358 : The Atlantic 



with its beak or rostrum. It seems likely, therefore, that the first 

 Mediterranean ship of which we have pictures was designed so that 

 it could be used as a fighting ship. 



There seems to be a long period during which ships were built 

 that could be used for travel and transport but that could also be 

 used as vessels of war. A reading of Homer does not show that in 

 his time there was any clear distinction between fighting ships and 

 ordinary ships, but the distinction did grow up and the fighting 

 ship of the Mediterranean became a very special type called the gal- 

 ley. The galleys and galley warfare lasted from 3,000 b.c. down to 

 the battle of Lepanto in the latter part of the sixteenth century. 



During this period galleys increased in size and fleets grew larger, 

 but the basic techniques of galley fighting remained the same. 



The galleys carried sails which were used in getting from one place 

 to another when the fleets were being assembled or when the ships 

 were sailing together in search of a suspected enemy fleet. At such 

 time the sail could increase the speed of the ship and lighten the 

 work of the men at the oars, but ships could not sail close to the 

 wind and the big sail and yard were clumsy to handle. The sail was 

 therefore struck when an engagement was in progress and the ships 

 approached each other with all the force that the great number of 

 rowers could impart to the hull. 



The first object of a sea captain was to drive the prow of his ship 

 into the opposing vessel amidships where it would do the maximum 

 amount of damage. 



Another maneuver was to approach a vessel, or overtake a vessel, 

 on almost a parallel course in such a manner as to break the oars on 

 one side of the enemy ship. In the final stages of an engagement the 

 ships grappled, boarding took place from one to the other and hand- 

 to-hand combat ensued. Attempts were also made to set fire to op- 

 posing vessels by igniting inflammable materials and hurling them 

 from one ship to another. A composition employed for this purpose 

 was known as "Greek fire." 



Greek fire varied from time to time. As early as the fourth cen- 

 tury B.C. pitch sulphur, charcoal, etc. were packed in wood contain- 

 ers and hurled aboard an enemy ship. By 350 a.d. naphtha or petro- 

 leum had been added. Saltpeter seems to have been a later addition. 

 "Greek fire" or "wild fire" was known to the Crusaders. A special 

 form known also as "sea fire" or "wet fire" is said to have been devel- 

 oped by Callinicus around the middle of the seventh century. This 

 added quicklime to inflammable ingredients so that the mixture not 



