Before Chrlft 1 184. 19 



as fimilar practices were in later times efleemed honourable among the 

 Scandinavian nations, and are in the prefent day among the inhabitants 

 of the northern coafl of Africa. It was therefor no affront, but a com- 

 mon queftion put to the commander of a velfel, whether he profefled 

 piracy or trade ; as we find in Homer, that exad: painter of manners, 

 who even introduces Menelaus king of Sparta boafting of the wealth he 

 had acquired by his piratical expeditions. {Odyjf. L. iii, vv. 72, 301 ; 

 xiv, V. 230.] Among the freebooters on the coafts of the iEgean lea the 

 Carians were the mofl eminent, till they were fupprefled by Minos, as 

 already related *. 



After this fl-cetch of the naval hiftory of Greece in the early ages, it 

 may be proper to give the reader fome idea of their fliips. That of 

 Danaus, which was rowed by fifty oars, was a Phoenician veffel : and 

 there is reafon to believe that the Argo, thought built in Greece, was 

 the work of Phoenician carpenters. She was a long flender open boat, 

 which could carry fifty men, and could occafionally be carried by them 

 upon their flioulders. Of the vefTels, employed in tranfporting the Gre- 

 cian army to Troy, the fmalleft carried 50 men, and the largeft 120. 

 They were very flightly built ; and they were hauled on fliore after finifh- 

 ing a voyage. Thucydides fays, they were only large open boats ; where- 

 as Homer defcribes Ulyffes as covering his fhip with long planks f . 

 \Pdyff. L. V. V. 252.] It is probable, that fome of the larger ones had 

 at leaft half-decks in order to furnifh fome kind of lodging for the 

 people, and that the fpace occupied by the rowers was open, the 

 fides being connedled by flender beams or planks, on which the 

 rowers fat with their feet fet againfl the bottom timbers, or tranfverfe 

 pieces of wood near the bottom. They had but little depth, and feem 

 to have been very flat in the bottom, and confequently drew very little 

 water ; which is further probable from the lead-line being never men- 

 tioned by Homer, whence we may prefume, that the oars were found 

 fufhcient to found the depth of the water. They appear to have had 

 only one maft, which was ftruck when they finiflied the voyage, and one 

 fail-yard ; though Homer mentionsyrt/Yj- in the plural, which is perhaps 

 a poetical licence, as it is not probable, that they underflood the manage- 

 ment of what are now called fore-and-aft fails. But their main depend- 

 ence was upon their oars ; and their only diredion for their courfe was 

 the knowlege, which fome of the crew had previoufly acquired of the 



* It appears from Tliucydiilea, that thofe fero- not exempted from thofe criminal pradices, which 



cioiis and lawlefs depredations were ftill praftifed continued to be too clofcly connedled with com- 



in liis time (about eight centuries after the Trojan mercial navigation ; almoil down to our own age, 



war) by the wellern tribes of Greece, who even as will too plainly appear in the fequel of this work, 

 then retained the charafter and condition of fava- f liijt, quere, if thofe long planks formed the 



ges. And it muft be acknowledged, that the more deck, or the bottom of the velfel ? 

 poliihed and commercial nations of later ages were 



C 2 



