PEEHISTORIC NAVAL ARCHITECTURE. 1)^7 



In 70 A. 13.,' oil occiisiou of tlie Bataviiiu and Fri.siau revolt under 

 Claudius Civilis against the Eomau Govenimeut, the Roman Brittanic 

 lleet was attacked and the majority of the vessels sunk — the character 

 of the aggressive force, however, is but approximately known — and 

 after having taken the greater portion of the Roman fleet the enemy's 

 admiral manned the biremen and other vessels, together with a Lirge 

 number of vessels holding from thirty to forty men.^ 



Although still only dug-outs, the art of ship-building appears to have 

 progressed so as to include structures carrying forty men, and more- 

 over to embody in their construction the observations made in the ships 

 of nu>re progressive nations, by allowing ribs to remain for the purpose 

 of additionally strengthening the sides of the ship, or, in other cases, 

 by inserting ribs after the excavation of the tree had been completed. 

 This progressi\'e idea was accompanied by the al>audonment of a flat 

 bottom, a rudimentary keel being worked out. 



Of this type of naval structures a number of specimens are known 

 to exist, of which one, now in the museum at Kiel, was, in 1S78, dis- 

 covered in the N'alermoor, a marsh in Schleswig-llolstein.' 



The Valermoor boat measures 12.288 meters (41 feet) in length, by 1.30 

 meters (4.33 feet) greatest width, 57 centimeters (10 inches) internal 

 depth, and G2 centimeters (20i inches) external height. The thickness 

 of plaiUv is 5 centimeters (H inches) at the bottom and 4 centimeters 

 (1^ inches) on top. The boat had eleven ribs of which nine still exist. 

 Upon the gunwale, between the ribs, eleven holes were excavated for 

 the insertion of the oars ; stem and stern are sharp. A keel of (2 meters) 

 0^ feet in length is worked out of the wood at botli ends of the boat, 

 leaving the middle flat. A very interesting i)rehistoric repair is notice- 

 able in the closing of a crack l>y means of dovetailed cleats or wedges 

 (" securicuhe" Yitruvius). 



The same form is met with in the British Islands. 



Ancient boat found at Bri(/g, Lincolnshire, England'^ (Plate LXViii). 

 In May, 1880, workmen engaged in an excavation for a new gas- 

 ometer in the town of Brigg, or more properly Glaudford Bridge, Lincoln- 



1 Tacit : Hist, iv, 79. 



2 Tacit : Hist. v. 23. 



^ H. Handel man II, .35te Bcricbt zui- Altertliunisliinide .Sclileswig Holstidiis. Kiel. 

 1878. 



'' Stcrcnson, iVUViam: Ancieut boat recoutly discovered near I>rigg, Lincolnsliire; 

 in Illustrated Loudon News, May 8, 1886. Jirock, L. P. Loftun: The discovery of 

 au aucient ship at Brigg, Lincolushire; in Proceedings British Archffiolog. Assoc. 

 Meeting, May 19, 1886, p. 279. Thi-opp, Juinca: The prehistoric boat discovered at 

 Brigg; read before the Lincoln and Nottingham Archielog. Soc, June, 1886. Ste- 

 venson William: Tlie prehistoric boat; in Grimsby News, .July 7, 1886. The ancient 

 boat at Bficig; in ''The Builder," London, July 17, 1886. Sicvenson, William: Dis- 

 covery of an ancient Britisli vessel or ship of extraordinary size in Lincolnshire; 

 in The Times, London, August 24, 1886. Stevenson, William, unpublished letters. 

 Atkinson, Alfved: On the ancient Brigg boat; in Vol. i, Archaeologia (Society of An- 

 tiquaries, Loudon). 



