a great gold-toothed serpent

The ship I had found was only vaguely serpent-like before I started having it modified, it was long and thin witha tail-like tapered end, but afterwards it was almost instantly recognizable as a serpentine creature. I had its central mast rebuilt to resemble a caduceus and the prow and figurehead re-built into the shape of a huge iron serpent with a pair of sharp gold teeth, I also had the boat plated with hundreds of small, hard plates of wood to resemble the scales of a snake.

I then had it stocked with a small amount of supplies, including food and some planks of wood to repair the ship in the cargo hold. along with a jolly roger and a decent sum of money stashed inside of a secret compartment in the mouth of the figurehead/prow.

I named the ship aurum boros, which meant devourer of gold in latin. the ship may have been expensive and ostentatious but that was the best way to earn the respect of the world nobles.