Raiders of Gor (30 page)

is carvel-built, and her planking is fastened with nails of bronze and iron; in

places, wooden pegs are also used; her planking, depending on placement, varies

from two to six inches in thickness; also, to strengthen her against the shock

of ramming, four-inch-thich wales run longitudinally about her sides. She

carrieds a single, removable mast, with its long yard. It is lateen rigged. Her

keep, one hundred and twenty-eight feet Gorean, and her beam, sixteen feet

Gorean, mark her as heavy class. Her freeboard area, that between the water line

and the deck, is five feet Gorean. She is long, low and swift.

She has a rather straight keel, and this, with her shallow draft, even given her

size, makes it possible to beach her at night, if one wishes. It is common among

Gorean seamen to beach their craft in the evening, set watches, make camp, and

launch again in the morning.

The Dorna’s ram, a heavy projection in the shape of a tarn’s beak, shod with

iron, rides just below the water line. Behind the ram, to prevent it from going

too deeply into an enemy ship, pinning the attacker, is, shaped like the spread

crest of a tarn, the shield. The entire ship is built in such a way that the

combined strength of teh keel, stempost and strut-frames centeres itself at the

ram, or spur. The ship is, thus, itself the weapon.

The bow of the Dorna is concave, sloping down to meet the ram. Her stern

describles what is almost a complete semicircle. She has two steering oars, or

side rudders. The sternpost is high, and fanlike; it is carved to represent

feathers; the actual tail feathers of a tarn, however, would be horizontal to

the plane, not vertical; the prow of the tarn ship resembles the ram and shield,

though it is made of painted wood; it is designed and painted to resemble the

head of a tarn.

Tarn ships are painted in a variety of colors; the Dorna, of course, was green.

Besides her stem and stern castles the Dorna carried two movable turrets

amidships, each about twenty feet high. She also carried, on leather-cushioned,

swivel mounts, two lihgt catapults, two chain-sling onagers, and eight

springals. Shearing blades, too, of course, were a portion of her equipment.

These blades, mentioned before, are fixed on each side of the hull, abaft of the

bow and forward of the oars. They resemble quarter moons of steel and are

fastened into the frames of the ship itself. They are an invention of Tersites

of Port Kar. They are now, however, found on most recent ram-ships, of whatever

port of origin.

Although the Dorna’s true beam is sixteen feet Gorean, her deck width is

twenty-one feet Gorean, due to the long rectangular rowing frame, which carrieds

the thole ports: the rowing frame is slightly higher than the deck area and

extends beyond it, two and one half feet Gorean on each side; it is supported by

extensions of the hull beams; the rowing frame is placed somewhat nearer the

stem that the sternpost; the extension of the rowing frame not only permits

greater deck area but, because of the size of the oars used, is expedient

because of matters of work space.

The size and weight of the oars used will doubtless seem surprizing, but, in

practice, they are effective and beautiful levers. The oars are set in groups of

three, and three men sit a single bench. These benches are not perpendicular to

the bulwarks but slant obliquely back toward the stern castle. Accordingly their

inboard ends are father aft than their outboard ends. This slanting makes it

possible to have each of the three oars in an oar group parallel to the others.

The three oars are sometimes of the same length, but often they are not. The

Dorna used oars of varying lengths; her oars, like those of many tarn ships,

varied by about one and one-half foot Gorean, oar to oar; the most inboard oar

being the longest; the outblard oar being the shortest. The oars themselves

usually weigh about one stone a foot, or roughly founds pounds a foot. The

length of those oars on a tarn ship commonly varies from twenty-seven to thirty

foot Gorean. A thirty-foot Gorean oar, the most inboard oar, would ommonly weigh

thirty stone, or about one hundred and twenty pounds. The length and weight of

these oars would make their operation impractical were it not for the fact that

each of them, on its inboard end, is weighted with lead. Accordingly the rower

is relieved of the weight of the oar and is responsible only for its work. This

arrangement, one man to an oar, and oars in groups of tree, and oars mounted in

the rowing frame, long and beautiful sweeps, had been found extremely practical

in the Gorean navies. It is almost universal on ram-ships. Thie rowing deck,

further, is open to the air, thereby differing from the rowing holds of round

ships. This brings many more free fighting men, the oarsmen, into any action

which might be required. They, while rowing, are protected, incidentally, by a

parapet fixed on the rowing frame. Between eacy pair of benches, behind the

parapet, is one bowman. The thole ports in a given group of three are about ten

inches apart and the groups themselves, center to center, are a bit less than

four feet apart. Then Dorna carried twenty groups of three to a side, and so

used one hundred and tweny oarsmen.

From this account it may perhaps be conjectured why the oar power of a

single-banked ram-ship is often comparable or superior to that of a doubly- or

trebly-banked ship. The major questions involve the number and size of oars that

can be practically mounted, balanced against the size of ship required for the

differing arrangements. The use of extended rowing frame, permitting the

leverage necessary for the great oars, and teh seating of several oarsmen, each

with his own oar, on a given bench, conserving space, are important in this

regard. If we suppose a trebly-banked ship with one hundred and twenty oarsmen,

say, in three banks of twenty each to a side, I think we chan see she would have

to be a rather large ship, and a good deal heavier than the single-decked,

three-men-to-a-bench typ, also with one hundred and twenty oarsmen. She would

thus, also, be slower. And this does not even take into consideration the

longer, larger oar possible with the projecting rowing frame. To be sure, they

are many factors involed here, and one might suppose triple banks following the

model of the single-banked, three-men-oars-to-a-bench type, and so on, but,

putting aside questions of the size of vessel required for such arrangements, we

may simply note, without commenting further, that the single-banked,

three-men-three-oars arrangement is almost universal in fighting ships on

Thassa. The other type of ship, though found occasionally, does not seem, at

least currently, to present a distinct challenge to the low, swift,

single-banked ships. In questions of ramming, I suppose the heavier ship would

deliver the heaviest blow, but, even this might be contested for the lighter

ship would, presumably, be moving more rapidly. Further, of course, the chances

of being rammed by a lighter ship are greater than those of being rammed by a

heavier ship, because of the greater speed and maneuverablitity of the former.

Other disadvantages to the double- and triple-banked systems, of course, are

that many of your oarsmen, if not all, are below decks and thus unable to enter

into necessary actions as easily as they might otherwise do; further, in case of

ramming or wreck, it is a good deal more dangerous to be below decks than above

decks. At any rate, whatever the reasons or rationale, the single-banked tarn

ship, of which the Dorna is an example, is the dominant type on Thassa.

I had, at my disposal, thirty ram-ships, eighteeen of my own, and twelve on

consignment from the arsenal. The treasure fleet, with her escort, consisted of

seventy ships; forty were ram-ships and thirty round ships. Of the forty ram

ships, twenty-five were heavy class, and fifteen medium class. Of my thirty

ram-ships, twenty were heavy class, and ten medium class. There were no light

galleys in either fleet.

I had made it a practice never to ram round ships, and I had seen that this

practice was wel publicized. I had even had it observed by men at the various

slave wharves, presumably inspecting the merchandise. Doubtless, from hold to

hold over the months, this word had spread that Bosk not only would not sink a

round ship, but that, when he took one, he freed her slaves. I think, had it not

been for this, my own actions against round ships of the past months would not

have been as successful as they had been. Further, I had spread the rumor that I

would be displeased should I discover, after capturing a round ship, that her

slaves had been either mistreated or slain. Accordingly I thus, in effect,

recruited tacit allies in the rowing holds of round ships. The slaves, eager for

the capture of the vessel by one of my ships, could scarcely be expected to row

with their full strength, and the masters, knowing full well the ship might be

taken, feared, under the conditions obtaining, to seriously abuse or slay the

chained oarsmen. The principal alternatives, under these conditions, open to the

men of Cos and Tyros would then seem to be, first, to use free oarsmen, which

was not, however, traditional on round ships, or, two, increase the ram-ship

escort for round ships. It was this latter alternative, rather expensive, which

the men of Cos and Tyros had apparently, almost invariably, selected. On the

other hand, the treasure fleet, under any conditions, would have a heavy escort,

which it did.

The prices of goods, I might note, carried on ships of Cos and Tyros and her

allies, because of the need of paying for additional escort, had risen

considerably. Accordingly, her goods, to the dismay of her merchants, were

becoming less competitive in the markets of Thassa. Insurance rates on such

shipments, even those with escort, I might add, had also soared.

Because of my practices in connection with round ships, I did not expect Cos and

Tyros to enter them seriously into any naval engagement with my fleet. Thus, the

odds, which might have been prohibitive under normal conditions, of seventy

ships to thirty, I supected I had reduced to something of forty, or perhaps

fifty, to thirty. But even so, I did not regard it as rational to undertake odds

of forty, or fifty, to thirty. I had no intention of engaging except under

conditions of either equality or, preferably, superiority. The important thing

as I saw it, was not so much the absolute numbers of ships involved as the

numbers of ships that could be applied at a given place and given time.

Accordingly I began to put my plan into effect.

With twelve ships I began to approach the treasure fleet from the southeast.

Although I had had the masts, with their yards, taken down and lashed to the

decks, and the saild stored below, I had the flutists and drummers, not uncommon

on the ram-ships of Thassa, strike up a martial air.

Then, rather bravely, the music drifting over the water, or oars at only half of

maximum beat, we moved across the gleaming waters toward the large fleet.

Since the ram-ships of the enemy had not yet struck their masts, it would be

only a matter of moments before we were sighted.

From the stern castle of the Dorna, then, with a long glass of the builders, I

observed, far across the waters, the masts of ram-ships, one by one, lowering. I

could hear, moreover, their war trumpets, carrying form ship to the other,

signaling fleet movements. Message flags, doubltless repeating the message of

the trumpets, were being run from the decks on their halyards to the heights of

the stem castles. Although I could not yet see the decks, I had no doubt that

there was a flurry of activity there. Bowmen were setting their weapons;

helmets, weapons and shields were being brought up from below decks. Fires were

being stoked to heat pitch and stones; bundles of tarred javelins would be

shaken out near the springals and light catapults. In a few moments hides,

soaked overside, would be spread over good portions of decks and bulwarks; and

bags of sea water, for putting our fires, would be drawn and placed about the

ships. In about ten Ehn the decks of the treasure fleet, save for the

paraphernalia of war, would be clear, and her hatches would be secured. Similar

preparations, of course, were taking place on my own ships.

“Quarter of maximum!” I called down to the oar-master, some feet below me.

I did not wish to approach the fleet too rapidly.

The treasure fleet would have no way of knowing that I definitely knew her size

and composition.

For all the knew I might be astonished at the force on which I had come.

I listened for a while, chuckling, to the brave tunes being put forth by my

flutists and drummers.

Then, when I saw the perimeter ships of the treasure feelt swinging about toward

me, I motioned for the musicians to discontinure their performance.

When they were silent, I could hear the flutes and drums from the enemy ships.

I called down to the oar-master to rest oars.

I wanted it to appear that I was suddenly undecided as to whether or not to