails.[675]
Perhaps, however, the sketch on the opposite page ([p. 493]) furnishes a better idea of the ordinary and smaller class of vessels of the Italian republics between the tenth and sixteenth centuries than any other which has been preserved. It appeared for the first time in a little book, published by M. Lanetti,[676] and was copied by him from an old painting by Vittore Carpacci, which, he says, he had often seen and admired in the chapel of St. Ursula by the side of the church of San Giovanni and Paolo at Venice.
Government merchant galleys.
Among the Italian republics, but more especially in Venice during the plenitude of her power, the construction, equipment, and armament of galleys for mercantile purposes constituted a very important branch of the business of the government. Vessels thus built were put up to auction for freightage only, and the privilege of employing them on the “long voyage” was sold by the government. No other merchants of Venice were permitted to send their ships to those ports to which the privileged galleys were consigned.[677]
SMALL GALLEY.
How engaged, equipped, and manned.
Nobles’ sons taken on board.
When the mercantile vessels thus engaged were completed and armed, the public crier announced throughout the streets and highways of Venice that a certain number of galeasses were ready for the annual expeditions to Egypt and other countries. This proclamation, issued under the authority of the Doge and the senate, while it allotted the vessels to the highest bidders, required that the charterers should submit to a severe examination, with the object of ascertaining whether those who offered to incur the responsibility of navigating the vessels, possessed the necessary capital and qualifications. Once satisfied in this respect, the government handed over the ships all ready for the voyage to their commanders. For some centuries a singular law, or rather an ancient custom having the authority of law, prevailed among the Venetians. With the object of assisting the families of the indigent nobility, each of these hired galeasses, whatever might be the voyage undertaken, were required to receive on board eight sons of poor nobles, who were allowed the pay of seventy pieces of gold for the expedition, with a mess suitable to their rank. These young nobles had likewise the privilege of carrying four hundred quintals of specie or an equivalent, free of freight, to defray their expenses at the ports they visited, or they might turn the money to account in trade so as to improve their condition.[678]
Capacity of these vessels.