[The Pirates of Malabar, and An Englishwoman in India Two Hundred Years Ago by John Biddulph]@TWC D-Link book
The Pirates of Malabar, and An Englishwoman in India Two Hundred Years Ago

CHAPTER IV
18/20

We proceeded down the coast for Gerey, which is not above twelve hours' sail from Bombay, where we with all our navy soon arrived, and run boldly into the harbour.
Captain Berlew (Bellew ?) Commodore, and ranged a line from the eastermost part of the fortifications to the outer part of the harbour.
Keeping all our small galleys and galleywats on the off-side under shelter.

But they had strong fortifications on both sides; so that we left our strongest ships in the harbour, to make a breach in the walls, in order to storm the castle.

The rocks were very high, and so slippery that one could hardly stand without a staff, and consequently not a place convenient to draw men up in any posture of defence.

We endeavoured to get the fireship in, but could not; for on the east part of the fort they had a cove or creek, where they had laid up a great part of their fleet, and had got a strong boom across the same; so that we could not annoy them any otherwise than by throwing our bombs and coehorns very thick into the garrison, which we did for a considerable time, and were in hopes after the first and second day's siege, that we should have drove them out of that strong castle, but we soon found that the place was impregnable.

For as we kept throwing our shells as fast as we could in regular time, cooling our chambers before we loaded again; after we had beat over two or three houses in the castle, the shells fell on the rocks in the inside the castle, and their weight and force of falling would break them without so much as their blowing up....


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