Corsìa is the same as the French word coursier, and among other meanings signifies the gang-board, that in a galley is laid fore and aft, and on which the rowers pass from stem to stern, or vice versâ; a very natural place for securing the mast when unshipped.
The castles, used for warlike purposes, were wooden imitations of the buildings whose names they bear, and may be seen in the tapestry of the house of lords representing the defeat of the Spanish armada, a memorial of which is still preserved in our term of fore-castle.
The cutting away such top-lumber would of course tend materially to lighten a vessel in a storm.
“Our peril well does the Blscayan note,
“And tries what often has an evil end;
“Lowers down the galley’s skiff, and, when afloat,
“Descends into it, and makes me descend:
“Two follow; and a troop would throng the boat,
“Did not the first prevent them, and defend
“The entrance with their naked faulchions; we
“Sever the rope forthwith, and put to sea.
Stanza xvii.
Strange as this manœuvre (however qualified by the observation in the second line) may appear in the eyes of an English seaman, I read not very long ago, in the records of a court of justice, the statement of a proceeding nearly similar in its circumstances. A Mediterranean vessel (I think a polacca) finding herself under the necessity of bearing up, wore and ran away before the sea, though the land was under her lee-bow. On nearing this, the crew anchored her, and made for the shore in their boat. They reached it safely, and from thence saw their vessel founder. Circumstances peculiar to this sea may serve to explain such conduct: but I do not know that any traveller except Roger North, amid all the Italian travels and Mediterranean voyages with which our press
