These Rude Vessels Seem Not To Have
Been The Only Ones The Britons Possessed, But Were Employed Solely For The
Purpose Of Sailing To The Opposite Coasts Of Gaul And Of Ireland.
They
were, indeed, better able to withstand the violence of the winds and waves
than might be supposed from the materials of which they were built.
Pliny
expressly states that they made voyages of six days in them; and in the
life of St Columba, (in whose time they were still used, the sixth
century,) we are informed of a vessel lined with leather, which went with
oars and sails, sailing for fourteen days in a violent storm in safety, and
gaining her port. The passage therefore in these boats across the Irish
Channel, could not be so very dangerous as it is represented by Solinus.
But notwithstanding the authority of Caesar, Pliny, Solinus, and Lucan, who
mention only these leathern vessels, and that the poet Avienus, who lived
in the fourth century, expressly states, that even in his time the Britons
had no ships made of timber, but only boats covered with leather or hides;
there are circumstances which must convince us that they did possess
larger, stronger, and more powerful ships. Caesar informs us, that the
Britons often assisted the Gauls, both by land and sea; and we have seen
that they sent assistance to the Vanni, in their sea-fight against Caesar;
but it is not to be supposed that their leathern boats, small and weak as
they were, could have been of any material advantage in an engagement with
the Roman ships.
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