Law for helmsmen

Law for helmsmen, helmsmen is the honourable name of the seamen ¹

1 All Frya’s sons have equal rights, therefore may all able youths register with the olderman and this one may not reject him, if there were no place.

2 The helmsmen may name their own master.

3 The merchants must be chosen and named by the community to which they well belong and the helmsmen may not thereby have no vote.

4 If one, upon a voyage, finds that the king is bad or unbecoming, so may they take another;⁵
when they come back, so may the king himself complain to the olderman.

5 Comes the fleet home and be there profits, so must the seamen have a third thereof, all thus to deal: the witking twelve shares, the rear-admiral seven shares, the boatswains each two shares, the skippers each three shares, those other ship’s folk a one share.
The youngest apprentices each a third, the middle ones each a half share, and the eldest each two thirds.

6 Be there some lamed, so must the common community see to their needs for their life, also must they sit prominently at common (public) festivals, at home festivals, aye at all festivals.

7 Be there some killed in strife, so must their next (of kin) inherit their share.¹⁰

8 Be there widows and orphans, so must the community support them.
Be they fallen in an honourable cause, so may the sons bear their dad’s names on their shields.

9 Be the apprentice seaman lost, so must his inheritors have a whole man’s share.

10 If he were betrothed, so may his bride ask seven man’s shares in order to dedicate a stone to her bridegoom but then for the honour, must she remain a life-long widow.

11 Whenever a community readies a fleet, must the provisioners provide for the best provisions and for the women and children.¹⁵

12 If a seaman is decrepit and poor and he has neither house nor legacy, so must his friends take him home and the community must it better (improve) after his estate were that his friends deny him the boon.
(The community must help him if his friends refuse to.)