CHAPTER X— SHIPS AND SEAMEN 



The Development of Ships and Seamen. 



In the preceding chapters the history of the British Navy and its 

 neighbours has been traced from the earliest days to the end of the 

 seventeenth century, but only the barest necessary mention has been 

 made of the development of material which made this history possible. 

 In the present chapter this development is traced out during the whole 

 period, as the most striking points have to do with men-of-war rather 

 than with merchantmen. This means getting ahead of our story in 

 many places, but that can scarcely be helped in the circumstances. 

 The Prehistoric Dug-out. 



While the Phoenicians were building quite ambitious ships in the 

 Mediterranean the Ancient Britons appear to have been navigating 

 dug-outs which, excessively primitive as they were in form and construc- 

 tion, must occasionally have been astonishingly big. The most cele- 

 brated of these ships is the one that was dug up in the Spring of 1886 

 at Brigg in North Lincolnshire, where it had apparently been buried in 

 the clay beach of a lake since some unascertained date between 700 and 

 1,000 years B.C. This giant dug-out, made from the trunk of a single 

 tree, bears no sign of having been touched with iron, and it is probable 

 that it dates from the Stone Age. As being the earliest boat of which 

 we have actual practical knowledge its dimensions are interesting — a 

 length of 48 feet 6 inches by a 6-foot beam and a depth of 2 feet 9 inches. 

 The bow is rounded off and may conceivably have been used for ram- 

 ming, while the stern is shaped in a manner strongly suggesting the 

 modern counter. The oak from whose trunk it was hollowed must have 

 been a colossal tree. The sides when found were about tv/o inches 

 thick and the bottom four inches but the stern was heavily built and 

 had a thickness of no less than sixteen inches, the purpose of which must 

 remain a subject of speculation. The stern itself was separate from the 

 boat, the join being grooved and caulked with moss, and one can only 

 suppose that it was once lashed to the hull with some sort of thong. In 

 those days she was probably propelled with paddles rather than oars, 

 and although there is no sign of a mast there is a succession of small holes 

 close to the gunwale for practically the whole length of the ship, which 

 may have been for the rigging but might equally well have been used 

 for mats such as the Phoenicians are believed to have used before they 

 took to planking, shields, or an awning. A leak in the bilge on the 

 starboard side has been repaired with wooden patches and moss caulk- 

 ing, secured with wooden pins and thongs. This boat was offered to the 

 British Museum but it was too big to be housed there and may now be 

 seen at Hull, the most perfect specimen of her type yet discovered, 

 although other somewhat similar ships have been dug out in various 

 places in Britain and also on the German coast. The biggest appears to 

 be the one discovered on the borderland of Kent and Sussex rather more 

 than a century ago, which was 63 feet long by 5 feet beam. 

 Ptolemy's Yacht. 



Some record has come down to us of the gigantic yacht built for 



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