THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 



strayed by the lighter single- or double-banked vessels 

 of Augustus. Augustus had adopted the low, swift, 

 handy vessels of a piratical people, the Libumi, who 

 had learned in their sea fights against all kinds of ves- 

 sels that the lighter type of boat could be used most 

 effectively. Structurally the hulls of these boats were 

 not unlike modem wooden vessels. 



While the various types of vessels were being de- 

 veloped in the Mediterranean region, a race of mariners 

 far to the north were perfecting boats in which they 

 were destined to overrun the Western seas from the 

 tropics to the arctic circle. These people, the Norse- 

 men, left few written descriptions that give a good idea 

 of the construction of their boats, which were suffi- 

 ciently seaworthy to enable the Danes to cross the At- 

 lantic and colonize America. But thanks to one of 

 their peculiar burial customs some of their smaller 

 boats have been preserved and brought to light in re- 

 cent years. It was their custom when a great chief 

 died, to bury him in a ship, heaping earth over it to 

 form a great mound. In most instances the wood of 

 such boats, buried for a thousand years, has entirely 

 disappeared; but in some mounds the boats have been 

 preserved almost intact. 



From the specimens so preserved it is known that the 

 Norsemen knew how to shape the hulls of their boats 

 almost as well as the modern boat-builder. This fact 

 is interesting because the immediate successors of the 

 Norsemen, either through ignorance or choice, reverted 

 to most primitive types in building their boats. Thus 

 it required centuries for them to develop a knowledge 



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