The manner in which the galley should engage is thus contained in an answer
to a question of Don John of Austria, the victor of Lepanto. He wrote to
Garcia de Toledo, fourth Marquis of Villafranca, and General of the Galleys
of Sicily, to ask his opinion as to what distance it was most efficacious
to open fire in a naval action. Toledo replied that "one cannot fire more
than twice before the galleys close. I should therefore recommend that the
arquebussiers should hold their fire until they are so close to the enemy
that his blood will leap into the face of him who discharges his piece.
have always heard it said, and this by captains who are well skilled in the
art of war, that the last discharge of the cannon should be coincident with
the noise made by the breaking of the spurs carried in the prows of the
galleys; in fact that the two noises should be as one; some propose to fire
before the enemy does: this is by no means my advice."
Artillery, it will be seen from this, played a comparatively unimportant
part in the combats between galley and galley; that in these craft men
still relied on the strength of their right arm and the edge of their
swords; there was still a certain contempt for villainous saltpetre, which
was looked upon as a somewhat cowardly substance, preventing the warrior
from settling his disputes in the good old fashion of his forbears. In any
case, when you practically had to push the muzzle of your gun against your
enemy's body in order to hit him, it was not a weapon upon which much
reliance was to be placed.
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