life. Yet even from Richard's warlike preparations, and the pecuniary burdens which his expedition in other ways brought upon his people, we may collect a few notices of interest in regard to the progress of the commerce, navigation, and wealth of the country. The fleet which carried out his troops to the Holy Land was probably by far the most magnificent that had ever as yet left the English shores, although some of those of former times may have consisted of a greater number of vessels. But the barks, amounting, it is said, to some thousands, in which the Conqueror brought over his army from Normandy, and the four hundred vessels in which Henry II. embarked his forces for the conquest of Ireland, not to speak of the more ancient navies of Edgar and Ethelred in the Saxon times, must have been craft of the smallest size, or what would now be merely called boats. Besides a crowd of vessels of this description—the number of which is not given—Richard's fleet, when it assembled in the harbour of Messina, is said to have consisted of thirteen large vessels, called busses or dromons, fifty-three armed galleys, and a hundred carricks or transports. All these vessels were constructed both to row and to sail, the dromons having three sails, probably each on a separate mast, and both they and the galleys having, as it would appear, in general two tiers or banks of oars. "Modern vessels," says Vinisauf, "have greatly fallen off from the magnificence of ancient times, when the galleys carried three, four, five, and even six tiers of oars, whereas now they rarely exceed two tiers. The galleys anciently called liburnæ are long, slender, and low, with a beam of wood fortified with iron, commonly called a spur, projecting from the head, for piercing the sides of the enemy. There are also small galleys called galeons, which, being shorter and lighter, steer better, and are fitter for throwing fire."[1] The fire here alluded to is the famous Greek fire, the great instrument of destruction at this time, both in encounters at sea, and in assaults upon fortified places on shore. This expedition of Richard was the first in
- ↑ Translation in Macpherson, Ann. of Com. i. 352.
