One of the most remarkable artifacts to have come down from the War of the Sicilian Vespers are a group of documents referred to as the Fleet Accounts of Roger of Lauria. These documents are not the actual accounting of all the revenue and payments of the Office of the Admiral, for those accounts literally filled a separate fleet archive that unfortunately has been lost. Instead, these 'accounts' are summaries of the fleet accounts Roger submitted over a period of years written on cowhide approximately 1 by 2 meters. The photo shows a section of the account for 1292. These 'accounts' were returned to Roger of Lauria by the various kings Roger served as approval of his accounting for fleet expenditures. They were also his assurance that the crown would not hold him or his heirs liable for any debts incurred by the fleet. As it was, the fleet seldom ran a deficit and even then it was relatively minor.
The Office of the Admiral employed and army of notaries to keep track of the fleet taxes paid by the population and the import-export duties paid by the merchants. They also had to account for numerous expenditures: crew pay, ship construction, ship repair, munitions, supplies of every sort, arsenal expenditures, transportation of troops, etc. All of this information was stored in the fleet archive waiting to be dragged out when an accounting for the fleet had to be presented to the king. The importance of the notaries can be seen in the fact they were paid the same amount as the galley captains.
The accounts are remarkable not just because they show from where the fleet received its operating revenue and on what that revenue was spent, but because frequently they explain why the money was spent. This information provides an unprecedented look into the internal workings of one of the most successful medieval fleets in history. It also provides valuable data on the organization of the Office of the Admiral. To learn more about the fleet accounts and the funding of the fleet see: Sea Power in the Medieval Mediterranean: The Catalan-Aragonese Fleet in the War of the Sicilian Vespers
