PREHISTORIC NAVAL ARCHITECTURE. 533 



ill which tilt' law.s of syiuiiietiy enter into arcliitectiiial construction. A 

 still more certain mode is found in the iiiterscalmium; that is, the 

 si)ace between the oar ])ort.s, which by practical experience is accepted 

 as most nearly correct at 2 ells = 3 fei't. In computing- the length, 

 then, additional to the result obtained from iiiterscalmium measure- 

 ments the free space in the stem and stern will also have to be taken 

 into account. For a, 31-seater these are accepted as 12 feet aft' and G 

 feet in the stem; we thus have the following foi'innla: 



■J" X •"► + 12 + 6 = length of ship. 



The s))ace occu])ied by each rower is estimated by Lemaitre at (1.60 

 meters);")^- feet in width, and allowingfor the longitudinal middle space 

 (80 centimeters) 2 feet, we obtain an approximate width of that class of 

 ship of about 17 feet. 



A further estimate of the width of the ships is found in the size of 

 the anchor cable,^ of which eaolioue-half inch thickness is com])uted as 

 representing 1 foot width of ship at the water line; lience a 0-iuch 

 cable sluuild correspond to a ship 12 feet wide at the water line.'' It 

 is, however, thought^ that in view of the very sharj) build of the ships 

 a larger factor of width may be taken for each one-half inch of thick- 

 ness of the cable. 



The draft of the war-vessels of antiquity a])pears to have been very 

 small, amounting in the largest of which we have information to a 

 maxinuim of Lo meters.' 



THE GERMANIC PEOPEE. 



The first historic account of the ships of the peoj^ie occupying the 

 shores of the Xorthern Seas we find in Ca?sar's Naval Campaign against 

 the Veneti, in the year 54 b. C.," as follows : 



'' For their ships were built and equipped after this manner: The 

 keels were somewhat flatter than those of our ships, whereby they 

 couhl more easily encounter the shallows and the ebbing of the tide; 

 the i>ro\vs Avere raised very high, and in like manner the sterns were 

 adapte<l to the force of the waves and storms which they were 

 formed to sustain. The ships were built wholly of oak, and designed 

 to endure any force and violence whatever; the benches, which were 

 made of ])lanks a foot in breadth, were fastened by iron spikes of the 

 thickness of a man's thumb; the anchors were secured fast by iron 

 chains instead of cables, and for sails they used skins and thin dressed 

 leather. These were used either through their want of canvas and 

 their ignorance of its apjilication, or for this reason, which is more 



^Lemaitre: Revne Arelieolog., 188:^, i, ]). 149. 



' lioeckh: SetMirkuuden, p. 163. 



^Cartault: La tiiere Athon., p. 2l(i. 



' (iraser: De vet. re iiav., p. 20. 



■'Jssmaitii : Sepwesou, p. IHOl. Berlin, jiliilid. Wnchciisclirift, 1888, No. 1, p. 28. 



'^ Ccesar, De Bello Gallico, iii, cap. xiii. 



