THE HIGHWAY OF THE WATERS 



time nation, and it was here that boat-building reached 

 a very high state of development during the period of 

 Greek predominance. Large ships fitted with sails 

 and having several banks of rowers were used habitu- 

 ally in commerce and war, and it was here also that 

 the management of sails became so well understood 

 that oars were often dispensed with except as auxiliaries. 



It was in Greece that the custom of having several 

 banks of oars superimposed reached its highest develop- 

 ment, but the fabulous number of such banks credited 

 by some authors seems to be entirely without founda- 

 tion. It is possible that as many as seven banks were 

 used, although the evidence in favor of more than five 

 is very slight. 



The writings of CalUxenos describe a ship said to 

 have been used by Ptolemy Philopater, which was a 

 forty-banker. This ship is described as 450 feet long, 

 57 feet broad, carrying a crew of about 7,000 men, of 

 whom 4,000 were rowers. This description need not be 

 taken seriously, as there is no proof that boats of such 

 proportions were ever attempted in ancient times. But 

 it is certain that the Greeks did build large vessels, 

 some of them at least one hundred and fifty feet long 

 — perhaps even larger than this. The tendency of 

 shipbuilders during the later Greek period was to build 

 large, unwieldy boats, which used sails under favor- 

 able circumstances, but depended entirely upon oars 

 for manoeuvering in battle. 



The Romans used similar vessels of large size until 

 the time of the battle of Actium, where the clumsy, 

 many-banked ships of Antony and Cleopatra were de- 



[57] 



