Show WHEN WERE USED in sea fights they were dreaded and did effective service at siege of tyre london nothing in the narra narrative tire of many old sea fights appeals more strongly to the modern imagination than the doings of the the idea of using incendiary vessels for the destruction of a hostile fleet was wab of great antiquity they are said to have been employed at the siege of tyre tyra in D C and again by the rhodesians Rhode about a century and a half later by the english how bow ever they were first used in 1370 and two centuries later had bad come to be looked upon as a legitimate naval weapon their attacks being regarded arid and dreaded in much the same way as are those of the torpedo craft and submarines at the present time the explosion vessels or infer nals invented by the italian engineer Glan ibelli were the most moat formidable the designer procured two vessels of about so 80 tons each and laid along the their ar bottom a foundation of brickwork upon this he erected a marble chamber with five foot walls containing tons of gunpowder while on top of this chamber was a six foot layer of gravel placed edgewise A marble root rose over these and upon it was plied piled a quantity of round shot chain shot milestones blocks of stone iron shod milestones anything beay which would cause the explosion to take a lateral effect the effect of this floating volcano was appalling for the masses of stone sione and shot disintegrated and flung skywards by the explosive fell and destroyed any vessels buildings or men in the vicinity three years yeam later the spanish armada before calais was attacked by fire ships prepared by the english eight vessels were relocated and so great was the hasty hasto that not even their kuns guns or stores were removed they were ignited and launched and with the wind and tide in their favor advanced straight for the center of the anchored armada ship fouled ship hip amid the cries of terror and the crash of falling spars and though the spanish finally succeeded in getting to sea the fire ships attack completely disorganized and demoralized them and helped largely to malie make the eventual battle of the success it was the most moat recent and at the sinne ahm e time one of the most interesting fire ship exploits which ever took place was that carried out against the french brench fleet at basque roads in 1809 i baylord coc cochrane brane ills his explosion vessel intended to destroy the boom behind which lay the french fleet was a truly awful contrivance Coc brauo piloted the vessel und and lit the train at the last mom moment ent and on the evidence of a french captain whose ship was cloae by it did its work well for the air was filled with shells grenades and blazing debris while the explosion tore a huge rent in the boom |