The chief item in this commission was the requisitioning of a supply of horses; William “took for the king’s use from every city in England two palfreys and two additional sumpter horses, and from every manor of the king’s own [Sidenote: _March to April_] one palfrey and one sumpter horse.”[452] These horses were doubtless shipped across to Normandy, being, it seems, for the use of the king and his immediate companions, who, together with his continental followers, were going overland with Philip to meet the English fleet at Marseille. [Sidenote: 1189] Immediately on reaching England Richard had set about collecting a transport fleet, by sending his bailiffs to “all the sea-ports of England, Normandy, Poitou, and his other lands” to choose for him the largest and best of all the ships they found there and the fittest to carry heavy burdens. Some of these he gave to certain of his familiar friends who were bound on Crusade; some he retained for his own use, and had them loaded with arms and victuals.[453] The terms on which these ships were acquired seem to have varied considerably; in some cases the Crown paid half their value, in others the whole; a few were gifts from wealthy individuals.[454] In addition to all these the king already had some “smacks” (_esneccae_) in ordinary use for the transport of himself and his treasure between England and Normandy; these were now put in repair to fit them for a longer and more dangerous voyage. The crews and captains of the other ships were of course taken over together with the vessels, and were paid by the king [Sidenote: 1190] from Michaelmas 1189.[455] Some time in March or early in April (1190) Richard held a council at Chinon and thence issued an ordinance for the maintenance of discipline in the fleet, in the form of a charter which he delivered into the hands of the archbishop of Auch, the bishop of Bayonne, Robert de Sabloil, Richard de Camville, and William de Fors of Oléron, appointing them justiciars over “his whole navy of England, Normandy, Poitou, and Britanny, about to sail for Holy Land.” The regulations which they had to administer were drastic. Any man who slew another on board ship was to be tied to the corpse and cast with it into the sea; one who slew a man ashore to be tied to the corpse and buried with it. A man convicted of drawing knife on another or striking him so that blood flowed was to lose his hand. If he only struck with his palm, so that no blood flowed, he was to be ducked three times in the sea. Anyone who insulted or cursed a comrade was to forfeit an ounce of silver for every such offence. A convicted thief was to be “shorn like a professional champion, then tarred and feathered so as to be known,” and cast ashore on the first land at which the ship touched.[456] Another writ from the king bade all those of his subjects who were going to Jerusalem by sea, as they valued their lives “and their return home,”