"Ship's Prow Tortoise" #1

This is a picture of the Tortoise upside down showing the four wheels which enabled the workers in the field to move the tortoise around.  This siege machine was used to protect workers, on a slope, from materials that might have been rolled down the slope such as barrels, logs, etc.  The Tortoise had two iron plates on the sharp end of the prow to shunt aside any burning materials such a a wagon load of hay, a flaming barel of oil, etc.  The sharp end of the Tortoise (prow) was always pointed up-slope and the large timber in the middle was the brace that held the tortoise in place.  The center brace and both ends of the tortoise were held in place by heavy stakes pounded deep into the grond.