184 



A. D. 73. 



they feem to have been worked on the quarters much In the fame man ■ 

 ner that failors fometimes fleer a fmall boat with an oar *, except that 

 the handles were brought withm-board through little ports or pigeon- 

 holes, and that they were fixed by ropes, which during engagements 

 were fometimes cut afunder, or rendered unmanageable, by fkilful 

 divers going under the quarters. Befides the people of Tapbrobane, 

 already mentioned, [p. 148] the Suiones a German nation, the Byzant- 

 ines, and upon fome occafions the Romans, had vefTels, which fleered at 

 both ends, fo that, either end being the head, they never needed to go 

 about, [y^liani Hlft. var. L. ix, c. 40. — T'ac. Ann. L. ii, c. 6; Germ — 

 Veget. L. iv, c. 46. — Dion. Cajf. L. Ixxiv.] 



Each vefTel carried two or more anchors, the largefl of which was 

 called the facred anchor, and, like the flieet anchor of modern feamen, 

 was referved for the greateft neceflity. Though the propriety of mak- 

 ing anchors of iron feems to be obvious, yet the old pradlice of making 

 them of fome weaker fubflance feems ftill to have been kept up. But 

 in the following age iron anchors became general f. 



The vefTels employed in the corn trade between Egypt and Rome 

 were apparently the largefl: of any upon the Mediterranean fea, which 

 was perhaps a confequence of the corn bounty given by Tiberius. Two 

 of the three fliips, in which the apoftle Paul made his palTige from Judaea 

 to Italy, were of Alexandria ; and one of them carried two hundred and 

 feventy-fix people, befides her cargo of corn. It is probable, that the 

 vefTel, wherein Jofephus, the jewifli hiftorian, was call away on his pafT- 

 age to Rome, which carried fix hundred people, was alfo of Alexandria. 

 But thefe are nothing to the aftonifhing magnitude of the Ifis of 

 Alexandria, which, if the dimenfions of her, as defcribed by Lucian :{:, 

 in his dialogue called the Ship, be correal, mufl have meafured qhout four 



* The coiTocorios of India, vvliicli were perhaps, Barak.e and Baiygaza. But iathe reign of Adrian 



through the medium of the Arabians or Tyrlans, we lind, that the anchors were made of iron ; for 



the models of the naval conflruftion ofthe Greeks, Arrlan, ia his Periplus of the Eiixine fea addrtfTed 



are to this day fleered by two broad paddles; to that emperor, [/>. 120, ed. Blancarcl'i\ fays, 



lSlavrjrinus''s yoyages, V. ii,/. ^cf) of Ev^iijh tran- that the people of Colchis pretended to polfcfs an 



flaliorT] as was alio the galley wherein Captain Fo- anchor belonging to the (hip Argo, which, fava he, 



reft made his voyage of difcovevy to New-Guinea, ' cannot be genuijic, l^fCiiiiF! it if mailc cf iron, 



though he generally found one fufficient. ' though otherways fomewhat different from the 



f I believe, no aniicnt author has told us, when ' anchors of our times.' He alfo faw at the fame 



anchors were firll made of iron. In the early ages place the fragments of a very anticiit anchor made 



of Mediterranean navigation the Phoenicians of Hone. — Now, of what material were the anchors 



had anchors of wood loaded with lead. And of the Grecian vefTels in the Indian ocean eonipof- 



in the ages now under confideration the Phcc- cd ? W^ere tliey of wood loaded with Hones, fuch 



nicians, and alfo the Arabians, navigators at as arc flill ufcd inllead of graplings for fmall craft 



leafl not inferior to the Pliucnicians, may be and boats in fome remote ])laces ? And were an- 



prefumcd to have flill had their anchors of no chors of iron introduced fo late as between the age 



better materials; feeing that the Egyptian Greeks, of the anihor of the Periplus of the Erythr;van fea 



who had the example of both thofe maritime and that of Arrian, and t!ie pretcndedlyautient one 



nations before their eyes, had anchors, which, ftiewn to Arrian, one of the firR rude edays ? 



as wc learn from the Periplus of the Erythra:an % Though Luclan flouriflied in the later part of 



Tea, were cut to pieces ami ground away by ihe the fecond century, his defcriptlon of the Ifis is in-' 



.'^arp points of the rocky bottom in llie bays of fcrted here for the fake of connexion. 



