16
In the dawn of the second morning the ships of the Sabienne came into sight. Because of the calm they had reefed the useless sails. The merchant’s brig didn’t have oars, so they were stuck. Both ships were completely square-rigged, which gave Nanja with her fore-and-aft rigs an advantage in maneuvering during battle. Because a battle would be.
The “Pearl of Thalis”, on which Ron was captive, only had a trebuchet in the bow and a small catapult on the deck. But she was accompanied by one of the biggest four-masters Nanja had ever seen. The warship was much longer than the brigantine and at least twice as high. On the uppermost deck it had one trebuchet each in bow and stern and above the rowing deck she counted twenty-five openings for stone catapults. If the captain was daring, he’d h
