The sixteenth clause required the master to ask the crew, when a ship was ready to load, “Will you freight your share yourselves, or be allowed for it in proportion with the ship’s general freight?” and the sailors were there and then bound to answer, and make their election.[536] If they elected to take their risk, a curious practice resulted. In the event of taking on board a cask of water instead of a cask of wine, they might deal with their own stowage as of right; and, in the event of throwing cargo overboard, to lighten the ship, they had the privilege of refusing to throw over a cask of water in preference to a cask of wine. If the water, however, was thrown overboard, the mariner came in upon the general average; although, by the common law of England, a tun of water was never rated, pound by pound in value, with a tun of wine. [Sidenote: Food.] By the seventeenth clause the sailors of Brittany were restricted to one meal a day from the kitchen, while those of Normandy had two meals; and when the ship arrived in a wine country, the master had to provide them with wine.[537] The practice of serving out a certain allowance of food is very ancient, and to prevent jealousies, complaints, and quarrels on this account, the law prescribed a specified quantity to be supplied to each man exactly alike. When wine was provided, the mariner had one meal per day, but when water alone was served out, he had two meals. [Sidenote: Obligation to carry the ship to her destination.] The eighteenth article provided, that when a ship was unladen, the sailors could demand their freight; but from those of them having neither bed, chest, nor trunk on board, the master could retain a portion of their wages, till the vessel was brought back to her final port of destination. It was ruled that the wages were not due till the work had been entirely done, unless a special agreement subsisted to the contrary, for “freight was the mother of wages.”[538] [Sidenote: Rules as to sailors.] The rights of sailors hired per day, or week, or month, where freight was not procurable, were secured by the nineteenth article, which stipulated that if an engagement was broken off by war, pirates, or the command of his sovereign, the seaman was entitled to have a quarter part of his wages for the full term of his engagement. The twentieth clause provided that, when in a foreign port, only two sailors from the ship might go on shore at a time, and take with them one meal of victuals, “as much as they can eat at once,” but no drink. They were bound to return to the ship in season, so as not to lose a tide, and they were held responsible for any damage resulting from their default. [Sidenote: Demurrage.]