FOOTNOTES:
"If we go backward we die: if we go forward we die:
Better go forward and die."—Viking war-call.
[2] "Nulla vestigia retrorsum."—Motto of 5th Dragoon Guards.
[3] I am indebted to the Rev. S. Baring-Gould for the following very interesting note, which indicates that there was some affinity between the ancient Grecian and the Viking ideas with regard to figure-heads: "The Greeks never allowed an image of an entering ship to arrive un-removed, and then it was conveyed to the shore to salute the Goddess of the port. The altar 'to the Unknown God' St. Paul saw was actually to any unknown Deity of an approaching vessel."
[4] "No doubt the noblemen of France prefer land to sea warfare, so hard and so little in accord with nobility ", stated a French Herald in 1456.
[5] Pavises, plural of Pavois. The "Pavois", or "Pavise" as it was generally termed in English, was a big round-topped shield like a tombstone. It was set up with a prop on shore or fastened to a ship's bulwarks, either on going into action or as a decoration. This is why to this day a French man-of-war when "dressed" with all her colours at a review, for instance, is said to be "en grand pavois".
[6] "Of the Tower": this signifies that she was a royal ship, like "H.M.S." of to-day.
[7] A strong bow that needed a tourniquet or winch to draw it back.