=87. Organized piracy; privateering.=—Piracy became a regular profession, in which partners organized for greater efficiency. The “Victual Brothers” formed an organization, modeled after that of the Knights Templars, for carrying on piracy; their motto was “God’s friend and all the world’s enemy.” They had a stronghold at Gotland, in the Baltic Sea, and were long a terror to traders and fishermen; their power was broken in 1394 only by a fleet of thirty-five ships sent against them. A fleet of Venetian galleys on their way north were attacked off Lisbon in 1485 by a piratical expedition of six ships, which killed and wounded over four hundred men and took enormous booty; it is said that the discoverer Christopher Columbus was one of the corsairs. War at sea was carried on even more barbarously than war on land. Crews and passengers of captured merchant vessels, whether taken after resistance or not, were frequently tossed overboard, sometimes with their hands tied behind their backs, or were hung to the yards, or murdered on the deck in cold blood. An appearance of legitimacy was given to the attack on merchant vessels in time of war; “letters of marque” were not considered necessary to justify attacks by private vessels against merchant vessels of the enemy, and as war was the rule rather than the exception in Europe privateering was nearly constant. During the Hundred Years’ War between England and France, in spite of booms and chains, watches and beacons, almost every town on the south coast of England was sacked and burnt by French privateers. Even at London the streets which opened on the river were defended by chains, to hinder a landing within the city, and the people thought of building high stone towers on both sides of the river, with a chain stretched between them, to defend the shipping from night attacks. QUESTIONS AND TOPICS 1. Ships and exploits of the Vikings. [Beazley, Prince Henry, chap. 2; C. F. Keary, The Vikings in western Christendom, N. Y., 1891, chaps. 5, 6, 9.] 2. In connection with the small vessels of the early Middle Ages the reader is reminded of the exploits of various “captains” of the present day who cross the ocean alone, and he might profitably hunt up a description of one of the boats employed and compare it with the description in the text. A ton is 100 cubic feet of internal volume. 3. If the reader lives at a trading port he should ascertain the tonnage and rig of the vessels ordinarily employed, and thus prepare himself to understand the conditions of medieval navigation. 4. Compare the medieval galley with the ancient galley described in classical histories. [Beware of pictures given in the text-books; many are pure products of the imagination.] 5. Write a report on the history of the compass. [Encyclopædia Britannica; consult Poole’s Index for articles in recent periodicals.] 6. Measure distances in sect. 82, and apply them to the sea- or lake-coast of the U. S.