The Inhabitants Of Phoeacia, Or Corsica, Are Represented As The
First Who Used Pitch To Fill Up The Seams, And Preserve The Timber;
Sometimes Wax Was Used For This Purpose, Or Rather It Was Mixed With The
Paint, To Prevent Its Being Defaced By The Sun, Winds, Or Water.
The
principal instruments used in navigation were the rudder, anchor, sounding
line, cables, oars, sails, and masts.
It is evident from ancient authors, that the ships of the Phoenicians,
Greeks, Romans, and other people of antiquity, had frequently more than one
rudder; but it is not easy to perceive in what way more than one could be
applied to the same end for which the rudder of modern ships is used. Small
vessels had only one. Homer in his Odyssey mentions only one, which was
fastened, and perhaps strengthened, so as to withstand the winds and waves
on each side, with hurdles, made of sallow or osier; at the same period the
ships of the Phoenicians had two rudders. When there were two, one was
fixed at each end; this, however, seems to have been the case only where,
as was not uncommon, the ships had two prows, so that either end could go
foremost. With respect to vessels of four rudders, as two are described as
being fixed to the sides, it is probable that these resembled in their
construction and object the pieces of wood attached to the sides of small
Dutch vessels and barges on the Thames, and generally all vessels that are
flat-bottomed, for the purpose of preventing them from making much _lee
way_, when they are _working_ against the wind.
The first anchors were not made of iron, but of stone, or even of wood;
these were loaded with lead. According to Diodorus, the Phoenicians, in
their first voyages to Spain, having obtained more silver than their ships
could safely hold, employed some of it, instead of lead, for their anchors.
Very anciently the anchor had only one fluke. Anacharsis is said to have
invented an anchor with two. Sometimes baskets full of stones, and sacks
filled with sand, were employed as anchors. Every ship had two anchors, one
of which was never used, except in cases of great danger: it was larger
than the other, and was called the sacred anchor. At the period of the
Argonautic expedition, it does not appear that anchors of any kind but
stone were known; though the scholiast upon Apollonius Rhodius, quite at
variance with the testimony of this author, mentions anchors of iron with
two flukes. It has been supposed that anchors were not used by the Grecian
fleet at the siege of Troy, because "the Greek word which is used to mean
an anchor, properly so called, is not used in any of the poems of Homer."
It is certain that iron anchors were not then known; but it is equally
certain that large stones were used as anchors.
Homer is entirely silent respecting any implement that would serve the
purpose of a sounding line; but it is expressly mention by Herodotus as
common in his time: it was commonly made of lead or brass, and attached,
not to a cord, but an iron, chain.
In very ancient times the cables were made of leather thongs, afterwards of
rushes, the osier, the Egyptian byblus, and other materials. The Veneti
used iron cables; hence we see that what is generally deemed an invention
entirely modern, was known to a savage nation in Gaul, in the time of
Caesar. This nation was so celebrated for the building and equipment of
their vessels, which were, from all accounts, better able to withstand the
fury of the ocean than the ships even of the Greeks and Romans, that Caesar
gave orders for the building of vessels, on the Loire, similar to those of
the Veneti, large, flat-bottomed, and high at the head and stern. Yet these
vessels, built on such an excellent model, and supplied with chain-cables,
had no sails but what were made of leather; and these sails were never
furled, but only bound to the mast. Besides cables, the ancients had other
ropes to fasten ships in the harbours: the usual mode was to erect stones
for this purpose, which were bored through.
In the time of Homer, the ships of the ancients had only one bank of oars;
afterwards two, three, four, five, and even nine and ten banks of oars are
said not to have been uncommon: but it is not easy to understand in what
manner so many oars could have been used: we shall not enter on this
question, which is still unresolved. The Romans had seldom any vessels with
more than five banks of oars. Such vessels as were intended for lightness,
had only one bank of oars; this was particularly the case with the vessels
of the Liburnians, a piratical tribe on the Adriatic.
The sails, in very ancient times, were made of leather; afterwards of
rushes. In the days of Agricola, the Roman sails were made of flax: towards
the end of the first century, hemp was in common use among them for sails,
ropes, and new for hunting. At first there was only one sail in a ship, but
afterwards there appear to have been several: they were usually white, as
this colour was deemed fortunate; sometimes, however, they were coloured.
At the time of the Trojan war, the Greek ships had only one mast, which was
lowered upon the deck when the ship was in harbour: near the top of the
mast a ribband was fastened to point out the direction of the wind. In
later times there seem to have been several masts, though this is denied by
some authors.
It remains now to speak of the materials of which the ships were built,
their size, and their crews.
The species of wood principally employed in the construction of the Grecian
ships were alder, poplar, and fir:
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 10 of 268
Words from 9226 to 10226
of 273188
