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NAVY. 



Algetiras. When first introduced, the cannon were 

 mounted on the deck which covered the rowers, and 

 were either made to protrude over the rail, or else 

 were pointed through port holes pierced through the 

 bulwark which defended the crew. In the galleas, 

 which was first used at Lepanto, there was one row 

 of ports between the oars, and then batteries of 

 heavier cannon upon the poop and forecastle. Not- 

 withstanding all these innovations, we shall yet find 

 Uiat the ancient mode of naval warfare was, in a 

 greet measure, maintained in that renowned naval 

 battle, the battle of Lepanto. 



The battle of Lepanto was fought between the 

 papal, Venetian, and Spanish fleets, and that of 

 Selim, sultan of Constantinople. In September, 1571, 

 the Christian fleet was collected, and made ready, in 

 the port of Messina. It consisted of 250 ships, 

 manned by 50,000 men, and was placed under the 

 command of don John of Austria, natural son of 

 Charles V., for whom expressly the title of gcneralis- 

 simo was then invented. The pope, having pro- 

 claimed a general season of fasting and prayer 

 throughout Christendom, sent a strong corps of 

 ecclesiastics to officiate in the fleet, and a consecrated 

 standard to be displayed from the ship of the admiral. 

 Absolution was promised to every sinner who should 

 fight for the faith, and heaven was opened to the 

 slain. Don John was urged to give immediate 

 battle, and to feel secure of victory. Selim, on the 

 other hand, was not backward in preparing to meet 

 the danger. Though part of his forces was still 

 employed in reducing the island of Cyprus, which 

 was the original subject of contention, he yet suc- 

 ceeded in equipping a fleet still larger than that of 

 the Christians. It was intrusted to the pacha Ali, 

 who proved himself well worthy of the charge. 

 Nor was the sultan slow, on his side, in promising all 

 sorts of good things to the defenders of the faith, 

 and in picturing the joys of a Mohammedan paradise, 

 as the prize of martyrdom. Both parties were to 

 fight the battle of the Most High. The two fleets 

 came together in the gulf of Lepanto. What the 

 Christians wanted in numbers, they made up in 

 superiority of equipment. The prows of their gal- 

 leys were closer, and better defended, and their 

 soldiers better provided with offensive and defensive 

 armour. They made general use of helmets, coats 

 of mail, and fire-arms, whilst many of the Turks 

 defended their bodies with large leathern shields, 

 and had no more destructive missiles than arrows. 

 Moreover, fortune turned against them at the moment 

 of onset ; for the wind, which had hitherto been 

 favourable to them, now blew in the sails of the 

 Christians. The battle, as of old, began with the 

 admirals. Don John and AH, after a short cannon- 

 ade, closed and grappled. Both crews rushed to the 

 assault, meeting, in deadly struggle, upon the gun- 

 wales. Three times did the Spaniards gain the deck 

 of their adversary, and as often were they driven 

 back. Perhaps the Turks would have followed up 

 their advantage to complete victory, had not don 

 John, in that critical moment, received a timely re- 

 inforcement of 200 men. By their assistance, the 

 Turk was again boarded, and no longer with doubt- 

 ful success. The slaughter was indiscriminate and 

 terrible, the crescent being quickly lowered, and 

 replaced by the cross, whilst the severed head of 

 All, planted on a pole, and hoisted at his own mast- 

 head, filled the breast of his followers with momen- 

 tary consternation. Scarce was this result manifest, 

 ere the cry of Victoria ! victoria ! pealed from the 

 ships of the Christians ; and, led on by a host of 

 heroes a Colonna, a Veniero, a Doria they rushed 

 furiously upon the enemy. Nor did the Turks tamely 

 yield the victory, which they had, of late, so often 



won. The ships grappled ; the enemies fought hand 

 to hand, and sword to cimeter ; pikes, javelin>, and 

 arrows, cannons, matchlocks, and arquehusses, aided 

 the fury of the combatants. Turks and Christians 

 had never fought so valiantly, though that wsis, 

 emphatically, the age of daring. At length, whilst 

 the result was yet doubtful, the Turkish galley- 

 slaves, taking courage at the partial success of their 

 fellow-Christians, and dreading the effect of the re- 

 verse upon their own condition, suddenly rose, broke 

 their chains, attacking their masters with them, or 

 with whatever other weapons fury furnished them, 

 and repaid them, in a few short moments, for years 

 of cruelty. In an opposite manner, the criminals 

 who performed the same office at the oar in the 

 Spanish and Italian galleys, having asked leave of 

 their officers, and been unchained and armed, boarded 

 the enemy with a fury rendered irresistible by despair, 

 a recklessness which had nothing to lose, and the 

 double hope of meriting liberty or obtaining mar- 

 tyrdom. At length, the few Turks that remained 

 began to think of flight. Thirty galleys alone 

 escaped to Constantinople, through the skill of the 

 intrepid corsair Ulucciali, who carried away the 

 standard of Malta, as a trophy.* A few reached the 

 neighbouring shore, and abandoned their ships ; 130 

 were taken ; the rest were either sunk, burned, or 

 battered to pieces ; 10,000 Turks were taken, 25,OOO 

 slain ; 15,000 Christians were released from the ser- 

 vitude of the oar. Nor was the victory cheaply pur- 

 chased 10,000 Christians were among the number 

 of the victims. Beautiful had been the display of 

 the encountering fleets, but now how changed the 

 spectacle ! Shattered fragments of wrecks and 

 masts covered the sea, which was everywhere 

 streaked with human blood, or strewed with limbs 

 and disfigured corpses. The whole of Europe re- 

 sounded with shouts for this glorious victory, and 

 with the praises of its hero. He was pronounced 

 the greatest warrior of the age ; the Christians of 

 Macedonia and Albania tendered him the sovereignty 

 of their country; and, as for the pope, when the 

 news reached him, he is said to have exclaimed, in 

 a. holy ecstasy, " There was a man sent of God, 

 whose name was John." 



The rapid improvements which the discovery of 

 America effected in naval architecture, for commer- 

 cial purposes, extended equally to its other branches. 

 A gradual improvement took place in the form and 

 adaptation of ships of war, and they were, at the 

 same time, progressively increased in force and size, 

 until, before the close of the sixteenth century, we 

 already read of Spanish and Portuguese ships of 

 eighty and ninety guns. In the last century, ships 

 of war at length attained a size which may be con- 

 sidered as a maximum ; for nature herself has set 

 bounds, to surpass which would be, if not impossible, 

 at least inconvenient. Many harbours exclude ves- 

 sels of excessive depth ; the trees of which ships are 

 made do not exceed a certain growth ; and man, who 

 is to construct, equip, and finally manoeuvre these, 

 wondrous machines upon the deep, though able to 

 effect much by an advantageous application of his 

 strength, and by concerted efforts, is yet a being of 

 limited powers. The English Caledonia, the French 



The Corsair carried away a more precious treasure in the 

 person of the poet-hero Cervantes. His intrepidity had hur- 

 ried him among the first on board of the enemy's galley, to 

 which his own was grappled ; but his comrades were repulsed, 

 the grapnels broken, and he, left wounded on the deck, was 

 carried away by the renegado, as he himself tells us, in the 

 beautiful episode of El Captivo, "the only captive among so 

 many liberated, the only sad among so many rejoicing Chris- 

 tians." The matter might, however, have been worce. Had 

 Cervantes been slain, instead of taken at Lepanto, we had 

 never known the valiant don Quixote, nw the facetious 

 Sancho. 



