noun
definition
A sailing ship that has been set alight and left to drift into an opposing fleet. Famously used by Englishman Sir Francis Drake when fighting the Spanish Armada of 1588.
definition
A diseased prostitute.
Examples of fireships in a Sentence
He had to employ his skill in the employment of fireships against them at Poros in 1831.
The commander of the force of fifty small vessels and eight fireships sent to assail the Turkish fleet was the navarch Miaoulis, but it was Kanaris who executed the attack with the fireships on the flagship of the Capitan Pasha on the night of the 18th of June 1822.
Kanaris had two small brigs fitted as fireships, and thirty-six men.
He was allowed to come close to the Turkish flagship, and succeeded in attaching his fireships to her, setting them on fire, and escaping with his party.
Kanaris was undoubtedly aided by the almost incredible sloth and folly of his opponents, but he chose his time well, and the service of the fireships was always considered peculiarly dangerous.
He was no less distinguished in other attacks with fireships at Samos and Mytilene in 1824, which finally established an utter panic in the Turkish navy.
By the middle of April two warships, twentythree galleys, four fireships and numerous smaller craft were safely launched.