Ða het Ælfred Cyng timbran langscipu ongen þa æscas: þa wæron fulneah tu swa lange swa þa oþru; sume hæfdon .lx. ara. sume ma. þa wæron ægþer ge swiftran ge unwealtran, ge eac hieran þonne þa oþru. Næron nawþer ne on Fresisc gescæpene ne on Denisc, bute swa him selfum þuhte þæt hie nytwyrþoste beon meahten. Þa æt sumum cirre þæs ilcan geares comon þær sex scipu to Wiht, 7 þær micel yfel gedydon, ægþer ge on Defenum ge welhwær be þæm særiman. Þa het se cyng faran mid nigonum to þara niwena scipa, 7 forforon him þone muþan foran on utermere; þa foron hie mid þrim scipum ut ongen hie, 7 þreo stodon æt ufeweardum þæm muþan on drygum. Wæron þa men uppe on londe of agane, þa gefengon hie þara þreora scipa tu æt þæm muþan uteweardum, 7 þa men ofslogon, 7 þæt an oþwand. On þæm wæron eac þa men ofslægene buton fifum.
From the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle entry for 896:
King Alfred them commanded ships to be built to meet the Danish fleet: they
were nearly twice as long as the other ships; some had sixty oars, some more.
Those were both swifter and stronger and higher than the others. They were neither
Frisian-shaped or Danish, but as the king himself though that they might be
most useful. Then, at a particular occasion in that same year came six [Danish]
ships to the Isle of Wight and there did great evil, both in Devon and elsewhere
by the sea coast. Then the king gave instruction to travel there with nine of
the new ships, and they [Alfred’s ships] got in front of them at the mouth
of the river near the open sea. Then they [the Danes] fared with three ships
against them and three of their ships stood at the mouth of the river on dry
ground. Those men were gone up on the land, and then they [the English] seized
two of the three ships at the mouth of the river, and slew those men, and the
other ship escaped. In that one all but five of the men were slain.