Spains Men of the Sea - Daily Life on the Indies Fleets in the Sixteenth Century
by Perez-Mallaina, Pablo E. - - - translated by Carla Rahn Phillips
pub. by Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore 1998 -   -  maps   -       isbn 0-8018-5746-5     Notes on pages 247 - 279     index on pages 281 - 289 -   290 pages.
Perez-Mallaina has written -the- book on all the people who were involved with the Spanish fleets which sailed from Spain to the New World, from the lowest cabin-boy to the Admirals who headed up the fleet and all stations of life in between. Where they came from, what they ate, what they wore, what their legal situation was etc. It is exceedingly revealing of the times, of the inequalities within the systems of the time. The differences between crews and expectations of the accompanying warships and the merchant ships is discussed.
Methods of navigation and the position of the pilots and navigators was discussed. It shows how the Spanish systems were different from the English systems and how at the situation of the people of the sea differed from the Medieval where the sailors had legal power and the beginning of the next century when they began to be just muscle.
This is an exceedingly important read if you wish to understand the great maritime affairs of the 1500s.
~2013-04-24~

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