Ferry-boat for fording and a steel blowgun
Wicker boat with releasable gravel ballast, and a powerful cerbottana of drawn steel and copper
The upper drawing shows a boat riding on water, its wicker body carrying a bin of gravel that can be released. The note explains how an army may ford a river at will: build a willow-wicker boat with double sides that open below and fill it with gravel, then at the chosen spot drop the gravel to the riverbed, close the bin and return to reload, keeping the hull covered in oxhide so it does not sink. Below, a long tube with an arrow illustrates a cerbottana (blowgun) built by drawing steel wire and beating on fine copper plates soldered with silver, wound and hammered in several layers to shoot a steel dart with marvellous force.
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Wicker ferry-boat with releasable gravel ballast
To let an army ford a river at will, Leonardo builds a boat of willow wicker with double sides that can be opened underneath and fills the body with gravel. At the chosen place the bottoms are opened so the gravel drops to the riverbed; the bin is then shut and the boat returns to reload. Many such boats are wanted, and the hull is covered outside with oxhide so it does not sink.
A powerful blowgun of drawn steel and copper
To make a cerbottana that shoots with marvellous force, a finger-thick steel wire is drawn through a die with a winch, tempered, and clad with two fine copper plates drawn through the die and soldered half to half with silver. Thick copper wires are then wound over it, soldered and hammered flat, three or four such coverings in all. Made twelve braccia long, it is to shoot a steel arrow one-third of a braccio long.