fireship
nounEtymology From fire + ship.
1
Nautical, Transport Historical A wooden ship set alight and then sent floating into an enemy flotilla, with the aim of spreading the fire among them.
- Fireships were famously used by Sir Francis Drake when fighting the Spanish Armada of 1588.
- His attempt in 208 to cross the Yangtse was frustrated in the famous battle of Ch'ih-pi, in which his immense fleet was destroyed by his enemies' fireships, and most of his army slain.1984, Witold Rodzinksi, The Walled Kingdom: A History of China from 2000 BC to the Present, London: Fontana Paperbacks, →ISBN, →OCLC, →OL, page 69:
- Related terms
- fireboat, hellburner, frenchified, venereal disease