Sublime

Agrippa, on the other hand, had only four hundred craft, but in addition to the same armory that Antony’s fleet carried, many of his ships were fitted with a harpex, or catapult grapnel, which he had already employed with huge success in a sea battle against his patron’s rival, Sextus, the previous year. This was a timber fitted with ringbolts and

Naval vessels were extremely expensive items of capital equipment whose value deteriorated rapidly in adverse conditions. Naval warfare too was dominated by caution and manoeuvre. The stakes were high: outright defeat might mean invasion or the destruction of the merchant fleet. Hence navies were usually kept close to home.

the largest longship ever found—thirty-two metres long, with a single-watch crew of eighty that could have been doubled for war. Dating to the early eleventh century, it is of the dimensions the sagas give for the highest rank of royal warships.

To the Italians, they were known as MAS, that is, Motoscafi Anti Sommergibili (antisubmarine motorboats), or in some early documents of the time, Motoscafi Armati Siluranti (armed motor torpedo boats).