Authorities differ very widely as to the tonnage of these two vessels. Sernigi (see p. 123) says they were of 90 tons each, thus partly bearing out Correa, who states that the _three_ ships (including the _Berrio_) were built of the same size and pattern.[399] D. Pacheco Pereira[400] states that the largest of them did not exceed 100 tons; J. de Barros gives them a burthen of between 100 and 120 tons; whilst Castanheda allocates 120 tons to the flag-ship and 100 to the _S. Raphael_. But whilst the authorities quoted dwell upon the small size of the vessels which for the first time reached India from a European port, and even give reasons for this limitation of burthen,[401] there is some ground for believing that the tonnage of Vasco da Gama’s ships, expressed according to modern terminology, was in reality much greater than is usually supposed. Pedro Barretto de Rezende (p. 151) may therefore have some justification when he states that these vessels ranged from 100 to 320 tons. Mr. Lindsay (_loc. cit._) would go even further. The _S. Gabriel_, according to him, was constructed to carry 400 pipes, equivalent to 400 tons measurement, or about 250 to 300 tons register. He adds that Sr. E. Pinto Bastos agrees with him.[402] In considering this question of tonnage, it must be borne in mind that “ton”, at the close of the fifteenth century, was a different measure from what it is at present. We learn from E. A. D’Albertis[403] that the _tonelada_ of Seville was supposed to afford accommodation for two pipes of 27½ arrobas (98 gallons) each, and measured 1.405 cubic metres, or about 50 cubic feet. The _tonel_ of Biscay was 20 per cent. larger. According to Capt. H. Lopez de Mendonça, the _tonel_ at Lisbon measured 6 palmos de goa in length (talha), and 4 such palmos in breadth and height (parea), that is, about 85 cubic feet.[404] This, however, seems excessive, for my wine merchant tells me that two butts of sherry of 108 gallons each would occupy only 75 cubic feet. At any rate, these data show that the ton of the fifteenth century was considerably larger than the ton measurement of the nineteenth. Two attempts have been made recently by distinguished officers of the Portuguese Navy, Captains Joào Braz d’Oliveira[405] and A. A. Baldaque da Silva,[406] to reconstruct Vasco da Gama’s flagship, or rather to design a ship of a type existing at the close of the fifteenth century, and answering as nearly as possible to the scanty indications to be found within the pages of the historians of this memorable voyage. In this reconstruction good use has been made of an early manuscript on shipbuilding by Fernando Oliveira (_O livro da fabrica das Nãos_), which Captain Lopez de Mendonça proposes to publish.