shot-marked

Updated: July 17, 2026

A student of ancient tactics would have found there all the old defenses in coral caltrops, and abatis, molded in dark-gray coral, battered and shot-marked. It was a dream of a sunken city wall of old Syracuse, and conjured up a vision of the hoary Archimedes upon it before the inundation, directing the destruction, by his burning-glass, of the enemy's ships.

Frederick O'Brien - Mystic Isles of the South Seas.