The Dynasties of the Kanarese Districts of the Bombay Presidency from the Earliest Historical Times to the Musalman Conquest c7.s9.17

c7.s9.17

"The piracies which Angria exercised upon ships of all nations indifferently, who did not purchase his passes, rendered him every day more and more powerful. The land and sea breezes on this coast, as well as on that of Coromandel, blow alternately in the twenty-four hours, and divide the day, so that vessels sailing along the coast are obliged to keep in sight of land, since the land winds do not reach more than forty miles out to sea. There was not a creek, bay, harbour, or mouth of a river along the coast of his dominions in which he had not erected fortifications and marine receptacles to serve both as a station of discovery and as a place of refuge to his vessels; hence it was as difficult to avoid the encounter of them as to take them. His fleet consisted of grabs and gallivats, vessels peculiar to the Malabar coast. The grabs have rarely more than two masts, although some have three; those of three are about 300 tons burthen, but the others are not more than 150. They are built to draw very little water, being very broad in proportion to their length, narrowing however from the middle to the end, where instead of bows they have a prow, projecting like that of a Mediterranean galley, and covered with a strong deck, level with the main deck of the vessel, from which however it is separated by a bulk-head which terminates the forecastle. As this construction subjects the grab to pitch violently when sailing against a head sea, the deck of the prow is not enclosed with sides as the rest of the vessel, but remains bare, that the water which dashes upon it may pass off without interruption. On the main deck under the forecastle are mounted two pieces of cannon of nine or twelve pounders, which point forwards through the portholes cut in the bulk-head, and fire over the prow; the cannon of the broadside are from six to nine pounders. The gallivats are large row-boats built like the grab but of smaller dimensions, the largest rarely exceeding seventy tons: they have two masts, of which the mizen is very slight; the main mast bears only one sail, which is triangular and very large, the peak of it when hoisted being much higher than the mast itself. In general the gallivats are covered with a spar deck, made for lightness of split bamboos, and these carry only petteraroes, which are fixed on swivels in the gunnel of the vessel: but those of the largest size have a fixed deck on which they mount six or eight pieces of cannon from two to four pounders. They have forty or fifty stout oars, and may be rowed four miles an hour. Eight or ten grabs, and forty or fifty gallivats, crowded with men, generally composed Angria's principal fleet destined to attack ships of force or burthen. The vessel no sooner came in sight of the port or bay where the fleet was lying, than they slipped their cables and put out to sea. If the wind blew, their construction enabled them to sail almost as fast as the wind; and if it was calm, the gallivats rowing towed the grabs. When within cannon shot of the chase they generally assembled in her stern, and the grabs attacked her at a distance with their prow guns, firing first only at the masts, and taking aim when the three masts of the vessel just opened all together to their view, by which means the shot would probably strike one or other of the three. As soon as the chase was dismasted, they came nearer and battered her on all sides until she struck; and if the defence was obstinate, they sent a number of gallivats with two or three hundred men in each, who boarded sword in hand from all quarters in the same instant.