This King Alfred readily did, and Egbert and Edmund then journeyed to Exeter, where finding out the man most noted for his skill in building ships, they told him the object they had in view, and showed him the drawings the king had made.

There were two of them, the one a long galley rowed with double banks of oars, the other a heavy trading ship.
"This would be useless to you," the shipwright said, laying the second drawing aside.

"It would not be fast enough either to overtake or to fly.

The other galley would, methinks, suit you well.

I have seen a drawing of such a ship before.