human
Write a detailed description of a foreboding scene outside a boat ship with bolts, wooden ballista, and plates.
assistant
Variegated copper plates lay in haphazard piles upon the forward end of the interrupted starboard railing. The corners of several plates show ragged holes where bolts have fallen loose and were never replaced. Mounted at the center of the pile is a heavy wooden ballista, its rough surfaces scarred with claw marks.