History of Islam Vol 3 of 3 by Akbar Shah Najeebabadi

414 The History of Islam
cracks appeared
in the city-walls, but the besieged carried out repairs
immediately. Sultan Muhammad II then took his troops near the
trenches and
made pathways by bridging these trenches and reached
the city-walls. They could not gain control over the walls because the
Christians started throwing blazing kerosene oil at the Muslim troops,
with the result they had to retreat. Now the Sultan applied another
device to achieve his purpose. He erected wooden towers as high as
the city-walls with wheels to move them at will. A long ladder was
fastened with each tower and all ladders were put on the walls,
building bridges between the towers and the city-wall and Muslim
soldiers started attempting to scale the walls. But the beleaguered
made determined efforts to undo these attempts by hurling at them
blazing shells of pitch and setting the wooden structures on fire. This
new device also failed to produce any result.
On April 15, and the ninth day since the siege started, news came that
four ships from Genoa loaded with shells, gunpowder and food grain
reached the Golden Horn, the port of Constantinople tearing apart the
blockade of the Turkish fleet. With this sensational news, Sultan
Muhammad II rode to the seacoast and noticed that a fleet of five
warships was advancing through the Marmara Sea. He ordered his
navy commander to stop the approaching enemy warships. The
Ottoman warships launched a heavy attack on the enemy fleet and
broke the long row of
the fleet so that they began to cluster together
one by one and were surrounded by the Turkish ships. However, they
failed to breach the high and heavy enemy ships and were not able to
overpower them for their own ships were low and much smaller.
After a short trial of strength, the giant enemy ships entered the
Golden Horn, following which the Christians pulled up the iron
chains stopping the chase of the Turkish ships.
Sultan Muhammad II witnessed the failure of his navy with his naked
eyes and grew very sad. He called his navy commander, beat him
thoroughly and ordered him to
stay cautions and alert thereafter. In
fact, the navy commander was not at fault for he could not board the
giant enemy ships with his smaller ones. Nevertheless, the
punishment meted out by the Sultan worked wonders and after that
no enemy ship was able to pass by that route.