:204 OUR HERITAGE THE SEA 



overcome, and thenceforward all the embryo mariners' 

 energies might be devoted to producing navigable 

 craft, and finding out means whereby they might be 

 successfully piloted from a given spot to a desired 

 haven. Undoubtedly most of the earliest voyages 

 were accomplished involuntarily ; accident determined 

 their departure and their arrival. And how many 

 perished on these forced passages from one land to 

 another will never be known, nor does it matter ; 

 pioneers were ever martyrs, unconsciously sacrificing 

 themselves for the benefit of those who should follow 

 them. But it must have been a very long time, even 

 in the leisurely history of the early world, before any 

 definite rules of navigation were formulated. The 

 building of seaworthy vessels, within which some 

 degree of safety might be expected comfort did not 

 come for thousands of years; in fact comfort, as wo 

 understand it, is probably a word that, if it existed, had 

 no real meaning until the last century, and at sea 

 certainly was meaningless until fifty years ago. I ain 

 sure there could have been little to choose between 

 the condition of the passengers in the ship of Adra- 

 myttium in which Paul made his memorable voyage, 

 and that of the emigrants in a Black Ball liner of 

 fifty years ago, as far as comfort went. But as what 

 we never know we never miss, these early navigators 

 were not conscious of their want, and just endured all 

 the evils of the flesh incidental to their voyages with 

 philosophic calm or callous indifference, as the case 

 might be, knowing that they were probably far better 

 off than if travelling by land. I remember once, amid 

 the horrors of a pilgrim ship, asking a grave Arab 

 whether he would not rather have made the journey 



