it afire, and direct the flaming ship towards the Flor. Gama immediately orders the cables cut and the flames of the drifting parau only just miss them. Throughout all this, some of the Portuguese sailors are desperately trying to cut the cables on the anchor – a process that took time, as Gama had ordered it down with an iron chain. But eventually the anchor is cut, and the Flor begins to sail away. As distance is gained from the zambuks and paraus, the ship's cannons can now come into play and fire on the pursuers. The Flor reaches the mouth of the harbor just as Vicente Sodré arrives back from Cannanore with three caravels. Seeing the ambush is foiled, the Calicut boats turn around and slip back into the side-channels of the harbor. It is a narrow escape. Before leaving Calicut, Gama orders the three hostages – the son & nephew of the Brahmin and the Nair – strung up by their necks on the main mast, in full view of the city of Calicut. He dispatches their corpses on a raft to the shore, pinned with a note swearing revenge on the Zamorin. Naval Battle of Calicut After the ambush, Gama, escorted by Sodré's patrol returns to Cochin. Although the Portuguese were aware that the Zamorin had ordered his Malabari vassals to assemble an armada in Calicut, Gama seems to have been confident that the coastal patrol was keeping a lid on it, perhaps not quite realizing that smaller ships throughout the region could make their way to Calicut unmolested via the Kerala backwaters. Late January, 1503 – The Trimumpara Raja of Cochin adds some more disturbing intelligence: the Zamorin has hired the services of a Red Sea Arab privateer 'Cojambar' (Khoja Ambar), and several large ships have slipped past the Portuguese blockade and were now in Calicut, joining the fighting fleet under the command of Calicut admiral 'Coja Casem' (Khoja Kassein). The assembled Calicut fleet is estimated at 20 large ships, 40 gun-mounted sambuks (large dhows) and an innumerable number of smaller oar-powered paraus, carrying several thousand armed men. Although a large Calicut fleet had failed against the much smaller 3rd Armada of João da Nova the previous year, the Zamorin might have calculated that the addition of the large ships and more experienced captains might tip the balance – particularly against the heavily loaded and less-maneuverable