Probably there were not more
than 1500 of these vessels all told and they must have been small
compared with the Christian dromons; nevertheless they presented an
appalling danger at that moment. The Christian fleet was watching
Crete, the army was in the east winning back territory from the
Arabs, and Constantinople lay almost defenseless. The great walls
could be depended an to hold off a barbarian army, but a fleet
was needed to hold the waterways; otherwise the city was doomed.

In the Horn lay a few antiquated dromons and a few others still on
the stocks. To Theophanes the Patrician was given this nucleus of
a squadron with which to beat back the Russians. Desperate and even
hopeless as the situation appeared, he went to work with the greatest
energy, patching up the old ships, and hurrying the completion of
the new. Meanwhile the invaders sent raiding parties ashore that
harried the unprotected country districts with every refinement
of cruelty. In order to make each ship count as much as possible
as an offensive unit, Theaphanes made an innovation by fitting out
Greek fire tubes on the broadsides as well as in the bows. This
may be noted as the first appearance of the broadside armament
idea, which had to wait six hundred years more before it became
finally established.

When the new ships had been completed and the old ones made serviceable,
Theophanes had exactly fifteen men of war. With this handful of
vessels, some hardly fit to take the sea, he set out from the Horn
and boldly attacked the Russian fleet that blocked the entrance to
the strait. Never was there a more forlorn hope. Certainly neither
the citizens on the walls nor the men on the ships had any expectation
of a return.

What followed would be incredible were it not a matter of history.
These fifteen ships were immediately swallowed up by the huge fleet
of the enemy, but under the superb leadership of Theophanes each
one fought with the fury of desperation. They had one hope, the
weapon that had twice before saved the city, Greek fire. The Russians
swarmed alongside only to find their ships taking fire with a flame
that water would not quench. Contempt of their feeble enemy changed
soon to a wild terror. There was but one impulse, to get out of
reach of the Christians, and the ships struggled to escape. Soon
the whole Russian fleet was in wild flight with the gallant fifteen
in hot pursuit. Some of these could make but slow headway because
of