Gradually, then, the Mercantile Marine had become indispensable to trade and to intellectual progress, but it was the growth of pilgrim traffic which made certain landsmen affluent; for now men called _cargatores_, or passenger agents, arranged the business of transporting these devout people across the sea, and therefore stringent regulations had to be passed to prevent the travellers from being fleeced. Thus the _cargatores_ were compelled to supply the pilgrims with good and adequate victuals; and, in order to prevent any bribery or corruption, they were forbidden to enter into partnership with the shipowner in regard to the food. Of course this was no small undertaking at a period of the world’s history when there were no such things as preserved meats or refrigerating chambers, especially when the ships were crowded with a lot of sea-sick landsmen who had never previously beheld the sea. All those who voyaged from Venice or Marseilles had to carry enough food to last them for fifty days, and in those rough ships and the Mediterranean climate you can imagine the state of the food at the end of seven weeks. No wonder that a pilgrimage was a real act of self-denial! It was customary in classical times to give names to the Mediterranean ships, and this survived through the Middle Ages, where we find such names as _Urso_, _Oliva_, _Aquila_, _Christiana_, _Cidona_, _St. Blazius_. The Genoese ship went by the name of her shipmaster or owner. After she had been built and fitted out, the greatest care was taken to see that she was seaworthy and not overloaded. Thus the internal arrangements, the ballasting and stowing of goods in the hold were all supervised. The Venetian statutes kept a very tight control over their shipping, regulating the places where the cabins were to be put, where the sail locker should be, where the ship’s tackle was stored, and the sleeping arrangements both for the merchants and the sailors. No detail seems to have been too small for State supervision. The stowing of the cargo in the hold was left to the discretion of the shipmaster, and there was a kind of Plimsoll mark used in these Venetian ships; for this is what happened. On the outside of the hull a mark was put, the ship was then loaded and examined officially before setting forth on her voyage, and she was not allowed to proceed to sea if this mark was more than a certain depth below the water-line, this depth varying according to the ship’s age. If the mark were submerged too much, a sufficient quantity of cargo had to be taken out until she came up to her marks, and then the owner was fined. This was the general rule, but exceptions were made in the case of craft sailing within the Venetian Gulf or carrying victuals.