Ali Bey, a Catalan, landed in Cyprus after a terrible storm which almost destroyed the ship he travelled in. His description points to the dangers that travellers such as him had to face:
How can I describe the frightful state of our ship? All the sails torn and none to replace them! The hull making water everywhere, the pumps almost incessantly at work: everyone ill, and more than twenty men, prostrate, and apparently at their last gasp. One man had died on the 4th and his body was thrown into the sea. Two others were on the point of death two went mad. The ship’s crew, helping one another to jump ashore all fled: The captain only remained on board with two or three Turkish sailors. We were in a hurry to land, the natives seeing our terrible state of distress kept away from the vessel, no one would go on board, and the governor of the town was obliged to order a few calkers to plug at least the worst holes in the hull, so as to save the ship which seemed every moment to be on the point of going to the bottom.