[The following takes place during the First Punic War.]
As their ships were poorly fitted-out and difficult to manoeuvre, it was suggested to them that they could obtain an advantage in fighting at sea by using the device which afterwards came to be known as the ‘raven’. This was constructed as follows. A round pole about twenty-four feet high and ten inches in diameter was erected on the prow of the ship. At the top of this pole was a pulley, and at its base a gangway four feet in width and thirty-six in length made of planks which were nailed across each other. Twelve feet from one end of the gangway an oblong slot was cut, into which they base of the pole was fitted, and each of the long sides of the gangway was protected by a rail as high as a man’s knee. At the outboard end of the gangway was fastened an iron spike shaped like a pestle; this was pointed at one end and had a ring at the other, and looked like the appliance which is used for pounding corn. A rope was passed through the ring and thence through the pulley at the top of the pole.
When the ship charged an opponent, the ‘raven’ would be hauled up by means of the pulley and then dropped on to the deck of the enemy vessel; this could either be done over the bows, or the gangway could be swiveled round if the two ships collided broadside on. As soon as the ‘raven’ was embedded in the planks of the deck and fastened the ships together, the soldiers would leap into the enemy vessel. If the two ships were alongside, they could board from all the way down the hull, but if they had collided bows on, the men stayed on the gangway and advanced down it two abreast. The leading pair then protected their front by holding their shields before them, while the files who followed guarded their sides by resting the rims of the shields on the top of the railing. So having adopted this device, they waited for their opportunity to engage at sea.
[…]
No sooner had the Carthaginians sighted him than they eagerly put to sea with their fleet of 130 sail [ships]; their spirits were high, for at this stage they felt nothing but contempt for the inexperience of the Romans. They steered straight for the enemy and thought they could risk an attack without keeping any formation, as though they were seizing a prize which was already theirs for the taking.
[…]
As they neared the enemy and saw the ‘ravens’ hoisted aloft in the bows of several ships, the Carthaginians at first did not know what to make of these devices, which were completely strange to them. However, as they still felt an utter contempt for their opponents, the leading ships attacked without hesitation. Then, as they came into collision, the Carthaginians found that their vessels were invariably held fast by the ‘ravens’, and the Roman troops swarmed aboard them by means of the gangways and fought them hand-to-hand on deck. Some of the Carthaginians were cut down and others were thrown into confusion by these tactics and gave themselves up, for the fighting seemed to have been transformed into a battle on dry land. The result was that they lost every one of the first thirty of their ships which engaged, crews and all.
[…]
The rest of the Carthaginian fleet bore up as if to attack; but as they came close, they saw what had happened to their leading vessels, and so sheered away and avoided contact with the ‘ravens’. Instead they relied on their speed and circled round the enemy, hoping that they could safely ram them either broadside on or from astern. But the Romans swung their gangways round so as to meet an attack from any direction and then dropped the ‘ravens’, so that any ship which came to close quarters found itself inescapably grappled. Then at last the Carthaginians turned and fled, for they were completely unnerved by these new tactics, and in all they lost fifty ships.
Bonus]
Here is a neat diargram of the device on the prow of a Roman vessel.
Here is a great video of Roman naval warfare. I linked it at the 1:18 mark, which is where they cover the Roman corvus, or raven.
Also, I noticed that George R. R. Martin totally stole the idea of the Roman corvus from history and incorporated it into his works, in that I notices its appearance in Season 7, Episode 2, where Euron rides it into the deck of a ship like he’s at a heavy metal concert. Here you go!
Source:
Polybius, et al. “The First Punic War.” The Rise of the Roman Empire. Penguin, 2003. 64-6. Print.
Further Reading:
Corvus / Raven: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corvus_(boarding_device)
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