TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE
Italic text is denoted by _underscores_.
Footnote anchors are denoted by [number], and the footnotes have been
placed at the end of the book.
All changes noted in the ERRATA have been applied to the etext.
A superscript is denoted by ^x or ^{xx}, for example XIX^e.
Basic fractions are displayed as ½ ⅓ ¼ etc; other fractions are shown
in the form a-b/c, for example 280-18/94.
Some minor changes to the text are noted at the end of the book.
SAILING SHIPS
[Illustration: (A Seventeenth-century English Warship)]
SAILING SHIPS
THE STORY OF THEIR DEVELOPMENT
FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES
TO THE PRESENT DAY
BY
E. KEBLE CHATTERTON
WITH A HUNDRED AND
THIRTY ILLUSTRATIONS
[Illustration: (colophon)]
LONDON
SIDGWICK & JACKSON, LTD.
3 ADAM STREET, ADELPHI, W.C.
1909
_All rights reserved._
IN PIAM MEMORIAM
PATRIS DILECTISSIMI
QVI ME
AD MARIS NAVIVMQVE
STVDIVM
PRIMVS EXCITAVIT
[Illustration]
PREFACE.
This history of sailing ships has been written primarily for the
general reader, in the hope that the sons and daughters of a naval
nation, and of an Empire that stretches beyond the seas, may find
therein a record of some interest and assistance in enlarging and
systematising their ideas on the subject, especially as regards
the ships of earlier centuries. It is not necessary to look far—no
further than the poster-designs on advertisement-hoardings—to observe
the errors into which our artists of to-day are liable to fall
owing to lack of historical knowledge in this subject; and to put
(for instance) triangular headsails with a rectangular sail on the
“bonaventure mizzen-mast” of an early sixteenth-century ship, is an
inaccuracy scarcely to be pardoned.
Quite recently one of the chief librarians in one of our biggest
national treasure-houses informed me that when an artist, who had
been commissioned to illustrate a certain work, came to him for
guidance as to the ships of a recent period, he was at a loss where
to lay his hands on a book which should show him what he wished
to know by picture and description. Only after much search was the
requisite knowledge obtained.
I trust that both the yachtsman and sailorman will find in these
pages something of the same exciting pleasure which has been mine
in tracing the course of the evolutions through which their ships
have passed. Those whose work or amusement it is to acquaint
themselves with the sailing ship and her ways, and for lack of time
and opportunity are unable to seek out the noble pedigree of what
Ruskin truly described as “one of the loveliest things man ever made,
and one of the noblest,” may care to learn what were the changing
conditions which combined to bring about such a highly complex
creature as the modern sailing ship. Perhaps at some time when
handling a rope, a spar, a tiller or a sail, they may have wondered
how it all began; what were the origins of all those various parts
of a ship’s “furniture”; why some essential portions have scarcely
changed; and how other portions are the outcome of time, experiment,
and science. I hope that to neither the amateur nor the professional
sailor I shall seem impertinent if I have attempted to tell them
something about their ship which they did not know before. But if, on
the other hand, I shall have succeeded in increasing their love for
the sailing ship by outlining her career, I trust that this may be
allowed to counterbalance the defects which, in a subject of so vast
a scope, are hardly to be avoided in spite of considerable care and
the generous assistance of many kind friends.
Finally, I make my appeal to the younger generation, to whom ships
and the sea have in all times suggested so much that is bound up with
adventure and brave deeds. The present moment sees us at a stage in
the history of ships when the Royal Navy as a whole, and the Merchant
Service almost entirely, have no longer any convenience for sail.
There is a dire need in the latter for both officers and men, whilst
on shore the conditions of employment are exactly the reverse. Surely
it is only by a mutual adjustment of the two that both problems, on
sea and land, can possibly be overcome; and it is only by winning
the enthusiasm of the boy who is to become father of the man that
the sailor’s love for the sea can be handed on from generation to
generation. We have received from our ancestors a splendid heritage,
a unique legacy—the mastery of the seas. That legacy brings with it
a commensurate responsibility, to retain what our forefathers fought
for so dearly. Perhaps to the healthy-minded Anglo-Saxon boy, not yet
too _blasé_ and civilised to feel no thrill in reading his Marryat,
Cook, Ballantyne, Henty, Fenn, or the glorious sea-fights and
discoveries in history itself—perhaps to him this book may be of some
assistance in visualising the actual ships of each historical period.
I desire to return thanks to many who, from motives of personal
friendship or of love for ships, have so readily lent me their
assistance in the course of this work. If I have omitted to include
the names of any to whom my obligations are due it is from no sense
of ingratitude. Especially I am anxious to return thanks to Dr.
Wallis Budge and Mr. H. R. Hall of the Egyptian Department of the
British Museum, as well as to the officials in other departments
of the same institution, particularly those of the Coin Room, the
Print Room, the Manuscript Room, Greek and Roman Antiquities, and
British and Mediæval Antiquities: to Mr. Clifford Smith of the
Victoria and Albert Museum, South Kensington, and to Mr. R. C.
Flower of the Public Record Office for assistance in research: to
Dr. Hoyle of the Manchester Museum for permission to use photographs
of two Egyptian models: to the Board of Education for permission
to reproduce photographs of models in the South Kensington Museum:
to the Curator of the Royal Naval College Museum, Greenwich, for
granting special facilities for studying the collection of models:
to the British Consul at Christiania, for assistance in obtaining
photographs of Viking ships: to M. Ernest Leroux for permission to
use the illustration of the _navis actuaria_ found on the Althiburus
mosaic: to the Elder Brethren of Trinity House, jointly with Messrs.
Cassell and Co., for allowing me to reproduce Phineas Pett’s _Royal
Prince_: to the Committee of the Royal Victoria Yacht Club, Ryde,
for permission to reproduce Messrs. West’s photograph of the rare
print of the _Alarm_, Fig. 113: to Captain Roald Amundsen for the
plans of the _Gjöa_: to the authorities of the British Museum for
many illustrations either sketched, photographed, or reproduced
from their catalogues: to Lieut.-Colonel A. Leetham, Curator of the
Royal United Service Museum, Whitehall, for permission to photograph
models and prints: to Captain C. E. Terry for the illustration of
the _Santa Maria_: to Mr. A. E. M. Haes for the photograph of the
_Oimara_: to Messrs. Camper and Nicholsons, Limited, for the plans
of the yacht _Pampas_: to Messrs. White Brothers for the lines of
the yacht _Elizabeth_: to Messrs. Fores for the illustrations of
the _Xarifa_ and _Kestrel_: and to Mr. H. Warington Smyth for the
Nugger in Fig. 8, the two illustrations of Scandinavian and Russian
ships in Figs. 30 and 31, and the American schooner in Fig. 91. I
wish also to acknowledge Mr. Warington Smyth’s extreme courtesy
in offering to allow me to use any of the other sketches in his
delightful book “Mast and Sail in Europe and Asia,” and only regret
that circumstances prevented my being able to avail myself more fully
of so generous an offer.
The illustrations in Figs. 26 and 27 appear by arrangement with
Mr. John Murray: Fig. 51 by arrangement with the Clarendon Press,
Oxford: and Figs. 30, 31, 87-90, 92, 93, 95, 102, 104, 106, 111,
112, 114, 115, and the Plans, by arrangement with the editor of _The
Yachting Monthly_. Thanks are also due to two artists skilled in
marine subjects—to Mr. Charles Dixon for his two pictures in colour,
at once lively and accurate; and to Mr. Norman S. Carr, not only for
the initial letters of the chapters, but for thirty or more sketches
specially drawn for this book.
Finally, I have to express my thanks to Mr. John Masefield, who has
been kind enough to read the proofs, while the book was passing
through the press, and to give me the benefit of his valuable advice.
E. KEBLE CHATTERTON.
_June 1909._
ERRATA
P. 60, line 8, _for_ “with three reefs already taken in” _read_
“close-reefed.” (Fig. 13 shows three turns taken with the brails or
bunt-lines, so as to make a close reef.)
P. 86, line 18, _for_ “tilt” _read_ “rake.”
P. 199, line 1, _for_ “foremast” _read_ “foresail.”
” line 15, _for_ “bill-hooks” _read_ “shear-hooks.”
” line 32, _for_ “anchor” _read_ “a foul anchor.”
P. 203, line 19, _for_ “face” _read_ “case.”
P. 214, line 34, _for_ “bill-hooks” _read_ “shear-hooks.”
P. 262, line 3, _after_ “driver” _insert_ “or spanker.”
P. 275, line 15, _for_ “iron” _read_ “wire.”
” line 17, _for_ “braces” _read_ “brace-pendants.”
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER PAGE
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS xiii
I. INTRODUCTORY 1
II. EARLY EGYPTIAN SHIPS FROM ABOUT 6000 B.C. 20
III. ANCIENT SHIPS OF PHŒNICIA, GREECE, AND ROME 46
IV. THE EARLY SHIPS OF NORTHERN EUROPE 89
V. THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE SAILING SHIP FROM THE
EIGHTH CENTURY TO THE YEAR 1485 128
VI. FROM HENRY VII. TO THE DEATH OF ELIZABETH
(1485-1603) 170
VII. FROM THE ACCESSION OF JAMES I. TO THE CLOSE OF THE
EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 222
VIII. THE SAILING SHIP IN THE NINETEENTH AND TWENTIETH
CENTURIES 254
IX. THE FORE-AND-AFT RIG AND ITS DEVELOPMENTS;
COASTERS, FISHING BOATS, YACHTS, &C. 281
GLOSSARY 335
BIBLIOGRAPHY 339
INDEX 345
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
FIGURE PAGE
A Seventeenth-century English Warship _To face title-page_
From a painting by Charles Dixon.
Hay-Barge _Headpiece to Preface_
Sketch by N. S. Carr.
1. Burmese Junk 8
2. Norwegian “Jaegt” 13
3. Egyptian Ship of about 6000 B.C. 22
From an amphora found in Upper Egypt, and now in the
British Museum (Painted Pottery of Predynastic Period,
Case 5, No. 35324).
4. Egyptian Ship of the Fifth Dynasty 30
From wall-paintings in the Temple of Deir-el-Bahari.
5 and 6. Model of an Egyptian Ship of the Twelfth
Dynasty _To face_ 34
From a tomb at Rifeh, excavated 1906-7. Photographs by
courtesy of Dr. Hoyle, Director of the Manchester Museum,
where the model is preserved.
7. Egyptian Ship _To face_ 40
From wall-paintings in the Temple of Deir-el-Bahari.
8. An Egyptian Nugger 43
Sketch by H. Warington Smyth; from his “Mast and Sail,”
by courtesy of the author and Mr. John Murray.
9. Phœnician Ship 52
From a coin of Sidon, _c._ 450 B.C., in the British
Museum. Twice the actual size.
10. Phœnician Ship 54
From a coin of Sidon, _c._ 450 B.C., in the Hunterian
Collection, Glasgow. Twice the actual size.
11. Greek Ship 58
From a Bœotian fibula of the eighth century B.C., in the
British Museum (First Vase Room, Case D, No. 3204).
12. Greek War Galley 59
From a vase of about 500 B.C., in the British Museum
(Second Vase Room, Table-case H, No. B. 436).
13. Greek Merchantman 61
From the same vase.
14. Stern of a Greek Ship 64
From a coin of Phaselis, of about the fifth century B.C.,
in the British Museum (Greek and Roman Life Room, Case 1,
No. 36). Twice the actual size.
15. Boar’s-head Bow of a Greek Ship 64
From the same coin. Twice the actual size.
16. The Ship of Odysseus 66
From a Greek vase, _c._ 500 B.C., in the British Museum
(Third Vase Room, Case G, No. E. 440).
17. Terra-cotta Model of a Greek Ship 68
Model of the sixth century B.C., in the British Museum
(Greek and Roman Life Room, Case 53, No. A. 202).
18. A Coin of Apollonia, showing Shape of Anchor 72
Coin of about 420 B.C., in the British Museum (Greek and
Roman Life Room, Case 2, No. 21). Twice the actual size.
19. A Roman Warship 73
From Lazare de Baïf’s “Annotationes ... de re navali,”
Paris, 1536, p. 164.
20. Roman Ship 75
From the same book, p. 167.
21. Roman Merchant Ships _To face_ 80
From a relief, _c._ 200 A.D.
22. Roman Ship entering Harbour 82
From an earthenware lamp, c. 200 A.D., in the British
Museum (Greek and Roman Life Room, Case 53, No. 518).
23. Fishing-boat in Harbour 83
From another lamp, as the last.
24. Navis Actuaria 87
From a recently discovered mosaic at Althiburus, near
Tunis; reproduced by kind permission from M. Leroux’
“Monuments et Mémoires,” Paris, 1905.
25. The Viking Boat dug up at Brigg, Lincolnshire _To face_ 96
From a photograph, taken during its excavation in
1886, and supplied by Mr. John Scott, of Brigg.
26. Ancient Scandinavian Rock-carving 111
From Du Chaillu’s “Viking Age,” by courtesy of Mr. John
Murray.
27. Viking Ship-form Grave 114
From the same.
28. The Gogstad Viking Ship _To face_ 118
From a photograph by O. Voering, Christiania.
29. The Gogstad Viking Ship _To face_ 120
From a photograph by O. Voering, Christiania.
30. Norwegian Ship 120
From a sketch by H. Warington Smyth, by courtesy of
the artist.
31. Russian Ship 121
As the last.
32. Harold’s Ships; from the Bayeux Tapestry _To face_ 134
From a photograph of the replica at South Kensington.
33. William the Conqueror’s Ships; from the Bayeux Tapestry 136
As the last.
34. Lading Arms and Wine; from the Bayeux Tapestry 138
As the last.
35. Mediterranean Warship of the Thirteenth Century 142
From a drawing.
36. A Fourteenth-Century Dromon 144
From a drawing.
37. Seal of Winchelsea 150
From the original in the British Museum. Actual size.
38. Seal of Hastings 151
From the original in the British Museum. Actual size.
39. Thirteenth-century English Ship _To face_ 152
From the model by Frank H. Mason, now in the South
Kensington Museum.
40. Seal of Dam, West Flanders 155
From the original in the British Museum. Actual size.
41. Panel of the Shrine of St. Ursula, after Memling (1489) 165
42. Seal of La Rochelle 167
From the original in the British Museum. Actual size.
43. A Caravel of the End of the Fifteenth Century _To face_ 178
From the model by Frank H. Mason, now in the South
Kensington Museum.
44. A Fifteenth-century Caravel _To face_ 180
From the model in the United Service Museum, Whitehall.
45. Columbus’s Flagship, the _Santa Maria_ _To face_ 182
By courtesy of Capt. C. E. Terry, from the model constructed
by him.
46. The French _Cordelière_ and the English _Regent_ _To face_ 184
From MS. Fr. 1672 in the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris;
reproduced by courtesy of Prof. W. Bang, Louvain, from
the “Enterlude of Youth,” 1905.
47. The Embarkation of Henry VIII. at Dover in 1520 _To face_ 186
Showing the _Henri Grâce à Dieu_. Photograph by W. M.
Spooner & Co., from the painting by Holbein at Hampton
Court Palace.
48. Two of Henry VIII.’s Ships—The _Murrian_ _To face_ 188
49. Two of Henry VIII.’s Ships—The _Struse_ _To face_ 188
From a roll of 1546 in the Pepysian Library, Cambridge,
by kind permission of the Master and Fellows of Magdalene
College.
50. The _Ark Royal_, Elizabeth’s Flagship. Built
in 1587 _To face_ 198
From a contemporary print in the British Museum.
51. Elizabethan Man-of-war _To face_ 138
From F. P. Barnard’s “Companion to English History”
(Clarendon Press, 1902).
52. The Spanish Armada coming up Channel _To face_ 206
From “The Tapestry Hangings of the House of Lords,”
engraved by John Pine, 1739.
53. The _Black Pinnesse_, which brought Home the Body of
Sir P. Sidney _To face_ 208
From “Celebritas et Pompa Funeris,” &c., by T. Lant, 1587.
54. A Galleon of the Time of Elizabeth _To face_ 210
From a contemporary print in the British Museum.
55. Spanish Galleons _To face_ 212
From a print in the British Museum, _c._ 1560.
56. Spanish Treasure-Frigate of about 1590 _To face_ 214
From the original drawing by an English spy, by
permission of the Records Office.
57. Mediterranean Galley 217
Sketched from a model in the South Kensington Museum.
58. An Early Seventeenth-century Galley _To face_ 216
From Joseph Furttenbach’s “Architectura Navalis,” 1629.
59. A Full-rigged Ship of the Early Seventeenth
Century _To face_ 218
From the same.
60. The _Prince Royal_ _To face_ 226
From the painting at Trinity House, by permission of
the Elder Brethren. Block by arrangement with Messrs.
Cassell & Co., from Traill and Mann’s “Social England,”
iv. 69.
61. The _Sovereign of the Seas_. Built in 1637 _To face_ 230
From an engraving in the British Museum.
62. Bomb Ketch _To face_ 236
From a print in the United Service Museum, Whitehall.
63. The _Royal Charles_. Built in 1672 _To face_ 240
From the model in the South Kensington Museum.
64. A Dutch Man-of-war of about the End of the
Seventeenth Century _To face_ 242
From the model in the United Service Museum, Whitehall.
65. The _Terrible_, a Two-decker captured from the
French in 1747 _To face_ 244
From a print in the United Service Museum, Whitehall.
66. H.M.S. _Royal George_. 100 guns, 2047 tons.
Foundered in 1782 _To face_ 246
From an engraving by T. Baston, in the British Museum.
67. Nelson’s _Victory_. 2162 tons. Built in 1765 _To face_ 248
From a photograph by S. Cribb.
68. The Stern of H.M.S. _Victory_, showing Poop
Lanterns _To face_ 250
From a photograph by S. Cribb.
69. Corvette, 340 tons, of about 1780 _To face_ 252
From the model in the South Kensington Museum.
70. The _Newcastle_, an East Indiaman _To face_ 258
Photograph by Hughes & Son, Ltd.
71. Spithead: Boat’s Crew recovering an Anchor _To face_ 226
From a photograph by Hanfstaengl of the painting by
J. M. W. Turner in the National Gallery.
72. A West Indiaman of 1820 _To face_ 260
From a print in the British Museum.
73. The _Ariel_ and _Taeping_, September 1866 _To face_ 266
From an engraving in the South Kensington Museum.
74. The Iron Clipper _Stonehouse_. Built in 1866 _To face_ 268
From the model in the South Kensington Museum.
75. The Iron Barque _Macquarie_. Built in 1875 _To face_ 270
Photograph by Hughes & Son, Ltd.
76. The _Desdemona_. Built in 1875 _To face_ 272
Photograph by Hughes & Son, Ltd.
77. The _Olive Bank_. Steel Four-masted Barque. Built
in 1892 _To face_ 274
Photograph by J. Adamson & Son, Rothesay.
78. A Modern Four-masted Barque, and the _Mauretania_ _To face_ 276
From a painting by Charles Dixon.
79. The _Queen Margaret_. Built in 1893 _To face_ 272
With Fig. 76. Photograph by Hughes & Son, Ltd.
80. A First-rater of 1815, showing Details of Spars and
Rigging _To face_ 280
81. Full-rigged Ship 279
Sail-plan, with referenced list of names.
82. From “River Scene with Sailing Boats.” By Jan Van der
Cappelle 285
Sketched from the original painting, No. 964 in the
National Gallery.
83. A Modern Dutch Schuyt 286
84. “A Fresh Gale at Sea.” By W. Van der Welde 287
Sketched from the original painting, No. 150 in the
National Gallery.
85. “River Scene.” By W. Van der Welde 288
Sketched from the original painting, No. 978 in the
National Gallery.
86. The Bawley 290
87. The Schooner _Pinkie_ (1800-50) 294
88. The _Fredonia_. Built in 1891 295
89. Gloucester Schooner, A.D. 1901 296
90. Gloucester Schooner, A.D. 1906 297
91. An American Four-masted Schooner 298
Sketched by H. Warington Smyth; from his “Mast and Sail,”
by courtesy of the author and Mr. John Murray.
92. A Barquentine off the South Foreland 299
93. Barquentine with Stuns’ls 300
94. The _Fantôme_, 18-ton Brig. Launched 1838 _To face_ 298
From the model in the South Kensington Museum.
95. H.M.S. _Martin_, Training-Brig. Launched 1836 _To face_ 300
96. A Hermaphrodite Brig 301
97. The _Tillikum_, Schooner-rigged “Dug-out” 302
98. Lowestoft Drifter 304
99. Thames Barge 305
100. Norfolk Wherry 306
101. Dhow-rigged Yacht _To face_ 306
From the model in the South Kensington Museum.
102. Suez Dhows, with a Sibbick Rater 308
Sketched by H. P. Butler.
103. Mediterranean Felucca 309
Sketched from the model in the South Kensington Museum.
104. Hailam Junk 311
Sketched by H. Warington Smyth.
105. Chinese Junk 313
Sketched from the model in the South Kensington Museum.
106. Blankenberg Boat 314
107. French “Chasse-Marée” 315
108. Scotch “Zulu” 316
109. Penzance Lugger 317
110. Deal Galley Punt 318
111. The Yacht _Kestrel_. Owned by the Earl of
Yarborough _To face_ 310
112. The Yacht _Xarifa_. Owned by the Earl of Wilton _To face_ 312
113. The Schooner _Alarm_. Rebuilt 1852 _To face_ 314
Photograph by G. West & Son from a print, by kind
permission of the Committee of the Royal Victoria
Yacht Club, Ryde.
114. The _Oimara_. Built in 1867 _To face_ 316
115. The _Bloodhound_. Built in 1874 _To face_ 316
116. The Schooner-Yacht _Sunbeam_. Owned by Lord
Brassey. _To face_ 318
Photograph by West & Son.
117. The Yawl _Jullanar_. Built in 1875 329
From the model in the South Kensington Museum.
118. The _Satanita_. Built in 1893 _To face_ 320
Photograph by West & Son.
119. King Edward VII.’s Cutter _Britannia_. Launched
1893 _To face_ 322
Photograph by S. Cribb.
120. The _Valkyrie I._ Owned by the Earl of Dunraven _To face_ 324
Photograph by West & Son.
121. The Ship-rigged Yacht _Valhalla_. Built in 1892 _To face_ 326
Photograph by West & Son.
122. The American Cup Defender _Columbia_. Launched
in 1899 _To face_ 328
Photograph by West & Son.
123. The Schooner-Yacht _Meteor_. Owned by H.M. the
German Emperor _To face_ 330
Photograph by S. Cribb.
124. _White Heather II._, 23-Mètre Cutter _To face_ 332
Photograph by West & Son.
125. _Shamrock IV._, 23-Mètre Cutter. Launched 1908 _To face_ 334
Photograph by West & Son.
PLANS.
(AT END OF VOLUME.)
PLAN
1. The _Gjöa_: Sail and Rigging Plan (see p. 291).
2. ” ” Longitudinal Section (see p. 291).
3. ” ” Deck Plan (see p. 292).
4. The _Royal Sovereign_, George III.’s Yacht (see p. 322).
5. Schooner _Elizabeth_: Sail Plan (see p. 331).
6. ” ” Deck Plan (see p. 331).
7. ” ” Longitudinal Section (see p. 331).
8. Schooner _Pampas_: Sail and Rigging Plan (see p. 332).
9. ” ” Longitudinal and Horizontal Sections
(see p. 332).
CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTORY.
A short time ago one of our Naval Museums came into possession of a
certain model of a sailing ship. She was a fine vessel, one of the
first of the old “wooden walls” to be built in the reign of the late
Queen. The Curator wisely determined to have this model fully rigged
with all her spars, sails, and gear, just as the original had been in
her days of active service. Every detail was correct; every halyard
and brace were made of proportionate thickness. Even the right kind
of “stuff” was found, after some difficulty, for the cable. An
efficient rigger, too, was found, who happened to have served on this
same ship.
Finally, when the model was completed the Curator looked at it and
said, “_Now_ it will be possible for those who come after us to tell
exactly how a sailing ship was rigged; in a few years’ time there
won’t be a man alive who will know how to do it.”
It is with a similar desire, to preserve all that can be gathered,
that an attempt is made in the present book to collect into one
continuous narrative the historical data available concerning the
evolution of that fast-disappearing object—the sailing ship. With
the advent of steam was hoisted the signal for abolishing sail; and
although for a long time the famous old clippers put up a keen fight,
yet for commercial purposes, when passengers and mails, merchandise
and perishable food, had to be hurried from one side of the world to
the other without loss of time, it became impossible for a sailing
ship, that depended so entirely on the mercy of wind and weather,
to compete successfully with the steamship. By 1840, it will be
remembered, steamers had commenced crossing the Atlantic, and within
the next ten or fifteen years the sailing ship, except for such long
voyages as to China, Australia, and other distant countries, was
for ever doomed. Perhaps these beautiful creatures, oversparred and
undermanned though they are nowadays, will be allowed, in spite of
competition and low freights, to remain with us a little longer. It
is probable that the introduction of the motor, instead of assisting
to complete the departure of sails, will help in their being
retained: for it has now been found commercially profitable to instal
the internal-combustion engine in ships of a size not exceeding about
seven hundred tons. By this means sail can be used in a fair wind,
and the motor can take her along in calms, as well as in tolerable
weather against a head wind. In entering harbours and leaving there
will also be a saving of the charge for a tug. Perhaps when the
marine-motor industry has become more perfect it will be possible to
fit a sufficiently powerful motor to a 4000-ton barque.
If that should be possible, then it would be indeed welcome news
to hear that the sluicing ebb of sailing ships and sailormen had
stopped. (For, of course, no one nowadays, except perhaps the lady
passenger, would ever think of honouring the marine mechanics on
board a liner or battleship with the title of “sailor,” whose
knowledge of seamanship is so elementary that they can as a rule
neither sail a boat nor make a splice, let alone go up aloft.) But at
present, when it is difficult to get enough officers and men for the
steam merchant service, it is doubtful if the sailing ship, except
in the case of a few deep-sea vessels and the coasters, fishermen,
pilots, and yachts round our coasts, will be encouraged to remain
with us.
In setting forth whatever may be of interest in the following pages
I have, following the example of that illustrious Elizabethan,
Richard Hakluyt, taken “infinite cares,” travelled many miles from
port to port to talk with every kind of sailorman—deep-sea, coaster,
or yacht’s hand—with fishermen, pilots, shipbuilders, riggers,
marine architects, and sail-makers. In addition to this, I have been
fortunate in gaining access to libraries containing, in various
languages and of both ancient and modern date, invaluable accounts
of ships of earlier days. The study of coins (curiously overlooked
by some writers on ancient ships) has enabled me to submit some
definite knowledge concerning craft of the classical age. The study
of old fonts in this country, especially in those churches which
were dedicated in the name of St. Nicholas, the patron of sailors,
has helped to confirm the otherwise scanty evidence for the period
between the tenth and fourteenth centuries. But perhaps the most
valuable and interesting material is the illustration of an Egyptian
sailing ship of the XII. Dynasty. This model, rigged for sailing up
and rowing down the Nile, will be discussed in Chapter II. Hitherto
we have had to depend for our knowledge of Egyptian ships on the
illustrations found on the tombs. Although in recent years some
models of boats have been discovered in these tombs, yet that which I
am enabled to reproduce (Figs. 5 and 6) is the only one showing the
boat properly rigged that has hitherto been unearthed. This model was
discovered in the season of 1906-1907 at Rifeh, by Professor Flinders
Petrie, and is the finest example that has yet reached England. It is
now in the Manchester Museum, and I am indebted to Dr. Hoyle, the
Director of the Museum, for his courtesy in enabling me to reproduce
this very interesting model here.
Notwithstanding the deplorable fact that there are gaps existing at
those critical stages where information would be the most welcome, it
is nevertheless possible to construct a fairly continuous narrative
of the development of the sailing ship. It will be noticed that in
addition to the information to be found in ancient tombs of Egypt we
have the evidence of ancient coins, vases, terra-cotta and wooden
models, lamps, monuments, excavations in Scandinavia, England,
Scotland, Germany. Coming to more modern times, there is the Bayeux
Tapestry, with its excellent copy in the South Kensington Museum.
We have, too, the pictorial representations on ancient seals and
coins of this country. There are some reproductions of ships in
old manuscripts; but it is an unfortunate fact that, except in
comparatively modern times, it is rare to find the ship commemorated
in paintings. Even when it is found, it is often represented with
less regard to marine accuracy than to pictorial effect. When one
considers the high position both Venice and Genoa occupied during
the Middle Ages, alike in respect of art and maritime pursuits, it
is difficult to understand why so remarkably few pictures of ships
remain to us among the Old Masters. In both religious and secular
paintings the ship is conspicuous by its absence. Perhaps it may
be that artists had not received sufficient encouragement to paint
marine subjects and that the gulf which to-day exists between the
landsman and the sailor was equally great then.
However, various painters have seen fit to take the Pilgrimage of St.
Ursula as their theme. Memling’s celebrated panels on the reliquary
of that saint, now in St. John’s Hospital, Bruges, are of interest
for our purpose, for no fewer than four of the six panels contain
pictures of ships belonging to the period of the artist. The date
of these miniatures is some time not later than the year 1489. Old
printed books of the sixteenth century onwards frequently contain
illustrations of ships of the time. Among the books, for instance,
presented to the South Kensington Museum on the death of Lady Dilke
will be found an interesting illustrated French translation of the
Acts of the Apostles. The ships (of mediæval design) illustrating
the Voyages of St. Paul are of value as showing the rig and details
of the craft contemporary with the artist. These and similar
illustrations, excepting always when the artist has become too
fantastic and imaginative, are important links in connecting the
story of the ships of ancient days with the modern full-rigged
ship. Coming down to the seventeenth century, the paintings of
the Dutch artists Jan Van de Cappelle, of Willem Van de Velde the
younger, Bakhuizen, Ruisdael, and Cuyp give us the most interesting
details as to rigging and hull. Claude’s picture, in the National
Gallery, of the “Embarkation of St. Ursula,” painted towards the
end of the seventeenth century, shows the high-pooped ship of his
own day. Charles Brooking of the eighteenth century, Turner and
Clarkson Stanfield of the nineteenth, show us in their pictures
many invaluable minutiæ of sailing ships. And even if Ruskin’s
criticism hold good, that Stanfield’s ships never look weather-beaten
but “always newly painted and clean,” yet for our purpose this is
no disadvantage; and it will be appreciated still more in a few
years when our descendants go into art galleries to seek out from
contemporary paintings the appearance of ships of the Victorian
period.
Happily the ships of our day have been perpetuated by such admirable
marine artists as Moore, Wyllie, Vicat Cole, Napier Hemy, Dixon,
Somerscales, Tuke, and others. But in addition to pictures, we have
at hand some hundreds of models of vessels in the South Kensington
Museum, the Royal Naval College, Greenwich, the Royal United Service
Museum, Whitehall, in the Louvre, in Continental churches, museums,
and arsenals, and in many private collections. Some of these models
in Greenwich and South Kensington have been rigged from historical
information in the museums themselves. It is impossible to deny the
important influence that these wonderful little ships may have on
the youthful minds of our nation, which has had the privilege for
so many years of being called maritime. But to the student of ships
of any age they are the greatest aid in assisting him—far greater,
indeed, than pages of description, far greater also than the work
of any painter—to realise the vessels that carried our ancestors
across the seas. I am as certain that we owe to the Government the
greatest thanks for putting these facilities before the public as I
am uncertain that the same public appreciates them in the manner they
deserve.
From all these sources, then, already enumerated, we are to begin to
reconstruct as far as possible the ships of all ages. If we should be
accused of arguing at times by inference without actual facts before
us, let us be allowed to say this much: there are signs in a ship’s
lines and rigging which, to the landsman, are devoid of meaning, but
to the man who has been wont to handle ships, and perhaps to design
and build them, they are full of significance. Generally speaking,
to the former a model is a nicely-carved piece of wood, adorned with
a maze of complicated strings. Curves of hull, the position of the
masts, the amount of sail area aft or forward, go for nothing. To
the expert every inch of rope has its definite value, every line of
her design speaks of speed or seaworthiness, or of the opposite. The
careful balance of sails will show whether she is, to use sailor
slang, “as handy as a gimlet” or as hard-mouthed a beast as ever
was governed by a rudder. Therefore, if, in looking at the lines
and rig of a ship of the Phœnicians, we should say, without being
able to quote any historian of antiquity, that she would never go
to windward because her sail area was deficient and her draught of
water too slight, and assume from this that the Phœnicians always
waited for a fair wind or rowed with oars, we must not be accused of
proving too much. This is not a matter for the archæologist, but for
the practised mariner with some knowledge of the theory of his art.
Any sailor, for instance, on looking at a model or illustration of a
Burmese junk (see Fig. 1), would tell you at once that her lines and
rig are such as would make her useless for going against the wind. He
knows this by _inference_. As a _fact_, he learns afterwards that,
like the boats of the Egyptians—which she much resembles in general
shape, in mast, and in sail—these junks can only sail before the wind
(which is usually favourable) in ascending the river Irawadi, and
return with the current.
[Illustration: FIG. 1. BURMESE JUNK.]
A nation exhibits its characteristics, its exact state of progress
and degree of refinement in three things: its art, its literature,
and its ships. Indeed we might go so far as to affirm that these
last are but a branch of the first. Just as the house was at first
merely a thing of utility, becoming in the course of time adorned
with carvings and decoration, so the ship, from being the rough,
clumsy dug-out, with the advance of civilisation becomes adorned
at first with animals’ heads, with eyes, with a human head, with
coloured hull, and at a subsequent stage with sails bearing devices
of high artistic merit. Finally, gilded portholes and gilded sterns
were added to the ship, so that, to quote the description of Charles
I.’s _Sovereign of the Seas_, “she was so gorgeously ornamented with
carving and gilding that she seemed to have been designed rather for
a vain display of magnificence than for the service of the State.”
The development of the ship, then, is parallel to the development of
the State. In the rude ages she is a rough creature, remaining more
like the tree out of which she is made than a thing of being. In
the hands of a nation that has reached a high degree of civilisation,
though she is still made of oak from the forest, yet she has lost
all resemblance to the tree-trunk. Instead, she has acquired a most
wonderful personality of her own. The wood of the tree has become
merely the means of expressing the most admirable combination of
delicacy and strength, of slender lines and powerful masses.
Thus we must go to the East, the birthplace of civilisation, to trace
the beginnings of our subject. We shall for this reason start from
Egypt and Phœnicia, and, tracing the development through Greek and
Roman times, advance to Northern and Western Europe and further west
still to America. And in covering a period of roughly 8000 years, in
spite of the enormous difference in time, in nations, in geographical
and other conditions, we shall find that no feature is more amazing
than the extraordinary spirit of conservatism which has spread itself
universally over both ships and their sailors. So remarkable are the
examples of this, even under widely opposed conditions, that I have
thought it worth while here to submit some of the more important ones
as being worthy of special consideration.
First, let us take the shape of the Egyptian ship, from which the
Greeks and Romans eventually obtained their shipbuilding ideas. The
high poop and the rockered bow with its bold sweep aft have, it is
not too much to assert, influenced the whole world’s shipping ever
since. True, the ancient galleys of the Greeks and Romans possess a
straighter keel and a pointed bow. But this was done for a purpose.
These galleys were fighting ships; and as the ram had to be placed
forward in such a manner that keel, stempost, and strut-frames
centred their combined force at the extreme point, the shape of the
bow could not follow that of the Egyptians. The keel, too, was flat
and straight, because it was the custom of the Greeks and Romans to
haul their galleys ashore nearly every night. Again, we must bear in
mind that the Roman or Greek war vessel was primarily a rowing boat
and not a sailing ship, and that mast and sail were always lowered
before going into battle. Yet, for all that, the Greek vases bearing
pictures of war galleys still show the Egyptian stern. But when we
come to consider the Greek and Roman merchant ships, we find the
Egyptian stern and a modified Egyptian bow unmistakably present. And
we must remember that the merchant ships were primarily sailing ships
and only used their oars as auxiliaries.
Throughout the ages many of these general lines of the Egyptian
ships have been followed. We see them appearing in the prehistoric
ships of Norway, in the Viking ships of old, and in the ships of the
Baltic to-day. We see this conservatism in the ships of the twelfth,
thirteenth, and fourteenth centuries, in the caravels and caracks
and galleons of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. We see it
down to about the time of the _Royal George_ in 1746; and even since
then, when the great sweep from bow up to the extreme height of the
poop-deck was modified until it practically disappeared, yet we
find traces of it in the forecastle and raised quarter-deck of the
modern sailing ship. And to continue the argument one step further,
I suppose if you could by sending a current of electricity through
one of the Egyptian naval architects, now lying as a mummy in one of
our museums, bring him to life, so that you might take him to see
the yachts racing during Cowes Week, he would not hesitate to say
that such ships as _White Heather II._ and the newest _Shamrock_ were
based on the designs he had made for his masters under the Twelfth
Dynasty. If the reader will take the trouble of comparing the Rifeh
model (Figs. 5 and 6) with the lines of the latest British yachts
now being built under the new universal rule, and then recollect how
many years have passed in the interim, he will not cease to wonder
that the same “overhang” at bow and stern is as prevalent on the
Solent as it was on the Nile. Whatever else these facts may prove,
they certainly show what a high state of civilisation the Egyptian
had attained; more, perhaps, than we realise at present. The naval
architects of that time must indeed have lacked as little that we
could teach them in design nowadays as—we know from subsequent
excavations—the shipbuilders of Viking times could learn from our
shipbuilders of to-day.
An additional proof of the wisdom and knowledge of the ancients is to
be found in the rig of their ships. The squaresail of the Egyptians
was very like that used subsequently by the Greeks and Romans, and
afterwards by the Vikings and many of the Norwegian and Russian ships
to-day. It survived, moreover, beyond the Middle Ages, the only
important difference being that three and sometimes two additional
masts were provided with squaresails, with a lateen sail on the
mizzen and a spritsail and sprit topsail forward. Thus, though the
headsails of a modern full-rigged ocean ship have been altered during
the last hundred and fifty years, yet the arrangement of her lower
courses is practically that of the single sail of the Egyptians,
omitting for the present certain details which do not alter the
method of harnessing the wind as a means of propulsion. They had in
these early times learned the value of stretching a sail on yards.
They had, besides, understood where to place backstays and a forestay
to support the mast, and they had adopted the use of braces to the
yards as well as of topping lifts.
The eyes painted on the ships of the Greeks and Romans still survive
to-day in the hawse holes on either side of a ship’s bow. And this
belief of the ancients that by means of these eyes the vessel could
see her way was but one article in the general creed still shared by
every sailor, amateur and professional alike, that a ship, of all the
creations of man, is indeed a living thing. Mr. F. T. Bullen, in a
delightful little essay, has demonstrated the varying ways in which
a ship will manifest her personality. In “The Way of the Ship” Mr.
Bullen also remarks: “Kipling has done more, perhaps, than any other
living writer to point out how certain fabrics of man’s construction
become invested with individuality of an unmistakable kind, and of
course so acute an observer cannot fail to notice how pre-eminently
is this the case with ships.”
Though you may build two ships on the same yard from the same plans
by the same builder, yet their personalities are different. The
yachtsmen who elect to have a one-design class know very well that
though you may raffle as to the ownership of each ship, yet there
will always be one or two of the fleet that will be superior to the
rest. But the ancients were before the yachtsmen in discovering that
a mere contrivance of wood and metal should have a distinct character
of its own.
The decoration of the bow and stern of the ship has existed for
many hundreds of years; and though the figurehead was especially
prominent during the Middle Ages, it is now fast disappearing both
from sailing ships of commerce and from yachts also. On steamers it
is hardly ever seen except on the steam yacht. The decorated stern,
too, so prevalent up to the eighteenth century, has now vanished;
although the final traces of this may be noticed in the old-fashioned
architecture to which the modern Royal steam yachts of this country
still cling, and in the gold beading which frequently ornaments the
name of a steamship under her stern.
In Northern latitudes we find the most extraordinary cases of
historical obstinacy; the rig and hull of the Scandinavians have
remained practically unaltered for some two or three thousand
years. The very word “snekkja,” applied to the ancient longships of
the Scandinavians, is still used to-day. Moreover, the “bonnet,”
which was attached to the foot of the sail to give additional
area—unlaced, of course, in dirty weather—was used by the Vikings;
was adopted from them by the ships of mediæval England; and is still
used to-day by the ships of Scandinavia, and in England by the
Lowestoft “drifters” that go forth to fish in the North Sea, as well
as by the pleasure and trading wherries that sail up and down the
Norfolk Broads. Fig. 2 shows a Norwegian “jaegt,” with bonnet and
bowlines.
[Illustration: FIG. 2. NORWEGIAN “JAEGT.”]
The influence of this dogged conservative spirit of the Norwegians
is to be seen extending over Great Britain in other ways. No one
who has visited the Orkney and Shetland Isles can have failed to
have noticed the close similarity between their boats and those of
the Norwegian. Until about forty years ago their fishing boat was
exactly a Norwegian “yawl,” the most obvious descendant from the
lines of a Viking ship. Indeed, until about the year 1860 all the
larger fishing boats of the Shetlands were imported in boards direct
from Norway ready for putting together at Lerwick. The type is still
farther preserved in the whale-boats that are despatched from the
mother ships in various parts of the world to harpoon the cachalot.
And, not to weary the reader with yet more examples of the great
influence which these Viking ships have had on the naval architecture
of our country, it is interesting to remark that the latest fashion
in yacht design is the so-called “canoe-stern” or “double-ender.”
This, of course, derives its inspiration from the Norwegian ships of
the present day; and, as we have already said, they in their turn
have conservatively held to the models of their ancestors. Whether,
as some have thought, the Viking “double-ender” can trace a direct
descent from the ships of Egypt is a point that we must defer to
another chapter.
Next to the squaresail rig, none has survived so persistently as
the lateen. I think that in all probability it was adapted, a few
centuries before the introduction of Christianity, from the Egyptian
squaresail. Its very appearance and the corner of the world in which
it is found as the prevailing rig both suggest that. It is reasonable
to assume that in the course of years, when the more experienced
Easterns began to discover the art of sailing against the wind and
to find that the rig of the Nile boats was not suitable for this,
there would be evolved a modification of the Egyptian sail to allow
of tacking. This, probably, was the origin of the lateen sail of the
dhow. It is of extreme antiquity, and has endured with but little
alteration from the time of Alexander the Great, about 350 B.C. The
prevalence of this kind of rig in the Red Sea, the Indian Ocean, off
the East Coast of Africa, especially as far south as Zanzibar, is
well known. The fact that it is still found everywhere up and down
the Mediterranean, on the Nile and on Swiss lakes, shows how firmly
established did this lateen rig become in the course of time. As we
shall see, at a subsequent stage the lateen sail was adopted by our
mediæval ships for the mizzen, and this continued right down till the
close of the eighteenth century. It will assist us to realise this
conservatism if we remember that the ships of St. Paul’s time were of
a similar kind to these Eastern ships of which we are now speaking.
Let me here be allowed to quote again from an author who has sailed
in every sea and been preserved to tell us in so many charming
records what many others have seen but not troubled to notice. In a
further essay on “The Sea in the New Testament” Mr. Bullen, referring
to the ships in which St. Paul voyaged, remarks:
“On the East African coast, even to this day, we find precisely the
same kind of vessels, the same primitive ideas of navigation, the
same absence of even the most elementary notions of comfort, the same
touching faith in its being always fine weather as evinced by the
absence of any precautions against a storm.
“Such a vessel as this [_i.e._, St. Paul’s] carried one huge sail
bent to a yard resembling a gigantic fishing-rod, whose butt, when
the sail was set, came nearly down to the deck, while the tapering
end soared many feet above the masthead. As it was the work of
all hands to hoist it, and the operation took a long time, when
once it was hoisted it was kept so if possible, and the nimble
sailors, with their almost prehensile toes, climbed by the scanty
rigging and, clinging to the yard, gave the sail a bungling furl.”
Again, referring to the sailors’ activities on the ship in which
St. Paul was sailing, Mr. Bullen goes on: “They sounded and got
twenty fathoms, and in a little while found the water had shoaled
to fifteen. Then they performed a piece of seamanship which may be
continually seen in execution on the East African coast to-day—they
let their anchors down to their full scope of cable and prayed for
daylight. The Arabs do it in fair weather or foul—lower the sail,
slack down the anchor, and go to sleep. She will bring up before she
hits anything.” I have received a like testimony from one who has
also cruised in those parts within recent years.
The prevalence of the fighting top has been maintained from the
time of the Egyptians down to the present day. To mention but a few
instances, the fighting top is seen in a battleship of Rameses III.
(about B.C. 1200), and it is found on ancient seals of the thirteenth
century of the present era, and so on, of course, through the Middle
Ages to our latest battleships.
From the times of the Egyptians the stern was always reserved for the
owner or captain and officers. This custom was that of the Greeks,
the Romans, the Vikings, and the English right down to the building
of H.M.S. _Dreadnought_ a short while ago, when the longstanding
practice of the officers being quartered aft and the men forward was
for the first time broken, to the satisfaction, I understand, of
neither officers nor men. There has always been a sense of reverence
on the part of the sailor for the poop-deck, and though in the
Merchant Service many of the old ways have recently disappeared,
yet the custom in the Navy, of “saluting the deck” in honour of the
Sovereign is, of course, well known. In ancient illustrations we see
the place of honour always placed aft.
Finally we must needs refer to the extraordinary longevity of the
Mediterranean galley. Adapted from the Egyptians by the Greeks and
afterwards the Romans, it flourished, especially in the Adriatic,
up to the sixteenth century in a modified form, and only the advent
of steam finally closed its career. Even now the gondola will be
recognised as bearing a family likeness, and the prow of the latter
still shows the survival of the spear-heads which were used in the
manœuvre of ramming.
These, then, are some of the characteristics that have been
persistent during the course of development of the sailing ship.
Each national design and each nation’s rig are the survival of all
that has been found to be the best for that particular locality. The
more ships a nation builds, the more they sail to other ports—seeing
other kinds of ships, comparing them with their own, and adopting
whatever is worth while—so much the faster does the ship improve.
This, indeed, has been the custom throughout the history of the
English nation. When she sent her ships to the Mediterranean at the
time of the Crusades, her sailors returned home with new ideas.
Thus, the ships in which Richard, with his large fleet, voyaged to
Palestine in 1190 would be still of the Viking type. Only a hundred
and thirty years had elapsed since William the Conqueror landed in
similar boats, as we know from the Bayeux tapestry. When Richard was
in the Mediterranean he was joined by a number of galleys. It is not
assuming too much to say that an exchange of visits would be made
between the crews of the respective ships. The difference in ships
would most certainly be criticised, for of all people who inhabit
this planet, none are more critical of each other’s possessions than
sailormen. The Mediterranean inhabitants, having reached civilisation
earlier than the dwellers of Northern Europe, and having had the
advantage of living nearer, both historically and geographically,
to the first builders of ships, would no doubt have been far in
advance of the shipbuilders of Northern Europe. Therefore, it is
fairly certain that the English returned from the Crusades knowing
far more of maritime matters than when they had set out. At any
rate, it is significant that the illustrations of ships of the date
of 1238, or about fifty years after Richard set forth to the East,
show the Viking-like ship greatly modified. The beginnings of the
stern-castle and fore-castle and of fighting top are now seen. It
seems to me highly probable that the idea for these was obtained from
the galleys, still influenced in their architecture by the methods of
fighting adopted by the Greeks and the Romans.
The English nation, more than perhaps any other, has been
characterised not so much by her inventiveness as by her skill in
adapting other nations’ ideas. The present age of electricity and
other inventions illustrates the general truth of this statement.
Thus, her ships of to-day are the result of continually improving
on the designs of other nations. From Norway she got her first
sailing ships; from the Mediterranean she assuredly derived
considerable knowledge in maritime matters generally. Certainly
from Spain she learned much of the art of navigation, of rigging
and of shipbuilding. From the French, as we go down through time,
she acquired a vast increase of her knowledge of ship-designing
and shipbuilding. Not the least of this was the importance to a
vessel of fine lines. The Dutch taught us a good deal of seamanship
and tactics, as we know from Pepys’s Diary. Finally, about the
year 1850, after the American clippers had raced all our big ships
of the mercantile marine off the ocean, England learned to build
clippers equally fast and superior in strength, and so regained the
sea-carrying trade she had lost. In yacht designing also she has
learned much from American architects, as the Germans within the last
few years have learned from us.
Sailing ships are the links which bind country to country, continent
to continent. They have been at once the means of spreading
civilisation and war. It is a fact that the number of new ships to be
built increases proportionately as the trade of a country prospers,
and one of the first signs of bad trade is the decrease in the
shipbuilder’s orders. But, good trade or bad trade, peace or war,
there will always be a summons in the sea which cannot be resisted.
It summoned the Egyptians to sail to the land of Punt to fetch
incense and gold. It summoned the Phœnicians across the Bay of Biscay
to the tin mines of Cornwall. It called the Vikings to coast along
the Baltic shores for pillage and piracy. It called the Elizabethans
to set forth from Bristol and London in order to find new trade
routes, new markets for their goods, fresh sources of their imports.
It calls some for trade, some for piracy, some for mere adventure,
as in the case of the yachtsman of to-day. It seduces ships from the
safety of snug harbours only to be tossed about by the billows of a
trackless expanse. The sea ever has been, ever is, and ever will be,
uncertain, fickle, unkind. In spite of the fact that for 8000 years
and more shipbuilders, designers, and seamen have by experience and
invention sought every possible means to overcome its terrors and
to tame its fury; in spite of the fact that these men have never
succeeded in getting the upper hand, yet the call of the sea will
ever be obeyed. When once she has fascinated you, when once you have
consented to her cry and got the salt into your veins, you become as
much the slave of the sea as any Roman underling that pulled at the
oar of an ancient galley. The sea calls you; you hoist up your sails,
and come.