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HISTORY OF MARINE ARCHITECTURE.

Christian powers who had promised their assistance, all appeared in aid of theOttoman cause. Without the combined assistance of such powerful auxiliaries,the expedition would in all probability have proved abortive. The reduction ofConstantinople would have been rendered unpracticable, had not its investitureboth by sea and land been complete. The Turkish fleet, though numerous, wastoo ill equipped and too weakly constructed to be capable of contending againsteven a single squadron, apparently contemptible in point of numbers, belongingeither to the Genoese, or the Venetians. A singular proof of their inferiorityoccurred in a very short time after the siege had commenced. Five ships of con-siderable burthen, according to the estimation of those days, four of which borethe Genoese, and the fifth the Imperial flag, laden not only with provisions andstores, which were much wanted, but reinforcements for the slender garrisonof the besieged capital, passed, under the assistance of a strong and favourablebreeze of wind, through the Hellespont and Propontis : but the Turkish navy wasanchored at the entrance of the Bosphorus in a semicircle, or crescent, extendingfrom shore to shore, for the purpose of preventing the introduction of any suppliesor assistance to the besieged. The strangers, nothing intimidated at the numberof their opponents, who amounted to more than three hundred, pressed forwardunder a crowd of sail, resolving to effect their purpose, or perish in the attempt.Their superiority soon became fully apparent, nor was their victory in any de-gree wonderful, though the opposition of the defeated Turks might very fairlybe considered so. Out of the whole force belonging to the latter, eighteengallies only, could be considered as properly fitted for naval contests : the re-mainder, were vessels entirely open, many of them scarcely entitled to anyhigher, or more consequential appellation than that of boats, rudely con-structed, and awkwardly managed, crowded with troops, but destitute of can-non. The strangers were indeed few in number, but they derived couragefrom the certain knowlege of their own superior skill. They were most skil-fully steered by experienced navigators, and they were manned with the flowerof the Italian seamen, to whom practice and long experience had rendered theperils of the sea, and the disasters attendant on naval contests, so familiar, asto strip them very considerably of their horrors. The actual weight, and themomentum of the shock given by the vessels themselves, when rudely coming incontact with their opponents, was in itself sufficient to destroy and sink thefeeble obstacles which vainly endeavoured to oppose their passage. Their artillery

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