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Ch. I LIFE AMONG THE EUROPEANS IN PALESTINE AND SYRIA 35 
sides stood ready to shoot stray individuals and to prevent boarding.254
A certain amount of ramming must have been practised, but this was no longer
the efficient attack that it had been in the ancient world. Ships did not
have the proper metal beaks for the purpose, and their crews could not develop
sufficient speed at the oars. The captain of a ship stood aft on the deck,
where he could handle a double steering oar 255 and direct the use of the
capstan, a wheel with projecting marlin spikes which turned perpendicularly
to the deck, not horizontally. The mast could be easily stepped with the
aid of a rope around the drum of such a wheel, and by the same means a heavy
sail could be raised or lowered. Presumably the kegs of Greek fire were lifted
through a hatch from the hold. The owner or chief guest would repose under
the awning of the rear castle, from which he could watch fascinated by the
drive and labor of the oars men. The anchor was carried on the side of the
ship's bow.256 In the defense of harbors it was not uncommon to employ fishermen,
who would stretch their nets underwater to catch swimmers;257 for instance,
a Turkish swimmer who was carrying Greek fire in a pelle lutrina was thus
intercepted at Acre. Entry of strange ships into a harbor was prevented by
heavy chains stretched across the entrance towers. Such ships might be privateers
or pirate vessels, such as those maintained by Gerard of Sidon, which sometimes
pillaged Christians as well as Moslems. (King Baldwin III of Jerusalem, "irrité
contre lui," managed to capture and bum Gerard.)258 The Venetians and Genoese,
the crusaders' naval allies, kept control of the eastern Mediterranean until
long after the fall of Acre in 1291; it was only this dominance that had
enabled the remnant of the Latin states to survive for more than six generations.
254. Gerbert de Mez, p. 202, vv. 7526-7544. 
255. Ibn-Juoair, p. 336; Joinville, p. 198. 
256. As portrayed on many bas-reliefs of ships. 
257. Itinerarium, pp. 105-106. 
258. Michael the Syrian, "Chronique," RHC, Arm., I (Paris, 1869), 354.