English: The French warship
Cordelière and the English warship
Regent ablaze at the
battle of St. Mathieu on August 10 1512. Illustration for an epic poem in Latin written by the court poet Germain de Brie.
"The
Cordelière in the foreground of the picture and to windward of the
Regent has one sloping and two vertical masts with round tops above which are topmasts carrying topsails. The sails are furled but the mainsail and the foresail are loose and are beginning to burn. The sides of the castles are fitted with a pavesade of shields some bearing the ermine of Brittany some white with a black cross. The streamers flying from the masts are of the same colours. The rigging of the
Cordelière is correctly shown: we see distinctly the shrouds the lifts and the stays the artist has not forgotten to haul the bowline of the mainsail the upper part of the ports is round and the tops are stored with quarrels. The
Regent is almost entirely hidden by the
Cordelière however we can distinguish two of her three masts the mainsail and the mizen the foremast ought to be seen. Castles and tops are pavesaded with shields white with a red cross the streamers are similar. A few men are in the shrouds the French mariners wear red jackets and blue or black breeches."
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