"The King's own galley, he called it _Trenchthemer_ That was first on way, and came the ship full near. . . . . . . . . . . . The ship cast hooks out, the galley to them to draw; The King stood full stoutly, and many of them slew; Wild-fire they cast, the King to confound; . . . . . . . . . . . The King abased him not but stalwartly fought. . . . . . . . . . . . The ship that was so great, it foundered in the flood; They counted fifteen hundred Saracens that drownèd were, Forty and six were selected, and were all that were saved there. The sum could no man tell of gold that was therein And other riches to sell, but all they might not win. . . . . . . . . . . . It sank soon in the sea, half might they not get. Richard bade, 'Haul up your sails, may God us lead, Our men at Acre lie, of help they have great need.'" PETER OF LANGTOFT (modernized), thirteenth-century poem. ONE of the most interesting episodes of mediæval war afloat was the sinking of the great Turkish _Dromon_, off Beyrout, by King Richard I. After having effected the junction of his fleets off Messina, he had gone on to Cyprus, where fighting, and other matters with which we need not concern ourselves, had delayed him for some time. At length he and his "busses"[16] and galleys set out for Acre. The following day--6th June, 1191--the British fleet made the Syrian coast, near the Castle of Margat, and continued their way, pretty close under the land, for the town of Acre. About noon the day following, when near Beyrout, it was reported to the King, who led the fleet in his galley _Trench-the-Mer_, that an enormous ship was in sight. None of the English had ever seen such a leviathan. "A marvellous ship," says an old chronicler, "a ship than which, except Noah's ship, none greater was ever read of--the Queen of Ships!" It was a fine and beautiful summer morning, with but little wind. The strange ship showed no distinguishing colours, and was putting on as much sail as she possibly could; but she made little, if any, way at all: "The weather was full soft, the wind held them still, The sail was high aloft, they had no wind at will", to quote an ancient poem dealing with the fight that ensued. The big ship was of great bulk, painted green on one side and yellow on the other, probably to render her inconspicuous against either a sandy or a green background, or at sea, when her green side was towards the enemy. But in spite of this curious colouring she is said to have presented a very beautiful appearance, and her decoration was considered "very elegant".