'The Merciless'
Serpent Ship of The Black Jarl
(The 'Merciless' is a Twenty Bencher, that is twenty rowing benches per side, two Men to each bench
and forty oars. It is sleek and fast - a Raiding Ship.)
Torvalsland Serpent Ships
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"The ship was a beautiful ship, sleek and well-lined. It was a twenty-bencher,
but this nomenclature may be confusing. There were twenty beches to a side,
with two men to each bench. It carried , thus, forty oars, with two men to each oar.
Tersites of Port Kar, the controversial inventer and shipwright, had advocated
more than one man to an oar but, generally, the southern galleys utilised
one man per oar, three oars and three men on a diagonal bench, facing aft,
the oars staggered, the diagonality of the bench permitting the multiplicity of levers.
The oars were generally some nineteen feet in length, and narrower than the
southern oars, that they might cut and sweep with great speed, more rapidly than
the wider bladed oar; and with two men to each oar, and the lightness of the ship,
this would produce great speed. As in the southern galleys the keel to beam ratio
was designed, too, for swiftness, being generally in the neighbourhood of one to eight.
Forkbeard's ship, or serpent, as they are sometimes called, was approximately eighty
Gorean feet in length, with a beam of some ten feet Gorean. His ship, like most of
the northern ships, did not have a rowing frame, and the rowers sat within the hull
proper, facing, of course, aft. The thole ports, I noted, had covers on the inside,
on swivels, which permitted them to be closed when the ship was under sail.
The sail was quite different from the southern ships, being generally squarish,
though somewhat wider at the bottom. The mast, like that of the southern ships,
could be lowered. It fitted into two blocks of wood, and was wedged into the top block
by means of a heavy diagonal plug, driven tight with hammers. The northern ship
carries one sail, not the several sails, all lateens, of the southern ships,
which must be removed and replaced. It is an all-purpose sail, hung straight
from a spar of needle wood. It can be shortened or let out by reefing ropes.
At its edges, corner spars can hold it spread from the ship. I doubted that such a
ship could sail as close to the wind as a lateen-rigged ship, but the advantages
of being able to shorten or let out sail in a matter of moments were not inconsiderable.
The sail was striped, red and white. The ship like most of the northern ships, was
clinker built, being constructed of overlapping planks, or strakes, the frame then fitted
within them. Between the strakes, tarred ropes and tar served as calking. Outside the
planks, too, was a coating of painted tar, to protect then from the sea, and the depredations
of ship worms. The tar was painted red and black, in irregular lines. The ship, at night,
mast down with such colourings, moving inland on a river, among the shadows, would
be extremely difficult to detect. It was a raider's ship. The clinker-built construction,
as opposed to the carvel construction of the south, with flush planking, is somewhat
more inclined to leak, but is much stronger in the high waters of the north. The clinker
construction allows the ship to literally bend and twist, almost elastically, in a vicious sea;
the hull planking can be bent more than a foot Gorean without buckling. The decking on
the ship is loose, and may be lifted or put to one side, to increase cargo space. The ship,
of course, is open. To protect goods or men from the rain or sun a large rectangle of boskhide,
on stakes, tentlike stretched to cleats on the gunwales, is sometime used. This same rectangle
of boskhide may be used, dropped between the gunwales, to collect rainwater. At night the men
sleep on the deck, in waterproof bags, sewn from the skins of the sea sleen; in such a bag,
also, they store their gear, generally beneath their bench. In some such ships, the men sit
not on benches, but on their own large, locked sea chests, fixed in place, using them as benches.
When, in the harbour, the ship rested on its moorings, the shields, overlapping, of its men were
hung on the sides; this was another indication of peaceful intent. The shields were round,
and of wood, variously painted, some reinforced with iron bands, others with leather, some
with small bronze plates. In battle, of course, such shields are not hung on the side of the ship;
they would obstruct the thole ports; but even if oars were not used they would be within the hull,
at hand; why should a crewman expose himself to missile fire to retrieve a shield so fastened?
Also, of course, when the ship is under sail they are not carried on the side, for the waves,
always a menace in a ship with a low freeboard, would strike against them, and perhaps even
tear them from the ship."
Another feature of the northern ships is that they have, in effect, a prow on each end. This permits them to be beached, on rollers, more easily. They can be brought to land in either direction, a valuable property in the rocky, swift northern waters. Furthermore this permits the rowers, in reversing positions on the benches, to reverse the direction of the ship. This adds considerably to the manoeuvrability of the craft. It is almost impossible to ram one of the swift ships of the north. |
