One galley, a new vessel, ran into another which was an old one, and sank her on the spot, carrying all her luckless crew to the bottom.  The remaining vessels scattered far and wide; Alfonso d’Aragona found refuge in the Bay of Alghieri, two more of his galleys reached an anchorage in the Isle of St. Pierre, another sheltered in the Gulf of Oristano; three galleys were shipwrecked on the coast in this neighbourhood and lost many of their men; yet another, called the Florence, was twice nearly wrecked on the coast of Barbary, and eventually reached the Bay of Cagliari.  A Genoese captain found himself as far afield as the Island of Pantellaria, two galleys were never heard of again, and the Grand Commander himself anchored eventually in the Bay of Palamos on the Spanish coast.  Of the twenty-four galleys which left their anchorage twelve were lost and the twelve which remained were practically valueless until large sums had been spent in repairs.

It is small wonder in the light of these events that the seamen who ranged the Mediterranean in vessels propelled by oars regarded the winter as a close season and laid up their galleys in harbour.  They were seaworthy enough for ordinary weather, but could not withstand such a tempest as the one in which Requesens put to sea.  The whole story is only a further proof of the folly of putting supreme command of a sea-going venture in the hands of a man totally ignorant of the hazards he was called upon to encounter.  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.