Chapter ten
Nath the ImpenitentWhen I recall that aerial battle I am filled with horror and revulsion, and scathing self-contempt, and also a foolish fatuous pride.
Our thirty-eight had the beating of their fifty, there was no doubt of that.
Supreme though they might be on the seas, the Fish Heads had nothing like our experience in the air. Their ships were very good; most — not all — of ours were better.
We could see the Shanks crowding their upper decks, helmets and tridents arrayed in ranks. Their catapults hurled. They were far more reckless with fire than they were at sea. I saw one black-bottomed ship in the midst of the melee sling a blazing firepot at one of our vessels, and miss, and the missile smashed full into one of their own. She burned.
We lost ships. But for every one
