times at least commanded several vessels; masters, rectors, and constables, who were commanding officers of ships, though often, as to-day is the case with captains and commanders in a large ship, two of them served simultaneously in one craft; and comitres or comites, who were supervisors of galley rowers. The constable is rarely found in command of anything but a small craft, and it may be suspected that to him we should look as the professional ancestor of the lieutenant. The rank, or more properly the title, of rector began at the end of the thirteenth century to die out. Chaplains were not borne in private ships, but were appointed to do duty throughout whole fleets.
It has been mentioned that the wage of the seamen was threepence a day. It is interesting to note that the pay of the foot
GALLEY OF THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY.
(After a picture by Pietro Laurati in the Uffizi Gallery.)
soldier of the period was only twopence. The artisans who on shore received threepence were plasterers and miners.
Edward II. was deposed by his queen and Roger Mortimer, and compelled to abdicate; and his son, Edward III., succeeded him on February 1st, 1327, being then in his fifteenth year. During his minority the country was ruled, and very ill ruled, by Mortimer and the abandoned Isabella, Henry of Lancaster being, however, nominal chief of a council of regency; but in 1330 the young king vigorously and effectively asserted his position, and thenceforward governed for himself.
In the reign of Edward III., in addition to the classes of ships already described, many new types appear to have been used, or at least many new names were applied to vessels. We read of "ballingers," which were probably large barges, though some "barges" of this period were of considerable size, carrying a hundred men or more; "carracks," properly vessels of Genoese or Spanish origin, but in a more general sense, ships of large dimensions: "cogs," or as we might say, first-rates of the time; "crayers,"
