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SHIVAJI.
[CH. XI
the conquest of Janjira which continued as a thorn in his side. (Sabh. 68.)
§ 3. Shivaji's navy described.
The Marathi chronicles speak of Shivaji's fleet as consisting of four hundred vessels of various sizes and classes, such as ghurabs (gun-boats), tarandis, tarambes, gallivats, shibars, pagars, manchwas, babhors, tirkatis, pals, and dubares*[1] Their cost is put down vaguely as 5 or 10 lakhs of Rupees. But the English reports never put their number above 160, and usually as 60 only. They were formed into two squadrons (of 200 vessels each, if we accept the Marathi accounts), and commanded by two admirals who bore the titles of Daria Sarang (Sea Captain) and Mai Nayak or Mian Nayak.†[2]
- ↑ * Sabh. 68; Chit. 67. Ghurabs are floating batteries or gun-boats carrying two masts and moving slowly. Gallivats are vessels constructed for swift sailing. Shibars are trading boats, munchuas being a stronger kind of trading vessel than shibars. (Orme's Frag. Sec. 1.) The machwa (a round-built two-masted craft of from 3 to 20 tons) and the shibar (a large square-sterned, flat-bottomed vessel with 2 masts but no deck) are described in Bom. Gaz. xiii. 345-49.
- ↑ † Daria is Persian for Ocean. Sabhasad, 68, speaks of Daria Sarang as a Musalman and of Mai Nayak as a Hindu of the Bhandari caste. But a Bombay letter dated 21 Nov. 1670 says, "The admiral of the [Maratha] fleet is one Ventgee Sarungee, commonly called Durrea Sarungee." Another Bombay letter, 11 Sep. 1679, speaks of 'Mia Nayak, a Bhandari of Rajapur.' (Orme MSS. 116.) Daulat Khan was an officer distinct from the Daria Sarang (Rajwade, viii. 27 and T. S.)
