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The Badminton Library
OF
SPORTS AND PASTIMES
EDITED BY
HIS GRACE THE DUKE OF BEAUFORT, K.G.
ASSISTED BY ALFRED E. T. WATSON
_BOATING_
PRINTED BY
SPOTTISWOODE AND CO., NEW-STREET SQUARE
LONDON
[Illustration: GENERAL VIEW OF HENLEY REGATTA (_Frontispiece_)]
BOATING
BY
W. B. WOODGATE
WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY THE REV. EDMOND WARRE, D.D.
AND
A CHAPTER ON ROWING AT ETON
BY R. HARVEY MASON
[Illustration]
_WITH NUMEROUS ENGRAVINGS AFTER FRANK DADD_
_AND FROM PHOTOGRAPHS_
LONDON
LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO.
1888
_All rights reserved_
_DEDICATION_
_TO_
_H.R.H. THE PRINCE OF WALES._
BADMINTON: _March, 1887_.
Having received permission to dedicate these volumes, the BADMINTON
LIBRARY of SPORTS and PASTIMES, to HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS THE PRINCE OF
WALES, I do so feeling that I am dedicating them to one of the best and
keenest sportsmen of our time. I can say, from personal observation,
that there is no man who can extricate himself from a bustling and
pushing crowd of horsemen, when a fox breaks covert, more dexterously
and quickly than His Royal Highness; and that when hounds run hard over
a big country, no man can take a line of his own and live with them
better. Also, when the wind has been blowing hard, often have I seen His
Royal Highness knocking over driven grouse and partridges and
high-rocketing pheasants in first-rate workmanlike style. He is held to
be a good yachtsman, and as Commodore of the Royal Yacht Squadron is
looked up to by those who love that pleasant and exhilarating pastime.
His encouragement of racing is well known, and his attendance at the
University, Public School, and other important Matches testifies to his
being, like most English gentlemen, fond of all manly sports. I consider
it a great privilege to be allowed to dedicate these volumes to so
eminent a sportsman as His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, and I do
so with sincere feelings of respect and esteem and loyal devotion.
BEAUFORT.
PREFACE.
A few lines only are necessary to explain the object with which these
volumes are put forth. There is no modern encyclopaedia to which the
inexperienced man, who seeks guidance in the practice of the various
British Sports and Pastimes, can turn for information. Some books there
are on Hunting, some on Racing, some on Lawn Tennis, some on Fishing,
and so on; but one Library, or succession of volumes, which treats of
the Sports and Pastimes indulged in by Englishmen--and women--is
wanting. The Badminton Library is offered to supply the want. Of the
imperfections which must be found in the execution of such a design we
are conscious. Experts often differ. But this we may say, that those who
are seeking for knowledge on any of the subjects dealt with will find
the results of many years' experience written by men who are in every
case adepts at the Sport or Pastime of which they write. It is to point
the way to success to those who are ignorant of the sciences they aspire
to master, and who have no friend to help or coach them, that these
volumes are written.
To those who have worked hard to place simply and clearly before the
reader that which he will find within, the best thanks of the Editor are
due. That it has been no slight labour to supervise all that has been
written he must acknowledge; but it has been a labour of love, and very
much lightened by the courtesy of the Publisher, by the unflinching,
indefatigable assistance of the Sub-Editor, and by the intelligent and
able arrangement of each subject by the various writers, who are so
thoroughly masters of the subjects of which they treat. The reward we
all hope to reap is that our work may prove useful to this and future
generations.
THE EDITOR.
* * * * *
The author desires to record his thanks and indebtedness to the
following gentlemen, for much kind co-operation and assistance, and for
leave to reproduce passages from their valuable works upon
aquatics:--Geo. G. T. TREHERNE, Esq., author of 'Record of the
University Boat Race'; E. D. BRICKWOOD, Esq. ('Argonaut'), author of
'Boat Racing'; L. P. BRICKWOOD, Esq., Editor of the 'Racing Almanack';
the Proprietors of the 'Field'; the Proprietors of 'Land and Water,' and
Mr. R. G. Gridley for kindly assisting with the Map of the Cambridge
Course.
_ILLUSTRATIONS._
(ENGRAVED BY W. J. PALMER, J. D. COOPER, AND G. PEARSON, AFTER DRAWINGS
BY F. DADD AND PHOTOGRAPHS BY G. MITCHELL, HILLS & SAUNDERS, AND MARSH
BROS.)
* * * * *
FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS.
ARTIST
GENERAL VIEW OF THE HENLEY } _From a photograph_ _Frontispiece_
REGATTA }
METHOD OF STARTING THE }
COLLEGE EIGHTS PRIOR TO } _Frank Dadd_ _To face p._ 28
1825, OXFORD }
STARTING THE EIGHTS, OLD } _Frank Dadd_ " 40
COURSE, HENLEY }
COACHING UNIVERSITY CREW _Frank Dadd_ " 68
EMBARKING _Frank Dadd_ " 84
PAIR OARS--IMMINENT FOUL _Frank Dadd_ " 124
BUMPING RACE WAITING FOR } _From a photograph_ " 170
THE GUN }
OFF THE BROCAS _Frank Dadd_ " 202
THAMES WATERMEN AND } _Frank Dadd_ " 218
WHERRIES }
CLIEFDEN (RIVER SCENE) _From a photograph_ " 242
* * * * *
WOODCUTS IN TEXT.
ARTIST PAGE
VIGNETTE ON TITLE-PAGE _Frank Dadd_
FLEET OF EGYPTIAN QUEEN _From a photograph_ 11
ANCIENT BOAT DEPICTED ON VASE _Frank Dadd_ 15
BAS-RELIEF OF ANCIENT GREEK ROWING _Frank Dadd_ 19
BOAT
ANCIENT GALLEY FIGHT, FROM POMPEII _Frank Dadd_ 21
HENLEY COURSE (BETWEEN RACES) _From a photograph_ 26
OXFORD BOAT IN 1829 } _From 'Record of the_ { 31
BUMPING RACES (OLD STYLE) } _University Boatrace'_ { 33
A COLLEGE PAIR _From a photograph_ 37
TOWING GUARD BOATS UP HENLEY REACH _From a photograph_ 39
PAIR-OAR _From a photograph_ 41
GONDOLA _From a photograph_ 43
BISHAM COURT _From a photograph_ 53
MARLOW _From a photograph_ 66
A SCRATCH EIGHT ('PEAL OF BELLS') _From a photograph_ 75
MEDMENHAM ABBEY _From a photograph_ 79
'PROSE' _Frank Dadd_ 83
BISHAM COURT REACH _From a photograph_ 92
FEATHER 'UNDER' THE WATER _From a photograph_ 102
PRACTISING STROKE (1) _From a photograph_ 110
PRACTISING STROKE (2) _From a photograph_ 110
PRACTISING STROKE (3) _From a photograph_ 111
PRACTISING STROKE (4) _From a photograph_ 111
A COLLEGE FOUR _From a photograph_ 118
FOUR-OAR _From a photograph_ 121
NEAR MEDMENHAM _From a photograph_ 123
CLOSE QUARTERS _Frank Dadd_ 127
A SPILL _Frank Dadd_ 133
SCULLING RACE, WITH PILOTS IN _Frank Dadd_ 139
EIGHT-OARS
PUMPED OUT _Frank Dadd_ 141
THE LAST OF THE THAMES WHERRIES _From a photograph_ 142
'POETRY' _Frank Dadd_ 153
GOING TO SCALE _Frank Dadd_ 157
SMOKING IS FORBIDDEN _Frank Dadd_ 165
'RUN A MILE OR TWO' _Frank Dadd_ 167
FOUR-OAR _From a photograph_ 178
EARLY AMATEURS _Frank Dadd_ 192
WINDSOR _From a photograph_ 200
A FOUL _Frank Dadd_ 238
* * * * *
MAPS
SHOWING
THE OXFORD COURSE _To face p._ 288
" CAMBRIDGE " " 296
" HENLEY " " 318
" PUTNEY " " 322
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER PAGE
I. INTRODUCTION 1
II. THE RISE OF MODERN OARSMANSHIP 26
III. SCIENTIFIC OARSMANSHIP 53
IV. COACHING 66
V. THE CAPTAIN 79
VI. THE COXSWAIN AND STEERING 92
VII. SLIDING SEATS 102
VIII. FOUR-OARS 118
IX. PAIR-OARS 123
X. SCULLING 127
XI. BOAT-BUILDING AND DIMENSIONS 142
XII. TRAINING 153
XIII. ROWING CLUBS 178
XIV. THE AMATEUR, HIS HISTORY AND DESCRIPTION 192
XV. ROWING AT ETON COLLEGE 200
XVI. WATERMEN AND PROFESSIONALS 217
XVII. LAWS OF BOAT-RACING (THEIR HISTORY, AND RULES OF THE ROAD) 238
'THE TEMPLE OF FAME' 243
APPENDIX 313
INDEX 331
_Erratum._
Page 119, line 19, _for_ Bodleian _read_ Radleian.
[Illustration: BOATING.
CHAPTER I.]
INTRODUCTION.
As parts of human life and practice the out-of-door games and amusements
with which Englishmen are familiar have had a long course of
development, and each has its own history. To trace this development and
history in any particular case is not always an easy task. Most of the
writers who deal with these subjects treat the 'Origines' in a summary
fashion. Not a few ignore them altogether. The Topsy theory, ''spects it
growed,' is sufficient.
And yet if it be possible to deal more philosophically with a subject of
the kind, the attempt ought not necessarily to be devoid of interest. It
involves a retrospect of human life and human ingenuity. It will trace
development in man's ways and means, marking points which in some
regions and with some races have determined the limit of their progress,
and in others have served as stepping-stones to further invention. It
will present facts which will not only not be disdained by the true
student of men and manners, but will serve to broider the fringes of
serious history, and will give additional light and colour to the record
of the character and the habits of men. For indeed the sports and
pastimes of a people are no insignificant product of its national
spirit, and react to no small degree upon national character. They have
not unfrequently had their share in grave events, and the famous and
oft-quoted saying of the Duke of Wellington respecting the playing
fields at Eton (_se non e vero, e ben trovato_) contains a truth,
applicable in a wider sense to national struggles and to victories other
than Waterloo.
Pastimes and amusements generally may be divided into two main classes:
(1) those that have been invented simply as a means of recreation, such
as cricket, tennis, racquets, etc.; and (2) those that have their origin
in the primary needs of mankind. The latter have in many cases, as
civilisation has advanced, and the particular needs have been supplied
in other ways, survived as pastimes by reason of the natural pleasure
and the excitement and the emulation which accompanied them. Of this
latter class, those that have appropriated the name of 'sport' _par
excellence_, such as hunting, shooting, fishing, etc., hold the field,
so to speak, in antiquity, as compared with other pastimes, having their
origin in the initial necessities and natural instincts of man, which
compelled him to fight with and to destroy some wild beasts, that he
might not himself be eaten, and to catch or kill others that he might
have them to eat.
The spirit of emulation and the pride of skill, and the desire of
obtaining healthy exercise for its own sake, have been among the
principal causes which have converted into sports and pastimes man's
means and methods of locomotion. Almost every class of movement which
can be pressed into that form of competition which is called a race, or
in which a definite comparison of skill is possible, has been enlisted
in the host of amusements with which civilisation consoles its children
for the loss of the wild delights of the untutored savage.
Among these perhaps the most important and the most conspicuous is
Rowing, which as a serious business has played no inconsiderable part in
great events of human history, and as a pastime is inferior to none of
the class to which it belongs. Its votaries will not hesitate to claim
for it even the chief place, by reason of the pleasure and emulation to
which it so readily ministers, as a healthful exercise, and as a means
of competitive effort requiring both skill and endurance.
But the oar, before it ministered to recreation, had a long history of
labour in the service of man, which is not yet ended, and itself was not
shaped but by evolution from earlier types, of which the paddle and
ultimately the human hand and arm are the original beginnings.
Will it be wearisome to speculate on these beginnings, and to try to
cast back in thought and research for the first origins of the noble
pastime which forms the subject of the present volume? Fortunately, in
savage life still extant on the habitable globe we have the survival of
many, if not of all, the earliest types of locomotion. Man in his
natural condition has to follow nature, and by following to subdue her
in his struggle for existence. Climate and race differentiate his action
in this respect, and results, under parallel circumstances, similar,
though different in detail, attend his efforts in different parts of the
world.
A land animal, he is from the first brought face to face with water,
deep water of lakes, and of rivers, and of the sea, and in all these he
finds bounds to his desires, as well as things to be desired; opposite
shores to which he wishes to cross, fish and vegetable growth which he
wants for food. Horace tells us that 'oak and triple brass he had around
his breast who first to the fierce sea committed his frail raft,' but
the first man who committed _himself_ to deep water, and essayed the
oarage of his arms and legs, must have been free from such incumbrances,
and yet have had a stout heart within him. And simultaneously with, or
even prior to such adventure, must have been others of a similar
character aided by a piece of wood, or a bundle of rushes, or an
inflated skin, the elementary boat, the very embryo of navigation. Such
beginnings are still in evidence on the western coast of Australia,
where savages may be seen sitting astride on a piece of light wood and
so venturing forth upon the waters of the sea. Homer, who in the Odyssey
delights in making the man of many counsels and many devices, with all
his wealth of what was then modern experience, find himself reduced to
the shifts and expedients of a man thrown, like the savage, upon his own
solitary resources, pictures to us Ulysses seated astride upon the mast
of his shipwrecked vessel and paddling with both hands, thus reverting
in his distress, as no doubt others have done since, to the very
earliest method of navigation, now only practised for choice by savages,
whose progress in navigation, as in other things, has been checked at
this early stage, and who remain the nearest visible types of primitive
man.
But some savages, other than they, did make progress in the matter of
locomotion by water, and the next step was the raft, of which the
earliest type known is the sanpan, three pieces of buoyant wood tied
together. On this construction, which supplied the earliest generic
names both in the east and in the west (sanpan, [schedie], _ratis_), a
man would stand and paddle and move along upon the water, and assert his
power of hand and eye with the weapons with which native ingenuity had
already supplied him.
In warm climates, where swimming had become a necessity, and the very
children from their earliest years had been habituated to the water, the
familiarity that breeds contempt of the very danger which at a previous
stage acted as a deterrent, would soon encourage attempts to improve,
and enlarge, and increase the speed of the rude vessel in common use.
These attempts would naturally follow the line of providing the means
for conveying in safety other things besides the living freight of the
human person. There would also arise the very natural desire to keep
things dry, which would spoil if wetted. Hence the enlargement of the
raft, and then the protection afforded by platforms raised upon its
central surface, or by planks laid edgewise so as to make a defence, a
breastwork against the wave.
And no doubt by this time the use of the sail for propulsion had become
familiar, and man had already prayed his god for 'the breeze that cometh
aft, sail-filler, good companion.' But interesting as it would be to
trace the effect of the sail upon the construction of vessels and their
development, we must leave that pleasant task to those who, in the
present series, will treat of the yacht and its prototypes ([hakatoi]).
The earliest method of propulsion was with the human hands. In the
picture of Ulysses seated on the mast and keel of his shipwrecked
vessel, which he had lashed together with the broken backstay made of
bullhide, paddling with his hands on either side, Homer, as we have
seen, has presented us with the hero of the highest civilisation known
to him reduced to the straits of the merest savage; and he has again
enforced this idea in his picture of the same hero of many wiles and
many counsels devising for himself the means of escape from the island
of Calypso, and, not without divine suggestions, constructing for
himself, like an ancient Robinson Crusoe, a primitive raft, with certain
improvements and additions; a broad raft be it remembered, and not a
boat. A boat would mar the conception which presents to us the civilised
man driven back to the straits of barbarism by the unique circumstances
in which he is placed.
This is the point which ingenious commentators, who have given elaborate
designs and figures of Ulysses' _boat_ and written pages upon its
construction, seem to have missed. The poet has added colour to his
picture by bringing the new and the old together. And of a truth new and
old exist together and continue throughout the ages of man in marvellous
juxtaposition. The fast screw liner off the Australian coast may pass
the naked savage oaring himself with swarthy palms upon his buoyant log,
and almost every stage of modern invention in ship-building and ship
propulsion has had alongside it the three-timbered sanpan, and the
original types of raft that float in the Malay Archipelago.
But we must follow the development of our special pastime through its
embryonic stage to a moment when, all unknown and unseen in the womb of
time, like the sudden changes which differentiate the gradual ascents
from a lower to a higher being, unseen, unknown, and unwritten in
history, that great event occurred, the birth of the first 'dug-out'
canoe. Unnoticed perhaps at the time, the importance of the event was
recognised by the poet in after ages as a real forward step in the
onward progress of the arts.[1] 'Rivers then first the hollowed alders
felt.'
[1] Virg. _Georg._ i. 136: 'Tunc alnos primum fluvii sensere cavatas.'
To some primitive man or men in advance of their fellow men, the idea of
flotation, as apart from the mere buoyancy of the material, had
occurred, and suggested the hollowing out of the log. Wherever and
whenever this was first effected, it was a great event in the world's
progress. A simple thought had wedded fact destined to be fruitful to
all future ages. O prototype of the longboat--of the frail eights which
freighted with contending crews speed yearly over Father Thames amidst
the cheers and applause of thousands! Where wast thou launched? What
dusky arms propelled thee? What wild songs of exultation heralded thy
first successful venture? Once achieved, what present benefits, what
future triumphs didst thou not ensure to man? In the power of carrying
something, or anything beside the living freight, dry and secure, and in
the increased facility of movement and of turning, must have been
manifest from the first the advantage of the canoe over the raft, where
the lapping of the water and the wash of the wave, in spite of all
contrivances, could scarce be kept out. How soon must efforts have been
made to increase this advantage to obtain greater carrying power and
greater speed! The application of the sail was made possible by the
ingenious adaptation of the outrigger, a trunk of light wood laid
parallel to the side of the dug-out at some feet distance, and attached
to it by transverse bars. The oldest type and the type with this
improvement still survive, and the ingenious models of such craft which
were exhibited at the Fisheries Exhibition in London a few years ago
will have been noticed by many of our readers. Twin vessels like the
'Castalia,' and, if we are to believe the learned Graser, the great
Tesseraconteres of Ptolemy, had their primitive germ, so to speak, in
this early stroke of genius. It may appear strange to some boating men
who are accustomed to hear a good deal about outriggers, that this
outrigger of which we have been speaking has nothing to do with the
outrigger with which they are familiar. It never apparently passed into
the Western Seas. The Mediterranean knows it not. The Andaman Islands
and the Seychelles are its westernmost limits.
But if the invention of the dug-out canoe was a step onward in the
general progress of the arts, being the appreciation and application of
a principle in nature, a still greater triumph was achieved, and the
particular art still more decidedly advanced, by him who first
constructed the canoe properly so called. Herein was the real prototype
of the _species_ boat. A skin of bark, duly cut and shaped so as to
taper towards the ends and be wide amidships, was attached to a
longitudinal framework or gunwale all along its upper edges, and this
itself was kept apart and in shape by three or more transverse pieces
stretching from side to side, while a series of curved laths of soft
wood, the extreme ends of which also fastened to the gunwale, served to
keep the vessel itself in shape and to protect the bark skin from the
tread of men and from the immediate incidence of any weight to be
carried. 'Ce n'est que le premier pas qui coute.' The idea once
conceived, whether in one place or in many, and at whatever time or
times, could not be lost and must soon have been fruitful in
development. Of this class by far the most common is the birch-bark
canoe, which, though found also in Australia, is properly regarded as
having its home upon the American continent. If not the original of the
type, yet it deserves particular attention owing to the peculiarity of
the material of the skin, which combines lightness and toughness and
pliability. A truly ingenious and original idea to flay a birch tree and
make a boat of its skin! In the framework of the canoe we have the
embryo _ribs_ and _inwale_ of the future boat, and the three cross-ties
may be regarded as the ancestors of _thwarts_ to be born in time to
come. As yet no keel. But that was soon to be. Go north, and trees
become scarcer and dwindle in size. The birch is no longer of sufficient
girth to serve the ingenious savage in the construction of a canoe. But
the inventive genius of man was not to be denied. Skins of beasts, or
woven material made waterproof, stretched upon a frame would serve for
the same purpose as bark. But a stronger framework was necessary for a
material thinner and more pliable than bark. And accordingly in all this
class (except the coracle) we find stronger and more numerous timbers,
including a longitudinal piece from stem to stern, and uprights at each
end acting as stempost and sternpost respectively. The rude
canvas-covered vessels of Tory Island, off the west coast of Ireland,
still preserve one development of this type, close at home to us; while
the cayaks of the Esquimaux and the larger fishing canoes of the
Alaskans and the Greenlanders exhibit the skin-clad variety in many
forms. In one of the models exhibited at the Fisheries Exhibition the
framework showed in great perfection the ingenuity of the savage, to
whom wood was a very scarce and precious article, short pieces being
made to serve fitted together and fastened with thongs of hide, the
whole being covered with a stout walrus skin. Even outriggers (as
understood by the English oarsman) made of double loops of hide just
long enough to cross each other and enclose the loom of the oar, were
attached to the inner side of the gunwale.
Not only bark and skin and canvas-covered canoes exist and seem to have
existed from an unknown antiquity, but a similar cause to that of which
we were just speaking, viz. a scarcity of wood or of suitable wood, led
to the construction of canoes of wood made of short pieces stitched
together, and approaching more nearly to the type of vessel which may be
called a boat. To these belong the canoes of Easter Island made of
drift wood, and of many other islands in the Pacific, which are truly
canoes and propelled by paddles, and the same peculiarity of build
extends to the Madras surf boats, which are more truly boats. Many of
these are tied together through holes drilled or burnt through a ledge
left on the inner side of the plank or log, a peculiarity noticeable as
appearing even in the early vessels of the Northern Seas. The stitched
boat has not a nail Or a peg in her whole composition, but the
structure, though liable to leak, is admirably suited for heavy seas and
surf-beaten coasts, and owing to its pliability will stand shocks which
would shatter a stiffer and tighter build. This being so, it is not
surprising that vessels larger than canoes or boats were constructed
(some authorities say even as large as 200 tons burden) upon this
principle, which is certainly one of very great antiquity.
There is also a curious analogy in the progress of construction of these
sea-going craft with the natural order in the construction of fishes,
that is to say, if the ganoids are to be considered antecedent to the
vertebrates among the latter. For in the case of the stitched vessels
the hull is the first thing in time and construction, the ribs and
framework being, so to speak, an afterthought, and attached to the
interior when the hull has been completed, whereas the later and modern
practice is to set up the ribs and framework of the vessel first and to
attach the exterior planking afterwards. But the invention of trenails
and dowels must have preceded the later practice, and have led the way
to the building of such boats as those described by Herodotus (ii. 96),
the ancestors of the Nile 'nuggur' of modern times. Ulysses, as a
shipwright well skilled in his craft, uses axe and adze and auger, and
with the latter makes holes in the timbers he has squared and planed,
and with trenails and dowels ties them together. The wooden fastenings,
be it remarked, are in size and diameter severally adapted, the first to
resist the horizontal, the second to resist the vertical strain to which
the raft would be exposed upon the waves. All this, we may observe,
points to a stage anterior to that in which the use of metal nails and
ties in ship- and boat-building had been introduced. Trenails and
dowels are however still in use, and have a natural advantage over iron
in the construction of wooden vessels, owing to the absence of
corrosion, which in early times must have caused difficulties as to its
employment for boat-building. Copper, on the other hand, though free
from this objection, would be less available by reason of expense and
the great demand for it for other purposes.
And now we have reached a point where we enter upon the borders of
history. No doubt, if we knew more about the venerable antiquity of
China, we might be able to add interesting facts, showing the
development from the earliest sanpan to the great river boats, and the
growth of that curious art which produced the Chinese junk, a vessel
undoubtedly of a very antique type. But this knowledge is not ours at
present, and so we must turn to the equally venerable civilisation of
Egypt for information upon the subject. In Egypt fortunately the tomb
paintings have preserved to us a wealth of illustration of boats and
ships, some of which, if we may trust the learned, take us back to dates
as early as 3000 B.C. In turning over the interesting plates of such
works as Lepsius's 'Denkmaeler,' or Duemichen's 'Fleet of an Egyptian
Queen,' we are struck by the reflection that, if at that early date
boats, and ships, and oars, and steering paddles, and masts, and sailing
gear had all been brought to such a stage of perfection, we must allow
many centuries antecedent for the elaboration of such designs, and for
the evolution of the savage man's primary conception of canoe and
paddle.
However this may be, the lovers of our pastime, if they will consult the
pages of the works above mentioned, will find rowing already well
established as an employment, if not as an amusement, in the hoar
antiquity of Egypt. Not only the Nile water, whether the sacred stream
was within his banks or spread by inundation over the plain within his
reach, was alive with boats, busy with the transport of produce of all
sorts, or serving the purposes of the fowler and the fisherman, but the
Red Sea and the Mediterranean coasts were witnesses of the might and
power of Pharaoh, as shown by his fleets of great vessels fully
manned, ready with oar and sail to perform his behests, ready to visit
the land of Orient, and bring back thence the spices and perfumes that
the Egyptians loved, together with apes and sandal wood, or else to do
battle with the fierce Pelesta and Teucrians and Daunians who swarmed in
their piratical craft upon the midland sea, entering the Nile mouths,
and raiding upon the fat and peaceable plains of the Delta.
[Illustration: FLEET OF EGYPTIAN QUEEN.]
The Egyptian boats present several noticeable features. Built evidently
with considerable camber, they rise high from the water both at stem and
stern, the ends finished off into a point or else curved upwards and
ornamented with mystic figure-heads representing one or other of the
numerous gods. The steering is conducted by two or more paddles fastened
to the sides of the boat in the larger class, and sometimes having the
loom of the paddle lengthened and attached to an upright post to which
it is loosely bound. A tiller is inserted in the handle, and to this a
steering cord fastened, by which the helmsman can turn the blade of the
paddle at will. The paddles vary but little in shape. They are mostly
pointed, and have but a moderate breadth of blade. In some of the
paintings they are being used as paddles proper, in others as oars
against a curved projection from the vessel's side serving as a thowl.
But whether this is solid or whether it is a thong, like the Greek
[tropother], against which the oarsman is rowing, it is not easy to say.
The larger vessels depicted with oars have in some cases as many as
twenty-five shown on one side. In others the number is less. But it is
quite possible that the artist did not care to portray more than would
be sufficient to indicate conventionally the size of the vessel. In some
of the vessels there are apertures like oar-ports, though no oars are
shown in them, which raise a presumption that the invention of the
bireme, the origin of which is uncertain, may with some probability be
attributed to the Egyptians. The larger vessels are all fitted with
sailing gear, and the rowing is evidently subsidiary to the sail as a
means of locomotion. The wall paintings of Egypt give us ample details
of Egyptian ships and boats extending over a period, as we are told, of
twenty centuries and more. In them we have a glimpse of the maritime
enterprise, in which the oar must have taken a principal part, of the
races which inhabited the seaboard of the Mediterranean in which piracy
had its home from very early times. Teucrians, Dardanians, Pelesta (?
Pelasgians), Daunians, Tyrrhenians, Oscans, all seem to have been
sea-going peoples, and at intervals to have provoked by their marauding
the wrath of Pharaoh and to have felt his avenging hand.
But of all the seafaring races that made their homes and highways upon
the waters of the great inland sea, the most famous of early times were
the Ph[oe]nicians. According to some accounts connected with Capthor
(Copts), and according to others emigrants from the coast of the Persian
Gulf, their genius for maritime enterprise asserted itself very early,
so that already before Homer's time they were masters of the commerce of
the Mediterranean, and had rowed their dark keels beyond the mystic
pillars that guarded the opening of the ocean stream.
And yet, though the facts are certain, we know but little of these
famous mariners, of their vessels and their gear. The only
representation of their vessels is from the walls of the palaces of
their Assyrian conquerors, an inland people, not likely to detect or
appreciate any technical want of fidelity in the likeness presented.
And, accordingly, the pictures are conventional, telling us but little
of that which we should like to know about their build, and oars, and
oar ports, &c. The date, moreover, is not in all probability earlier
than 900 B.C.
Such being the case, we are driven for information to the more ample
store of Greek literature, and to Greek vases for the earliest
representations of the Greek vessel.
Homer abounds in sea pictures. He has a wealth of descriptive words,
touches of light and colour which bring the sea and its waves and the
vessel and its details with vivid and picturesque effect before us. His
ships are black and have their bows painted with vermilion, or red of
some other tone; they are sharp and swift, and bows and stern curve
upwards like the horns of oxen. And withal they are rounded on both
sides, and well timbered and hollowed out, and roomy, having by the gift
of the poet a facile combination of all the opposite qualities, so
desirable and so difficult in practice to unite. As yet there is no spur
or ram, but round the solid stempost shrieks the wave, as the vessel is
urged onward either by the mighty hands of heroes, or the god-sent
breeze that follows aft. Nor is the vessel decked, except for a short
space at bow and stern, where it had raised platforms. On the
quarterdeck, so to speak, of the stern sat the great chiefs, whose
warriors plied the oar, and there they laid their spears ready for use.
There also was the standing place of the steersman who wielded the long
paddle which served to guide the vessel. The thwarts which tied the
vessel's sides together (yokes or keys as they are called) served as
benches for the oarsmen; those amidships had the heaviest and longest
oars, so that they were places of honour reserved for the heaviest and
strongest men, e.g. for Hercules and Ancaeus in the Argo. Whether the
'sevenfoot,' to which Ajax retreats from the stern deck, when defending
the Greek ships against the Trojans and hard pressed by them, be bench
or stretcher, it gives us an idea of the breadth of the Homeric vessel
at or near the place of the stroke oar. Long low galleys they must have
been, with a middle plank running fore and aft, interrupted by the
'tabernacle,' in which the mast when hoisted was secured, having fore
and back stays. The warriors were oarsmen, the oarsmen warriors. The
smallest complement, as Thucydides observes, was fifty, the largest one
hundred and twenty.
It is doubtful how far the Alexandrine poets can be relied upon as
giving accurate information respecting details of ancient use. Yet we
have many lifelike pictures and a great profusion of details, drawn no
doubt from the ample stores of antiquarian knowledge which these
laborious men of letters had at their service in the great Alexandrine
library, and these go to fill up that which is lacking in the Homeric
picture. And so when Apollonius the Rhodian paints for us such scenes as
those of the building of the Argo, the launching, the detail of the
crew, and the starting of the vessel, we cannot help feeling that they
are described _con amore_, not of the sea, or of ships, or of rowing,
but of the literary beauty of similar descriptions by earlier poets. In
a word, they are at second hand. But better this than none at all.
[Illustration: ANCIENT BOAT DEPICTED ON VASE.]
The 'bireme,' or two-banked vessel, does not appear in Homer. But, as we
have seen, it was probably in existence before Homer's time. If of
Egyptian parentage, it was adapted for use on the Mediterranean waters
by the shipwrights of Sidon or Tyre. It is a curious reflection that
this remarkable evolution of banked vessels should, so far as we can
judge, have occupied about two thousand years; the curve, if we may use
the expression, of development rising to the highest point in the
useless Tesseraconteres of Ptolemy, and after Actium declining to the
dromons and biremes of the Byzantine Emperor Leo, and finally subsiding
into the monocrota or one-banked vessels, the galleys of mediaeval times.
The problem which taxed the ingenuity of those early shipwrights was
briefly this, how to get greater means of propulsion by increasing the
number of oars, without such increase in the length of the ship as
would, by increased weight, neutralise the advantage and still further
diminish that facility in turning which was of the greatest moment to
the ancient war-vessel. Galleys with fifty oars on either side had
already been constructed,[2] and all the speed that a hundred pairs of
hands could give had been obtained, when the invention of the bireme
exhibited the means of nearly doubling the power without much increasing
the weight to be moved, since but little additional height or breadth
was required.
[2] Perhaps even with a hundred, if [hekathozygos] is to be taken
literally.
The normal adjustment of the horizontal space between the oarsmen was
then, as it is now, regulated by that canon of the ancient philosopher,
'Man is the measure of all things.' Twice the man's cubit gives room for
his legs when in a sitting posture. Hence the two-cubit standard
([schema dipechaikhon]) which is referred to by Vitruvius as the basis
of proportion in other constructions besides ships and boats. Given this
as the interscalmium (space between the thowls) or distance between
points at which the oars in the same tier were rowed, it is clear that
the rowing space of a vessel's side would be, for a penteconter, or
twenty-five a side, seventy-five feet, and for a hecatonter, if there
ever was such a thing, 150 feet. To this must be added the parts outside
the oarage space ([parexeireshia]), for the bows ten feet, and something
more, say twelve feet, for the stern. So that a penteconter would be a
long low galley of about ninety-seven feet in length. The new invention
nearly doubled the number of oars without increasing the length of the
oarage space.
It was found that by making apertures in the vessel's sides at about
three feet from the water and dividing the space between the (zyga)
thwarts, room could be made for a second row of men with shorter oars,
but still handy and able to add to the propulsion of the vessel. For
these seats were found in the hold (thalamus), and hence while the upper
tier of the bireme took their name from the zyga, benches or thwarts,
and were called 'Zygites,' the men of the lower tier were called
'Thalamites.' These names were continued when the invention of the
'thranos,' or upper seat, had added a third or upper tier with longer
oars to the system, and so introduced the trireme. If the number of the
zygites in the penteconter was twenty-five a side, and the first bireme
was a converted vessel of that class, the number of thalamites, owing to
the contraction of the bow and the stern, would necessarily be two or
three a side less. Thus we may consider a converted penteconter to have
been capable of carrying a rowing crew of between 90 and 100 men.
Similarly a triaconter would have been capable of adding nearly twenty
pairs of arms to her propelling power. When, in consequence of the new
invention, vessels were expressly built as triremes, we may imagine that
for convenience' sake the benches or zyga would be a little raised, so
as to give more room for the raised seat of the thalamites that was
fastened on to the floor of the vessel.
The narrowness of the vessels affected the disposition of the rowers in
the Greek galleys in a peculiar way. It is evident from the testimony of
the ancients that they adhered strictly to the principle of 'one man to
each oar.' The arrangement seen in mediaeval galleys was absolutely
unknown to them, and would not have suited them. It belongs to a
different epoch and a different order of things, when the invention of
the 'apostis' had made the use of large sweeps rowed by two or three men
possible, and a vessel with sets of three rowing upon the same
horizontal plane might be called a trireme, though utterly unlike the
ancient vessel of that name.
In the ancient vessel the tiers of oarsmen must have sat in nearly the
same vertical plane, obliquely arranged, one behind and below the other.
Thus in the bireme the zygite, as he sat on his bench, had behind him
and below him his thalamite whose head was about 18 inches behind the
zygite thwart and a little above it. Moreover, as his seat was now a
little raised, the zygite required an _appui_ for his feet, which was
formed for him on the bench on which the thalamite next below and in
front of him was sitting; on either side of him his feet found a
resting-place. As the zygite fell back during the stroke and
straightened his knees, there was plenty of room for the thalamite
below to throw his weight also on to his oar. There seems to have been
but little forward motion of the body. The arms were stretched out
smartly for the recovery, as we learn from Charon's instructions to
Dionysus in the 'Frogs' of Aristophanes, and then a _driving smiting_
stroke was given (cf. the words [helahynein, pahiein, hanarrhiptein hala
pedo]) and the brine tossed up by the blade.
When once the principle had been established, by which additional power
could be gained without increasing the length of the vessel, and had
been tested by practical experience, its development was sure to follow.
What century witnessed the birth of the trireme is not certain, but
probably by 800 B.C. the earliest vessels of this description had been
launched. The quick-witted sharp-eyed Greek was not slow to copy, and by
the beginning of the next century the busy shipwrights of Corinth were
building the new craft for Samians as well as for themselves.
It is, however, in the Attic trireme such as composed the fleets of
Phormio and Conon that historical interest has centred, and though
quinqueremes were commonly in use in the second and third centuries,
B.C., and even still larger rates of war vessels constructed till they
were _inhabilis prope magnitudinis_, unwieldy leviathans, such as the
sixteen-banked flagship of Demetrius Poliorcetes, yet the interest in
the trireme has never failed, and the splendour of its achievements has
insured to it an attention on the part of the learned which no other
class of vessel has been able to attract to itself. The problem of
construction of the trireme, and of the method of its propulsion, has
exercised the ingenuity of scholars ever since the revival of letters.
It has a literature of its own, and it may fairly be said that if the
enigma has not been solved, it is not for want of industry or acumen.
One point we may as well make clear at once, viz., that whatever was the
vessel the ancients invariably went upon the principle, _One man, one
oar_. Volumes have been wasted in attempts to prove that the arrangement
of the ancient galleys with respect to propulsion were identical with,
or very similar to, those of the mediaeval galleys of Genoa or Venice.
But the mediaeval galleys were essentially _monocrota_, or one-banked
vessels, though they may have been double-banked or treble-banked in the
sense that two or three men were employed upon one oar.
[Illustration: BAS-RELIEF OF ANCIENT GREEK ROWING BOAT.]
Another distinction that it is necessary to note with reference to the
ancient galleys is that they were called _Aphract_ or _Kataphract_
according as the upper tier of rowers was unprotected and exposed to
view, or fenced in by a bulwark stout enough to protect them from the
enemy's missiles. The system of side planking is observable as already
adopted in some of the Egyptian vessels, though of the Greeks the
Thasians are credited with the invention.
In the year 1834, during the process of excavating some ground for new
public buildings in the Piraeus near Athens, some engraved stone slabs
were found built up in a low wall which had been uncovered. These were
happily preserved and deciphered, and were found to be records of the
dockyard authorities of the Athenian admiralty in the second and third
centuries before Christ. Many interesting details were thus brought to
light which were set in order by the illustrious scholar Boeckh in his
volume entitled 'Urkunden ueber das Seewesen des attischen Staates.' His
pupil Dr. Graser has carried on his researches by the examination of
innumerable coins, vases, etc., and has rescued the subject from much of
the obscurity which enveloped it. The following description of the
trireme, based upon his labours, is quoted, by permission, from the new
edition of the 'Encyclopaedia Britannica,' vol. xxi. pp. 806, 807.
In describing the trireme it will be convenient to deal first
with the disposition of the rowers and subsequently with the
construction of the vessel itself. The object of arranging the
oars in banks was to economise horizontal space and to obtain an
increase in the number of oars without having to lengthen the
vessel. We know from Vitruvius that the 'interscalmium,' or
space horizontally measured from oar to oar, was two cubits.
This is exactly borne out by the proportions of an Attic aphract
trireme, as shown on a fragment of a bas-relief found in the
Acropolis. The rowers in all classes of banked vessels sat in
the same vertical plane, the seats ascending in a line obliquely
towards the stern of the vessel. Thus in a trireme the thranite,
or oarsman of the highest bank, was nearest the stern of the set
of three to which he belonged. Next behind him and somewhat
below him sat his zygite, or oarsman of the second bank; and
next below and behind the zygite sat the thalamite, or oarsman
of the lowest bank. The vertical distance between these seats
was 2 feet, the horizontal distance about 1 foot. The horizontal
distance, it is well to repeat, between each seat in the same
bank was 3 feet (the seat itself about 9 inches broad). Each man
had a resting-place for his feet, somewhat wide apart, fixed to
the bench of the man on the row next below and in front of him.
In rowing, the upper hand, as is shown in most of the
representations which remain, was held with the palm turned
inwards towards the body. This is accounted for by the angle at
which the oar was worked. The lowest rank used the shortest
oars, and the difference of the length of the oars on board was
caused by the curvature of the ship's side. Thus, looked at from
within, the rowers amidship seemed to be using the longest oars,
but outside the vessel, as we are expressly told, all the
oar-blades of the same bank took the water in the same
longitudinal line. The lowest or thalamite oar-ports were 3
feet, the zygite 4-1/4 feet, the thranite 5-1/2 feet above the
water. Each oar-port was protected by an _ascoma_ or leather
bag, which fitted over the oar, closing the aperture against the
wash of the sea without impeding the action of the oar. The oar
was tied by a thong, against which it was probably rowed, which
itself was attached to a thowl ([skalmhos]). The port-hole was
probably oval in shape (the Egyptian and Assyrian pictures show
an oblong). We know that it was large enough for a man's head to
be thrust through it.
[Illustration: ANCIENT GALLEY FIGHT, FROM POMPEII.]
The benches on which the rowers sat ran from the vessel's side
to timbers which, inclined at an angle of about 64 deg. towards the
ship's stern, reached from the lower to the upper deck. These
timbers were, according to Graser, called the diaphragmata. In
the trireme each diaphragma supported three, in the quinquereme
five, in the octireme eight, and in the famous tesseraconteres
forty seats of rowers, who all belonged to the same 'complexus,'
though each to a different bank. In effect, when once the
principle of construction had been established in the trireme,
the increase to larger rates was effected, so far as the motive
power was concerned, by lengthening the diaphragmata upwards,
while the increase in the length of the vessel gave a greater
number of rowers to each bank. The upper tiers of oarsmen
exceeded in number those below, as the contraction of the sides
of the vessel left less available space towards the bows.
Of the length of the oars in the trireme we have an indication
in the fact that the length of supernumerary oars ([perinheo])
rowed from the gangway above the thranites, and therefore
probably slightly exceeding the thranitic oars in length, is
given in the Attic tables as 14 feet 3 inches. The thranites
were probably about 14 feet. The zygite, in proportion to the
measurement, must have been 10-1/2, the thalamite 7-1/2 feet
long. Comparing modern oars with these, we find that the longest
oars used in the British navy are 18 feet. The University race
is rowed with oars 12 feet 9 inches. The proportion of the loom
inboard was about one third, but the oars of the rowers amidship
must have been somewhat longer inboard. The size of the loom
inboard preserved the necessary equilibrium. The long oars of
the larger rates were weighted inboard with lead. Thus the
topmost oars of the tesseraconteres, of which the length was 53
feet, were exactly balanced at the rowlock.
The Attic trireme was built light for speed and for ramming
purposes. Her dimensions, so far as we can gather them from the
scattered notices of antiquity, were probably approximately as
follows:--length of rowing space ([hegkopon]), 93 feet; bows, 11
feet; stern, 14 feet; total, 118 feet; add 10 feet for the beak.
The breadth at the water-line is calculated at 14 feet, and
above at the broadest part 18 feet, exclusive of the gangways;
the space between the diaphragmata mentioned above was 7 feet.
The deck was 11 feet above the water-line, and the draught about
8 to 9 feet. All the Attic triremes appear to have been built
upon the same model, and their gear was interchangeable. The
Athenians had a peculiar system of girding the ships with long
cables ([hypozhomata]), each trireme having two or more, which,
passing through eyeholes in front of the stem-post, ran all
round the vessel lengthwise immediately under the waling-pieces.
They were fastened at the stern and tightened up with levers.
These cables, by shrinking as soon as they were wet, tightened
the whole fabric of the vessel, and in action, in all
probability, relieved the hull from part of the shock of
ramming, the strain of which would be sustained by the
waling-pieces convergent in the beaks. These rope-girdles are
not to be confused with the process of undergirding or frapping,
such as is narrated of the vessel in which St. Paul was being
carried to Italy. The trireme appears to have had three masts.
The mainmast carried square sails, probably two in number. The
foremast and the mizen carried lateen sails. In action the
Greeks did not use sails, and everything that could be lowered
was stowed below. The mainmasts and larger sails were often
left ashore if a conflict was expected.
The crew of the Attic trireme consisted of from 200 to 225 men
in all. Of these 174 were rowers--54 on the lower bank
(thalamites), 58 on the middle bank (zygites), and 62 on the
upper bank (thranites),--the upper oars being more numerous
because of the contraction of the space available for the lower
tiers near the bow and stern. Besides the rowers were about 10
marines ([hepibhatai]) and 20 seamen. The officers were the
trierarch and next to him the helmsman ([kubernhetes]), who was
the navigating officer of the trireme. Each tier of rowers had
its captain ([stoicharchhos]). There were also the captain of
the forecastle ([prorehys]), the 'keleustes' who gave the time
to the rowers, and the ship's piper ([trieraulhes]). The rowers
descended into the seven-foot space between the diaphragmata and
took their places in regular order, beginning with the
thalamites. The economy of space was such that, as Cicero
remarks, there was not room for one man more.
Such, we may believe, was the trireme of the palmy days of Athens. Built
for speed, it was necessarily light and handy, and easily turned, so
that the formidable beak could be plunged into the enemy's side, the
moment a chance was given. But it required sea room for its
man[oe]uvres, and in a narrow strait or land-locked harbour, such as
that of Syracuse, was no match for the solid balks of timber with which
Corinthian and Syracusan shipwrights strengthened the bows of their
vessels. Against these the pride of Athens was hurled in vain, only to
find itself broken up and rendered unseaworthy by the crash of its own
ram.
With the defeat of Athens comes in the fashion of larger vessels with
more banks of oars, quadriremes, quinqueremes, and so on up to sixteen
banks, when the increase of the motive power had been more than
overtaken by the increase in bulk and weight. The principles of
construction in these larger vessels seem to have been the same as in
the trireme. The space for each man was probably somewhat less, and the
handles of the upper tiers of oars were weighted with lead, so as to
give a balance at the thowl between the parts outboard and inboard.
A question difficult to solve has often been raised respecting the pace
at which these ancient galleys could be propelled. If five-man power
could be taken as equivalent to one-horse power, then for the propulsion
of the trireme there would have been available about thirty-five horse
power, but that would hardly give a very high rate of speed.
There is a passage in Xenophon[3] in which he speaks of a distance of
about 150 nautical miles, from Byzantium to Heraclea, as possible for a
trireme in a day, but a long day's work. Assuming eighteen hours' work
out of the twenty-four, a speed of something over eight knots per hour
would be required for this, which may perhaps seem excessive. Still we
may believe that by a crew when fresh a pace not less than this could be
achieved.
[3] _Anab._ vi. 42.
The Romans, though it may be inferred from treaties with Carthage and
with Tarentum that they had some kind of fleet in the time even of the
kings, yet did not apply themselves readily to maritime pursuits, and
made no serious effort to become masters of the Mediterranean till the
first Punic War. We hear then of their copying a quinquereme which had
fallen into their hands by accident. A fleet was constructed in sixty
days from the time that the trees were first cut down, and meantime
crews were practised diligently in rowing on dry land in a framework of
timber which represented the interior of the vessels that were building.
This first essay at extemporising a fleet does not seem to have been
very successful. But nothing daunted they persevered, and the second
venture under the Admiral Duillius took with it to sea a new invention
called the 'corvus,' a sort of boarding bridge by which, when it once
fell on the enemy's vessel, the Roman infantry soon found its way on to
his deck, and made short work with the swarthy African crew. This
revolutionised the maritime struggle, and gave unexpectedly the naval
superiority to Rome. The large vessels of war (_alta navium
propugnacula_) continued to be built until the time of Actium, when the
light Liburnian galleys, which were biremes, were found to be more than
a match for the leviathans, whose doom from that moment was sealed.
From that time, with the exception of the accounts of _naumachiae_, there
is very little of interest about galleys to be gathered. The coins and
the paintings of Pompeii show us craft degenerating in type. The column
of Trajan exhibits biremes as still in vogue. Later on there is a light
thrown upon the subject by the _Tactica_ of the Byzantine Emperor Leo
about 800 A.D., who gives directions as to the building and composition
of his fleet, which is to consist of biremes, or dromones as he calls
them, and light galleys with one bank of oars.
From these latter eventually sprang the mediaeval galley, which however
differed from the ancient galley in the arrangement of its oars by the
use of the 'apostis,' a projecting framework which took the place of the
ancient 'parodus,' and upon which the thowls were placed, against which
the long sweeps could be plied by two or three men attached to each. For
full and accurate descriptions of these mediaeval vessels the reader who
has any curiosity on the subject should consult the ample works of M.
Jal. His _Archeologie Navale_ and _Glossaire Nautique_ contain the
fullest information as regards the build, and fittings, and crews of the
mediaeval galley. The sorrows and sufferings of 'la Chiourme' were enough
to give rowing a bad name, as an employment too cruel even for slaves
and fit to be reserved for criminals of the worst description.
It is in England, and in the hands of English free men and boys, that
the oar has maintained an honourable name, as the instrument of a
pastime healthy and vigorous, with a record not inglorious of struggles
in which the strength and skill of the nation's youth have contended for
the pride of place and the joy of victory.