Yet, in spite of this, it is impossible not to admire the man who, by his
own superhuman energy, ever swept all obstacles from his path, and caused
the whole of the civilised world to quail at the name of Barbarossa.
He died peacefully in his bed at Constantinople in July, 1546, to the grief
of the world of Islam and the inexpressible joy of Christendom. "The king
of the sea is dead," expressed in three Arabic words, gives the numerical
value 953, the year of the Hegira in which he died.
For many years after his death no Turkish ship ever left the Golden Horn
without her crew repeating a prayer and firing a salute over the tomb of
Beshiktsah, where lie the bones of the first and greatest of Turkish
admirals, the corsair who was at one and the same time admiral, pirate, and
king.
CHAPTER XIV
THE NAVY OF OARS. THE GALLEY, THE GALEASSE, AND THE NEF
In the sixteenth century the vessel of war in the Mediterranean was
essentially that oar-propelled craft known to us as the galley. As time
went on she was gradually superseded by the sailing man-of-war which was
able to carry that heavy ordnance which the light scantling of the galley
did not permit of her mounting; but for the use of the corsairs who lived
by means of raids and surprise attacks, whose business it was to lie perdu
on the trade routes, the mobility of the galley was of prime importance,
and they could not afford to trust to the wind alone as a motive power.
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