NAVIGATION.
As the art of navigation was not invented by the Greeks, it will be in
this place unnecessary to inquire very minutely into its rude
beginnings. Most maritime tribes doubtless discovered for themselves the
means of traversing such rivers, and creeks, and bays, and arms of the
sea, as lay in their immediate neighbourhood and impeded their
communication, whether hostile or friendly, with the various tribes on
their borders. Another motive, moreover, which probably tempted men to
trust themselves very early upon the waters, was the desire to regale on
those dainty fish which abound on nearly all shores, and constitute
among the most savage nations an important article of food. It will
readily be believed that history cannot pretend to name the individual
who in any country first launched his raft or canoe upon the deep.
Nevertheless, tradition among the Phœnicians, endeavoured to supply the
defect of history. Ousoös, we are told,[1662] a primitive Arab hero,
observing the trunk of a large tree overthrown, perhaps by a hurricane,
near the shore, lopped off the branches, set it afloat, and committed
himself along with it to the mercy of the waves. He had very soon an
abundance of imitators. In every part of the Red Sea, on the Nile, the
Indus, and the Persian Gulf, hardy navigators made their appearance, who
undertook voyages more or less hazardous, in piraguas constructed of a
single bamboo, or the shell of a vast tortoise, or of a wicker-work
frame covered with leather[1663]—the coracles of our British ancestors
still in common use on many streams in Wales. Occasionally, too, more
especially on the rivers and shores of the Euxine, capacious, long, and
sturdy barks[1664] were scooped out of the trunks of enormous trees,
which were denominated Monoxyla, and seem to have been at one time or
another in general use all over the world from the island of Australasia
to the Arctic Circle. A specimen of those employed by our own
forefathers may be seen in the colonnade of our national Museum. On the
Nile were several kinds of barks peculiar to Egypt, such for example, as
those which were plaited from the papyrus plant,[1665] or from rushes.
Most extraordinary of all, however, were their boats of earthenware, in
which, furnished both with sails and oars, they glided over the serene
bosom of the river.
-----
Footnote 1662:
Sanchoniath. ap Euseb. Præp. Evang. i. p. 23, bis. Leroy, Marine des
Anciens Peuples, p. 188.
Footnote 1663:
Herod. i. 194.
Footnote 1664:
In the sea of Marmora, a boat somewhat similar in form, though
different in construction, is still used, and known under the name of
piade. It is narrow, and “from twenty to forty feet in length, very
sharp both in the prow and stern; it is built of willow, and often
beautifully carved and ornamented.” Douglas, Essay, &c., p. 13.
Footnote 1665:
Herod. ii. 96. Theoph. Hist. Plant. iv. 8. 4.
-----
As soon as the Greeks began to apply themselves to maritime affairs,
they constructed ports and docks in various parts of the country, where
they built numerous ships, rude enough at first, perhaps; but improving
by experience and study[1666] they in time equalled, and at length
surpassed, the Phœnicians, by whom at the outset they may perhaps have
been instructed. Among the greatest difficulties they had to encounter
was the scarcity of ship-timber, for which they were always compelled
greatly to depend on other countries. The materials, however, being
collected, their shipwrights appear to have proceeded in much the same
manner as those of modern times, laying down the keel, fixing in the
ribs, planking, decking, caulking, and pitching, until the hull was
completed.
-----
Footnote 1666:
Cf. Hom. Il. α. 316. Thucyd. i. 10.
-----
In their war-galleys,[1667] constructed under the superintendence of a
naval architect elected by lot, they exhausted all the resources of art
in their endeavours to communicate to them the greatest beauty of form
and splendour of appearance. Painting, carving, and gilding,[1668] were
called in to cover both stern and prow with images and ornaments of the
most fanciful kinds, glowing with bright blue or vermilion,[1669]
intermingled with scrolls and flourishes of other colours, and figures
of burnished gold. Occasionally beneath the rim of the prow were bright
cerulean bands,[1670] painted in encaustic and defended by so durable a
varnish that they could neither be blistered by the sun, nor dimmed by
the action of the sea-water. In this part, beneath the roots as it were
of the acrostolion, were placed those ornaments resembling eyes, one on
either side, over which the name of the ship was written.[1671] The
sweep of the deck was a gentle curve, the lowest dip of which was at the
ship’s waist. On the poop stood a deep alcove in which the pilot took
his station,[1672] protected in a great degree from wind and weather,
and having over his head a large lantern, in which a bright light was
kindled at nightfall.
-----
Footnote 1667:
Vid. Gyrald. de Navig. c. xvi. t. i. col. 646. Thucyd. i. 13, seq.
Athen. xi. 49. Aristoph. Lysist. 173. On the names of different
classes of vessels, see Schol. Aristoph. Pac. 143. Eq. 1363. Thucyd.
iv. 67.
Footnote 1668:
Poll. i. 84. Goguet, iv. 261. Winkel. i. 26. n.
Footnote 1669:
Lucian. Charidem. § 25.
Footnote 1670:
Athen. v. 37.
Footnote 1671:
Poll. i. 86.
Footnote 1672:
In this he had a seat which was called ικρία. Hesych. in v.
-----
Firm and lofty bulwarks rose along the ship’s sides, protecting the
mariners from being swept off in tempests by the passing surge. On the
bows again, there was usually a square tower furnished with lofty
portals, through which the combatants, protected from annoyances on both
flanks, poured, in close fight, their darts into the enemy’s ship, or
rushed forward to board it. At the very front of the prow, where our
bowsprit is now placed, arose an elegant winding scroll, which though
projecting slightly beyond the hull, could never touch the corresponding
part of the enemy’s galley until the iron or brazen beaks[1673] below
had met and shattered each other. The rudder[1674] consisted of two
paddles placed one on either side of the ship, which was impelled along
by oar and sail. The row-ports of these galleys being somewhat capacious
might, if left open, have shipped a great deal of water, on which
account they were furnished with strong leather bags, in form like a
woman’s breast, projecting outwards, nailed to the circle of the
row-port, and fitting tight about the oar. The rowers, to render their
condition more comfortable, were furnished with cushions or soft-dressed
fleeces.[1675]
-----
Footnote 1673:
Schol. Aristoph. Eq. 552.
Footnote 1674:
Spallanzani in describing the preparations made by the Portuguese for
the first doubling of the Cape of Good Hope, mentions, among other
things, a double rudder, so “that in case one should be damaged there
might be another to act.” Travels in the Two Sicilies, iv. 201.
Footnote 1675:
The sea-term ὑπηρέσιον which occurs in Thucydides, ii. 93, is very
variously explained. Mitford (Hist. Greece, iii. 154) contends, that
it means a sort of bag placed in the τρῆμα, or aperture through which
the oar passed, and was designed to prevent the flowing in of the
waves. This bag, however, as I have already remarked in pp. 289, 290,
was called ἄσκωμα. Poll. ii. 154. Potter (ii. 136,) thinks it was a
skin on which the rowers sat. Lilius Gyraldus, (De Navigiis, c. vi. p.
627,) supposes it to have been that part of the galley on which the
oar rested, and sometimes signified the oar itself. The Greek
scholiast on Thucydides, (t. v. p. 399,) agrees with Potter, saying,
that it means a sheep-skin with the fleece which covered the rowers’
benches.
-----
The merchantmen differed considerably both in form and general
arrangements from the war-galleys. As in our own ships of burden, under
the old system of admeasurement, the hull instead of sinking down sharp
towards the keel, bellied outwards at the sides, so as to render the
bottom almost flat. They were very much shorter, moreover, in proportion
to their height than ships of the line,[1676] which, from their slender
elongated figure, obtained the appellation of long galleys. In trading
vessels,[1677] much greater stress was laid on sails than on oars, since
the crews could never be sufficiently numerous to furnish constantly
fresh relays of rowers; and, in their protracted voyages, it would have
been impossible for the same men to remain perpetually on the benches.
The masts consequently were here of very great height, equalling,
according to rule, the length of the ship, which rendered it practicable
to crowd an immense quantity of canvass, but at the same time rendered
them liable to capsize in a heavy gale, as is still the case with the
Levant-built ships, which are generally much taller rigged than ours.
They commonly gave a greater length to the hull of transports, though
not altogether so great as to ships of war. Pirate luggers were always
built without decks,[1678] and extremely low that they might be the
better able to approach their prey unperceived. Their sloops, smacks,
and lighters,[1679] together with all the other small craft employed in
the coasting trade, exhibited every variety of form, but appear to have
been generally stout-built and well-appointed.
-----
Footnote 1676:
Cf. Schol. Aristoph. Eq. 1363.
Footnote 1677:
One of these vessels, when built for speed, would, with a fair wind,
make a hundred and fifty miles in the twenty-four hours. Herod. iv.
86.
Footnote 1678:
Thucyd. i. 10. Schol. t. v. p. 311.
Footnote 1679:
Much of the coasting trade of the Mediterranean is still carried on in
extremely small barks or open boats. See Spallanzani, Travels in the
Two Sicilies, iii. 122, sqq. In the Adriatic, however, the necessity
has at length been felt of employing vessels of a broad and flat
construction, and extremely solid, to resist the violence of the
storms so frequent in that sea, id. iv. 200.
-----
Respecting the tonnage and dimensions of the largest class of
merchantmen, we possess little positive information. It would appear,
however, that in comparison with the vessels engaged in the corn-trade,
between Alexandria and Italy,[1680] they were of very moderate burden,
since the appearance of one of those large ships in the Peiræeus excited
general astonishment. The size of this Egyptian trader, which seems to
have been no way distinguished from others engaged in the same traffic,
may perhaps assist the imagination in forming some definite idea of an
ancient merchantman: its length, from stem to stern, was one hundred and
eighty feet, its breadth nearly fifty, and its clear depth in the hold
about forty-five. It was furnished with one enormous mast, with yards in
proportion, and a capacious mainsail, composed of numerous tiers of
ox-hides. The cables and anchors, capstains, windlasses, with all the
other appurtenances of a ship, were on a suitable scale, while the crew
was so numerous as to be compared to an army. In the stem were airy and
spacious cabins, above which rose the gilded figure of a goose. On
either side of the bows stood an image of Isis,[1681] bending over the
waves and appearing to afford her divine protection to those who had
chosen her for their tutelar goddess. Among the Greeks, however, the
place assigned to the tutelar divinity was sometimes the stern, where
oaths were taken, expiations made, prayers and sacrifices offered up,
and where such of the crew as had committed any offence took sanctuary.
On the top of the mast was a vane[1682] of burnished metal which,
turning and flashing in the sun, appeared like a streak of flame. As
their ships, more especially during long voyages, ran perpetual risk of
being assailed by pirates, they were abundantly supplied with all kinds
of arms and implements of war, which were ranged along the cabin
partitions and elsewhere with so much order and regularity, that they
could always, by night or day, be found at a moment’s warning.
-----
Footnote 1680:
Lucian. Navig. § 5.
Footnote 1681:
On the bows of the Athenian war-galleys a wooden statue of Athena,
richly gilded, occupied the place here assigned to Isis. Aristoph.
Acharn. 457, et Schol.
Footnote 1682:
See on vanes, flags, &c., Beckmann, History of Inventions, iv. 161. As
many of our sailors carry about their persons a child’s caul as an
amulet to protect them against the dangers of the ocean, so the
mariners of Greece attributed a sort of miraculous power to the skins
of the seal and the hyæna, which they bound around the summits of
their masts as a safeguard against lightning and thunderbolts. Plut.
Sympos, iv. 2. 1.
-----
It was by very slow advances that the ancients arrived at that high
degree of excellence in the art of ship-building, which, in the most
flourishing ages of Greece, its maritime states exhibited. In the
Homeric age, the largest vessels known were of very moderate burden,
since even the poet, who would doubtless allow himself some licence,
speaks of no transport which could carry more than one hundred and fifty
men. These barks, too, Thucydides thinks, were undecked, like the pirate
vessels of his own times, and indeed in ours also, in most parts of the
Ægæan, though I have myself sailed in a large Greek brig, of piratical
construction, which carried several guns, and was not only decked, but
so admirably built, that after labouring ten days in a storm, she made
not an inch more water than when in port.
The various stages in improvement have not been marked. They went on,
however, each age excelling that which had preceded it, until at length
having reached the utmost perfection of which their system was
susceptible, they began to apply their skill to the creation of huge
fabrics merely for show and magnificence, and calculated rather for the
gratification of an insane luxury than for the genuine purposes of
trade. One of these naval monsters was constructed at Syracuse under the
eye of Archimedes, and at the expense of king Hiero.
Having procured from the forests of Mount Ætna timber sufficient for the
building of sixty triremes, together with a variety of other materials
from Italy, Spain, and Gaul, as crooked timber for ribs, hard wood for
pegs, with pitch and hemp, and Spanish broom[1683] for cables, he
assembled a sufficient number of ship-wrights, with Archias, the
Corinthian, at their head, and set them to work under the inspection of
Archimedes, though he himself spent the greater part of his day
overlooking the workmen at the dock. When in about six months the
planking had been carried to about half the height of the hull, and
properly sheathed with lead in lieu of the copper at present employed,
the ship was launched[1684] by means of a machine, invented for the
purpose by Archimedes, into a sort of floating dock, where it was
completed in other six months. The planks were fastened to the ribs with
copper bolts, of which some were of ten and others fifteen pounds’
weight, passed through holes prepared for them by the auger; and over
the heads of these bolts plates of lead were fixed, having been first
lined, as it were, with a layer of wadding steeped in pitch.
-----
Footnote 1683:
Athen. v. 40.
Footnote 1684:
By what ceremonies a ship-launch was accompanied in antiquity, I have
nowhere discovered. Those which take place on the occasion in modern
Greece are extremely pleasing, and may, perhaps, have had a classical
origin. A crown of flowers “is suspended from the prow of a vessel
when it is first launched, and the ‘καρόβακηρι,’ or master of the
ship, raises the jar of wine to his lips as he stands upon the deck,
and then pours it on the ground. Surely, nothing can be more
beautifully classical; and it were to be wished that we could trace
some part of a ceremony that takes place with us upon the same
occasion to this source, and not consider it as an imitation of one of
the most sacred rites of our religion.” Douglas, p. 65.
-----
They next proceeded to the interior arrangements, the explanation of
which is replete with difficulty. The whole depth of the ship seems to
have been divided into four stories, of which the lowest, or hold, was
filled by the cargo; the second, descended to by long flights of steps,
was appropriated to the rowers, who were ranged in twenty banks; the
third was laid out in cabins for the use of the crew, while the military
officers and the men occupied the uppermost. The kitchen was situated in
the stern.
All these cabins were adorned with pavements in mosaic, representing in
a long series of compartments the entire action of the Iliad; while the
furniture, doors, and ceilings were furnished with proportionate
splendour and elegance. On the upper deck was a gymnasium, exactly
proportioned to the dimensions of the ship, together with a number of
walks running through the midst of gardens laid out on leaden terraces,
and containing all kinds of odoriferous plants and flowers. All these
alleys were arched with trellis-work, overlaid with the intermingled
foliage of the white-ivy and the vine growing out of troughs filled with
earth, arranged along the promenades, and watered like other gardens. In
a different part of the ship was a magnificent apartment called the
Aphrodision, furnished with three couches, and having a pavement
variegated with agates, and all the richest and most beautiful marbles
of Sicily. It was wainscotted and roofed with cypress, while its doors
were of Atlantic citron-wood inlaid with ivory. On all sides, moreover,
it was adorned with pictures and statues and vases and goblets, of the
most fanciful and varied forms. Contiguous to this chamber was the
library, furnished with five couches and store of books. Its doors and
wainscot were of box, and on its roof was a sun-dial, constructed in
imitation of that in the Achradina. There was also a bath, in which were
three couches, and three caldaria of bronze, together with a basin
containing five metretæ, lined with Taurominian marble of various
colours. There were numerous cabins fitted up for the soldiers and the
crew, from whom was selected a number of persons whose sole business it
was to superintend the pumps.[1685] The ship likewise contained twenty
stables, ten on either hand, well supplied with fodder, and every
convenience for the grooms.
-----
Footnote 1685:
Cf. Schol. Aristoph. Eq. 432.
-----
In the bows was a prodigious reservoir of fresh-water, lined with
tarpaulin, and kept under lock and key; and near it lay the piscina or
fish-pond, overlaid with lead, and filled with sea-water, in which was
preserved an ample supply of fish for a long voyage. On projecting
galleries, extending along the ship’s sides, were situated the
wood-house, the kitchen, the bake-house, the mills, and other
conveniences. At different distances along the sides were ranged
numerous figures of Atlas, nine feet in height, supporting the triglyphs
and the projecting portions of the ship: its whole surface, moreover,
was adorned with suitable paintings.
There arose from the deck eight towers, two on the stern, two on the
prow, and four in the ship’s waist, in diameter and elevation
proportioned to the dimensions of the whole. From the outer battlements
of each of these turrets projected two immense beams, hollowed out like
troughs, which being balanced in the middle on the edge of the tower,
could be filled with huge stones, that, by elevating the inner extremity
of the machine, were launched into the enemy’s ship as it sailed
beneath. These engines were probably worked by ropes and pulleys
attached to the opposite battlements. Six armed men, two of whom were
archers, took their station in each turret, the whole interior of which
was filled with stones and darts. All round the ship, supported by a
series of triangles, ran a gallery, defended by a parapet and
battlements. On this stood a catapult, invented by Archimedes, which
cast darts eighteen feet long, with stones upwards of three hundred and
fifty pounds in weight, to the distance of a furlong. This gallery, as
well, I presume, as the men who worked the engine, was protected by a
close net-work of large ropes suspended from brazen chains. To each of
the three masts was attached a couple of engines, which darted iron bars
and masses of lead against the enemy. The sides of the ship bristled
with iron spikes, designed to protect it against boarding; and on all
sides were likewise grapples, which could be flung by machines into the
galleys of the foe, so as to retain them within reach of the missiles
from on board. Along the galleries, and round the masts and catapults,
were drawn up two hundred and forty men in complete armour. In the fore,
main, and mizen-tops were stationed other warriors, who were supplied
with stones and similar missiles by baskets running on pulleys, and
worked by boys. The ship was supplied with twelve anchors, of which four
were of wood, and eight of iron.[1686]
-----
Footnote 1686:
Cf. Artemid. Oneirocrit. ii. 23, p. 110, with the amusing conjectures
of Goguet, &c., on the origin of anchors, Origine des Loix, ii. 221.
Pausanias attributes the invention of the anchor to Midas, i. 4. 5.
Schol. Aristoph. Eq. 753. If we may trust to the testimony of Lucian,
a small boat-anchor could be bought for five drachmas. Dialog.
Mortuorum, iv. 1.
-----
Very little difficulty was experienced in discovering pines sufficiently
lofty for the fore and mizen-masts of this huge galley; but it was only
by accident that a swineherd in the mountains of the Abruzzi found a
tree of sufficient magnitude for the mainmast. It was conveyed to the
sea by Philias, an engineer of Taurominium. The pump, notwithstanding
its great depth, was easily worked by the screw of Archimedes, and only
required the labour of one individual. The name first bestowed on this
ship by Hiero was “The Syracusan;” but when afterwards he despatched it
as a present to King Ptolemy, he changed it to that of the “The
Alexandrian.”
Besides the individuals already enumerated, there were six hundred men
stationed on the prow; and to administer justice in this floating
commonwealth a court was instituted, consisting of the captain, the
pilot, and the principal officers in command in the forecastle, who
judged according to the laws of Syracuse. It was followed on the voyage
to Egypt by a number of smaller craft, of which the majority were
fishing-smacks.
The cargo of “The Alexandrian,” which, together with the vessel itself,
was presented to King Ptolemy at a time when famine raged in Egypt,
consisted of sixty thousand medimni of corn, two thousand jars of
salt-fish, twenty thousand talents of wool, and an equal quantity of
other commodities. The poet Archimelos having written a copy of verses
on this nautical castle, Hiero felt so greatly flattered by the
compliment that he sent the author a thousand medimni of wheat, which he
landed for him at the Peiræeus.
In order to convey some idea of another department of nautical
architecture among the ancients, in which there was probably a greater
display of fancy than of science, we shall here introduce the
description of a pleasure-barge in which Ptolemy Philopater and the
ladies of his court used to sail upon the Nile.[1687] Among the caliphs
and sultans of the East we find traces of a similar taste for gorgeous
and magnificent barks; but neither in history nor fiction do we remember
to have met any account of a vessel so curiously constructed, or so
superbly and sumptuously adorned. It was, in the first place, half a
furlong in length, flat-bottomed, and rising high above the water on
account of the swell, with projecting keel, and prow of most graceful
curvature,—or, I should rather, perhaps, say, prows, for it appeared
double in front, as though a pair of galleys had been lashed together.
Along the sides and stern ran two galleries, the one above the other,
where the persons on board might stroll and take exercise as the barge
was wafted along by the wind. Of these the lower one resembled an open
peristyle, the upper a close arcade furnished at intervals with windows
looking out upon the river.
-----
Footnote 1687:
The great attention paid to navigation by the Egyptians, under the
government of the Ptolemies, may be inferred from the fact, that they
possessed at one time upwards of four thousand ships of all sizes.
Athen. v. 36.
-----
Considering the whole barge as one great building, the architect placed
the extreme hall encircled by a single row of columns at the extremity
of the stern, where it was, doubtless, approached from the upper
gallery. Having traversed this, you next beheld a propylæon erected with
the most precious wood and ivory. This led into a proscenion roofed
over, in the vicinity of which lay a variety of chambers. Of these the
most remarkable was a vast peripheral hall fitted up with twenty
couches. This apartment was wainscotted with cedar and Milesian cypress;
the doors, twenty in number, were formed of panels of citron wood richly
inlaid with ivory. The hinges, the nails, the knockers, and
door-handles, were of copper, gilt. The shafts of the columns were
cypress wood, and the Corinthian capitals of gold and ivory were
surmounted by an architrave richly overlaid with gold. Above this again
was a broad frieze adorned with numerous figures of animals roughly
sculptured in ivory, but remarkable for the costliness of the materials.
The ceiling was of cedar wood elaborately carved and covered with a
blaze of gilding. Close at hand were the apartments of the women, in the
structure and ornaments of which equal magnificence was displayed. In
another part of the bark was a chapel of Aphroditè surmounted by a dome.
It contained a statue of the goddess in Parian marble. This sacred
edifice was surrounded by other suites of apartments among which was a
symposion adorned with pillars of Indian marble. Towards the prow was a
saloon sacred to Dionysos, surrounded on all sides with pillars
furnished with numerous couches, and adorned with gilded cornices. The
roof was enriched with ornaments suited to the character of the god,
that is, in all probability orgeastic processions of Bacchantes and
Bacchanals, with crowns of ivy and vine leaves. On the right hand this
saloon opened into a grotto or cavern, in which the colours of rocks
were imitated by an incrustation of precious stones, whose brilliance
was in various parts relieved by ornaments of gold. The busts of the
royal family sculptured of Parian marble were ranged round the grot.
On the roof of the great saloon was erected a small symposion, in the
form of a tent, exceedingly agreeable from its airiness and the fine
prospect it commanded over the whole valley of the Nile. It was
completely open in front, and the roof consisting of a series of
semicircular hoops like the top of a calèche, it could be bent down and
drawn forward at pleasure, and was covered with purple hangings. By a
winding staircase constructed in a different part of the bark, you
ascended to another hall, constructed and decorated after the Egyptian
manner, being adorned with a number of round pillars composed of a
succession of blocks of equal height, alternately white and black. Their
capitals, likewise were round, but contracting rather than expanding at
the top like an elongated rose-bud.
In all this part of the column, technically denominated calathos, there
were neither volutes nor rows of open and projecting foliage as in Greek
architecture, but bells of the river lotos, or other flowers,
intermingled with newly formed fruit of the date palm. To correspond
with these columns, the walls of Egyptian edifices were frequently lined
with black and white slabs alternating with each other. Of these the
white were sometimes of alabaster.
This bark was furnished with but one mast, one hundred and five feet in
height, to which was fitted a single sail of byssus with purple fringe.
The dimensions of the sail must, however, have been prodigious, but from
the fineness of its fabric it could never have been hoisted in rough
weather.
If we turn now to the materials wherewith the ships of the ancients were
constructed we shall find that they here differed as much from the
practice of modern nations, at least in the north, as in the form and
style of rigging. With us scarcely anything but oak or teak is employed
in those parts which come in contact with the water, whereas the Greeks
constructed their war galleys, in which speed was of the greatest
moment, of fir,[1688] while they chiefly made use of pitch pine in the
building of merchantmen, as that wood long resists the corrosive action
of the sea.
-----
Footnote 1688:
Theoph. Hist. Plant. v. 6. 5. Plat. de Legg. iv. t. vii. 333.
-----
The Cypriotes appear in all cases to have given the preference to the
pine which abounds in the island, and was esteemed superior to the pitch
tree,[1689] though the latter was sometimes appropriated to the building
of ships of war. Among the Syrians and Phœnicians, in whose country a
supply of pine was not to be obtained,[1690] the custom prevailed of
building ships entirely of cedar.[1691] The practice of employing
oak[1692] had, likewise, already been introduced, though it does not
appear to have been common; but in the larger classes of ships the keel
was always of that timber, in order that, when drawn on shore, it might
be able to sustain the weight of the superincumbent mass. In the
holcades or merchantmen, the keel, like the ship itself, was of pitch
pine; but all such vessels were in those days supplied with a false
keel, called chelysma,[1693] of oak, or oxya, designed to act as a
protection when they were drawn up into dry dock. Masts and yards were
commonly of the silver fir;[1694] oars of such timber as grew on the
northern slopes of mountains.[1695] The turned work used in ornamenting
the interior was commonly of mulberry, ash, elm, or platane wood, of
which the last was least esteemed.[1696]
-----
Footnote 1689:
Cf. Artemid. Oneirocrit. ii. 25, p. 113.
Footnote 1690:
Theoph. Hist. Plant. v. 7. 5.
Footnote 1691:
Id. iv. 5. 5. v. 6. 5. There were cedars on Mount Lebanon eighteen
feet in circumference, v. 8. 1.
Footnote 1692:
Theophrastus appears to give the preference to the oak of Epeiros, the
acorns of which had been frequently sown in other parts of Greece, but
produced, he says, inferior timber. Hist. Plant. ii. 2. 6. Cf. Orph.
Argonaut. 130. Cf. Valer. Flacc. viii. 161. i. 303.
Footnote 1693:
Theoph. Hist. Plant. v. 7. 2, seq. iii. 10. 1.
Footnote 1694:
Theoph. Hist. Plant. v. 1. 7.
Footnote 1695:
Id. iv. 1. 4. The oar was usually fastened to the row-port by a stout
thong, which, of the size used in boats, seems to have cost about two
oboloi. Lucian. Dial. Mortuor. iv. § 1.
Footnote 1696:
Theoph. Hist. Plant. v. 7. 3.
-----
Sails were made and manufactured from a variety of materials. It has
been seen above, in speaking of the Egyptian war ships, that they
sometimes consisted of a number of hides sown together. They were,
likewise, in various countries, plaited, as now in China,[1697] from
reeds, or rushes, but the sailcloth of the Greeks was generally, like
our own, woven from hemp.[1698] For this, in Egypt, the papyrus was
sometimes substituted. Princes and grandees occasionally, in their
pleasure-boats, employed, in lieu of these rude materials, cotton or
fine linen, dyed, to augment their beauty, of the most brilliant purple.
To this Shakespeare alludes in the following passage, which though
familiar, perhaps, to the reader, I must, nevertheless, beg permission
to quote:
The barge she sat in, like a burnish’d throne,
Burnt on the water: the poop was beaten gold;
Purple the sails, and so perfumed, that
The winds were love-sick with ’em: the oars were silver;
Which to the tune of flutes kept stroke, and made
The water which they beat to follow faster,
As amorous of their strokes. For her own person,
It beggar’d all description. She did lie
In her pavilion, (cloth of gold of tissue,)
O’er-picturing that Venus, where we see
The fancy out-work nature. On each side her,
Stood pretty dimpled boys, like smiling cupids,
With diverse-colour’d fans, whose wind did seem
To glow the delicate cheeks which they did cool;
And what they undid, did.——
Her gentlewomen, like the Nereids, or
So many mermaids, tended her i’ th’ eyes’,
And made their bends adorning; at the helm
A seeming mermaid steers; the silken tackles
Swell with the touches of those flower-soft hands,
That yarely frame the office. From the barge
A strange invisible perfume hits the sense
Of the adjacent wharfs.[1699]
-----
Footnote 1697:
Goguet, iv. 260.
Footnote 1698:
Theoph. Hist. iv. 8. 4.
Footnote 1699:
Anthony and Cleopatra, Act ii. Scene 3.
-----
An ancient anonymous writer on the art military describes a vessel
closely resembling our steamboats in construction, but in which
bullocks, stationed in the hold, worked the paddle-wheels instead of an
engine. It flew along the water, says the author, without oars or sails,
simply by the impulses of wheels, which, rising partly above the waves,
operated, when in action, like a succession of oars.
Ropes and cables[1700] were manufactured in antiquity from a great
variety of materials. At first, the cordage most in use would appear to
have been composed of twisted thongs; for which, in process of time, was
substituted goats’ hair,[1701] the Spanish broom,[1702] the bark of the
cornel[1703] and linden-tree,[1704] with byblos, hemp,[1705] and
flax.[1706] The enormous cables which supported the bridge thrown by
Xerxes over the Hellespont were manufactured from mixed materials, of
which two-thirds were byblos and one-third white flax.[1707] They were
of dimensions so vast that a piece half a yard in length weighed one
hundred and twenty-five pounds.
-----
Footnote 1700:
Schol. Aristoph. Eq. 129. Æschyl. 175.
Footnote 1701:
Geop. xviii. 9. Common sacks and cushions for rowers on board the
galleys were likewise manufactured from the same material. Cf. Var. de
Re Rustic. ii. 7. Columel. 7. 6. 2.
Footnote 1702:
Athen. v. 40.
Footnote 1703:
Plut. Alexand. § 18.
Footnote 1704:
Theoph. Hist. Plant. v. 7. 5.
Footnote 1705:
Dioscor. iii. 165.
Footnote 1706:
Herod. vii. 25.
Footnote 1707:
Id. vii. 34. 36.
-----
Of the sailors, upon whose energy, skill, and courage, the success of
every voyage necessarily depended, ancient writers have been more than
usually scanty in their communications. We know, however, that the
mariners as well on board the merchantmen of Athens as those of the
other states of Greece, were partly citizens, partly strangers, and in
many instances slaves. Leading a life full of hardship and danger,
engaged as it were in a perpetual conflict with the elements, their
tempers grew fierce, their manners boisterous and rude,[1708] and their
morals none of the most elevated. During the intervals they spent on
shore, they endeavoured by snatching at all the coarse pleasures within
their reach, to make themselves some amends for their habitual
privations. The excuse, however, for this conduct was often
sophistically borrowed from religion, for during the prevalence of
storms at sea, it was customary to make vows to Poseidon, or Castor and
Polydeukes, or some of the other patrons of the nautical art; and on
reaching port the victims were slain and offered up, and the sacrifice
of necessity was accompanied by a feast. To these their boon companions,
dancing-girls, female flute-players, hetairæ, jugglers, and low
parasites, were invited, and the whole usually terminated in excessive
intoxication and a battle royal. Most mariners were attached to some
dame of equivocal reputation in the Peiræeus or elsewhere, to whom on
their return from voyages they were in the habit of bringing presents,
such as a pair of gilded slippers, a dainty cheese, a jar of pickles, or
saltfish, or a measure or two of onions. What was the amount of wages,
which enabled them to indulge in this kind of liberality, I have nowhere
been able to discover, though in all probability it was at least equal
to the pay received by seamen in the war-galleys, that is from three to
four oboloi a-day. Their operations while on board, were regulated of
course by circumstances and the accidents of the weather. Thus, when the
breeze was strong and favourable, they might lounge or sit about the
decks, or sleep, during the greater part of the twenty-four hours,
without shifting a sail or handling an oar, though a man was always
stationed at the prow to keep a sharp look-out, and watch the aspect of
the sky.[1709] In calms, however, or when the swell and roar of the sea
foretold an approaching tempest, the whole crew took to their cushions,
and raising at the command of the boatswain,[1710] a loud chant,[1711]
which contended in volume with the angry voice of the ocean, they
strained every nerve to augment the velocity of their bark, and gain
some friendly port before the storm fairly set in. Occasionally,
however, they were overtaken by tempests in the neighbourhood of rocky
islands or bleak and inhospitable promontories like the Chelidonian
rocks, where from whatever point of the compass the wind might blow a
heavy surge beat upon the shore perpetually. Under these circumstances
it was observed, more especially during the darkness of the night, that
two brilliant glancing lights played evermore about the masts and yards,
shooting hither and thither, and kindling up the crest of the surge by
their luminous appearance. These were the Dioscuri, the tender and
affectionate brothers of Helen, whose benevolence towards mankind in
general was only to be equalled by their attachment to each other. When
matters came to extremities and the waves appeared ready to engulf both
crew and passengers, all on board became keenly sensible to the
irregularities of their past lives, and the whispered interrogation
passed round the bark: “have you been initiated?” Because those to whom
the truths treasured up in the sanctuary of Eleusis had been revealed,
were supposed to be better prepared than other men for meeting death,
and appearing at the judgment-seat of heaven. It was now that vows and
prayers were heard, and that feelings of repentance were sincere, and it
would have required a more than ordinary degree of apathy to forget such
circumstances when, by an unlooked-for interposition of Providence, they
were snatched from the jaws of death, and restored to their kindred and
their homes. We may remark here, by the way, that, to passengers
labouring under the effects of sea-sickness, a decoction of a species of
thyme[1712] (thymum tragoriganum) was administered.
-----
Footnote 1708:
Plat. Phædr. t. i. p. 34.
Footnote 1709:
Aristoph. Eq. 548.
Footnote 1710:
Suid. v. κελευστὴς. Stallb. ad Plat. Rep. i. 198.
Footnote 1711:
Schol. Aristoph. Vesp. 909.
Footnote 1712:
Dioscor. iii. 35.
-----
In their political predilections,[1713] the mariners of Greece were
almost invariably observed to be democratic, probably because being
possessed of superior energy they naturally spurned all control save
that of the laws, and were ready at all times and under all
circumstances to contend for liberty. This was more especially the case
with the Athenian seamen, who, in the flourishing periods of Hellenic
history bore much the same relation to the other seafarers of Greece, as
the sailors of England do to those of the neighbouring European states.
-----
Footnote 1713:
Plut. Themist. § 19.
-----
Although the mariners’ compass had not yet been invented, the ancient
sailors did not, as appears to be generally supposed, creep timidly from
headland to headland along the shore, but traversed boldly the open sea,
directing their course by the constellations, more particularly that of
the greater bear. In this practice the Arabs of Phœnicia led the way as
in most other early improvements connected with seamanship.
It is sometimes believed that, in very remote ages, mankind possessed no
names for the winds,[1714] because as they had not yet addicted
themselves to navigation, it concerned them very little to observe how
or which way they blew. Possibly, however, we somewhat exaggerate the
heedlessness and ignorance of the remoter generations of men who must
have been singularly obtuse in their intellect if they could not tell
whether the wind blew up or down a valley, or on the back or front of
their houses, and had failed to designate the several currents of the
atmosphere by distinct appellations, whereby to distinguish them when
they had occasion to speak of their effects. About the period of the
Trojan war some inventive genius sprang up who gave a name to the north
and the south winds, and already in the time of Homer the Greeks had
contrived to have four points to their compass, at least the poet speaks
but of the four cardinal winds, Boreas, the north; Euros, the east;
Notos, the south, and Zephyros, the west. To these other four were
afterwards added, and at the same time some change was introduced into
the ancient nomenclature, the north-east was called Cæcias;[1715] the
south-east, Euros; the name of the east being changed to Apeliotes; the
south-west, Libs; the north-west, Argestes, and sometimes
Olympias,[1716] or Iapyx, or Sciron; which, however, according to Pliny
differed from the Argestes, and was peculiar to Athens. These are the
winds represented on the tower of Andronicos Cyrrhestes at Athens,
spoken of by Varro, Vitruvius,[1717] and many modern travellers.
Pliny,[1718] Galen, and Aulus Gellius differ from Aristotle in confining
the name of Aparctias to the north wind, and giving that of Boreas to
the north-east, or Aquilo of the Romans.[1719]
-----
Footnote 1714:
See Gœttling’s note on v. 379, of Hesiod’s Theogon. p. 38, seq.
Footnote 1715:
Called also Ἑλλησποντίας, by Aristot. Probl. xxvi. 58. Plin. ii. 46.
Cf. Aristoph. Eq. 435.
Footnote 1716:
Cf. Theoph. Caus. Plant. v. 2. 5. Hist. Plant. iv. 14. 11.
Footnote 1717:
l. i. c. 6.
Footnote 1718:
Nat. Hist. ii. 46.
Footnote 1719:
See further in Coray, Disc. Prelim. ad Hippoc. § 61.
-----
Winds blowing from the northern points of the compass are most frequent
in Greece. Aristotle[1720] remarks, that Boreas is strong at its
commencement, but feeble towards its close; and that of the south wind,
the reverse is true.[1721] It may, moreover, be added, that the north
wind was not only the most common, but also the dryest and most severe,
though sometimes accompanied by lightning, and hail, and snow. The same
wind brought rain on the Hellespont, and at Cyrenè. The Cæcias commonly
prevailed about the vernal equinox, and, in Attica and the islands, was
a rainy wind;[1722] the Apetiotes was a humid but soft wind felt chiefly
in the morning.[1723] The Euros, which, as Gœttling[1724] observes, is
the Scirocco of the Italians, prevails about the winter solstice, and at
first is warm and dry, but afterwards by blowing long over the sea
becomes moist, and brings rain, particularly in Lesbos.[1725] Aristotle,
however, speaks of the Notos as the chief rainy wind in this
island,[1726] and observes what I have myself verified in the Delta,
that during the Simoom objects appear greater than their natural
size.[1727] The Notos blows chiefly about the end of autumn in Greece,
as I found it also on the Nile immediately after the winter solstice,
and at the commencement of spring.[1728] It likewise prevails during the
dog-days[1729] (ἐπὶ κυνὶ). Naturally moist and warm, it was at first
weak, but grew powerful as it drew towards its end, when it covered the
sky with clouds and ended in rain.[1730] South winds blowing from the
sea, by which they were cooled, were considered favourable to vegetation
particularly in the Thriasian plain in Attica, lying between the Sciros
and the Cephissos. These same winds were supposed to be cold in Libya; I
think erroneously, since the south winds are warm in Egypt. The Libs is
moist and cloudy, though less so than the Cæcias; but the clouds which
it brings are quickly dispersed; it blows chiefly about Cnidos and
Rhodes.[1731]
-----
Footnote 1720:
Meteorol. ii. 6.
Footnote 1721:
Problem. xxvi. 41.
Footnote 1722:
Arist. Problem. xxvi. 58.
Footnote 1723:
Aristot. Meteorol. ii. 6. Problem. xxvi. 33. 34. 57.
Footnote 1724:
Ad Hesiod. Theogon. 379.
Footnote 1725:
Coray, Disc. Prelim. ad Hippoc. § 61.
Footnote 1726:
Problem. xxvi. 58.
Footnote 1727:
Aristot. Problem. xxvi. 55.
Footnote 1728:
Id. xxvi. 16.
Footnote 1729:
Aristot. Prob. xxvi. 12.
Footnote 1730:
Id. xxvi. 2.
Footnote 1731:
Theophrast. De Ventis, § 51.
-----
The Zephyr[1732] which prevails in the spring, at mid-summer and in
autumn is felt chiefly in the evening and never in the morning.
According to Aristotle it is the gentlest wind that blows.[1733]
Theophrastus, however, remarks, that it is cold in some countries,
though less so than Boreas;[1734] but in the opinion of Hippocrates, it
is most of all winds charged with rain.[1735] The Argestos is no less
dry and serene than the Aparctias, though it sometimes brings
thunder-clouds and hail.[1736] This wind is remarkably cold at Chalcis
in Eubœa. When about the winter solstice it happens to blow, it dries
up and withers the trees more than long continued heats and
droughts.[1737] At Rhodes and at Cnidos it is usually accompanied by
heavy clouds.[1738]
-----
Footnote 1732:
Ζέφυρος, τὴν ᾠδὴν τοῖς κύκνοις ἐνδιδοὺς. Philost. Icon. i. 9. p. 779.
Footnote 1733:
Meteorol. ii. 5. 6. Problem. xxvi. 33. 35. 37. 54. 57.
Footnote 1734:
De Ventis, § 31.
Footnote 1735:
De Aër. et Loc. § 26.
Footnote 1736:
Aristot. Meteorol. ii. 6.
Footnote 1737:
Theoph. Hist. Plant. iv. 17. De Caus. Plant. v. 16.
Footnote 1738:
De Ventis, § 51.
-----
The Etesian winds which commence immediately after the summer solstice,
and continue through the dog-days, are in reality northern winds, but
occasionally point obliquely both towards the west and towards the east.
They prevail chiefly at night;[1739] and are sometimes exceedingly
powerful on the coast of Egypt.[1740] Another class of Etesian winds
prevailed earlier in the year, beginning about twenty days after the
winter solstice. These are weaker, more variable, and of briefer
duration than the real Etesian winds, and I will add, from my own
experience, cover the sky with dark clouds, and blow extremely cold even
along the shores of Marmarica and Cyrenè. In ancient Greece they
obtained the name of Ornithiæ—“the Bird Winds”—because they announced
the return of the birds.[1741] Or, according to another version of the
matter, because they were so cold as to strike dead various kinds of
birds during their flight, and strew the earth with their bodies.[1742]
-----
Footnote 1739:
Aristot. Meteorol. ii. 5. 6.
Footnote 1740:
Cæsar. De Bell. Civil.
Footnote 1741:
Coray, Disc. Prelim. ad Hippoc. de Aër. et Loc. §. 76.
Footnote 1742:
Schol. Aristoph. Acharn. 877.
-----
During the winter months these cold and piercing winds blow with so much
fury over the land-locked seas and islands of Greece, that among the
ancients all navigation was suspended during the brumal season. In proof
of the violence of these aërial currents, which may almost be said to
set steadily in one direction through a great portion of the year, it
may be observed, that in several of the islands neither vines nor
fig-trees can be trained upright, but are blown down and compelled to
creep along the rocks.[1743] An example of the strength of the gales
which sometimes also prevail on the Hellenic continent is recorded in
history; during the retreat of Cleombrotos out of Bœotia, his army being
overtaken by a storm as it was traversing the mountain passes leading
from Creusis to Ægosthena along the shore of the sea, numerous sumpter
asses were blown with their ladings over the precipices; even the
shields and arms were in many cases whirled from the hands of the
soldiers and precipitated into the waves below; and to prevent similar
misfortune the rest of the army turned their bucklers upside down and
filled them with stones, while they pushed forward, divested of
defensive armour, into the Megaris, a friendly country, from which they
afterwards returned and fetched off their shields.[1744]
-----
Footnote 1743:
Thiersch, Etat Actuel de la Grèce. t. i. p. 284. Della Rocca, Traité
Complet des Abeilles. t. i. p. 203.
Footnote 1744:
Xenoph. Hellen. v. 4. 17.
-----
In cases of shipwreck the protection afforded to crews and merchandise
depended in most cases, perhaps, on the character and progress of
civilisation of the people on whose shore the accident happened. On the
coast of Thrace, in the neighbourhood of Salmydessos, where the whole
maritime population appear to have been confirmed wreckers, numerous
pillars were set up along the beach to mark the limits within which each
little community might claim whatever booty was drifted in by the sea.
Previous to this arrangement, the barbarians used frequently to come to
blows in the eager pursuit of this inhuman calling, and in these brawls
many lives were lost. Afterwards they appear to have carried on their
war against distressed mariners with perfect harmony and
equanimity.[1745] But among the Rhodians, an enterprising mercantile
people, the amount of salvage was regulated by a law which, together
with the rest of their commercial code, was afterwards adopted by the
Romans.
-----
Footnote 1745:
Xenoph. Anab. vii. 5. 12, seq.
-----
If gold, or silver, or any other article, be brought up from the depth
of eight cubits, the person who saves it shall receive one-third. If
from fifteen cubits, the person who saves it shall, on account of the
depth, receive one-half. If goods are cast up by the waves towards the
shore, and found sunk at the depth of one cubit, the person who carries
them out safe shall receive a tenth part.[1746] It was customary,
moreover, in old times, to keep a number of divers on board ships for
the purpose of descending to loosen the anchors when they chanced to
take too firm a hold in the sand, as also to recover goods which had
been thrown overboard in times of danger.[1747]
-----
Footnote 1746:
Beckmann, History of Inventions, i. 180.
Footnote 1747:
Lucian. Pharsal. iii. 697. Livius, xliv. 10. Manil. Astronom. 449.
-----
On various headlands and promontories of the ancient world beacon-fires
were habitually kindled to guide the course of the ships into port; and
for these, in after ages, light-houses, adorned with every beauty of
architecture, and carried to a vast height, were substituted. Of these
the most remarkable was that erected for Ptolemy Philadelphus, by
Sostratos, the Cnidian, whose name, by permission of the king, was
inscribed upon the structure.[1748] By one author it is described as
four hundred and fifty feet high, and equal in dimensions at the base to
one of the great pyramids of Memphis. In form it may possibly have
resembled the Haram el Kedâb, which consists of a series of square
towers from the basement upwards, diminishing in size, and appearing to
spring up out of each other. With this the language of Strabo[1749] very
well agrees, since he tells us, it was a building consisting of numerous
stages. On the summit bright fires were kept perpetually burning, so
that on that low shore, where there is no hill or mountain for many
days’ journey, the Pharos was ever the first object which presented
itself to mariners at sea, where its light, we are told, was visible at
the distance of a hundred miles. Occasionally, however, from its great
size and brilliance, it was mistaken for the moon, as this planet
itself, rising behind the dome and towers of a great capital, has
suggested to distant beholders the idea of a conflagration.[1750]
-----
Footnote 1748:
Cf. Lucian. Quom. Hist. sit. Conscrib. § 62.
Footnote 1749:
Geograph. xvii. 1. t. iii. p. 423.
Footnote 1750:
Vossius, ad Pomp. Mel. de Situ Orb. l. ii. c. 4. p. 272.
-----