Note 50 — Chapter XII
Reading edition
Included in the ships' companies of the Middle Ages were "seamen who knew how to swim for a long time under water". These divers "pierced the ships (of the enemy) in many places so that the water could enter". In an old work on naval architecture, published in 1629, it is stated in reference to the Turkish pirates of Barbary that "The Corsairs, indeed, are very wily in attack and defence, acquainted with many kinds of projectiles, even Submarine Torpedoes, which a diver will attach to an enemy's keel".