Corsair fleet

Umbar's fleet is the reason Gondor's southern coast never had a quiet century. The ships are dromunds and long deep-hulled vessels driven by banks of oars, sailing under red and black canvas marked with a black eye or a black star, and at the height of Umbar's strength there were enough of them to put three great fleets to sea at once. Nobody wrote down when the fleet was first assembled. It may reach back to the end of the Kin-strife or before it. What is on record is the use it was put to: raids as far north as the mouth of the Isen, and coastal fiefs obliged to keep their strength at home instead of sending it where it was wanted.