Ships and Crew. Historical Profile

The organization of the ship was connected to the organization of the board, according to the type of ship. It concerned the crew’s composition, the division of roles and responsibilities, the recruitments procedures and orders. The employment relationship was peculiar, governed by a specific regulation. There was a separation of duties and therefore there were different contracts of recruitment for the crew members. As to the ship, the roles of magister navis were different from the one of the crew, since the former signed a contract comparable to modern self-employment contracts and the latter signed a contract of subordinate employment similar to modern contracts. The paper examines, through the analysis of sources and of literature, the organization of the merchant ship and the recruitment's procedures