They plunge the
blades of the oars into the water and throw themselves back, falling on
to the seat which bends beneath their weight. Sometimes the galley
slaves row thus ten, twelve, even twenty hours at a stretch, without the
slightest relapse or rest, and on these occasions the officer will go
round putting into the mouths of the wretched rowers pieces of bread
soaked in wine to prevent them from fainting. Then the captain will call
upon the officers to redouble their blows, and if one of the slaves
falls fainting upon his oar, which is a common occurrence, he is flogged
until he appears to be dead and is then flung overboard without
ceremony."
The Italian captain, Pantero Pantera, of the _Santa Lucia_ galley, in his
work on "L'Armata Navale" published in 1614, gives it as his opinion that
although soldiers and sailors could be obtained for service in the galleys
if good pay were given, still no money could tempt any free man to
adventure himself as a rower for any length of time owing to the
intolerable sufferings which the "gallerian" was called upon to endure. As,
however, in the opinion of the captain it was most necessary that the
galleys should be manned, he thought that all judges should in future send
criminals aboard; those who had committed murder as "lifers," those who had
committed lesser crimes _pro rata_. Those who by the nobility of their
birth or their physical incompetence were unable to handle the oar should
be called upon to pay for substitutes to act for them; these were called
"Buone-Voglie.
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