In the sixteenth and even in the seventeenth centuries this was done
perpetually, and if no disaster occurred it was because no bad weather was
encountered.
[Illustration: Brigantin donnant chasse a une Felouque, et prest a la
border. BRIGANTINE CHASING FELUCCA.]
As time went on the sailing ship became larger and larger and was able to
mount more and more powerful ordnance; this had the effect of discounting
the value of the galley as a fighting ship; in consequence she became
practically obsolete, for the line of battle, after the combat at Lepanto.
In spite of this she was to linger on for many long years to come as the
weapon of the corsairs who had established themselves on the coast of
Africa. The "long ship" was still to be the cause of many an awful sea
tragedy, whether the actors therein were the pirates who hailed from the
Barbary coast or their most capable imitators the notorious rovers of
Sallee.
CHAPTER XV
DRAGUT-REIS
How he became Lieutenant to Kheyr-ed-Din Barbarossa--His capture by
Jannetin Doria--His four years as a galley slave--His ransom by his old
chief.
In character, in capability, in strategic insight, in tactical ability, not
one of the predecessors or the successors of Kheyr-ed-Din Barbarossa can be
compared to him; he was the greatest and most outstanding figure of all
those corsairs of whose deeds we hear so much during the sixteenth century,
the man above all others who was feared and hated by his contemporaries in
Christendom.
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