HISTORY
OF
MERCHANT SHIPPING
AND
ANCIENT COMMERCE.
BY
W. S. LINDSAY.
_IN FOUR VOLUMES._
VOL. I.
With numerous Illustrations.
LONDON:
SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON, LOW, AND SEARLE,
CROWN BUILDINGS, 188 FLEET STREET.
1874.
[_All Rights reserved._]
LONDON:
PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS,
STAMFORD STREET AND CHARING CROSS.
PREFACE.
Although familiar with most subjects relating to Merchant Ships, I
have found it alike necessary and desirable to look to others for aid
in collecting some of the materials for this work; and I am especially
indebted to my friends Mr. Vaux, F.R.S., late of the British Museum,
and Sir Patrick Colquhoun, Q.C., for much valuable assistance rendered
by them in connection with the two volumes now presented to the public.
By combining the learning of my friends, so far as regards the records
of the ships and commerce of ancient times, with my own knowledge of
the subject, I am not without hope that the work may in some respects
prove useful.
I am also much indebted to Mr. T. H. Farrer, of the Board of Trade,
and to his assistant, Mr. Thomas Gray, of the Marine Department, for
many valuable suggestions; and in thanking them for their courtesy,
I venture to express the belief that by their assistance and that of
other friends I shall be able to give in the two succeeding volumes
necessary to complete the work an impartial narrative of the many
important events and changes which have occurred within my own time, I
might say within my own experience, together with an accurate account
of the ships and maritime commerce of the age in which we live.
W. S. LINDSAY.
SHEPPERTON MANOR, MIDDLESEX.
CONTENTS.
INTRODUCTORY. Pages xv-xliv
Introductory—The first attempt to float, by means of a
hollowed log and raft—The Ark—Boats of skin—Earliest
boats or ships—Their form—Mode of construction—Names of
ships—Decorations—Launching, &c.—Master—Mate—Boatswain—St. Paul’s
ship—Rig and Sails—Undergirders—Anchors and cables—Decks—Nautical
instruments—Mariner’s compass—Speed of ancient ships
CHAPTER I. 1-24
Maritime commerce of Antiquity—Coasting—Tyre—Argonautic
Expedition—Queen Semiramis—The Phœnicians—Early notices of
them—The prophecy of Ezekiel—Trade in tin—Origin of the name
“Cassiterides Insulæ”—Amber—Mainland trade of Phœnicia—Cause of
prosperity—Carthage—Utica—Commercial policy—Trade with Spain—Trade in
Africa—The commercial policy of Carthage—Limits of trade
CHAPTER II. 25-43
Earliest caravan trade—Ophir—Port of Ezion-geber—The
voyages of the Jewish ships—The inland commerce of
Solomon—Babylon—Gerrha and Tylos—Babylonian commerce—Assyrian
boats—Lydia—Ionia—Caria—Phrygia—Scythians—Their caravan routes to
India, _viâ_ the Caspian
CHAPTER III. 44-78
Egypt—Commerce—Sesostris—Naucratis—The Nile—Sailors of Egypt—Their
boats—How navigated—Mode of building them—Cargo barges—Their
rig—Steering—Passage and cargo boats—Boat for the conveyance of the
dead—Variety of boats, and their superiority—Prosperity of Egypt
under the Ptolemies, B.C. 283—Canal over the Isthmus—Ptolemy’s
great ship—Analysis of her dimensions—The _Thalamegus_, her size and
splendour—Great size of other Egyptian monuments—Probability of such
vessels having been constructed—Hiero’s great ship—Not unlike a modern
inland American steamer—Details of her construction, accommodation,
outfit, and decorations—Greek ships—Habits of piracy—Corinth—Athens—The
size of her ships as described by Herodotus—Discrepancy between the
different accounts
CHAPTER IV. 79-121
Route _viâ_ the Cape to India, discovered by the Phœnicians, B.C.
610-594—Voyage of the first Eudoxus—Story of the second Eudoxus
(of Cyzicus)—Opinion of Dr. Vincent on the circumnavigation of
Africa—Remarks upon his opinion—Routes to India and to the East by
land—Origin of the caravans—Resting-places—Their management—The more
important routes—Eastern—Southern—Northern—The character, size, and
discipline of the caravans—The route from Sardes to Susa, described
by Herodotus—Between Tyre and Gerrha—Length of journey—Importance
of Petra—Intercourse between Syria and Babylon—Value of the trade
of Babylon—Caravan routes from that city to Candahar, Cashmir,
Ecbatana, and Peucela on the Indus—Earliest land and sea combined
routes—Commercial efforts of Alexander in the East, and the impetus
he gave to the development of the trade with India by the erection of
Alexandria, B.C. 331—Time of the departure of the fleets—Residence of
the merchants and course of trade from Alexandria to the East—Value of
the trade with India—The ports through which it was conducted—Course
of the voyage to India—Outwards—Homewards—The vessels engaged in
the trade with India—The nature of their cargoes—Immense demand
at Rome for the luxuries of the East, and the enormous prices
paid for them—Imports and exports to and from Pattala—Barygaza or
Baroach—Musiris—Cape Comorin—Ceylon—Time of departure of the fleets
for Africa and the coasts of Arabia—Rhapta, or Quiloa—Sofala—Articles
of commerce—Moosa—Yemen, or Arabia Felix—Its great wealth, and the
importance attached to its trade—Kane—Sachal—Moskha—Maskat—Omana
CHAPTER V. 122-161
Ancient India—Expedition of Sesostris—Doubts of Dr. Robertson with
regard to it—Hindustan, its early commerce, and the probability, from
its great value, of its having attracted Sesostris—The conquests of
Darius, and of Alexander—Trade with China—Its maritime intercourse—A
comparison of the Chinese boats with those of the ancient Britons—The
conquests of Alexander in India, B.C. 327-5—The gain to commerce by
his conquests—The spread of knowledge—His march into India—Preparations
for the voyage down the Indus—Departure of his fleet from Nicæa,
B.C. 326—Description of the vessels employed—Progress of the
fleet—Establishment of new cities on the banks of the Indus—Character
of the vessels engaged on the voyage from the Indus to Susa—Time
occupied—Future voyages—Death of Alexander, B.C. 323—Eastern
India—Ceylon—Internal commerce of India—Manufactures of India—State of
the trade of India from the sixth to the ninth century—Change in the
course of trade—Persian trade with India—The Muhammedans, A.D. 622—The
extent of their commerce with the East—The trade between Constantinople
and India and China
CHAPTER VI. 162-189
Rome—The repugnance of the Romans to seafaring pursuits—Single-banked
galleys of the Liburni—The fleets of Rome—Their creation and slow
progress—The form and construction of their galleys—War with
the pirates of Cilicia—First treaty with Carthage, B.C. 509—Its
purport—College of merchants, established B.C. 494—No senator allowed
to own ships, B.C. 226—Cicero’s opinion of merchants—Contempt for
mariners—Reduction of Egypt, B.C. 30, and trade with India—Customs’
duties—The excise—Bounties on the importation of corn, A.D. 14—System
of collecting the taxes—Value of the trade with Alexandria—Its
extent—Vessels of Spain—Pharos or lighthouse at Gessoriacum—The
shipping described by Tacitus—Rhodians—Their maritime laws—System of
accounts in use at Rome—The corn trade of the city—Port of Ostia
CHAPTER VII. 190-221
Roman empire—The cause of its decline—First invasion of Goths, A.D.
217—Their habits—Defeat the Emperor Decius, A.D. 257—Rebellion of
Egypt, A.D. 273—Franks and Allemanni—The Veneti on the coast of
Gaul—Constantinople founded, A.D. 323—Its commercial advantages
and harbour—The extent of its ancient trade—Black Sea and Sea of
Azov—Oppressive taxation—The laws affecting shipping—Constans and
Julian—Produce of certain lands applied to the sea service—Neglect and
decline of commerce, and sufferings of the people—Siege of Rome by
Alaric and the Goths, A.D. 408—Genseric—His capture of Rome—Rise of
Constantinople—Customs’ duties—Silk trade—Naval expedition of Justinian
against the Vandals, A.D. 533, and conquest of Carthage—Rise of the
Muhammedan power, A.D. 622—Rapid conquests; of Jerusalem, A.D. 636; of
Alexandria, A.D. 638; and of Africa, A.D. 647—Sieges of Constantinople,
A.D. 668-675
CHAPTER VIII. 222-252
Constantinople, A.D. 718-1453: its increased prosperity—Manufactures
of Greece—System of taxation, and of expenditure—Fleets and mode of
warfare—Struggle for maritime supremacy—Scandinavians—Muscovites,
their trade and ships—Russians; their early commerce, and attempts
to capture Constantinople—Their ships—The Normans, and their
expeditions—Establish themselves in Italy, A.D. 1016—Amalfi—Futile
attempts of the Normans to take Constantinople, A.D. 1081-1084—Rise of
Venice—The cause of its prosperity—Spread of the Scythians, Huns, or
Turks, A.D. 997-1028—The Crusades, A.D. 1095-1099—Siege of Acre, A.D.
1189—Armistice, A.D. 1192—Fourth Crusade, A.D. 1202—The effect of the
Crusades on the commerce of Constantinople, and on its fall—Power of
Venice, A.D. 1202; her ships join in the Crusade, which was afterwards
altered from its original design—They besiege and take Constantinople,
A.D. 1204—Commerce declines under the Latins, but revives on the
restoration of the Empire, A.D. 1261—Genoa—Genoese settlement at Galata
and Pera—Arrogance of the Genoese, who at last rebel, A.D. 1348, and
declare war, A.D. 1349—The progress of the Turks, A.D. 1341-47—Their
fleet—First use of gunpowder and of large cannon—The Turks finally
become masters of the Eastern capital, A.D. 1453
CHAPTER IX. 253-297
Ancient galleys—Different descriptions—Their outfit—Beaks—Stern—Masts
and sails—Oars—Mode of rowing—Single-banked galleys—French
galley—General Melvill’s theory—Charnock’s theory—Vossius’s views—Mr.
Howell’s plan—Plan of Rev. J. O. W. Haweis (Appendix No. 1)—Our own
views—Biremes—Triremes—Quadriremes—Quinqueremes—Hexiremes and larger
galleys—Suggested plan of placing the rowers—Summary
CHAPTER X. 298-330
Britain: its maritime position, and limited extent of over-sea
trade—The vessels of the ancient Britons, and the larger kind used by
the Veneti—Encouragement by law to construct superior vessels—Britain
and its inhabitants little known—Cæsar’s reasons for invading
Britain—First invasion, B.C. 55—Size of his transports—Second invasion,
B.C. 54—Cæsar’s preference for small vessels—Violent storm, and great
loss of ships—Final action on the banks of the Thames—Cæsar makes terms
with the Britons, and re-embarks his legions—Advantages derived by the
Britons from their intercourse with the Romans—Conquest of Britain,
A.D. 43: its state of civilization—Speech of Caractacus—The course of
commerce with Rome—Inland water traffic—Transit duties—Articles of
commerce, and knowledge of manufactures and of the arts—Colchester
and its mint—London—Agricola, A.D. 78-85—His fleet sails round
Britain—The influence of the rule of Agricola on the Britons—Hadrian,
A.D. 120—State of commerce in and after his reign—The Caledonian
incursions—Piratical invasions of the Germans—Carausius seizes the
fleet of Maximian, and declares himself Emperor of Britain—Welsh and
Scots, A.D. 360—Saxons, A.D. 364—Their ships—State of the Britons when
abandoned by the Romans
CHAPTER XI. 331-372
The early Scandinavian Vikings settle on the coast of Scotland and
elsewhere—Great skill as seamen—Discovery of ancient ship, and of other
early relics—Incursions of the Saxons and Angles into Britain; and its
state soon afterwards—London—Accession of Offa, A.D. 755—Restrictions
on trade and commerce—Salutary regulations—Charlemagne’s first treaty
of commerce with England, A.D. 796—Extension of French commerce, A.D.
813—Commerce of England harassed by the Danes—Their ships, and the
habits of their owners—Increase of the Northern marauders—Language
of the Northmen still spoken by mariners in the North—Accession of
Alfred the Great, A.D. 871: his efforts to improve navigation, and to
extend the knowledge of geography—Foundation of a royal and commercial
navy—His voyages of discovery and missions to the East—Reign of Edward
the Elder, A.D. 901-25, and of his son Athelstan, A.D. 925-41—Edgar’s
fleet, and his arrangements for suppressing piracy—The wisdom of his
policy—Ethelred II., A.D. 979-1016—Sufferings of the people—Charges on
vessels trading to London—Olaf, king of Norway, his ships, and those of
Swein—Love of display—Mode of navigating—Canute, A.D. 1016—Reduction
of the English fleet—Prosperity of commerce—Norman invasion, A.D.
1066—Number of vessels engaged, and their form—State of trade and
commerce—Exports—Manufactures—Wealth—Imports—Taxation—London specially
favoured—Chester specially burdened—State of the people at the time of
the Conquest
CHAPTER XII. 373-422
Increase of the English fleet, A.D. 1066—Its participation in the
Crusades to the Holy Land—Departure of the English expedition—Arrival
at Messina—Number of ships—Their order of sailing—Arrival
at, and capture of, Acre, 10th June, 1191—Richard returns to
England—Maritime laws founded on the “Rôles d’Oléron”—Power to
pledge ship and tackle—The sailors consulted—Laws relating to
hiring—Drunkenness—Sickness—Damage to ship and cargo—Quarrels—Mooring
of ships—Partnership in freight—Food—Obligation to carry the
ship to her destination—Rules as to sailors—Demurrage—Bottomry—A
bad pilot forfeited his head—Punishments—Shares in fishing
vessels—Wreckers—Jetsam and flotsam—Royal fish—Timber of wrecks—Remarks
on these laws—Code of Wisby—Magna Charta, A.D. 1215—Henry III.,
A.D. 1216—Naval actions—Cinque Ports—Increase of piracy—Measures
for its suppression—Treaty of commerce with Norway, A.D. 1217, and
facilities afforded to foreign merchants—English merchants first
open trading establishments abroad—Origin of the Hanseatic League,
A.D. 1241—Corporate seals—Sandwich—Poole—Dover—Faversham—Stanhope,
vice-admiral of Suffolk—Duties of the Cinque Ports—Increased privileges
to foreign merchants—Letters of marque first issued—Law for the
recovery of debts, and adjustment of average—Shipping of Scotland,
A.D. 1249—Extremely liberal Navigation Act—Chief ports of England and
extent of its shipping and commerce—Edward II., A.D. 1307-1327—Edward
III., A.D. 1326-7-1377—Extension of English commerce—The discovery
of coal—First complete roll of the English fleet, A.D. 1347—Quota
of different ports—Pay of soldiers, sailors, &c.—War renewed, A.D.
1354—Death of Edward III., A.D. 1377—State of the merchant navy during
his reign—Loss sustained by war, and encouragement afforded thereby to
foreign nations—Rapid increase of the trade of Flanders—Trade between
Italy and Flanders—Commercial importance of Bruges and Antwerp—Wealth
of Flanders, and extent of its manufactures and commerce—Special
privileges to her merchants—Progress of the Hanseatic League, and its
system of business: its power too frequently abused
CHAPTER XIII. 423-461
Treaties with Spain and the merchants of Portugal—Early claim
of the right of search—Restrictive laws against the English,
and in favour of foreign traders—Accession of Richard II., A.D.
1377—Character of the imports from Italy—Sudden change of policy—First
Navigation Act, A.D. 1381—A rage for legislation—Relaxation of the
Navigation Act, A.D. 1382-8—Free issue of letters of marque; and
of commissions for privateering—Special tax for the support of the
Navy, A.D. 1377—Superiority of English seamen—Their intrepidity
and skill—Chaucer’s description of the seamen of his time—Henry
IV., A.D. 1399-1413—Disputes between the Hanse and the English
merchants—Agreement for guarding the English coasts—Henry V., A.D.
1413: his liberal policy, and ambition—The extent of his fleet—Size
and splendour of the royal ships—Prologue of the “Dominion of the
Sea”—England first formally claims dominion of the sea, about A.D.
1416—Prerogatives conferred thereby—First accounts of revenue and
expenditure, A.D. 1421—Law for the admeasurement of ships and coal
barges—Henry VI. crowded, A.D. 1422—Marauding expedition of the
Earl of Warwick—Distress among shipowners not royal favourites, A.D.
1461—Fresh legislative enactments—First “sliding scale” applied to the
importation of corn—Relaxation of the laws by means of treaties, A.D.
1467—Treaties of reciprocity—Extension of distant maritime commerce,
A.D. 1485—First English consul in the Mediterranean, A.D. 1490—The
advantages derived from reciprocal intercourse
CHAPTER XIV. 462-503
Early efforts of France to restore the civilization of
Europe—Charlemagne, A.D. 771-814—Protection against pirates—Efforts
of Venice to suppress piracy—Rise of Marseilles—Monopoly in
shipping trade—Customs on shipping—Spain; its early commercial
importance—Superior influence of the Venetians, which was invariably
used to their own advantage—Participation of Genoa and Pisa in the
profits derived from the Crusades—Venice claims the dominion of the
Adriatic, A.D. 1159—Annual ceremony of espousing the Adriatic—Bucentaur
state barge—Form of espousal—The progress and commercial policy of
Venice—Variable character of her laws, A.D. 1272; which were protective
generally, especially as regards her ships—Official exposition of
the trade of Venice—Her ships and dockyards—Merchant galleys—Their
greatest size—Contract for the construction of vessels—Great variety of
classes—The Gondola—The Tarida—The Zelander—The Huissier—The Cat—The
Saitie—The Galliot, &c.—The Galeass—The Galleon—The Buzo—Government
merchant galleys—How engaged, equipped, and manned—Nobles’ sons taken
on board—Capacity of these vessels—Crew, and regulations on board—Value
of their cargoes—Despatch boats—Consuls; their establishment,
duties and emoluments—Ancient ships’ consuls; their duties—The
Cartel—Conditions of the contract—Restraints upon seamen—Extraordinary
display on the departure of any important expedition—The reception of
the commander, and his plan of inspection—Signal to depart—Adaptation
of merchant vessels to the purposes of war—Regulations at sea—Stringent
rules to regulate the loading of vessels
CHAPTER XV. 504-546
Prohibition to trade with infidels—Its futility—Commercial policy
of the Italian republics—Genoa—Genoese fleets and treaties with
the Venetians—The Genoese restore the Greek dynasty, and secure
a more permanent footing at Constantinople—Galata—Kaffa—Genoese
vessels—Details of contract with the ship-builders—Napier’s description
of a large Genoese ship of the fifteenth century—Evident mistakes in
the account—First great improvement in the Genoese ships—Genoese
carrack—Their corsairs and pirates—The most daring of the pirates;
their terrible fate—Corsairs—Bologna and Ancona—Importance of Pisa—Her
trade with the Saracens, about A.D. 1100; and ships—Her first great
misfortune—Mode of conducting her trade—Florence—The Florentines
ship goods from a port of Pisa—Sale and transfer of Leghorn, A.D.
1421—First expeditions to Egypt, Constantinople, and Majorca—Freedom
of commercial intercourse amongst the Florentines—Their frugality,
contrasted with their magnificent public displays—Duties and powers
of the board of the “six consuls of the sea”—Their public vessels,
and the trade in which they were employed—Consular agents—Extent
of the Florentine commerce, and cause of its decline—The smaller
states—Decorations and traditionary emblems of ships—Signals—Manners
and customs of seamen—Their legends—Punishments for gambling and
swearing—Superstitions—Manners and morals, A.D. 1420—General severity
of punishments—Impaling, flogging, &c.—Branding
CHAPTER XVI. 547-581
Spain and Portugal—Importance of their commerce in ancient times; and
its decline during the Middle Ages—Trade with the coasts of Africa—The
maritime discoveries of the Portuguese—Expeditions along the West
Coast of Africa by order of Prince Henry—Discovery of Madeira, A.D.
1418—Capes Boyador and Blanco, A.D. 1441—Cape Verde Islands, A.D.
1446, and Azores, A.D. 1449—Equator crossed, A.D. 1471—John II. of
Portugal—First attempt to reach India by the Cape of Good Hope, A.D.
1487—Ancient dread of the Atlantic—Christopher Columbus—His ideas of
the form of the earth, and love for maritime discovery—His visit to
Lisbon, and treatment by the Portuguese—His formal proposal in 1480
to the crown of Portugal, which is referred to a learned junto, who
ridicule his idea—He leaves Lisbon, A.D. 1484; and visits Spain,
A.D. 1485—His kind reception by the prior of the convent of La
Rabida—First interview with the sovereigns of Spain—Its result—The
ridicule he endured—Evidences of an inhabited country to the West of
Europe—Orders given by Ferdinand to provide Columbus with the vessels
and stores necessary for his voyage to the West—Conditions signed 17th
April, 1492—Vessels at last provided for the expedition—Their size
and character—Smallness of the expedition—Its departure, 3rd August,
1492—Arrival at the Canary Islands—Great fear and discontent among the
crews—Matters become serious—Contemplated mutiny—Land discovered 12th
October, A.D. 1492—Columbus takes possession of the island of Guanahani
in the name of Spain—The first impressions of the natives on Columbus
CHAPTER XVII. 582-620
The state of the West India Islands when discovered—Wreck of one of
the vessels of the expedition—A colony established—Columbus sets sail
for Spain, 4th January, 1493—Arrives at St. Mary’s, 18th February,
and in the Tagus a few days afterwards—Re-enters, with his ship, the
harbour of Palos, 15th March—Great rejoicings—He proceeds to Seville
and Barcelona—Orders for a fresh expedition—Its extent, and departure,
25th Sept., 1493—Reaches Dominica, 2nd Nov., 1493, and Santa Cruz, 14th
Nov.—Arrives at Hayti, 22nd Nov.—Founds a fresh colony at Hispaniola or
Hayti—Sufferings of the colonists, and disappointment of Columbus—His
sanguine expectations for the future—Threatened mutiny among the
colonists—Columbus proceeds on further explorations—Discovery of the
island of Jamaica—Surveys Cuba, and returns to Isabella—Arrival of
Bartholomew Columbus—Intrigues at home—Commission of inquiry despatched
to Hayti—Columbus sets sail for Europe, 10th March, 1496—Arrives at
Cadiz, 11th June, 1496—Re-visits the West, May 1498—Reaches Trinidad,
31st July—Discovers Tobago, Granada, and other islands, reaching
Hispaniola, 19th August—Finds everything in disorder—Makes a tour of
inspection, but is arrested, and sent a prisoner to Spain—Arrives at
Cadiz, Nov. 1500, and is restored to the royal favour—A fleet sails
for the colony with Ovando, Feb. 1502, and two months afterwards (9th
May) Columbus follows, and reaches St. Domingo, 29th June—Discovers
the island of Guanaga 30th July—Trading canoe—Her cargo—Prosecutes his
researches to the South—Reaches Cape Honduras—Discovers and explores
the Mosquito coast—Puerto Bello—Forms a settlement on the river Belem,
6th Feb., 1503—Anchors at Jamaica, June 1503, and Dominica, 13th August
of that year—Sails for Spain, 12th September, which he reaches 7th
Nov., 1504—His sufferings and death, 20th May, 1506.
APPENDICES.
PAGE
APPENDIX No. 1 625
” No. 2 628
” No. 3 629
” No. 4 629
” No. 5 632
” No. 6 634
” No. 7 636
” No. 8 642
” No. 9 650
” No. 10 652
” No. 11 653
” No. 12 653
” No. 13 654
INDEX 657
INTRODUCTORY.
Introductory—The first attempt to float, by means of a
hollowed log and raft—The Ark—Boats of skin—Earliest
boats or ships—Their form—Mode of construction—Names of
ships—Decorations—Launching, &c.—Master—Mate—Boatswain—St. Paul’s
ship—Rig and sails—Undergirders—Anchors and cables—Decks—Nautical
instruments—Mariner’s compass—Speed of ancient ships.
[Sidenote: Introductory.]
It is my intention to write a History of Merchant Shipping; I am not
aware that there exists any work of the kind contemplated. No doubt
everything relating to the vessels of ancient times has been published
in one form or another, as also an account of all that is known of
the maritime commerce of the Middle Ages; but this information is
widely scattered, and frequently so diffused among other matters
of a very different description, that considerable research is
necessary to ascertain where it is to be found. I desire to remedy
this inconvenience, and to furnish from those fragmentary materials a
consecutive, though necessarily a condensed, account of the Merchant
Shipping, Ancient and Modern, of those nations which at different
periods have carried on an extensive over-sea commerce. I shall also
presume to correct some errors and misapprehensions which have found
their way into the writings of men who, though far more competent to
undertake the work of an historian, have not had an opportunity of
gaining a practical knowledge of this special subject.
It is only from Holy Writ, from the fragments in the works of heathen
historians and poets, and from the sculptured monuments of the East,
that information can be obtained about the vessels and commerce of
very ancient times. From such sources I shall endeavour to compile,
in a manner as brief as possible consistently with perspicuity, a
narrative of how these vessels were constructed, manned, and navigated,
separating, as far as my knowledge and experience will permit, facts
from fiction, and omitting legends frequently accepted as historical
truths. It can serve no good purpose to record descriptions of ships
evidently the creations of romance; and, in a work professing to deal
with established facts, care must be taken to admit nothing improbable
unless well authenticated.
It will not be the least pleasing portion of my work to furnish, as
fully as I can, a description of the manners and customs of the seamen
of all nations, and, at the same time, to notice incidentally their
habits, prejudices, and superstitions. To illustrate the effects
produced upon maritime commerce by the laws of different nations, it
will be necessary to direct attention to those legislative measures
which have had a marked bearing upon its prosperity or otherwise.
Towards the close of this work, the merchant vessels of our own
time, the cost of construction, speed, and capacity for cargo, will
be fully described, as well as the number and duties of the crew, and
the expenses of management. I shall endeavour to supply every material
fact connected with the business of the shipowner, which nowadays is
separated from that of the merchant, so that hereafter a complaint
may not be urged against me for having followed the example of other
writers, and by so doing omitted interesting and instructive knowledge,
simply because it was of a character hitherto considered beyond the
province of the historian.
Many years have already been employed in collecting materials for
this work, but hitherto time has been wanting for the study and
elucidation of a subject which, from the nature of my avocations, can
hardly fail to prove interesting to myself, whatever it may be to my
readers. To trace the origin of navigation, and to detail the numerous
steps by which the merchant vessels of the great trading nations of
the world have reached their present state of perfection; to record
those discoveries in science and art connected with navigation,
which enable the mariner to cross the ocean without fear and with
unerring certainty; to dilate upon those triumphs of man’s genius and
skill whereby he can bid defiance to the elements; and to enter in
these pages the names of the men who have benefited mankind by their
maritime discoveries, or by affording greatly increased facilities for
intercourse between nations, is to me a task of the most gratifying
description.
But as many of my readers may not take so lively an interest in a
subject necessarily dry in its character and technical in its details,
I shall endeavour to describe everything relating to shipping in clear
and condensed language, so as to induce them, if possible, to accompany
me in my researches; and it is to be hoped that at least the ships and
commerce of the ancient Egyptians and Phœnicians, and of those nations
which, like Carthage and Assyria, have long since passed away, may
prove not uninteresting to the general public.
Passing from very remote ages, I purpose to examine the maritime
commerce and shipping of the different nations which flourished from
about the time when, on the decline of the power of Rome, the Italian
Republics arose; and thence through the Middle Ages, till Spain sent
forth her celebrated Armada, to the period when Great Britain, slowly
but surely extending her influence upon the ocean, claimed to be
“Mistress of the Seas.”
Considerable space must likewise be devoted to an account of the
principal institutions connected with shipping, and to the vast changes
which have taken place in the over-sea carrying trade since Vasco da
Gama doubled the Cape of Good Hope, and Christopher Columbus discovered
a new and now mighty world to the West.
But the larger portion of this work will be devoted to the progress of
Modern Shipping. Since the introduction of steam, the merchant navies
of the world have increased to an enormous extent; and in comfort,
beauty, and speed, the vessels of the present day immeasurably surpass
those of any other period. Modern appliances in their propulsion, while
altering the mode in which commercial pursuits are conducted, have also
materially changed the seats and centres of maritime commerce. Changes
such as these necessarily require to be fully described, and their
results carefully recorded.
As the ports of Great Britain are now free to the vessels of all
nations, it will be my duty to explain the nature of the navigation
laws of Cromwell and of the reciprocity treaties of Huskisson, and
to show how, step by step, all barriers to free navigation have been
removed. The fallacy of endeavouring to enrich ourselves by the ruin of
our neighbours will be exposed, and, from the experience of the past, I
shall hope to inculcate lessons of use for the future.
Ample materials are to be found for the elucidation of most of
these subjects, and there can be no excuse to plead, beyond my own
incapacity, if I fail to produce a work which shall hereafter be
useful for reference, especially with regard to the merchant vessels
of modern times. Though the enterprising traders of Tyre extended
their commercial intercourse to all parts of the Mediterranean and
even to the Northern and the Erythræan Seas, yet her merchants,
“who were princes,” and her traffickers, who were “the great men
of the earth,” have left no records of their vast commerce, nor of
the vessels which were engaged in it. No mercantile man appears to
have written an account of how he conducted his trade, or given to
posterity a drawing of his ship; nor, indeed, to have recorded anything
relating to the great maritime state to which he belonged. Our limited
knowledge of Tyre is derived therefore almost exclusively from other
sources. If these early navigators had taken one-half the pains to
transmit to posterity the sum of their acquired knowledge, practical
and historical, which the Egyptians have done, a vast amount of
information would have been added to the science of ancient navigation
and commerce. Unfortunately, almost every vestige of Phœnicia has been
swept away, a significant example that the most extended commerce,
enjoyed by a purely trading people, cannot alone save them from
eventual insignificance and oblivion.
In concluding these introductory remarks, I may be fairly permitted to
indulge the hope that, from the vast stores of knowledge bequeathed
to us, we may leave more lasting records of our maritime commerce
than either Tyre or Carthage, and that the improved civilization
and extensive colonial possessions of Great Britain may render her
pre-eminence at sea and her commercial greatness much more enduring
than the once celebrated maritime city of the Phœnicians, which has
become “a place for the spreading of nets in the midst of the sea,” and
“a spoil to the nations.”
[Sidenote: The first attempt to float, by means of a hollowed log, and
raft.]
It is impossible to say who first taught man to float upon a log or
an inflated skin, or who had the genius to construct the earliest
raft. The exclusive honour of the discovery of navigation—which now,
through the successive improvements of many ages, and the application
of steam as a motive power, has arrived at its present high state of
development, tending to the safety, convenience, and civilization of
mankind—is too great an honour to be awarded to any single individual.
Indeed it is a glory which writers alike in ancient and in modern
times have declined to confer on any frail mortal like themselves.
Accordingly the Libyans and the Greeks ascribed the merit of the
invention to the gods. Neptune, however little in other respects may be
known of this mythological personage, was not only worshipped by the
ancients as the first inventor of navigation and supreme ruler of the
sea, but his glory has survived the wreck of empires and the extinction
of races, and the name of a heathen god is still associated with the
dominion of the ocean.
There is, however, no difficulty in conceiving what would give the
first idea of flotation. At the period of the earliest history of man
acknowledged by Christian nations, our first parents must have noticed
leaves or branches of trees floating in the river “which went out of
Eden to water the garden.” Thus would be conceived at the creation of
man the idea of a vessel or of a substance which would float and could
be made useful for his wants.[1] The buoyancy of the branch or trunk
of a tree would suggest the means of carrying him across unfordable
rivers; and there is no doubt that, long anterior to the era assigned
to Noah, the first step in the art of ship-building was taken in
hollowing out the log by fire, or by some rude instrument, in order to
render more secure the position of any adventurous navigator. A pole
or paddle might be used to propel the rude barque, but probably ages
passed away without any improvement in this respect. In fact, to this
day, some of the inhabitants of the Polynesian Islands have not made
any greater progress in the construction of their primitive vessels;
and the canoes in the Pacific, and in various parts of South America,
are still formed on what is evidently the most ancient model of vessels.
While the hollow log was made to answer the purpose of a boat, a
number of logs placed together would suggest the idea of a raft, for
the carrying of a number of persons or animals, or of any article of
greater weight than could be conveyed in a canoe across a lake or
river. These, by degrees, would be improved in form, in strength, or
in capacity, to suit the wants of man or the navigation for which they
were intended. The ingenuity of even the rudest savages would lead
them, it may be easily supposed, in course of time, to construct their
raft so as to make it more easy of propulsion, and thus give to it the
first form of a ship.
[Sidenote: The Ark.]
But it is doubtful if any progress were made in ship-building beyond
the mere raft, anterior to the period assigned to the Flood; and
the Ark[2] of Noah is unquestionably the first ship of which we have
any notice, either in acknowledged history or in the legends of the
earliest nations. As this vessel, however, has been so much a matter
of controversy, some of our readers may think it well, in imitation
of other modern writers, that we should omit the consideration of the
subject. But the difficulties, physical and practical, surrounding it
ought not to induce us to pass over altogether unnoticed the earliest
recorded effort of naval architecture. This great ship is described
in Scripture[3] as having been three hundred cubits in length, fifty
in breadth, and thirty in height or depth—dimensions corresponding
very nearly with those of the most approved models of the sailing
vessels of the present day. If the cubit be taken at eighteen inches,
her registered tonnage, reckoned according to the present mode of
admeasurement, would not have been more than fifteen thousand tons, or
considerably less than that of the _Great Eastern_.
But the probability is that, after all, the Ark was simply a raft of
stupendous size, bearing on it a structure of the above dimensions
resembling a huge warehouse, roofed in the usual manner, and built
to float on the breast of a great flood, the narrative in the Bible
neither suggesting nor requiring any means of propulsion.[4]
[Sidenote: Boats of skin.]
Although for years after the Flood[5] the raft may have been the only
form of vessel for carrying heavy burthens, other means of flotation
must soon have suggested themselves; and of these, the inflated skins
of animals would seem to have prevailed the most generally and the
most widely. Thus on the ancient monuments recently discovered by Mr.
Layard, we find numerous representations of the Assyrians crossing a
river—probably the Tigris—on inflated skins; and rafts may also be
seen on which goods and men are floating down similarly supported.[6]
The same practice is still in use among the present inhabitants of
the country, and is also noticed as common on the Setlege by Baron
Hügel, in his interesting “Travels in Cashmir.”[7] Baron Hügel
also speaks of baskets, suspended from ropes firmly tied to each
shore, for crossing the mountain waters of the same river; while
_coracles_—basket-work over which leather or prepared flannel has been
stretched—may still be seen in Wales, thus enabling the inhabitants to
fish, and to cross streams not otherwise fordable. It is also worthy
of note that Pliny[8] alludes to this custom, where he states that
“Even now, in British waters, vessels of vine-twigs sewn round with
leather are used.” Mr. Layard[9] likewise speaks of still finding on
the Tigris light boats called _terradas_, constructed by the Southern
Mesopotamians of twisted reeds, rendered watertight by bitumen, and
often of sufficient consistency to support four or five men. As a
remarkable proof of the long persistency of custom and of trade, we may
add that the bitumen of Babylonia was exported to Egypt so early as the
reign of Thothmes III., B.C. 1500, from the Is (now Hit) of Herodotus,
where it is still abundant.
The _balza_ of the western coast of South America, in use within the
last hundred years, appears to have been a raft of logs of very light
wood carefully fastened together, and capable of carrying occasionally
as much as twenty tons.[10]
Such were probably the rude beginnings of the art of ship-building.
[Sidenote: Earliest boats or ships.]
Though it is impossible to give any authentic details of forms and
means of navigation, such as those we have mentioned—remembrances as
they are of pre-historic times—we need not doubt that the earliest
people who practised navigation, in any sense after the manner since
recognised, by ships or boats as distinguished from rafts, were the
inhabitants of the eastern coast of the Mediterranean, and, notably,
the Phœnicians of Sidon and Tyre.
The Phœnicians, however, as is now admitted, were not originally
inhabitants of the territory they have made famous by their commercial
operations, but immigrants from the shores of the Persian Gulf, whence
they carried with them the nautical tastes and knowledge they had been
maturing, perhaps for centuries, to develop them in a new and enlarged
sphere. Indeed, it is not unlikely that, antecedently to History, these
enterprising people had made voyages even to the far-distant East, as
the “Erythræan Sea” comprehended an area far wider than our Red Sea,
being really, as in Herodotus,[11] what we now call the “Indian Ocean.”
If it be true that Jacob’s blessing,[12] “Zebulun shall dwell at the
haven of the sea; and he shall be for an haven of ships,” is probably
the earliest written document implying navigation of _any_ kind, it is
at the same time impossible to determine at what period that prophecy
was to take place, while the occurrence of the name Zidon in the
next paragraph, “His border shall be unto Zidon,” might suggest the
inference that the wording of this announcement, as we have it now, is
of later date than Jacob himself.
Neither the Egyptians nor the Greeks have any claim to be considered
among the first navigators; indeed, the former people were during their
whole history averse to seafaring pursuits, and were dependent on the
Phœnicians for nearly all their carrying trade, beyond what passed
along their own great river, while the first Greek expedition—that of
the Argonauts, to which we shall refer presently—was possibly as much a
Phœnician as a Greek adventure.
[Sidenote: Their form.]
In form, we may be sure that the first boats were flat-bottomed—barges
for river service rather than ships for the sea. But keels must have
been added as soon as ever coasting voyages commenced, or any speed was
needed. In shallow waters they may have been propelled by poles, like
modern punts; but oars, and at least one sail of simple construction,
must have been introduced very early.
Passing over the exploits attributed to Perseus, Theseus, and
Bellerophon, from which no facts worthy of record are deducible, it
is enough to state here that in the construction of the earliest
rafts or boats the axe or the adze was, probably, the only implement
the builders possessed, the result of their work being doubtless of
the rudest character;[13] and that the timber first employed would
be that most ready at hand in the countries where such vessels were
first required; though but a short time would elapse, and but little
experience be needed, to insure the selection of those woods which
were the best for the purpose intended. Phœnicia, Cyprus, and Greece
were well supplied with all the timber that could have been wanted.
Hence we have early notices of the employment of the oak, the chestnut,
and the cedar; while the pine, together with the alder, the ilex, and
the ash, were in general use for ship-building. Many fanciful stories
are told in Hesiod, Vegetius, and other writers, of the methods adopted
by the ancient workmen to secure sound and durable timber; but on these
we need not here dwell.
[Sidenote: Mode of construction.]
It may be inferred from the passage in Homer that in his time sawn
timber was not unknown; and, though nearly all the then voyages were
performed by coasting from headland to headland, it is clear from
other passages[14] that the navigators did even then sometimes venture
out of sight of land: their vessels were, however, then, and for many
years later, undecked; few representations of any ancient galleys, even
on the earliest vases, having come down to us in which there is any
certain indication of a deck: while Thucydides distinctly gives it as
his opinion that the Homeric vessels were only large open boats.[15]
The larger ones had, perhaps, a sort of half-deck, to give the people
in them a little shelter. Being flat-floored and of small immersion,
they as it were glided over the surface of the water, having little
or no power of resistance to the action of the waves, and being,
therefore, capable of very little progress except when sailing before
the wind. To enable them to resist the penetrating power of the
water, the ancients appear to have used in very early times a species
of pounded sea-shells, introduced carefully into the seams and chinks
between the planks—a process found to answer well for a short time;
when, however, the ship strained, this caulking was liable to fall out,
letting in the water as before. A somewhat similar method is described
in the Transactions of the Embassy sent to China in 1792, as seen there
at that time.
In later days, other methods were adopted; one of which, attributed by
Pliny to the Belgæ,[16] consisted in beating pounded seeds into the
fissures between the planks of vessels—a substance, he says, found to
be more tenacious than glue, and more to be relied on than pitch. This
is evidently the same in principle as the modern practice of caulking.
In the same way we find in remote times that pitch and wax were used
partly for the prevention of leakage, and partly also to preserve the
planks from the sea-weeds and animalculæ with which the waters of the
Mediterranean abound.[17] The discovery, too, of what is supposed to
have been a galley of Trajan at the bottom of Lake Riccio shows clearly
that, in Roman times, sheathing as well as caulking were used to
preserve the bottoms of ships. The famous Locke,[18] alluding to this
discovery, says, “Here we have caulking and sheathing together above
sixteen hundred years ago; for I suppose no one can doubt that the
sheet of lead nailed over the outside with copper nails was sheathing,
and that in great perfection; the copper nails being used rather than
iron, which, when once rusted in water with the working of the ship,
soon lose their hold and drop out.”
[Sidenote: Names of ships.]
Ships in ancient times were known by a great variety of names, most of
which are descriptive of the purposes for which they were built, or of
the services in which they were employed.
Omitting _triremes_, the most usual _ships of war_, the following list
enumerates their chief varieties:—
Thus _olkas_ was a large heavy tow-barge; _ponto_—a word of Gallic or
Celtic origin[19]—a _punt_.
_Gaulos_, a round heavy merchant vessel, named probably so originally
by the Phœnicians, and preserved to modern days in the galleon or
galeass of the Middle Ages, and the _galley_ of later times.
_Corbitæ_, slow sailing ships of burthen—so called because they carried
baskets at their mast-heads. _Hippagogi_, as their name implies,
carried horses. The characteristic of all these vessels was that their
structure was bulky, their sides and bottom rounded from the flat, and,
though not without rowers, that they were chiefly dependent on their
sails.
Of a lighter class, and for greater speed, were the _scapha_ (or
skiff); the _acation_, or _acatus_; and the _linter_, which, though
like _ratis_, often used for any kind of vessel, was more strictly a
light boat or wherry.[20] Generically, merchant vessels were called
_mercatoriæ_, or _vectoriæ_, as being the carriers of merchandise. So
_piscatoriæ_ were boats used for fishing.
[Sidenote: Decorations.]
The ships of the Greeks had various ornaments attached to the prow and
stern, most of which were afterwards adopted by the Romans, and may
even still be seen on the waters of the Mediterranean. Thus an eye
painted on each side of the prow was supposed to indicate watchfulness
and to ward off ill-luck; while the prow itself terminated in the
_acrostolium_, the head of an animal or bird—corresponding in principle
with our figure-head. An original goose-head (technically called
_cheniscus_) is still preserved in the Bibliothèque at Paris.[21] So,
at a later period, St. Paul’s ship had for its “ensign” the “sign of
Castor and Pollux,”[22] while Ovid’s ship, which bore him to the land
of his exile, had a head of Minerva painted on her prow.[23]
On the stern was the _aplustre_, forming a kind of roof over the
steersman, and bearing also the image of the tutelary Deity—a flag or
pennon—sometimes a lantern, as may be seen on Trajan’s Column, and
the purple sail which, in Roman times, marked the Admiral’s ship.[24]
Ships, it appears, were from remote times painted with various colours.
Thus Homer specifies black, red, and purple,[25] and Herodotus speaks
of red paint;[26] while Plautus, in a well-known passage, classes
together ships and women as equally greedy of ornament.[27] It was
also, occasionally, the custom to paint the sails with stripes of
various colours.
As a rule, the names of the ships were, in ancient days, feminine, and
named from celebrated women, as Nausicaa; hence Aristophanes calls
them “Virgins.”[28] The Romans, on the other hand, sometimes gave them
masculine names.
[Sidenote: Launching, &c.]
From the earliest ages, the launch of a vessel has been attended with
considerable ceremonies; frequently with feasting and bands of music,
and a dedication to various deities who were supposed to watch over her
safety in an especial manner. On setting sail, she was adorned with
flowers and garlands indicative of future prosperity; and the special
aid of Neptune, Minerva, and of the other gods invoked with solemn
prayer and sacrifices for her success.[29] When large fleets started,
it was usual to send the lighter vessels first, then the ships which
acted as convoy, and lastly those of heavy burthen or deep draught of
water. The oars, when not required, were triced up to the sides of the
vessels. On the completion of the voyage, ships were generally hauled
up on shore and protected from the weather; similar prayers being
again offered to Nereus, Glaucus, Melicertes, and the other deities
of the sea, or to Mercury, to whom the merchant and shipowner (then
almost invariably identical in meaning) had specially committed their
ships.[30]
Men who had escaped shipwreck felt bound to make special offerings to
the gods in testimony of their gratitude; sometimes hanging up in a
neighbouring temple the garment in which they had been saved,[31] or
shaving their hair—a custom Petronius justly calls the last vow of men
who have saved nothing but their lives.[32]
Rigid discipline was maintained on board the ships, and punishments
of great severity inflicted on those who failed to keep proper ward
and watch; nay, even the barbarous practice of “keel-hauling,” once
not uncommon in the English service, was not wholly unknown to the
ancients. The crews were generally composed of two classes; the
mariners, who attended to the navigation and trimming of the sails,
and the rowers. These offices were usually kept distinct, the mariners
being rarely, except in cases of great emergency, compelled to labour
at the oars.[33]
The work of the rowers, to which we shall allude more particularly
hereafter, was one of severe toil; hence, as in modern times, the
music of the voice or the pipe stimulated the rowers to fresh exertion
or tended to relieve the depressing monotony of their work.[34] Many
ancient writers, and notably Xenophon, Polybius, and Arrian,[35] have
left us interesting accounts of the way in which the rowers were
trained; the practice of the Greeks and Romans, and especially that of
the latter people, having been remarkable for its perfection in the
execution of the most difficult manœuvres.
[Sidenote: Master.]
The master or pilot, whose place was in the stern, though not himself
required to steer, was expected to understand the due management of the
rudder and sails, the usual course of the winds, the indications in
the sky of a change of weather, and the situation of the harbours most
fitting for his vessel, or of the shoals the most to be avoided.[36]
He was also expected to take proper cognizance of the omens offered by
the sea-fowl and fishes, with divers other phenomena, as the murmuring
of the floods, the dashing of waves against the shore, and other signs
believed to import changes in the weather.[37]
[Sidenote: Mate.]
[Sidenote: Boatswain.]
Next in authority to the master was the mate, whose place was at
the prow of the ship, and who had charge of the tackle and of the
rowers, who were placed by him on their proper seats.[38] With him was
associated a third officer, whom we may call the boatswain and steward,
as he gave the word to the rowers and distributed the rations.[39]
There was also a fourth officer, whose especial duty it was to take
heed of possible rocks or shoals, and to direct the ship at night by
the aid of long poles.
[Illustration: ST. PAUL’S SHIP, FROM THE WORK BY MR. SMITH OF JORDAN
HILL.]
[Sidenote: St. Paul’s ship.]
It is remarkable that while we have many notices of matters
comparatively unimportant, no writer of antiquity has given us any
intelligible account of the capacity of their ships of burthen, at
least anterior to the Christian era. Nor have the speculations of
modern authors been much more successful; with the exception of Mr.
Smith, of Jordan Hill. His essay “On the Voyage and Shipwreck of St.
Paul,” the work of a man of much practical experience in the management
of sailing craft, and a yachtsman of thirty years’ practice, is a
really valuable contribution to the history of ancient merchant ships.
Mr. Smith has tested, by modern experiences, the details furnished by
St. Luke,[40] and has himself worked out the “dead reckoning” of St.
Paul’s ship—a feat requiring both knowledge and skill. He has also,
by a diligent comparison of the representations of ancient vessels on
coins, and on the marbles and paintings of Pompeii, with the scriptural
account of St. Paul’s ship, reproduced as perfect a drawing as we are
ever likely to obtain of the Mediterranean merchant-ship at the dawn of
Christianity.
St. Paul’s ship must have been one of considerable size, as, besides
her cargo of grain, she had on board two hundred and seventy-six souls.
Moreover, as she had to make a long and, as it turned out, a boisterous
voyage, she must have been completely decked, and probably had two
decks from the number of passengers she carried, besides a high poop
and forecastle, like the ships of two or three centuries ago, though
these are not shown in the illustration; her bulwarks were formed of
battens fastened horizontally across the stanchions.
Mr. Smith has collected many instances bearing upon the arrangement
of different parts of ancient ships. Thus, from a painting at
Herculaneum, said to represent the ship of Theseus, he has shown that
the ancient sailors knew the use of the capstan and hawser; but it
still remains a difficulty to understand how their large ships were
steered, unless some machinery were used of which we have no account,
to work the very large oars thrust through portholes in either quarter.
Mr. Smith has also proved, from representations on the Leaning Tower of
Pisa, on the Bayeux Tapestry, and on the gold nobles of Edward III.,
that the primitive mode of steering by one or more oars—as visible on
the reliefs of Trajan’s Column—prevailed as late as the fourteenth
century; such rude appliances, however, could have been available only
for small vessels.[41]
[Sidenote: Rig and sails.]
For a long period the rig of ancient ships was of the simplest kind—a
single large square sail on the mainmast being the chief means of
propulsion. In the case of large vessels there was a sort of square
sail on a short mast at the stern, and a similar one at the bow; but
these would be of more use in steering than in propelling. The Romans
appear to have had a small triangular sail, like the Greek letter Delta
(Δ), which bore the name of _suppara_, from its supposed resemblance to
a woman’s shift;[42] but such a sail could only have been used in fair
weather.
[Sidenote: Undergirders.]
“Undergirding” a ship, as mentioned by St. Luke, is rarely practised
at the present day; but implements for that purpose—probably stream
cables or hempen hawsers—would seem certainly to have been part of the
occasional outfit of ancient vessels. They are mentioned as having been
kept in store in the Athenian arsenals, and to have been served out for
voyages known to be of unusual danger.[43]
[Sidenote: Anchors and cables.]
The use of anchors was early understood, but, in Homer’s time,
they were simply large stones attached by ropes to the prow.[44]
In after-times, much attention seems to have been paid to their
construction,[45] and ships often carried several (as St. Paul’s, which
had four[46]). A cork float marked where the anchor was sunken;[47]
and _chain_ cables were sometimes used, as is noticed by Arrian in his
account of the siege of Tyre by Alexander.[48] In St. Paul’s case, the
fact that the ship was able to anchor by the stern probably saved the
lives of those on board, as otherwise she might have driven broadside
on the rocks.
[Sidenote: Decks.]
But though, as we have stated, the small early coasting vessels may
have had no decks, the large grain-carrying ships, which performed
the voyages between Alexandria and Italy, were unquestionably fully
decked. In the so-called “ship of Theseus,”[49] there is a complete
deck, and also what would seem to be a skylight; nor need we doubt
that, in the largest and best-fitted ships, there was adequate
accommodation for both men and officers. The great ships constructed by
Ptolemy Philopater and Hiero were (as we shall see hereafter) rather
“show-ships,” and cannot be considered as representing the usual type
of even the most sumptuous of ancient merchant vessels.
[Sidenote: Nautical instruments.]
The skilled mariners of ancient days determined their latitude by
means still in use, but their instruments were very inferior. The
gnomon, in some form or other, was their most common instrument for
measuring the length of the sun’s shadow at noon on different days and
in different places. We know from Herodotus,[50] that this instrument
was of great antiquity—indeed, he ascribes the invention of it to the
Babylonians; but the report of Arrian to the Emperor Hadrian[51] of
his shipwreck implies that there were other instruments besides this
on board. Pytheas, the first known navigator of the North Sea, is said
to have determined the summer solstice at Marseilles by observing the
proportion of the shadow of the gnomon.[52] Further, Eratosthenes drew
a parallel of latitude through Gibraltar, Rhodes, and Lycia to India;
while Hipparchus made the first map, on the principle of “Mercator’s
Projection,” by transferring the celestial latitudes and longitudes
to the terrestrial globe. On the other hand, Ptolemy erred so far in
his calculation of the longitude, that he placed China 60° nearer
Europe than it really is, and thus led Columbus to fancy the distance
he had to traverse to the New World was just so much less. It must
not, however, be forgotten that Aristotle, centuries before him, when
reasoning from the assumed sphericity of the earth, was really the
first to point out that the west coast of Spain was the fittest point
of departure for India.
The latitudes were reckoned in _stadia_ from the Equator to Syracuse,
the stadium being about two hundred and one yards and one foot. The
determination of the longitude was, however, a far more difficult
problem; as the only phenomena whereby men could readily determine
the distance between any two places, viz. eclipses of the moon, would
have been of no practical value in calculating a ship’s position
at sea; moreover, it would not be easy to secure certainty in such
observations, nor could they easily be repeated. Hence the ancients
were led to depend either on actual survey, or on the vague information
obtainable from the reckonings of sailors, or on the itineraries of
travellers. We need not, therefore, be surprised when we see how
Ptolemy and the greatest of ancient geographers have erred, owing to
the impossibility of fixing with even tolerable accuracy the longitudes
of different places. It is likely that their practice of constantly
landing might have in some degree supplied their deficiency in this
particular; but we have now no record of any astronomical observations
which were made at sea, by even the most skilful of ancient navigators.
A sort of dead-reckoning—an observation of the position of the sun
during the day, or of certain stars during night—was the haphazard mode
by which their positions at sea were chiefly ascertained. If they
had been accustomed to steer a direct course instead of following the
coast line, or if they had been acquainted with the properties of the
compass, or of any instrument by which the bearings of the different
headlands could have been determined, they might, having found their
latitude, have depended, as mariners in modern times have been often
obliged to depend, with some confidence upon their dead-reckoning.
The wonder is that they should ever have ceased to hug the land, and
that they really ventured on the long voyages they unquestionably
accomplished.
[Sidenote: Mariner’s compass.]
Some writers have attempted to show that the Arabians and the Chinese
were acquainted with the mariner’s compass even in those remote ages;
but for this idea there does not seem to be any warrant whatever.
Certain it is that Marco Polo, who made voyages on the Chinese seas
in native boats, nowhere alludes to it; while Niccola de’ Conti, who
navigated the Indian waters in an Indian vessel, in 1420, after the
properties of the magnet were known in Italy, expressly states that the
mariners had no compass, but were guided by the stars of the Southern
Pole, the elevation of which they knew how to measure. Nor is there any
reason to believe that the Chinese had any greater knowledge, though
there may be in some Chinese books a notice of the physical fact that,
by constant hammering, an iron rod becomes magnetized—in other words,
has imparted to it the property of pointing to the north and to the
south.
Such a discovery, so important for purposes of navigation, would at
once have been recognised, and could not have been kept secret for ten
centuries. Moreover, there is really abundant evidence to show that
the compass had been long in use among the nations of the West before
it was adopted by the Chinese; Dr. Robertson having justly remarked
that in Arabic, Turkish, and Persian, there is not only no original
word for it, but that the name they give it is the Italian _bossolo_:
nay, further, that the Arabians have nowhere recorded any observation
by them of the variation of the needle.[53] We may add that Dr.
Robertson’s view is completely confirmed by Sir John Chardin, one of
the most learned of Eastern travellers, who made special inquiries on
this subject. “I have sailed,” says he, “from the Indies to Persia in
Indian ships when no European has been on board but myself. The pilots
were all Indians, and they used the forestaff and quadrant for their
observations. These instruments they have from us, and made by our
artists, and they do not in the least vary from ours, except that the
characters are Arabic.”[54]
[Sidenote: Speed of ancient ships.]
A few notices remain to us of the time occupied in the performance of
different voyages by ancient vessels, from which we may deduce the
general fact, that though owing to their construction—being generally
from three to four times as long as they were broad, with shallow
keels, and rarely other than square sails—they could not have made
much way _on_ a wind, they were capable of considerable speed when
the wind was right aft. Thus Pliny states that a merchant-ship passed
from Messina to Alexandria in six days; another from the Pillars of
Hercules to Ostia in seven; another from the nearest port of Spain
in four; another from Narbonne in three, and another from Africa in
two.[55] So, too, Arrian relates that the ship in which he sailed on
the Euxine accomplished five hundred stadia (or, as is more probable,
three hundred stadia) before mid-day;[56] and St. Luke tells us that he
ran from Rhegium to Puteoli (one hundred and eighty-two miles) by the
second day after he had started:[57] but, in all these cases, we may be
quite sure that the sailors had (as St. Luke distinctly states was his
case) a good stiff breeze abaft.
[Illustration: ANCIENT CARAVAN AND OTHER ROUTES.
_Engraved for Lindsay’s History of Merchant Shipping._
_Stanford’s Geog. Estabt. 6 & 7 Charing Cross_
London: Sampson Low, Marston, Low, & Searle.]
FOOTNOTES:
[1] See a good passage in Claudian’s “Rape of Proserpine,” on this
subject; and Virgil, Georg. i. 136.
[2] Noah’s Ark, B.C. 2348.
[3] Gen. vi. 15.
[4] Gen. vii. 16, 17. Cory, “Ancient Fragm.,” for traditions of the Ark
in various lands.
[5] The Scriptural narrative of a great flood, and of a great vessel
to float upon it, has just met with a remarkable confirmation. At a
meeting of the Society of Biblical Archæology, Sir Henry Rawlinson
in the chair, on December 3, 1872, Mr. George Smith, of the British
Museum, read a paper, giving an account of his discovery, on cuneiform
tablets (part of the so-called library of Ashur-ban-i-pal, king of
Nineveh), of an unquestionable account of the Deluge. The name of the
king under whom this event occurred cannot as yet be deciphered, nor
can anything like a certain date be assigned to it; but Sir Henry
Rawlinson accepted fully the truth of Mr. Smith’s decipherings. Of the
inscription describing the Flood, there are fragments of three copies,
containing duplicate texts.
[6] Layard, First Series. Pls. 10, 12, 13, 15, 25, 27, 28.
[7] Hügel, “Travels in Cashmir,” p. 27, with a picture, p. 247.
[8] Pliny, vii. 57. Cf. also Lucan, Phars. iv. 131. Such vessels were
called “boats sewn together,” Plin. xxiv. 65; and Virgil (Æn. vi. 448)
gives the same title to Charon’s boat.
[9] Layard, “Nineveh and Babylon,” pp. 522-524.
[10] “Relaçion historica del Viage a la America Meridional,” 1748;
Charnock, “Hist. Mar. Arch.” i. p. 12.
[11] Herod. i. 1.
[12] Gen. xlix. 13.
[13] Homer (Od. v. 243), &c., gives some curious details of the
building of the vessel of Ulysses; whence it appears that he made
use of an axe, had means of cutting planks, together with a boring
instrument to make holes for nails and hooks: he had also ropes, and at
least one sail. His bulwark was raised higher by wickerwork, to prevent
the sea dashing over.
[14] Hom. Od. xii. 403, as compared xiv. 302.
[15] Thucyd. ii. 13, 14.
[16] Pliny, xvi. 158.
[17] Ovid, Metam. xi. 516, and Epist. ad Œnonen, v. 42.
[18] John Locke, “Hist. of Navigation,” prefixed to Harris’s “Coll. of
Voyages.”
[19] Cæsar, Bell. Gall. iii. 29.
[20] Livy, iv. 21. Cæsar, Bell. Gall. i. 12. Tibull. ii. 5, 34.
[21] Millin’s “Dict. de Beaux-Arts.”
[22] Acts xxviii. 11.
[23] Ovid, Trist. i. 9, 2.
[24] Pliny, xix. 5.
[25] Hom. Il. ii. 637. Od. ix. 125; xi. 124.
[26] Herod. iii. 58.
[27] Plaut. Pœn. i. 2, 6.
[28] Aristoph. Equit. 1313.
[29] Virg. Æn. iii. 119.
[30] Hom. Odyss. iii. 4. Anthol. vi. c. xxi. Ep. 1.
[31] Horat. Od. i. 5, 15.
[32] Petron. c. lxiii.
[33] Polyb. lib. x.
[34] Stat. Theb. v. 343. Silius, vi. 361.
[35] Xenoph. Hist. i. Polyb. lib. x. Arrian, Peripl. Mar. Eux.
[36] Ovid. Metam. iii.
[37] Propert. lib. ii. v. 990.
[38] Xen. Œcon. v. Athen. xv.
[39] Arrian, Exp. Alex. vi.
[40] James Smith, “Voyage of St. Paul,” pp. 147-150.
[41] See Smith, pp. 143-147. The same practice may be noticed on some
of the English municipal seals: see below, p. 399, &c.
[42] Lucan, v. 428; Stat. vii. 32.
[43] Polyb. xxviii. 3. Appian, v. 91. Cf. Boeckh, Seewesen, &c., p. 134.
[44] Hom. Il. i. 436. Od. ix. 137.
[45] Pliny, vii. 209.
[46] Acts xxvii. 29.
[47] Paus. viii. 12. Pliny, xvi. 34.
[48] Arrian, Exped. Alex. ii. 21.
[49] Antichità di Ercolano, ii. 1. 14.
[50] Herod, ii. 109.
[51] Arrian, Peripl. Mar. Eux.
[52] Strabo, ii. 8.
[53] Hist. of India; Notes and Observations, p. 333—and below, p. 233.
[54] Chardin’s Travels, p. 441 _et seq._
[55] Nat. Hist. xix. 3, 4.
[56] Peripl. Mar. Eux. c. 7.
[57] Acts xxviii. 13.
MERCHANT SHIPPING.
CHAPTER I.
Maritime commerce of Antiquity—Coasting—Tyre—Argonautic
Expedition—Queen Semiramis—The Phœnicians—Early notices of
them—The prophecy of Ezekiel—Trade in tin—Origin of the name
“Cassiterides Insulæ.”—Amber—Mainland trade of Phœnicia—Cause of
prosperity—Carthage—Utica—Commercial policy—Trade with Spain—Trade
in Africa—The commercial policy of Carthage—Limits of trade.
[Sidenote: Maritime commerce of Antiquity.]
When different tribes were desirous of exchanging with each other
the commodities their countries respectively produced, their first
consideration would naturally be the means of transport; and though we
may not be able to fix the period when it commenced, the interchange of
goods by barter must have been nearly coexistent with the existence of
man himself. In the most ancient times the chief commercial routes were
undoubtedly overland; but it may safely be assumed that at a scarcely
less early period trading vessels had begun to creep along the shores
of the Red Sea, Persian Gulf, and Mediterranean, and to pass from
island to island amid the land-locked waters of the Levant.
[Sidenote: Coasting.]
There can, indeed, be no doubt that, till a period comparatively
recent, the characteristic of all early navigation was that of a
coasting trade, the mariners seldom quitting the land except when
constrained to do so by some unavoidable necessity, such as the
violence of a gale or the force of currents, or when a great saving
of distance could be effected by crossing the mouths of deep bays
where the headlands were at a moderate distance from each other. But
a coasting navigation is really subject to greater difficulties and
dangers than any other, and hence has in all times had the property
of forming the most expert seamen. Thus it was that the seamen of
Tyre found their way to Carthage, and ultimately through the pillars
of Hercules to Gades and the tin-bearing islands of the West: and
thus, too, the States of Tyre and of her great colony, Carthage, for
centuries maintained their power and lofty position in the midst of
nations in other respects greatly their superiors. By the prosecution,
too, of coasting voyages the Portuguese, in later ages, passed the
Cape of Good Hope, and reached the East Indies. Indeed nothing was
more likely to advance discovery than voyages of such a character,
for which the position of the three continents of the ancient world
afforded considerable natural facilities, especially when taken in
connection with the two long narrow seas known as the Red Sea and the
Persian Gulf. Again, the Mediterranean, with its subordinate portions,
comprising the Adriatic and the Levant, with the Black Sea and the Sea
of Azov, was peculiarly adapted for the commencement of an over-sea
trade with a shipping still rude and with sailors little skilled; while
its position in the centre, as it were, of these three continents,
surrounded by the most fruitful and civilized regions of the then
known world, prepared it, naturally, to be the principal scene of such
an intercourse.
It should also be remembered that the Mediterranean possesses the
singular advantages of a very considerable number of excellent harbours
and roadsteads, with numerous islands, projecting promontories, and
deep bays, affording excellent shelter for small undecked craft; and,
more than this, that the two nations who were, in remote ages, the most
eminent among its merchant navigators, the Tyrians and Carthaginians,
were, as a rule, peaceful traders, and slow to take up arms except
in self-defence. The Indian Ocean, within prescribed limits, and the
Persian and Arabian Gulfs, afforded somewhat similar facilities,
from the moderate distance between the opposite shores, and from the
periodical winds, which change their direction twice in the year—a
fact which could hardly fail to have been early recognised, though the
reason of this change may have remained long unsuspected. Bearing,
therefore, these physical facts and conditions in mind, it is not
unreasonable to believe that long and distant voyages were accomplished
with no greater nautical science than has been generally conceded to
the most ancient mariners.
[Sidenote: Tyre.]
We find, too, as might be supposed, that the nations who held in their
hands the means of conducting the largest amount of maritime commerce
were the most prosperous as well as the most powerful. The small state
of Phœnicia, of which, in its most prosperous days, Tyre was the
capital, though insignificant in territory and population, as compared
with either Syria or Egypt, possessed in some respects far greater
power than either. Holding, during many centuries, the command of the
sea, she was able, in great measure, to control them as she pleased,
and to prohibit their intercourse with any nations that could not be
reached by their caravans. Phœnicia, therefore, as the leading maritime
state at the earliest period to which any reliable records ascend, is
entitled to the first consideration in any work having for its object
an historical account of Merchant Shipping. To trace the course of the
extensive maritime trade of the Phœnicians is to elucidate the progress
of navigation in ancient times.
[Sidenote: Argonautic Expedition.]
Before, however, we speak of the Phœnicians we must briefly notice
two maritime adventures, which, though fabulous in most of their
details, were highly estimated by the ancients, and had, doubtless,
some foundation in fact. The first of these, the Argonautic Expedition,
as it was called, was evidently a commercial enterprise, promoted by
reports of abundant deposits of gold along the eastern shores of the
Black Sea. It is remarkable that the name of the ship from which the
expedition itself derived its appellation is almost certainly taken
from the Semitic word _arek_, “long,”[58] suggesting that it was
perhaps the first “long” ship, and indicating a direct connection with
the Phœnicians, who spoke the dialect to which this name belongs.
[Sidenote: Queen Semiramis.]
The second is the celebrated legend of Queen Semiramis, and of the
fleet she employed the Phœnicians in building, which is given at
great length by Diodorus.[59] That such a fleet was ever built, or
that Semiramis invaded India by its means, may well be questioned;
but, since the interpretation by Sir Henry Rawlinson of the Assyrian
inscriptions, we know that Semiramis is not a mythical personage, but a
real queen within historical times. In the Assyrian Hall at the British
Museum stand two statues of the god Nebo, each bearing a cuneiform
inscription, with the statement that they were made for Queen Semiramis
by a sculptor of Nineveh. Semiramis was, in fact, the wife of the
Assyrian king who is mentioned in the Bible under the name of Pul.[60]
[Sidenote: The Phœnicians.]
To recur to the Phœnicians. There has been much discussion as to
whence they came; and many able writers a few years since, as Bochart
and Heeren, held the view that they were the same as the Canaanites.
Modern research, however, fully confirms the judgment of Herodotus,[61]
that they were really immigrants from the shores of the Persian Gulf;
thereby, in themselves, affording an illustration of that great law of
migration westwards, of which that of Abraham and of his family, and
that of Chedorlaomer from Elam to the valley of the Jordan, are the
earliest recorded instances. There seems, indeed, to have been a marked
distinction between the Phœnicians and the Canaanites; the former
having been a peaceable mercantile population, generally on terms of
good will with the Jews, while the Canaanites were a fierce and warlike
race. The names, too, of many of the Phœnician cities in Syria are
believed to be of Hamite, and not of Semitic origin, as, for instance,
those of Askalon, Arka, Aradus, Gaza, and, most probably, those also of
Sidon and Tyre.
It is remarkable that a district, whose people became so famous in the
early history of the world, should have been confined within so limited
an area; for the average breadth of Phœnicia never exceeded twelve
miles, while sometimes it is considerably less. In length it was about
two hundred and twenty-five miles, from Aradus in the north to Joppa in
the south.
[Sidenote: Early notices of them.]
But if its territory was small, its position was admirably fitted for
the grandest development of over-sea trade; and Tyre itself occupied
pre-eminently the situation best fitted for carrying on the commerce
of the then known world. We shall, therefore, briefly trace the course
of that commerce, with a sketch of the chief places to which the
Tyrians traded, and with some notice of the colonies they founded in
the prosecution of this object; for to the activity of this remarkable
people we owe the first link connecting the civilization of the East
with Europe and Western Africa.[62]
The inhabitants of Phœnicia are first mentioned as Sidonians of the
coast (though the name Phœnician also occurs), whose trinkets, like
those of Autolycus, captivated the maidens of the Grecian islands,[63]
and the produce of the Sidonian looms is said in the Iliad[64] to have
been used for the most costly offerings to the gods. A little later we
are able to trace them to Cyprus, Carthage, Malta, Sicily, the Balearic
Islands, and, through the Pillars of Hercules, to Cadiz on the shores
of the Atlantic. At first, probably, kidnapping went hand-in-hand
with more legitimate trade; but, even in remote times, the presence
of the Phœnicians must have been deemed beneficial, or Pindar would
not have compared his own relations with his patron Hiero to those of
a Phœnician merchant.[65] Indeed there is no recognised value in the
dealings of the civilized with the uncivilized when they first meet;
hence those Phœnicians need not be deemed unjust who exchanged the
pottery of Athens against the ivory of Africa.[66]
[Sidenote: The prophecy of Ezekiel.]
Phœnician commerce was probably at its highest when Nebuchadnezzar,
with the view, it is likely, of obtaining a powerful navy, made his
famous attack upon Tyre. Hence the description of Tyre, and of her
dealings with the nations around her, in the celebrated prophecy of
Ezekiel, ch. xxvii., has great value as showing what her state was
(about B.C. 588) when ruin was immediately impending over her; and
it becomes worth while to give an attentive consideration to the
statements of the prophet, who was evidently well acquainted with the
history of Tyre. Thus, after stating that Tyre was “a merchant of the
people for many isles,”[67] Ezekiel tells us that her “ship boards”
were made “of fir-trees of Senir,” her masts of “cedars from Lebanon,”
her oars “of the oaks of Bashan,” and the benches of her galleys “of
ivory, brought out of the isles of Chittim.”[68] It is true that doubts
have been expressed as to the fitness of some of these materials for
the purposes mentioned; but it is, perhaps, best not to strain to the
uttermost a description obviously poetical. The “ivory” here noticed is
most likely box-wood,[69] the abundant produce of Corsica, Italy, and
Spain, of the “Isles of Chittim,” or Western Europe.
“The inhabitants of Zidon and Arvad” (Aradus, now Ruad,) “were thy
mariners;”[70] but Tyre kept the command of her ships in her own hands,
for “thy wise men, O Tyrus, that were in thee, were thy pilots.”[71]
“The ancients of Gebal,” Ezekiel continues, “and the wise men thereof
were in thee thy calkers. All the ships of the sea with their mariners
were in thee to occupy their merchandise;”[72] that is, besides their
own shipping, they largely employed those of surrounding and seafaring
peoples, as those of Cyprus, and probably of Rhodes and Crete. “Fine
linen with broidered work from Egypt was that which thou spreadest
forth to be thy sail; blue and purple from the isles of Elishah was
that which covered thee.”[73] The isles of Elishah are generally
supposed to be the Greek Archipelago, and Pausanias states that the
purple of the coast of Laconia, which was but little inferior to that
of Tyre itself, was used for the decoration of awnings.[74] “Javan”
(the Ionian Greeks) “Tubal, and Meshech” (probably the people of the
southern coasts of the Black Sea) “they were thy merchants; they traded
the persons of men and vessels of brass in thy market;”[75] a trade
in slaves which has survived to the present day from the neighbouring
district of Circassia; as, also, many of the brazen vessels procurable
at Mosul and other Turkish entrepôts derive their copper from the
mountain districts of the Taurus.
Again, “They of the house of Togarmah traded in thy fairs with horses
and horsemen and mules,”[76] a species of merchandise equally existent
now in Armenia (or Togarmah),[77] that country being still as famous
for its horses and mules as it was then. The constant denunciations of
the prophets show how the baneful trade in slaves prevailed of old.[78]
The Mossynoeci and Chalybes were famous for their mineral wealth;[79]
and the prophet adds, “Tarshish was thy merchant by reason of the
multitude of all kind of riches; with silver, iron, tin, and lead, they
traded in thy fairs.”[80] “The ships of Tarshish did sing of thee in
thy market.”[81] Tarshish has been identified by some with Tartessus
in Spain, by others with other places; but the probability is that
the phrase “ships of Tarshish” was an accepted term for any vessels
with large and rich cargoes, like our name “Indiamen.” Ancient history
abounds with notices of the mineral wealth of the Spanish Peninsula.
Aristotle tells us that silver was once so abundant there, that the
Phœnicians not only freighted their ships with it, but even made their
anchors of that precious metal;[82] and iron, lead, salt, corn, and
wine, were among its most common productions.[83]
[Sidenote: Trade in tin.]
Tin, which has been often attributed, as by the prophet, to Spain,
probably came thence only in small quantities;[84] though some is,
indeed, still found in Porto, Beira, and Bragança, and was exhibited
in the Exhibition of 1862. The great bulk, however, of this metal was
brought from the _Cassiterides Insulæ_, unquestionably the Scilly
Islands, and from Cornwall; partly, as may be readily believed, by
Phœnician vessels which sailed thither from Gades, and partly from St.
Michael’s Mount, whence it was conveyed, through France, on the backs
of horses, as Diodorus has pointed out, to the great Roman colonies of
Marseilles and Narbonne.[85]
In the Museum at Truro is still preserved a pig of tin, supposed by
some to be one of the original Phœnician blocks. It is impossible to
assign even a probable period for the commencement of the tin trade;
but this is certain, that some of the earliest objects in metal which
have come down to us, are formed of an alloy of copper with tin,
generally in nearly the same proportions, _viz._ ten to twelve per
cent. of tin. Such monuments are the nails which fastened on the plates
of the so-called Treasury of Atreus at Mycenæ, the instruments found in
the earliest Egyptian tombs, the bowls and lion-weights from Nineveh,
and the so-called “celts” from European graves. All these facts tend
to show that the ancient world must have been acquainted with tin at a
very remote period.
[Sidenote: Origin of the name “Insulæ Cassiterides.”]
There has been much discussion as to the meaning of the word
_cassiteros_, which has no equivalent in either the Semitic or the
Greek families of languages; on the other hand, the Sanscrit name
for tin, _kastira_, is almost the same. It seems, therefore, not
improbable that the Phœnicians, while still in their old homes on
the Persian Gulf, may have found their way in pre-historic ages to
India, and may there have met with it, as it is abundant at Banka in
the Straits of Sumatra; then, when in later days they found it again
in even greater abundance in England, that they gave it the name they
had previously adopted from the far East.[86] The trade in tin was so
valuable that the Phœnicians did their best to keep secret the locality
whence they obtained it; and Strabo tells a curious tale of a merchant
captain, whose ship was pursued by the Romans, and who preferred
stranding his vessel to allowing her to fall into their hands, whereby
the secret would have been discovered; and moreover, that on his return
home, he recovered from his government the value of the ship he had
thus sacrificed for the public weal of his country.[87]
[Sidenote: Amber.]
Another very important trade may be noticed here, though it is not
strictly of Phœnician origin, that in _amber_. This semi-mineral
substance, as is well known, is procured chiefly from the shores of
the Baltic, though it is not unknown elsewhere. There is a curious
record of what was supposed to be its discovery, in Pliny’s account[88]
of an exploratory voyage by Pytheas, of Marseilles, who named the
island whence he obtained it Abulus. Xenophon of Lampsacus, however,
calls the island Baltia—whence obviously our Baltic. The amber trade
is strangely mixed up with one of the most poetical of ancient
legends, that of the daughters of Phaethon, who are said to have been
changed into poplars, and to have wept amber by the banks of a river
called Eridanus, generally identified with the great river of Italy,
the Po. But there was also an Eridanus on the Baltic shores, which
has left traces of its name in that of a small river still flowing
near the modern town of Dantzig. Tacitus, referring to amber as an
article of commerce—the native name of which he states to be _glesum_
(_glass?_)—refers to the Suionæ, who dwelt along those shores, and had
vessels differing from the Roman type in that they were equally high
at prow and stern. This is even now characteristic of what are called
Norway yawls.[89]
[Sidenote: Mainland trade of Phœnicia.]
It is not so easy to trace the course of Phœnician commerce with the
countries on the mainland to the north, east, and south, as it is in
the case of the islands of the west. But here, too, the statements
of the Prophet come to our aid, and enable us to fill up an outline
which would have been otherwise very incomplete. Thus we find Ezekiel
saying, “The men of Dedan were thy merchants ... they brought thee
for a present horns of ivory and ebony,”[90] and “precious cloths for
chariots.”[91] So Syria,[92] Dan and Javan,[93] and “the merchants
of Sheba and Raamah,”[94] dealt with Tyre in precious stones, fine
linen, broidered work, and gold. From “Judah and the land of Israel,”
from “Minnith and Pannag,” she obtained “wheat and honey, and oil and
balm;”[95] from Damascus, “the wine of Helbon and white wool;”[96]
and from “Arabia and all the princes of Kedar,” lambs and rams and
goats.[97] Lastly, to those “of Persia, and of Lud, and of Phut,” she
was indebted for her mercenaries, for they “were in thine army, thy men
of war: they hanged the shield and helmet in thee; they set forth thy
comeliness. The men of Arvad with thine army were upon thy walls round
about, and the Gammadims were in thy towers: they hanged their shields
upon thy walls round about; they have made thy beauty perfect.”[98]
The probability is that most of the Tyrian commerce with the East
was carried on by the aid of caravans passing through Arabia Felix
to Petra, and thence to the western seaports of Gaza, Askalon, and
Ashdod.[99] Many of the more precious articles were obtainable direct
from Arabia;[100] spices, of which cinnamon and cassia (the produce of
the same plant, _Laurus cassia_), were of great importance, were best
procured thence up to the discovery of Ceylon;[101] while some, like
the “bright iron” and the calamus (_Calamus aromaticus_) point to India
itself for their origin. The “bright iron,” for which Diodorus states
that the Arabians exchanged equal weights of gold,[102] is perhaps the
famous _Wootz_ steel.[103] Asshur and Chilmad, who were “thy merchants
in all sorts of things, in blue clothes, and broidered work, and in
chests of rich apparel, bound with cords, and made of cedar,”[104]
point to articles of commerce for which, from a very early period,
Babylon and Nineveh were famous.[105] We may also gather that it must
have been for the extension of Babylonian commerce, from the Persian
Gulf to Damascus on the north, that Nebuchadnezzar built Teredon, near
the present Bussorah.[106] The mode of packing rich garments, like
those described in Ezekiel, is one still in use among the natives of
Upper India.
We may add that civilization owes to the Phœnicians the invention of
the alphabet; and, probably, that of the well-known weight of ancient
Greece, the _mna_, or _mina_, which is found on certain lion-weights
from Nineveh, bearing bilingual legends in Assyrian and Phœnician,
their value being expressed in the latter tongue:[107] they also
discovered the Cynosure (called after them, Phœnice), the last star in
the Little Bear, which, as nearly identical with the Pole Star, gave
superior fixity to their observations;[108] while they are said to
have noticed at Gades the connection between the moon and the oceanic
tides.[109]
[Sidenote: Cause of prosperity.]
It is not difficult to discern the principal causes of the success and
prosperity of these Phœnician traders, which we may be sure did not
rest, as some writers[110] have supposed, on an extensive system of
piracy. This, and other evils of a similar character, may have existed
among them, as elsewhere, for a certain period; but they would not have
ruled the maritime commerce of the world, had not their power rested
on foundations far more firm than those of robbery and plunder. No
nation has ever become great merely by lawless acts. We believe their
success was chiefly due to the practice of dealing with any one who was
willing to deal with them, and to the encouragement they invariably
gave to perfect freedom of intercourse. Nor must it be forgotten that
they largely imported the raw materials of other countries, assorting
their various products to suit the demand, and transporting them when
thus assorted, together with their own manufactures, to all parts of
the world.
Their practice, indeed, was as perfect as their policy was wise. The
merchants of Tyre were the first to establish the system of factories
or agencies, where they were able not only to dispose of their several
cargoes to the best advantage, but to collect the produce of other
lands so as to be ready for shipment on the arrival of their fleets.
Every nation was, in fact, their merchant; just as every nation is, at
the present moment, manufacturing or producing something for England.
Again, to the Tyrians belongs the credit of the establishment of the
first regular colonies; some of which, as Carthage, probably far
surpassed in wealth and power those of the mother city—nay, what is
more, they succeeded in planting their colonies on terms so liberal
as to retain through all time an affectionate remembrance from their
children; for we know that, as Tyre refused the aid of her fleet to
Cambyses when he wished to attack Carthage[111] so Carthage offered
a refuge to the inhabitants of Tyre when besieged by Alexander.[112]
Thus, without the aid of conquering armies, this remarkable people
spread over the remotest parts of the then known world, establishing
the arts of peace among nations previously buried in darkness and
barbarism, and making the “solitary places of the earth to rejoice.”
No commercial nation of either ancient or modern times presents a
history, so far as we can trace it, more worthy of imitation than that
of Phœnicia. Liberal, by comparison, in its policy, and enlightened
in its intercourse with other peoples, it offered, in the plenitude
of its power, an example to the ancient world of what industry and a
sound policy could effect—a course worthy of imitation, even now. All
nations “were merchants of Tyre;” that is, all nations found it to
their advantage to be on good terms with such a people; and it would
be well if some of the nations of our own times could be persuaded to
act on Tyrian principles, and if, instead of checking free intercourse
by the imposition of high protective duties, they would do as Tyre did
2600 years ago, invite all nations to be their merchants.[113]
[Sidenote: Carthage.]
[Sidenote: Utica.]
Of all her colonies, Carthage was the one of which Tyre had the best
reason to be proud. Situated on a peninsula, in Lat. 36° 55´ N.,
10° 20´ E., with a long narrow neck of land westward, forming a
double harbour for ships of war and commerce, it is believed to have
been founded between B.C. 878 and B.C. 826, the Roman writers, as a
rule, assuming Carthage to have been only a collection of huts till
Dido[114] came. On the other hand, Utica[115] is distinctly stated from
_Phœnician records_ to have been in existence two hundred and eighty
years before Carthage. As, too, it was earlier in date, so did it long
survive the greater city, being, according to Strabo, in his time, the
metropolis of Northern Africa. Utica appears also as an independent
power in the treaties between Carthage and the Romans.
The headland first occupied by the Tyrians, near the harbour now called
the Goletta, is exactly the kind of place Thucydides[116] says the
Phœnicians always selected; a promontory easy of defence and commanding
an adjoining port. Modern travellers have recognized in the “Hill
of St. Louis,”[117] the site of the ancient Byrsa (itself a genuine
Phœnician word, meaning _fortress_).
[Sidenote: Commercial policy.]
Unfortunately, no ancient historian has given us any reliable
information as to the means whereby Carthage raised herself so far
above the other Phœnician colonies. But these may be in part traced
to the natural fertility of her soil, the excellent situation of the
city for carrying on a large inland as well as maritime commerce, and,
above all, to the firmness with which she adhered to the enlightened
policy of her founders. The Carthaginians closely followed the example
of the Tyrians, in establishing colonies of their own, whenever
they could do so advantageously, their first object being maritime
commerce, a preference being, therefore, naturally given by them to
islands such as Sicily, Sardinia, Corsica, the Baleares, and Melita
(Malta). “Carthage,” says Aristotle,[118] “continually sent out
colonies composed of her citizens into the districts around her, and by
these means gave them wealth. It is a proof,” he adds, “of a mild and
intelligent government, that it assists the poor by accustoming them
to labour.” Thus the Carthaginians, while they enriched themselves,
increased the prosperity of surrounding states and tribes; and, by
promoting colonization, prevented the too great increase of their home
population. Many of their colonies embraced the rich provinces to the
west of Carthage, and the territory under the immediate control of the
republic was little less than two hundred geographical miles in length.
As the native population of these provinces comprised many of the nomad
tribes, the Carthaginians were enabled to direct their attention to the
inland trade of Africa, by caravans which crossed the Libyan Desert,
and penetrated as far as the Niger and Æthiopia on the one hand, and to
Upper Egypt and the Nile on the other.
There is no justice in the assertion that Carthage ever exhibited
a lust of conquest. Throughout her whole career she seems to have
acted in the spirit of her Tyrian ancestors; as long as her merchants
were free to trade, her neighbours were not disturbed, her naval
reputation in later days having been mainly caused by the necessity of
protecting her commerce and her colonies from the piratical attacks of
other nations. With Spain, for instance, she maintained for centuries
extensive and peaceful commercial relations: nor was it till the Greeks
and Romans had become the most daring marauders in the Mediterranean,
that Carthage, in self-defence, fitted out a navy, and thus became a
great naval power. That these peaceful employments were crowned with
success, we learn from the universal testimony of antiquity, it being
generally admitted that, in the manufactures she had transplanted from
Tyre and Sidon, she greatly surpassed in excellence whatever reputation
the parent state had acquired. Moreover, we have still extant a series
of coins of extraordinary beauty, struck for her no doubt, in many
instances, by Greek artists of Sicily and Magna Græcia, yet which could
hardly have been intended, as some numismatists have thought, for only
her colonial cities of Panormus, Segesta, &c.[119]
Acknowledged by Polybius[120] to have possessed hereditary pre-eminence
in nautical matters, with the undisputed dominion of the sea for a long
period, it may be fairly assumed that her ships were then unrivalled.
Indeed Aristotle states that the Carthaginians were the first to
increase the size of their galleys from three to four banks of oars.
[Sidenote: Trade with Spain.]
As the Carthaginians followed in the wake of the Phœnicians, it is
impossible to ascertain the exact period of their colonization of
Spain; but it is well known that Gades (Cadiz) was one of their
earliest and most important commercial entrepôts, and that thence
they sent expeditions to the south and to the north, along the
western shores of Africa and Europe, securing for themselves the most
favourable positions as marts for their merchandise.
Their first expedition to the western shores of Africa was that of
Hanno, it is said, with sixty ships, of fifty oars each, and an
incredible number of emigrants. Though all traces of their settlements
have long since been obliterated, there is no reason to question the
fact that such a voyage was really made, that Hanno did reach the small
island of Cerne (probably the modern Arguin in N. Lat. 20.5), that he
laid the foundations of six towns, or trading stations, and that he
proceeded farther along a coast, inhabited by negro races, for a period
of twenty-six days, in all probability passing Cape Verde, even if he
did not visit the islands of that name.[121]
About the same time Himilco[122] was sent to explore the north-western
coasts of Europe, founding, as he proceeded, if we may believe the
very curious poem of Festus Avienus, settlements even in Britain and
Ireland. The whole of this story (which has been carefully translated
by Heeren, “Asiatic Nations,” i., p. 502, and appendix) is well worthy
perusal; and is almost certainly based on reliable traditions or
records. Among other things, the navigator speaks of men who dwelt in
lands rich in tin and lead; who used boats made of skins and leather;
of the Œstrymnades, or Scilly Islands; of the ancient trade between
them and Tartessus; and of a sea where weeds abounded so much that
navigation was impeded (probably part of the Sargasso). Nor ought it
to be forgotten that many antiquaries, more perhaps formerly than
now, have been of the opinion that metallic objects of unquestionably
Phœnician workmanship have been found in Irish bogs.
[Sidenote: Trade in Africa.]
On the western coast of Africa, the island of Cerne was the chief
Carthaginian depôt; the goods from the merchant vessels being here
unladen, and placed under tents, to be conveyed thence in smaller
vessels to the continent. This trade itself was conducted wholly by
barter. The method is well described by Herodotus. “The Carthaginians,”
says he,[123] “are wont to sail to a nation beyond the Pillars of
Hercules, on the Libyan coast. When they come there, they transport
their wares on shore and leave them, and, after kindling a fire, go
back to their ships. Upon this signal the natives come down to the sea,
and placing gold against the wares, again return. The Carthaginians
then again approach, and see whether what they have left be sufficient.
If it be, they take it and depart; should it, however, not be enough
for their wares, they again go back to their ships and wait; and the
other party bring more gold, until the strangers are satisfied. But
neither party deals unfairly by the other, for the one touches not the
gold till the value of the wares be brought, nor the other the wares
until the gold be taken away.”
A similar system of silent barter has been noticed by many travellers.
Thus Captain Lyon states that “In Soudan, beyond the desert, in the
countries abounding in gold, there dwells an invisible nation who are
said to trade only by night. Those who come to traffic for their gold,
lay their merchandise in heaps, and retire. In the morning they find
a certain quantity of gold dust placed against every heap, which, if
they think sufficient, they leave the goods, if not, they let them
both remain until more of the precious ore is added.”[124] Hoest says
the same thing in the case of very large caravans, from Marocco to
Timbuctoo. “The Moors enter not into the Negro country, but only go to
a certain place on the frontiers, where one of each party exhibits and
exchanges the goods, without scarcely opening their lips.”[125]
[Sidenote: The commercial policy of Carthage.]
The commercial treaties between Carthage and Rome, to which fuller
reference will hereafter be made, show that if the duties levied were
in some cases heavy, they were not differential or protective, but
chiefly with the object of securing a sufficient revenue. That, like
all commercial nations, the Carthaginians were jealous of competitors
need not be doubted, but while other nations were content with profits
derived from intercourse among their own people, Tyre and Carthage
sought the trade of all nations and erected entrepôts where required
for this commerce.
At the same time, it must be borne in mind that free trade, pure and
simple, as now understood, could, in ancient times, have been possible
only with a very considerable modification; especially where, as was
the case with Carthage and Tyre, a large portion of the dealings with
barbarous nations was by barter; for competition, while tending
seriously to reduce the profits, could not then have increased the
demand to an extent equivalent to the reduction in price. As long as
the savage is kept in ignorance, he is ready to exchange goods of great
value for mere trifles, and rivalry would only serve to enlighten him
as to their actual value. Moreover with uncivilized nations whose wants
are limited, it is impossible to create a demand adequate to the loss
accruing from open competition. Hence Carthage watched these branches
of her trade with peculiar jealousy, and, while throwing wide open the
harbours of the capital, closed as far as possible her colonial ports
to the shipping of rival nations.
It seems, therefore, unreasonable for Heeren to call the commercial
policy of Carthage “paltry and selfish:”[126] for if she did guard the
colonial trade which her genius and industry had created, her policy
generally, as compared with that of contemporaneous nations, was as
liberal as that of Great Britain now is in comparison with that of the
United States of America. Carthage acted on principles of reciprocity,
while her neighbours were rigid protectionists. She was ready to grant,
as her treaties show, reciprocal privileges to all nations ready to
deal with her on similar conditions; and on such terms, she dealt
largely with Greece and with Egypt during the reign of the Ptolemies,
and even with Rome.
[Sidenote: Limits of trade.]
The trade of Carthage, as might be anticipated from her position,
was almost entirely with the west, her chief rivals being Sicily,
Italy, and Massalia (Marseilles), who prevented her from obtaining
anything like an exclusive monopoly. Yet the abundant details given
by Herodotus, Diodorus, Aristotle, Strabo, Terence, and Plautus, show
clearly that, even with these places, her commercial relations attained
considerable dimensions. The wines and oils of Sicily and Italy found
their best market in Carthage, the return being black slaves from
Central Africa. Malta, Corsica, Elba, produced fine cloths, wax and
honey, and iron, respectively; while the mines of Spain, with her great
port Cadiz, the entrepôt for tin from Britain, before the Massalians
brought it overland through France, produced the largest and most
enduring portion of her revenue.
To her commerce with the interior of Africa by means of caravans
mention has already been made; and it is scarcely necessary to add
that the details which Herodotus and other ancient writers give of
this trade, read much like a page out of Livingstone, or Baker, or
Du Chaillu. Then, as now, the wants of the respective populations
were much the same; if the interior could send abundance of ivory or
gold-dust, salt, a need of their daily life, could be procured only
from the Mediterranean shores. Lastly, it is certain that Carthage,
like the United States of America in modern times, was mainly indebted
for her navy to her merchant service, inasmuch as in times of peace she
set apart scarcely any shipping for merely warlike purposes.
FOOTNOTES:
[58] Gesen. Hebr. Lex. p. lxxix.
[59] Diod. ii. 16-19.
[60] 2 Kings xv. 19.
[61] Her. i. 1.
[62] Herod. i. 1; Mela, i. 12.
[63] Odys. xv. 414, &c. xiv. 29.
[64] Il. vi. 290.
[65] Pyth. ii. 125.
[66] Scyl. c. iii.
[67] Ezek. xxvii. ver. 3.
[68] Ver. 5, 6.
[69] Cf. Plin. xvi. 16; Diod. v. 14; Virg. x. 135.
[70] Ezek. xxvii. ver. 8.
[71] Ver. 8.
[72] Ver. 9.
[73] Ver. 7.
[74] Paus. iii. 21.
[75] Ver. 13.
[76] Ver. 14.
[77] Cf. Strab. xi. 553.
[78] Joel iii. 6; Amos i. 6, 9.
[79] Plin. xxxiv. 2; Fest. in Virg. Æn. xii. 6.
[80] Ezek. xxvii. ver. 12.
[81] Ver. 25.
[82] De Mirab. Ausc. 147; cf. Diod. v. 35.
[83] Lucret. v. 1256; Strab. iii. 147 and 159; Polyb. x. 10; Plin.
xxxiv. 15; Martial, iv. 35.
[84] Plin. iv. 34; xxxiv. 47; Strab. iii. 147.
[85] Diod. v. 38, 5.
[86] _Vide_ Lassen ap. Ritter’s Erdkunde, v. p. 549; and cf. Hom. Il.
xxiii. 503, who was clearly aware of the practice of tinning.
[87] Strabo, iii. 5. For further details of the tin trade, _vide_
Herod. iii. 115; Arist. de Mundo, viii. 3; Polyb. iii. 37; Strab. v.
10; Phillips’ Mineralogy, p. 249.
[88] Plin. iii. 26.
[89] Tac. Germ. 44, 45.
[90] Ezek. xxvii. ver. 15.
[91] Ver. 20.
[92] Ver. 16.
[93] Ver. 19.
[94] Ver. 22.
[95] Ver. 17.
[96] Ezek. ver. 18.
[97] Ver. 21.
[98] Vers. 10 and 11.
[99] The Azotus of Herod. iii. 5.
[100] Cf. Strab. xvi. 777; Diod. ii. 50, for gold in “nuggets.”
[101] Cf. Vincent, ii. 702. Ezek. v. 19.
[102] Diod. iii. 45.
[103] Cf. Ritter, Erdk. v. 521; Michael. Spicel. ii. 173.
[104] Ver. 24.
[105] Cf. Nahum iii. 16; 2 Kings iii. 4; Plin. H. N. viii. 48; and
the “goodly garments of Shinar,” for the secreting of which Achan was
punished, Josh. vii. 21.
[106] Euseb. Præp. Evang. ix. 41.
[107] Norris, ap. Trans. As. Soc. xvi. 221.
[108] Manil. Astron. i. 304; Hygin. Astron. ii. 2; Callimach. Fragm. 94.
[109] Strab. i. 173.
[110] Heeren. As. Nat. i. pp. 30, 285.
[111] Herod, iii. 17, 19.
[112] Diod. ii. 190.
[113] Xenophon, in his “Œconomics,” c. 18, gives some interesting
details of a large Phœnician merchant ship which he went over, when at
anchor in the Piræeus. He appears to have entered into conversation
with the “prow’s-man” (who probably acted as supercargo), and to have
been greatly surprised at the care with which everything was arranged,
so that it could be got at at once. From the phraseology Xenophon
uses it would seem that such a vessel came, in his day, annually to
Athens. Heliodorus (v. 18) speaks, too, of the “beauty and magnitude of
Phœnician ships.”
[114] Virgil. Æn. i. 421.
[115] Arist. de Mirab. Ausc. c. 146. Strabo, xvii. p. 832. Polyb. iii.
24.
[116] Thucyd. vi. 2.
[117] Barth. “Wanderungen,” p. 94. Sir Grenville Temple’s “Excursions,”
ii. 37. Admiral W. H. Smyth’s “Mediterranean,” p. 92.
[118] Arist. Polit. ii. 11, vi. 5, and Heeren i. p. 40.
[119] The question of the reality of Carthaginian coins has been fully
examined by Müller, “Études Numismatiques,” and by Vaux, “Numism.
Chron.” vol. xxi.
[120] Polyb. i. 7, 16.
[121] Plin. ii. 169. Hanno’s “Periplus,” ap. Geogr. Græc. Minor.
Hanno’s voyage was really rather one of discovery.
[122] Plin. ibid.
[123] Herod. iv. cap. 196; cf. Scylac. “Periplus,” c. 112.
[124] Lyon’s Narrative, p. 149.
[125] Hoest, p. 279.
[126] Heeren’s “Ancient Nations of Africa,” vol. i. p. 159.