Page:The Heimskringla; or, Chronicle of the Kings of Norway Vol 1.djvu/153

 fleet of 1200 vessels raised by bis levy to have been all of a large class. When his son Magnus the Good went to Denmark to claim the crown, upon the death of Hardicanute of England, in consequence of an agreement that the survivor of the two should succeed to the heritage of the other, he is stated to have had seventy large vessels with him, by which we may suppose vessels of twenty banks or upwards, such as the considerable bonders possessed, to be meant; and this number probably expresses more correctly the number of large ships then in the country. The size of the war-vessels appears to have been reckoned by the banks, or by the rooms between two banks of oars. Each room or space, we may gather from the sagas, was the berth of eight men, and was divided into half-rooms, starboard and larboard, of four men for working the corresponding oars. When the ships were advancing two men worked the oar, one covered them with his shield from the enemy's missiles, and one shot at the enemy. When the ships got into line, they were bound together by their stems and sterns; and the forecastles and poops, which were decked, and raised high in the construction of their vessels, and sometimes -with temporary stages or castles on them, were the posts of the fighting men. The main manoeuvre seems to have consisted in laying the high forecastles and poops favourably for striking down with stones, arrows, and casting spears, upon a lower vessel. They used grappling irons for throwing into the enemy's ship, and dragging her towards them. But these and similar observations will occur to the reader of the many sea-fights recounted in the Heimskringla.

One of the most indispensable articles for a large vessel,— one for which no substitute can be found, and which cannot be produced single-handed, but requires the co-operation of many branches of industry,—is the