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power, there was nothing of the kind superior to it in the world. Embracing a vast area of land and water, surrounded by walls, and flanked with towers, it presented the appearance of a stupendous fortress. The preparation and equipment of the fleets, destined either for the service of the republic, or for trading purposes, were here effected, as all commercial vessels trading to foreign ports were then, and long afterwards, armed for defence. Some of their galleys employed in distant voyages, such as to Flanders or England, are described as having had two sails only, one on each mast, of very great dimensions, the masts being of extraordinary length.

There is a tradition of a ship built at Venice, shortly before the quarrel between the Venetians and the Emperor Manuel, so large that, when she reached Constantinople, it was remarked that "no vessel of so great a bulk had ever been within that port;" but no historian has furnished posterity with her dimensions. She is merely described as a vessel with three masts and "of immense size," —a statement which may be one of comparison; and consequently she may not have been greater in her capacity than the larger class merchant ships of the*