mentioned that galleys continued to be used, along with
sailing ships, in the various European navies till the seventeenth
century.

Another instance of the loss of a large twelfth-century ship occurred in
the reign of Henry II., half a century later than the wreck of _La
Blanche Nef_, when a vessel engaged in transport work foundered with 400
persons.

In the reign of Richard Coeur de Lion a great impetus was given to
shipbuilding and to maritime adventure in this country by the expedition
which the king undertook to the Holy Land. A fleet of about 110 vessels,
according to Peter Langtoft, sailed from Dartmouth in April, 1190 A.D.
It was reinforced considerably in the Mediterranean; for, according to
Matthew Paris, Richard was accompanied on his voyage to Palestine by 13
buccas, 100 "ships of burthen," and 50 triremes, and according to
Vinesauf, the fleet consisted of about 230 vessels. The buccas, or
busses, or dromons, were ships of the largest size, with triple sails.
There were two sorts of galleys; some were propelled by oars alone, and
others by oars and sails: the latter were the larger, and, according to
Matthew Paris, sometimes carried 60 men in armour, besides 104 rowers
and the sailors. He also states that some of them had triple banks of
oars like the ancient galleys; but, according to Vinesauf, the majority
had not more than two banks of oars, and carried the traditional flying
deck above the rowers for the use of the soldiers; they were low in the
water compared to the sailing-ships, and they carried beaks, or rams,
which, as narrated subsequently, they used to some purpose.

The larger type of sailing-ships carried a captain and fifteen sailors,
forty knights with their horses, an equal number of men-at-arms,
fourteen servants, and complete stores for twelve months. There were,
moreover, three much larger vessels in the fleet which carried double
the complement mentioned above.

As an instance of the very large size to which vessels occasionally
attained in those days in the Levant, we may refer to a Saracen vessel
which was attacked by Richard's fleet near Beirut in Syria, in 1191. It
was described by many of the old chroniclers. This ship had three masts,
and is alleged to have had 1,500 men on board at the time of the fight.
The attack was carried out with great difficulty, on account of the
towering height of the sides of the Saracen vessel, and it was not till
ramming tactics were tried by the g