The Venetians: A New History: from Marco Polo to Casanova by Paul Strathern Page A

his abilities to the full. In all, thirty-four galleys had by now emerged fully equipped from the Arsenale, and Contarini in his capacity as captain-general was determined to ensure that these crews were properly trained. Each day he was up first thing overseeing the raw recruits rowing their galleys, directing them to row them from the naval yard on Giudecca to the Lido and back, a good five-mile haul. As each day passed, the new sailors – teenage boys, craftsmen, middle-aged servants, stall-holders and the like – under the supervision of experienced oarsmen, gradually gained greater cohesion, learning how to manoeuvre their craft and follow battle orders.
    After the capture of Chioggia, the Genoese had sat back expecting to starve the Venetians into submission. Instead the city was given precious time to organize its defences, transform its citizens into a fighting force and, most importantly of all, rally their flagging morale. Crucially, it also gave Pisani time to plan his campaign.
    In line with the mood of his men, Pisani decided that instead of waiting for the enemy to make a move, he would strike first with a bold counter-move on Chioggia. He bided his time until the night of 21–22 December, the longest night of the year, before launching his attack. Under cover of darkness, a flotilla of towed stone-laden barges guarded by galleys and long boats set off south into the lagoon under the joint command of Pisani and Contarini. As dawn came up, the Genoese lookouts on the ramparts of Chioggia raised the alarm at the sight of the approaching Venetians. Soldiers were put ashore south of Chioggia, and the Genoese immediately launched an attack, forcing them to retreat. But this was simply a diversionary move. While the Genoese were thus distracted, the stone-laden barges were sunk, blocking the main supply channels to Chioggia from both the Paduan-held mainland and the Genoese fleet out in the Adriatic. The besiegers were now the besieged in Chioggia. While Pisani harassed the Genoese galleys that were attempting to clearthe channel from the sea, Contarini manoeuvred his galleys along the narrow channels through the mudflats, preventing Carrara’s forces from clearing the channels so that they could supply Chioggia from the mainland. However, Contarini’s ragtag volunteer soldiers – from shopkeepers to ageing senators – soon became disillusioned with the wet, cold misery of living amidst the fringes of the lagoon. Although spurred on by the constant encouragement and example of their venerable leader, it was evident that they could not last out much longer; and Pisani knew that he could not keep up his raiding tactics indefinitely without suffering more losses than the city’s depleted defensive fleet could bear.
    In the words of the chronicler:
    The galleys were so riddled with the arrows of the enemy that the sailors in desperation cried with one voice that the siege must be relinquished, that otherwise all that were in the galleys round Chioggia were dead men. Those also who held the banks, fearing that the squadrons of Carrara would fall upon them from behind, demanded anxiously to be liberated, and that the defence of the coast should be abandoned. Pisani besought them to endure a little longer …
    What Pisani and Contarini were doing was little better than a desperate holding operation. The Genoese in Chioggia may well have been faced with starvation, but so too were the people of Venice.
    Then the miracle that all Venetians had been praying for came to pass. On 1 January 1380 Carlo Zeno sailed back to Venice with fourteen galleys manned by battle-hardened Venetian sailors who had spent the last year or so hunting down Genoese shipping all over the Mediterranean. Off Sicily he had destroyed two convoys bringing supplies to the Genoese fleet in the Adriatic, which was consequently beginning to run short of essential supplies. True to form, he had then ignored orders and set off booty-hunting in the eastern