Driving piles and hurling poison powder at enemy galleys
Chemical-warfare notes: lime, orpiment and verdigris against ship crews
The upper part of the sheet shows a crowd of nude labourers straining at a tall pile-driving frame, with a lone figure at the left hauling on a rope. The lower part sketches three buckets and a small trebuchet on a boat, illustrating a scheme for throwing poison powder among enemy ships. The accompanying text recommends casting fine lime, orpiment and powdered verdigris so that crews who breathe it in are asphyxiated, and advises keeping the wind at one's back or holding a wet cloth over nose and mouth.
On this page
Poison powder cast among enemy galleys
Small trebuchets are to hurl fine lime, orpiment and powdered verdigris in among the enemy ships, so that any who draw the powder in with their breath fall as if dead. One must keep the wind favourable or hold a wet cloth over nose and mouth; paper-wrapped containers full of the powder can also be thrown from the fighting-top or the ship.
Gang of workers driving piles
A large group of nude labourers heaves together to work a pile-driving frame, while a single figure at the left pulls a line. The marginal note ties the scene to material 'to be thrown as poison powder onto the galleys.'