Galiote

à bombes, Fr. a bomb-ketch. A ve el built of very strong timber, with flat ribs and half decks. It is used for the carriage of mortars, that are placed upon a false deck which is made in the hold. Chevalier Renau first invented this species of naval battery, and submitted it to the French government. The Dey of Algiers having declared war against France, this ingenious man naturally imagined, that the most effectual method which could be adopted to strike terror into the barbarians, would be to bombard their capital, and this, he knew, could not be done, except from the decks of ships. His proposal was at first treated with extreme neglect, and was considered in full council, as the project of a visionary madman. This disheartening circumstance, however, (which as Monsieur Belidor has very justly remarked, almost always attends original plans and inventions) did not check the warm mind of Chevalier Renau. His known abilities had secured some powerful partisans in his favor, and the French government at last consented, that he should construct two galiotes à bombes at Dunkirk, and three at Havre de Grace. Having completed them, he sailed for Algiers; and after having braved the most tempestuous weather, got before the place with five ve els of that description. The town was bombarded during the whole of the night; and so great was the consternation of the inhabitants, that they rushed out of the gates, to avoid the dreadful effects of so unexpected an attack. The Algerines immediately sued for peace, and as M. de Fontenelle has shrewdly remarked, the Chevalier Renau returned to France with his galiotes à bombes , having obtained a complete triumph, not only over the Algerines, but over the petty cavillers against his invention. Orders were instantly i ued to construct others after the same model, and the king gave directions, that a new corps of artillery officers should be formed, for the specific purpose of doing duty on board the galiotes or bomb-ketches.