Raiders of Gor

by Norman, John;

  My treasures were soon increased considerably, and the number of ships in my fleet, by captured prizes, was radically augmented, so much so that I could not begin to wharf them within the lakelike courtyard of my holding. With gold won by sword at sea I purchased extensive wharfage and several warehouses on the western edge of Port Kar. Even so I found myself pressed and, to ease the difficulties of wharfage and mooring rights, I sold many a round ship taken, and some of the inferior long ships. My round ships, as much as possible, I engaged in commerce, usually acting on the advice of Luma, the slave girl, my chief accountant; the ram-ships I sent against Cos and Tyros, usually in twos and threes; I myself commonly commanded a fleet of five ram-ships, and spent much time searching the seas for larger prey.

  But in all this time I had not forgotten the treasure fleet which was due to sail from Tyros to Cos, bearing precious metals and jewels for her coffers, and a lovely lady, Vivina, to grace the couch of her Ubar.

  I put spies in Tyros and Cos, and in many of the other ports of Thassa.

  I think I knew the shipping, the cargoes and the schedules of those two island Ubarates, and several of their allies, as well or better than many of the members of their own high councils.

  It was, accordingly, no accident that I, Bosk, from the marshes, in the Fifth Passage Hand of the year 10,120 from the founding of the city of Ar, four months after the unsuccessful coup of Henrius Sevarius in the city of Port Kar, stood admiral on the stern castle of my flagship, the Dorna of Tharna, in command of my fleet, eighteen ships of my own and twelve consigned from the arsenal, at a given place at a given time on gleaming Thassa.

  "Fleet off the port beam!" came the cry from the man in the basket, circling the masthead above.

  I turned to Tab.

  "Remove the mast," said I, "from the mast well. Lash it and its yard to the deck. Store the sail. We are going into battle."

  14

  How Bosk Conducted Business Upon Thassa

  It must be understood that the ship itself is the weapon.

  The Dorna, a tarn ship, is not untypical of her class. Accordingly I shall, in brief, describe her. I mention, however, in passing, that a great variety of ram-ships ply Thassa, many of which, in their dimensions, their lines, their rigging and their rowing arrangements, differ from her considerably. The major difference, I would suppose, is that between the singly-banked and the doubly- or trebly-banked vessel. The Dorna, like most other tarn ships, is single-banked; and yet her oar power is not inferior to even the trebly-banked vessels; how this is I shall soon note.

  The Dorna, like most tarn ships, is a long, narrow vessel of shallow draft. She is carvel-built, and her planking is fastened with nails of bronze and iron; in places, wooden pegs are also used; her planking, depending on placement, varies from two to six inches in thickness; also, to strengthen her against the shock of ramming, four-inch-thick wales run longitudinally about her sides. She carries a single, removable mast, with its long yard. It is lateen rigged. Her keel, one hundred and twenty-eight feet Gorean, and her beam, sixteen feet Gorean, mark her as heavy class. Her freeboard area, that between the water line and the deck, is five feet Gorean. She is long, low and swift.

  She has a rather straight keel, and this, with her shallow draft, even given her size, makes it possible to beach her at night, if one wishes. It is common among Gorean seamen to beach their craft in the evening, set watches, make camp, and launch again in the morning.

  The Dorna's ram, a heavy projection in the shape of a tarn's beak, shod with iron, rides just below the water line. Behind the ram, to prevent it from going too deeply into an enemy ship, pinning the attacker, is, shaped like the spread crest of a tarn, the shield. The entire ship is built in such a way that the combined strength of the keel, stempost and strut-frames centers itself at the ram, or spur. The ship is, thus, itself the weapon.

  The bow of the Dorna is concave, sloping down to meet the ram. Her stern describes what is almost a complete semicircle. She has two steering oars, or side rudders. The sternpost is high, and fanlike; it is carved to represent feathers; the actual tail feathers of a tarn, however, would be horizontal to the plane, not vertical; the prow of the tarn ship resembles the ram and shield, though it is made of painted wood; it is designed and painted to resemble the head of a tarn.

  Tarn ships are painted in a variety of colors; the Dorna, of course, was green.

  Besides her stem and stern castles the Dorna carried two movable turrets amidships, each about twenty feet high. She also carried, on leather-cushioned, swivel mounts, two light catapults, two chain-sling onagers, and eight springals. Shearing blades, too, of course, were a portion of her equipment. These blades, mentioned before, are fixed on each side of the hull, abaft of the bow and forward of the oars. They resemble quarter moons of steel and are fastened into the frames of the ship itself. They are an invention of Tersites of Port Kar. They are now, however, found on most recent ram-ships, of whatever port of origin.

  Although the Dorna's true beam is sixteen feet Gorean, her deck width is twenty-one feet Gorean, due to the long rectangular rowing frame, which carries the thole ports; the rowing frame is slightly higher than the deck area and extends beyond it, two and one half feet Gorean on each side; it is supported by extensions of the hull beams; the rowing frame is placed somewhat nearer the stem than the sternpost; the extension of the rowing frame not only permits greater deck area but, because of the size of the oars used, is expedient because of matters of work space and leverage.

  The size and weight of the oars used will doubtless seem surprising, but, in practice, they are effective and beautiful levers. The oars are set in groups of three, and three men sit a single bench. These benches are not perpendicular to the bulwarks but slant obliquely back toward the stern castle. Accordingly their inboard ends are farther aft than their outboard ends. This slanting makes it possible to have each of the three oars in an oar group parallel to the others. The three oars are sometimes of the same length, but often they are not. The Dorna used oars of varying lengths; her oars, like those of many tarn ships, varied by about one and one-half foot Gorean, oar to oar; the most inboard oar being the longest; the outboard oar being the shortest. The oars themselves usually weigh about one stone a foot, or roughly four pounds a foot. The length of those oars on a tarn ship commonly varies from twenty-seven to thirty foot Gorean. A thirty-foot Gorean oar, the most inboard oar, would commonly weigh thirty stone, or about one hundred and twenty pounds. The length and weight of these oars would make their operation impractical were it not for the fact that each of them, on its inboard end, is weighted with lead. Accordingly the rower is relieved of the weight of the oar and is responsible only for its work. This arrangement, one man to an oar, and oars in groups of three, and oars mounted in the rowing frame, long and beautiful sweeps, has been found extremely practical in the Gorean navies. It is almost universal on ram-ships. The rowing deck, further, is open to the air, thereby differing from the rowing holds of round ships. This brings many more free fighting men, the oarsmen, into any action which might be required. They, while rowing, are protected, incidentally, by a parapet fixed on the rowing frame. Between each pair of benches, behind the parapet, is one bowman. The thole ports in a given group of three are about ten inches apart and the groups themselves, center to center, are a bit less than four feet apart. The Dorna carried twenty groups of three to a side, and so used one hundred and twenty oarsmen.

  From this account it may perhaps be conjectured why the oar power of a single-banked ram-ship is often comparable or superior to that of a doubly- or trebly-banked ship. The major questions involve the number and size of oars that can be practically mounted, balanced against the size of ship required for the differing arrangements. The use of the extended rowing frame, permitting the leverage necessary for the great oars, and the seating of several oarsmen, each with his own oar, on a given bench, conserving space, are important in this regard. If we suppose a trebly-banked ship with one hundred and tw
enty oarsmen, say, in three banks of twenty each to a side, I think we can see she would have to be a rather large ship, and a good deal heavier than the single-decked, three-men-to-a-bench type, also with one hundred and twenty oarsmen. She would thus, also, be slower. And this does not even take into consideration the longer, larger oar possible with the projecting rowing frame. To be sure, there are many factors involved here, and one might suppose triple banks following the model of the single-banked, three-men-three-oars-to-a-bench type, and so on, but, putting aside questions of the size of vessel required for such arrangements, we may simply note, without commenting further, that the single-banked, three-men-three-oars arrangement is almost universal in fighting ships on Thassa. The other type of ship, though found occasionally, does not seem, at least currently, to present a distinct challenge to the low, swift, single-banked ships. In questions of ramming, I suppose the heavier ship would deliver the heaviest blow, but, even this might be contested, for the lighter ship would, presumably, be moving more rapidly. Further, of course, the chances of being rammed by a lighter ship are greater than those of being rammed by a heavier ship, because of the greater speed and maneuverability of the former. Other disadvantages to the double- and triple-banked systems, of course, are that valuable hold space is consumed by oarsmen; and that many of your oarsmen, if not all, are below decks and thus unable to enter into necessary actions as easily as they might otherwise do; further, in case of ramming or wreck, it is a good deal more dangerous to be below decks than above decks. At any rate, whatever the reasons or rationale, the single-banked tarn ship, of which the Dorna is an example, is the dominant type on Thassa.

  I had, at my disposal, thirty ram-ships, eighteen of my own, and twelve on consignment from the arsenal. The treasure fleet, with her escort, consisted of seventy ships; forty were ram-ships and thirty round ships. Of the forty ram ships, twenty-five were heavy class, and fifteen medium class. Of my thirty ram-ships, twenty were heavy class, and ten medium class. There were no light galleys in either fleet.

  I had made it a practice never to ram round ships, and I had seen that this practice was well publicized. I had even had it observed by men at the various slave wharves, presumably inspecting the merchandise. Doubtless, from hold to hold, over the months, the word has spread that Bosk not only would not sink a round ship, but that, when he took one, he freed her slaves. I think, had it not been for this, my own actions against round ships of the past months would not have been as successful as they had been. Further, I had spread the rumor that I would be displeased should I discover, after capturing a round ship, that her slaves had been either mistreated or slain. Accordingly I thus, in effect, recruited tacit allies in the rowing holds of round ships. The slaves, eager for the capture of the vessel by one of my ships, could scarcely be expected to row with their full strength, and the masters, knowing full well the ship might be taken, feared, under the conditions obtaining, to seriously abuse or slay the chained oarsmen. The principal alternatives, under these conditions, open to the men of Cos and Tyros would then seem to be, first, to use free oarsmen, which was not, however, traditional on round ships, or, second, to increase the ram-ship escort for round ships. It was this latter alternative, rather expensive, which the men of Cos and Tyros had apparently, almost invariably, selected. On the other hand, the treasure fleet, under any conditions, would have a heavy escort, which it did.

  The prices of goods, I might note, carried on ships of Cos and Tyros and her allies, because of the need of paying for additional escort, had risen considerably. Accordingly, her goods, to the dismay of her merchants, were becoming less competitive in the markets of Thassa. Insurance rates on such shipments, even those with escort, I might add, had also soared.

  Because of my practices in connection with round ships, I did not expect Cos and Tyros to enter them seriously into any naval engagement with my fleet. Thus, the odds, which might have been prohibitive under normal conditions, of seventy ships to thirty, I suspected I had reduced to something like forty, or perhaps fifty, to thirty. But even so, I did not regard it as rational to undertake odds of forty, or fifty, to thirty. I had no intention of engaging except under conditions of either equality or, preferably, superiority. The important thing, as I saw it, was not so much the absolute numbers of ships involved as the numbers of ships that could be applied at a given place and given time.

  Accordingly I began to put my plan into effect.

  With twelve ships I began to approach the treasure fleet from the southeast.

  Although I had had the masts, with their yards, taken down and lashed to the decks, and the sails stored below, I had the flutists and drummers, not uncommon on the ram-ships of Thassa, strike up a martial air.

  Then, rather bravely, the music drifting over the water, our oars at only half of maximum beat, we moved across the gleaming waters toward the large fleet.

  Since the ram-ships of the enemy had not yet struck their masts, it would be only a matter of moments before we were sighted.

  From the stern castle of the Dorna, then, with a long glass, that of the builders, I observed, far across the waters, the masts of the ram-ships, one by one, lowering. I could hear, moreover, their war trumpets, carrying from one ship to the other, signaling fleet movements. Message flags, doubtless repeating the message of the trumpets, were being run from the decks on their halyards to the heights of the stem castles. Although I could not yet see the decks, I had no doubt that there was a flurry of activity there. Bowmen were setting their weapons; helmets, weapons and shields were being brought up from below decks. Fires were being stoked to heat pitch and stones; bundles of tarred javelins would be shaken out near the springals and light catapults. In a few moments hides, soaked overside, would be spread over good portions of the decks and bulwarks; and bags of sea water, for putting out fires, would be drawn and placed about the ships. In about ten Ehn the decks of the treasure fleet, save for the paraphernalia of war, would be clear, and her hatches would be secured. Similar preparations, of course, were taking place on my own ships.

  "Quarter of maximum!" I called down to the oar-master, some feet below me.

  I did not wish to approach the fleet too rapidly.

  The treasure fleet would have no way of knowing that I definitely knew her size and composition.

  For all they knew I might be astonished at the force on which I had come.

  I listened for a while, chuckling, to the brave tunes being put forth by my flutists and drummers.

  Then, when I saw the perimeter ships of the treasure fleet swinging about toward me, I motioned for the musicians to discontinue their performance.

  When they were silent, I could hear the flutes and drums from the enemy ships.

  I called down to the oar-master to rest oars.

  I wanted it to appear that I was suddenly undecided as to whether or not to attack, as though I was confused, startled.

  I signaled my trumpeter to transmit the command "Rest oars." The same message was run up the halyard to the height of the stem castle.

  Over the faint music coming from the distant ships, now approaching, I could hear her war trumpets and, with the glass, observe her flags. Whereas I did not know exactly the codes employed by the treasure fleet, I had little doubt that our hesitation was being signaled about the fleet, and then I heard other trumpets, and saw the round ships drawing apart, and tarn ships streaking between them, fanning out in our direction.

  I slapped shut the glass of the builders and laughed. "Excellent!" I cried.

  Thurnock, near me, the tooth missing on his upper right side, grinned.

  "Helmsmen about," I said. "Oar-master, half beat."

  I did not even, following my plan, signal this move to my other ships. I wished it to appear that we were turning, suddenly fearing, in flight. I wanted it to appear that the other ships must take their cue to action from our own, as though, in fear and confusion, we had not even signaled them. I heard more trumpets from across the water. Some of these were
from the enemy fleet. Others, brief notes, interrogations, demands for clarification, were from my own ships. They had good commanders. I listened to the flutes and drums of the ram-ships of the treasure fleet. A javelin, with tarred, burning blade, fell hissing into the water, some hundred yards away.

  I snapped open the builder's glass again.

  I counted, clearly, some twenty ships, fanned out in a long enveloping line, moving towards us.

  The Dorna had now come about and, at half beat, was moving southeast, directly away from the pursuing ships. The other eleven ships with me were, not too gracefully, by intention, coming about to join me in my flight.

  I ordered the trumpeter and the man on the flags to now signal flight to them.

  These twelve ships, including the Dorna, incidentally, were my swiftest. It seemed probable, with a decent start, which we had, we could stay ahead of the pursuing ram-ships, if we chose, either indefinitely, or, if they were faster, which I doubted, at least for several Ahn.

  We were now moving, of course, at only half beat.

  I wished our pursuit to be tempting.

  It was.

  Another tarred, flaming javelin fell hissing into the water. This time it fell only fifty yards astern.

  In another quarter of an Ahn I could count thirty ram-ships engaged in our pursuit. If there were more, I could not see them. The treasure fleet itself lay to.

  I watched a burning javelin from the lead ship of the pursuers arc gracefully and smoking through the air and drop hissing into the water some fifteen yards to my right, abeam of the stern.

  I smiled. "Three quarters beat," I recommended to our oar-master.

  My vessels, as though in terror, were keeping no formation, but apparently scattering across the southeast. Each had picked up two or three pursuers. My own ship, perhaps recognized as the probable flagship, it having been first in the original formation, was honored by five pursuers. After two Ahn, sometimes increasing the beat, sometimes decreasing it, depending on whether or not we wished to avoid being actually overtaken or we wished to encourage our pursuers, we had spread them behind us in a long, straggling line, its spacing an index to the speed of their individual ships.