228 



SHIP. 



I'ius. T)ie stoutness of the joist precluded the 

 necessity of a frame except what was formed by 

 the benches of the rowers. The seams were tight- 

 ened by introducing the leaves of the papyrus. It 

 could not have been long before ingenuity suggested 

 the application of a natural agent for the relief of 

 human toil ; a mast of acanthus was raised, a papyrus 

 sail suspended from it, and the rower rested on 

 his oar, or only used it for the direction of his bark. 

 In ascending the Nile, when the wind was either 

 unfavourable or too light, the vessel was drawn 

 against the current by men on shore, as Ali Bey 

 describes to be still the practice. In descending, a 

 hurdle or tamarisk was often let down from the 

 prow, which, taking a deep hold of the stream, 

 neutralized the efforts of the strong north-east 

 wind, which a beneficent Providence sends to check 

 the course of the stream and increase its height, at 

 the season of the inundation. The early Egyptians 

 did not, however, greatly improve upon this noble 

 invention. Their peculiar prejudices, by confining 

 them for many centuries to the navigation of the 

 Nile, checked the progress of improvement. They 

 had a horror of Typhon, as they termed the sea, 

 because it swallowed that sacred river, which, being 

 the great source of their happiness, they worshipped 

 as a divinity. This horror extended to those who 

 led a sea-faring life; hence the Phoenicians were 

 not allowed even to enter the Nile. Driven to ex- 

 tend their voyages seaward, these mariners adapted 

 their ships to the necessities of a more precarious 

 navigation. Coeval with the Phoenicians, in the 

 use of ships, were the inhabitants of China. But, 

 situated as they are, in the neighbourhood of a cir- 

 cumscribed sea, surrounded by islands, and more- 

 over, possessing, in their own resources, a supply 

 for every want, discovery and improvement have 

 long lain dormant there. It is believed, and the 

 fact is wonderful, that the Chinese have floated 

 down through thirty centuries in the same shapeless 

 junk which now excites the ridicule of our seamen, 

 and which they are yet unwilling to exchange for 

 the improved models which daily pass them in their 

 own seas, and continually force upon them the most 

 humiliating comparisons. In the Chinese junk of 

 our day we may, perhaps, see the counterpart of 

 what the ship was in the days of the Phoenicians 

 and of incipient navigation. Among the Phoeni- 

 cians, Carthaginians, and Greeks, the earlier ships 

 used in commerce were flat-floored, broad, and of 

 small draught of water; the floor timbers were 

 continuous at first, and they were without a keel, 

 having instead a streak of wood on either side, to 

 take the ground when stranding. Next, the keel 

 was introduced, in order to diminish the drift with 

 a side wind; and, to increase the strength, a keel- 

 son was soon added, overlaying the floor timbers 

 and confining them to the keel ; beams were also 

 placed aloft, to hold the sides together and sustain 

 the deek. The planking, which took its name, 

 among the Greeks, from the garment which covers 

 the human body, was firmly attached to the frame 

 by means of iron nails, some of which passed through 

 and were clenched within. When, however, the 

 ancients discovered the tendency of iron to rot the 

 wood, they substituted copper. To obviate the 

 danger of starting the plank ends, a danger still 

 sometimes fatal to the mariner, a piece of wood 

 was let into both in the form of a dove-tail. Oak 

 and pine, then, as now, were the woods most in 

 favour ; chestnut and cedar were also used, and to 

 the last the Greeks gave the name of everlasting 



wood, though it was found not, to hold well 

 nailed in the ordinary way, and to grow iron-sick; 

 cypress, not being subject to shrink and cause 

 leakage, was also esteemed, and elm wood was 

 placed in such parts as were constantly under 

 water. The Romans were very particular as to the 

 season of felling ship timber; aware that there was 

 much to be gained by attention to this subject, 

 though mistaken as to the means. They would 

 only fell between the fifteenth and twenty-third 

 days of the moon's age, believing that when it was 

 on the wane, the sap, which is the chief cause of 

 early decay, descended: they were also attentive 

 to the quarter from which the wind blew ; in 

 autumn it should be westerly, in winter north. To 

 stop the leaking at the joints, lime and pounded 

 shells were first applied: these being found soon 

 to fall off, wax, rosin and pitch were advantageously 

 substituted ; flax was also driven into the seams, 

 and leather occasionally used as a sheathing. A 

 vessel of the time of Trajan, raised, after thirteen 

 centuries, from the bottom of a lake, was found to 

 have a bottom of pine and cypress, still in a sound 

 state; her seams were calked with linen smeared 

 with pitch, then sheathed with sheet lead and cop- 

 per nails. Nor were the ancient vessels without 

 ornament: the prow was especially decorated with 

 paint and gilding, representing the forms of the 

 gods; taking its name from the human face, its 

 sides were called the cheeks. Its foremost extremity- 

 was usually carved into the representation of men 

 and animals, or else formed a graceful curve; where 

 it divided the water it was called the goose, from 

 the image of that animal, placed there as an omen 

 that the vessel should never sink. The distinguish- 

 ing banner stood at the bow, representing a moun- 

 tain, tree, flower, or other emblem : from this the 

 name was usually taken, and conspicuously painted 

 on a round piece of wood called the eye. The stern 

 was sometimes carved in the figure of a shield, and 

 elaborately decorated; upon a staff there erected, 

 ribbons were hung, distinctive of the ship, and 

 serving, at the same time, to show the direction of 

 the wind: there, too, stood the tutela, or chosen 

 patron of the ship; prayers and sacrifices were daily 

 offered to it, and it was held so sacred as to offer a 

 sanctuary to those who fled to it. Family consi- 

 derations, patriotic partiality, or simple expediency, 

 determined the selection of the deity ; thus mer- 

 chants committed themselves to the protection of 

 Mercury, warriors to Mars, and lovers to Cupid and 

 Venus. 



The general form and size of the ancient shjps 

 varied with the progress of improvement, and with 

 the warlike or commercial purposes for which they 

 were constructed. The war ships of the Greeks 

 were at first but row boats, with which they rushed 

 upon the enemy and decided the battle by superior 

 force and valour; in the course of time, this grew 

 into the galley, which, being moved chiefly by oars, 

 was of an entirely different form from the merchant 

 ship.* Extreme narrowness, in connexion with 

 great length, for the accommodation of many rowers, 

 determined the form of the first, while the latter 

 was constructed mainly with a view to capacity ; 

 hence the length of the galley was often six or 

 eight times its breadth, whilst that of the merchant- 

 man was but four times ; and hence, too, their dis- 

 tinctive names of long ships and round ships. The 

 size of the earlier ships was necessarily inconsider. 



* For a more minute description of the galley, see articles 

 Galley and Kary. 



