It also seems like (if it truly was cast from solid bronze) these would be incredibly expensive, and fiendishly difficult to recover if they did fall off in the water. I assume that budgeting has been a perpetual concern for governments and militaries, so it would seem the goal would be to hang on to them as much as possible.

I would also like to know the answer to this.

This is fascinating stuff. So it looks like the Corvus is pretty different from these naval rams in that it’s less like an axe head and more like a hook you can march a battalion across.

So, what strategy was employed with naval rams? Was it used as a boarding aid, or to destroy an enemy ship entirely? If it’s the former, it seems it would be better if it got stuck in the enemy ship, but the latter would require the attacker to be able to quickly detach so as not to get dragged down with it.