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SIR ANDREW BARTON. 61
It shall be doubled shillings three." w
" Nowe Gode forefend," the merchant said,
" That you shold seek soe far amisse! God keepe you out of that traitors hands!
Full litle ye wott what a man hee is.
" Hee is brasse within, and Steele without, ids
With beames on his topcastle stronge; And eighteen pieces of ordinance
He carries on each side along. And he hath a pinnace deerlye dight,
St. Andrewes crosse, that is his guide; no His pinnace beareth ninescore men,
And fifteen canons on each side.
" Were ye twentye shippes, and he but one, I sweare by kirke, and bower, and hall,
He wold overcome them everye one, ns
If once his beames they doe downe fall."
" This is cold comfort," sais my lord,
" To wellcome a stranger thus to the sea:
115. It should seem from hence, that before our marine artillery was brought to its present perfection, some naval commanders had recourse to instruments or machines, similar in Use, though perhaps unlike in construction, to the heavy Dolphins made of lead or iron used by the ancient Greeks; which they suspended from beams or yards fastened to the mast, and which they precipitately let fall on the enemies' ships, in order to sink them, by beating holes through the bottoms of their undecked triremes, or otherwise damaging them.—Percy. |
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