History of the United Netherlands, 1585 part 2 | Page 3

day, among sneering
courtiers and insolent placemen, and to submit to the criticism of
practical sages and philosophers of routine, while, he was constantly

denied an opportunity of explaining his projects, the quick-tempered
Italian had gone away at last, indignant. He had then vowed revenge
upon the dulness by which his genius had been slighted, and had sworn
that the next time the Spaniards heard the name of the man whom they
had dared to deride, they should hear it with tears.
He now laid before the senate of Antwerp a plan for some vessels likely
to prove more effective than the gigantic 'War's End,' which he had
prophesied would prove a failure. With these he pledged himself to
destroy the bridge. He demanded three ships which he had selected
from the city fleet; the 'Orange,' the 'Post,' and the 'Golden Lion,'
measuring, respectively, one hundred and fifty, three hundred and fifty,
and five hundred tons. Besides these, he wished sixty flat-bottomed
scows, which he proposed to send down the river, partially submerged,
disposed in the shape of a half moon, with innumerable anchors and
grapnel's thrusting themselves out of the water at every point. This
machine was intended to operate against the raft.
Ignorance and incredulity did their work, as usual, and Gianbelli's
request was refused. As a quarter-measure, nevertheless, he was
allowed to take two smaller vessels of seventy and eighty tons. The
Italian was disgusted with parsimony upon so momentous an occasion,
but he at the same time determined, even with these slender materials,
to give an exhibition of his power.
Not all his the glory, however, of the ingenious project. Associated
with him were two skilful artizans of Antwerp; a clockmaker named
Bory, and a mechanician named Timmerman--but Gianibelli was the
chief and superintendent of the whole daring enterprise.
He gave to his two ships the cheerful names of the 'Fortune' and the
'Hope,' and set himself energetically to justify their titles by their
efficiency. They were to be marine volcanos, which, drifting down the
river with tide, were to deal destruction where the Spaniards themselves
most secure.
In the hold of each vessel, along the whole length, was laid down a
solid flooring of brick and mortar, one foot thick and five feet wide.
Upon this was built a chamber of marble mason-work, forty feet long,
three and a half feet broad, as many high, and with side-walks [walls?
D.W.] five feet in thickness.
This was the crater. It was filled with seven thousand of gunpowder, of

a kind superior to anything known, and prepared by Gianibelli himself.
It was covered with a roof, six feet in thickness, formed of blue
tombstones, placed edgewise. Over this crater, rose a hollow cone, or
pyramid, made of heavy marble slabs, and filled with mill-stones,
cannon balls, blocks of marble, chain-shot, iron hooks, plough-coulters,
and every dangerous missile that could be imagined. The spaces
between the mine and the sides of each ship were likewise filled with
paving stones, iron-bound stakes, harpoons, and other projectiles. The
whole fabric was then covered by a smooth light flooring of planks and
brick-work, upon which was a pile of wood: This was to be lighted at
the proper time, in order that the two vessels might present the
appearance of simple fire- ships, intended only to excite a conflagration
of the bridge. On the 'Fortune' a slow match, very carefully prepared,
communicated with the submerged mine, which was to explode at a
nicely-calculated moment. The eruption of the other floating volcano
was to be regulated by an ingenious piece of clock-work, by which, at
the appointed time, fire, struck from a flint, was to inflame the hidden
mass of gunpowder below.
In addition to these two infernal machines, or "hell-burners," as they
were called, a fleet of thirty-two smaller vessels was prepared. Covered
with tar, turpentine, rosin, and filled with inflammable and combustible
materials, these barks were to be sent from Antwerp down the river in
detachments of eight every half hour with the ebb tide. The object was
to clear the way, if possible, of the raft, and to occupy the attention of
the Spaniards, until the 'Fortune' and the `Hope' should come down
upon the bridge.
The 5th April, (1885) being the day following that on which the
successful assault upon Liefkenshoek and Saint Anthony had taken
place, was fixed for the descent of the fire-ships. So soon as it should
be dark, the thirty-two lesser burning-vessels, under the direction of
Admiral Jacob Jacobzoon, were to be sent forth from the neighborhood
of the 'Boor's Sconce'--a fort close to the city walls--in accordance with
the Italian's plan. "Run-a-way Jacob," however, or "Koppen Loppen,"
had earned no new laurels which could throw into the shade that
opprobrious appellation. He was not one