Boats Formed Of Slender Rods Or Hurdles, And
Covered With Skins, Seem Also To Have Preceded The Canoe, Or Vessel Mode Of
A Single Piece Of Timber.
It is probable that a considerable time would
elapse before the means of constructing boats of planks were discovered,
Since the bending of the planks for that purpose is not a very obvious art.
The Greeks ascribe this invention to a native of Lydia; but at what period
he lived, is not known. Among some nations, leather was almost the only
material used in the construction of ships; and even in the time of Caesar,
the Veneti, a people of Brittany, distinguished as a maritime and
commercial tribe, made their sails of hides, and their tackle of thongs. In
early ages, also, the Greeks used the common rushes of their country, and
the Carthaginians, the spartum, or broom of Spain.
But it is to the ships of Greece and Rome, when they were constructed with
more skill, and better adapted to navigation, that we are to pay attention;
and of those, only to such as were used for commercial purposes. The latter
were rounder and more capacious than ships used for war; they were
principally impelled by sails; whereas the ships of war, though not wholly
without sails, were chiefly rowed. Another difference between them was,
that ships of war commonly had an helmet engraven on the top of their
masts, and ships for trade had a basket suspended on the top of their mast
as a sign.
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