. Military and religious life in the Middle Ages and at the period of the Renaissance. riginated the practice of building towers forattack and defence on the deck of the dromons; these towers, from the centreof which sprang the mainmast, reached half-way up the mast. This customwas still observed in the thirteenth century, and was no doubt handed down 9+ NAVAL MATTERS. from very ancient times when it was usual to build towers and citadels onthe decks of triremes. The round class of vessels were also provided withtowers, one fore and another aft. In the smaller vessels these towerswere simply p
. Military and religious life in the Middle Ages and at the period of the Renaissance. riginated the practice of building towers forattack and defence on the deck of the dromons; these towers, from the centreof which sprang the mainmast, reached half-way up the mast. This customwas still observed in the thirteenth century, and was no doubt handed down 9+ NAVAL MATTERS. from very ancient times when it was usual to build towers and citadels onthe decks of triremes. The round class of vessels were also provided withtowers, one fore and another aft. In the smaller vessels these towerswere simply platforms surrounded with a crenulated parapet and raisedupon pillars (Fig. 89) ; in the larger ones, the towers were constructed ofseveral stories added to the normal elevation of the poop and , catapults, and other projectile machines were placed on thesetowers and platforms. The big ships especially carried terrible engines ofdestruction, sometimes a heavy beam which worked horizontally like anancient battering-ram against the sides of a hostile vessel, sometimes an. Fig. 90.—Seal of the Town of Boston (1575), on which the hune is depicted at the extremity of the mast. immense balk of timber, which was worked vertically from the top of themast in order to shatter and sink a smaller craft. Around the masts, too, andnearly at their tops, chdtelcts or platforms were suspended, in which werehidden, behind a low parapet, slingers, archers, and stone-throwers. In thesixteenth century, these chatelets on board the vessels of the Mediterraneanwere called cages or gabies, while in the North sailors designated them by theIcelandic term of hums (Fig. 90). The introduction of gunpowder on board ship was long subsequent to theinvention of fire-arms, and was very slowly adopted by most navies. Fromthe fact that, in the middle of the fifteenth century, a vessel of sevenhundred and fifty tons burden had only a single piece of artillery, andone of fifteen hundred only eight gu
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