[Illustration: Fig. 79.--Seal of the Town of Dover (1281).] The admiral appointed to the command of the fleet published the order to arm in every port under his master’s rule. In virtue of this order, the first proceeding was to exhibit the _cartel_--a scroll fastened to the top of a post or the end of a lance--announcing that so many vessels of such and such a kind were to be ready equipped within a given time, to take the seas against such and such an enemy, or to proceed in such and such a direction. Besides the cartel, which was displayed on the shore or in the gateway of the town, surrounded with garlands and pennants, floated the standard of the prince, which had previously been blessed at a solemn mass celebrated to pray for the success of the undertaking. The sea trumpets rang out their fanfares, and a herald at arms repeated in a loud voice the purport of the cartel. A clerk stood by, pen in hand, for the purpose of registering the names of the sailors and marines, who, as they gave them, settled the conditions of their engagement. A formal contract binding both sides was then signed and sealed before a notary, and as soon as sufficient hands had volunteered, the cartel was taken down and the trumpets ceased to sound. [Illustration: Fig. 80.--Seal of the Town of Yarmouth (Thirteenth Century).] When the ships of the sovereign, and of the nobles and burgesses his feudal vassals, were insufficient in number to form the fleet with which it was desirable to put to sea, recourse was had to allies and to foreign navies in general. Vessels were bought, hired, and chartered, but in the latter case they were usually only employed as transports. The merchants of Genoa and Venice were in this manner the principal charterers for the Crusaders. In 1246, Saint Louis addressed a demand to them for ships, at the same time making a similar request to the merchants of Marseilles. Emissaries from the king were sent into Provence and Italy to make contracts for the construction and chartering of vessels for the transport of the armed pilgrims who were to accompany him to the Holy Land. These envoys, amongst whom was Brother Andrew, “the prior of the holy house of Jerusalem,” made the necessary arrangements with the podestate of Genoa, with the Duke of Venice, and with the syndicate of the commune of Marseilles, and settled the size of the ships, the number of their crew, the space reserved for each passenger and each horse, and the different tariffs for the berths in the fore and aft towers, for those in the main saloons (termed _paradis_), for those between decks, and for those under the lower deck. [Illustration: Fig. 81.--View of the Port of Antwerp in 1520.--Fac-simile of a Drawing by Albert Dürer, in the Gallery of the Archduke Albert, at Vienna.] In 1263 the arrangements for St. Louis’s second crusade were carried out in a similar manner.