. Military and religious life in the Middle Ages and at the period of the Renaissance. he chosen band which,under the name of retenue de poupe* (Fig. 83), was entrusted with the dutyof defending the captains flag, was solely recruited from among theseadventurers. Their principal duty being the defence of this flag, whichfloated on the starboard side close to the entrance to the poop, they were * Poop Guard. NAVAL MATTERS. 89 expected never to leave their post, except at the captains express when a galley was boarded at the stern, and its deck, up to the main-mast, was swarming with
. Military and religious life in the Middle Ages and at the period of the Renaissance. he chosen band which,under the name of retenue de poupe* (Fig. 83), was entrusted with the dutyof defending the captains flag, was solely recruited from among theseadventurers. Their principal duty being the defence of this flag, whichfloated on the starboard side close to the entrance to the poop, they were * Poop Guard. NAVAL MATTERS. 89 expected never to leave their post, except at the captains express when a galley was boarded at the stern, and its deck, up to the main-mast, was swarming with the enemy, all was by no means lost, for the poopstill remained in the hands of its brave defenders, who died at their postrather than yield. Among the splendid feats of arms which have adornednaval history, many instances could be cited when a ships safety was securedby the desperate resistance of its poop guard. The warriors of the sea(Figs. 84 and 85) were always distinguished for their extreme intrepidityand boldness, and it is easy to believe that from them emanated the system. Fig. 83.— Seal of the Town of Sandwich, representing the Poop Guard(Thirteenth Century). of submarine warfare (Figs. 86 and 87), which, in the fifteenth century, gavebirth to a series of extraordinary inventions in nautical weapons. It is to the credit of these benighted ages, too often accused of barbarismand social anarchy, that in most of the Mediterranean ports overseers wereappointed, whose duty it was to inspect and survey everything connectedwith voyages beyond the sea—that is to say, voyages to the Holy Land. Thisfriendly tribunal settled all differences between the passengers or pilgrimsand the ship-owners or captains, according to the terms of their reciprocalcontracts. One part of their duties was to carefully measure the spaceassigned to each passenger, to see that every individual had his proper allot- NAVAL MATTERS. ment, so as to secure that all were made as comfortable as possibl
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Keywords: ., booksubjectcostume, booksubjectmiddleages, booksubjectmilitaryar
