sixteener

It was no part of Rhodian sea tactics to employ the kind of heavy "sixteener" in which King Mithridates himself sat.

The Grass Crown McCullough, Colleen, 1937- 1991

And at the end of September he sailed, his own gigantic completely enclosed "sixteener" in the midst of the crowd, easily distinguished by the gold and purple throne erected under a canopy on the poop.

The Grass Crown McCullough, Colleen, 1937- 1991

When the "sixteener" hove to in the harbor of the city of Cos on the island of Cos, King Mithridates left the captain to deal with his oar troubles, and himself went ashore in a sleek and well-rowed lighter.

The Grass Crown McCullough, Colleen, 1937- 1991

Hundreds of helmeted Rhodian heads popped up along the battlements to watch in mingled fascination and terror; Mithridates watched too, from his "sixteener" in the middle of the packed Pontic ships, waiting until the sambuca concentrated all Rhodian resistance to the temple of Isis section of the seawall.

The Grass Crown McCullough, Colleen, 1937- 1991

One of his own vessels, a big and clumsy "sixteener" from the isle of Chios, had blundered broadside into his own ship’s beam and shorn off every oar down one side of each galley.

The Grass Crown McCullough, Colleen, 1937- 1991

And, as a satisfactory solution continued to elude him, at the end of the short journey he scaled the ladder up onto the deck of the nearest sixteener having to pretend Caesar didn't exist.

Fortune's Favorites McCullough, Colleen, 1937- 1993

Hence find bireme, hemiolia, merchantman, myoparo, quinquereme, sixteener and trireme in the glossary of Fortune's Favorites.

Fortune's Favorites McCullough, Colleen, 1937- 1993

But not a sixteener with a twenty-talent bronze beak could have broken the chain strung across the harbor mouth; anyway, Ahenobarbus didn’t have a ship half as large as a sixteener.

Antony and Cleopatra Colleen McCullough 2007

But not a sixteener with a twenty-talent bronze beak could have broken the chain strung across the harbor mouth; anyway, Ahenobarbus didn’t have a ship half as large as a sixteener.

Antony and Cleopatra Colleen McCullough 2007

The Rhodian navy’s reputation had been won because of the speed and the extreme maneuverability of its vessels, able to dart at will between lumbering capital ships; the crews could stroke so strongly on a ramming charge that sheer speed more than compensated for lack of weight, and the bronze-reinforced oaken beak of a Rhodian trireme could drive deeply into the side of the heftiest "sixteener."

The Grass Crown McCullough, Colleen, 1937- 1991