PREHISTORIC NAVAL ARCHITECTURE. 639 



Nydam, Time, and Gokstad ships, and to wldcli tlins far no use lias 

 been assigned, altliough it lias been suggested that they may have 

 served as lateral supports of the mast, a mistake into which the inves- 

 tigators of the ancient Greek and Roman naval structures had also 

 fallen until their application was practically illustrated.^ 



The most dangerous weapon of the ancient Greek and Eoman ship 

 was the spur which, in early times located below the water, appears to 

 have been an invention of the Phoenicians, who used it in 700 b. c. 

 The Greek located it above the water line.^ Above the spur was a short 

 raiii,^ representing the head of an animal, which prevented the spur 

 fi'om penetrating too deeply into the opposing vessel. 



In Northern naval architecture, saga refers to a shix) which was 

 l^rovided with a beard consisting of iron spikes applied to the prow;^ 

 one specimen only, however, has survived in the fir boat found at Ny- 

 dam (Plate Lxxv), in which a prolongation of the keel in either direction, 

 at its juncture with the stem and sternposts, appears to have been 

 fitted up as a sjiur and probably mounted with iron or bronze, although, 

 owing to its long immersion in the morass of Nydam, all traces of the 

 metal mounting liavedisajipeared. 



One of the most difficult problems in the discussion of Northern 

 naval architecture is that of dimensions, there being but two instances 

 in which the sagas give an account of the length; one of them is in the 

 Onnen-hin-Lange (the Long Serpent), which is described as having car- 

 ried thirty- four xjairs of oars^ by a length of keel of 110 feet, and the 



(c) Six thill spars of pine or fir. The longest 7.2 meters, the second 5.30 meters iu 

 length, most likely not entire iu any part, slightly thinned toward one end, but 

 strongly at the opposite end; the third spar 4.27 meters long, with a like thinning, 

 and at the other end hewn s(|uare ; the fourth, having a round hole at each end ; the 

 fifth, 3.74 meters long, imperfect at one end, where it is hewn aslant, and having at 

 the other end a hole; and, finally, the sixth, 3.20 meters long; its thickness entire at 

 one end, and near that provided with a hole; round on the side toward the spar's 

 upper end, but in the side toward the opposite end eight-lined. {Ihid., p. 39c and 

 PI. iv. Fig. 12.) 



(d) In the middle of <he ship, and aliout 30 centimeters above its sides, a spar of fir 

 broken toward the thicker end, and that was lying close to the wall of the sepul- 

 chral chamber and regularly tapered toward its other end. It probably first rested 

 iu the cross beams of the structure farthest aft, and at a later time it had been 

 crushed downward together with the stanchion, and broken by the pressnie of the 

 overlying earth. {Ihid., p. 44« and PL iv, Fig. 15.) 



(e) Two slender poles of pine wood standing beside each other on the aft cross- 

 l)iece of the sepulchral chamber against its wall ; one of the spars cut straight at 

 end, fitted with an iron spike, and evenly tapered toward its sharp end ; the other 

 from the middle, regularly tapered toward both ends, one of which is sharply pointed, 

 whereas the other is broadened to a knob. Both of them were at the time of the 

 exhumation well jireserved and straight. {Ibid., p. 44^ and PI. iv. Fig. 16; PI, viii, 

 Figs. 15, 15&.) 



^ Litebeck Emil: Das Seeweseii der Griechen und Rilmer, p, 52. 

 ^AsHmann: Seewesen, p. 1613. 



^Monffaucon: L'Anti(iuit6 Appliquce, iv, p. 214, PI. 134. 

 ^Si'a rfdalu : c . i v . 



^Torfa'us: Hist. rer. Xorvegic, c xxxiii ; .I:il: ArclieoJ. Nav,, i, 132; Du Sein; 

 Hist, d. 1. marine, i, 43, 



