Ships and Navigation 



Phoenician ship stainped on a coin of Sidon. 



This Egyptian model of a boat is dated 

 about 2000 B.C. Models like this one, from 

 which we gain some idea of Egyptian boat 

 construction, were placed in tombs to provide 

 the deceased with passage into the next world. 



It seems that the Egyptians must be given credit for inventing 

 the sail some time well before 3000 B.C., possibly as early as 6000 

 B.C. It may have developed from the custom of hanging a shield 

 from a pole in a small boat during religious ceremonies, but we 

 have no way of being certain of this. 



The first sails were square rigged, stretched between two booms, 

 and hoisted on a mast near the bow— the distance of the mast from 

 the bow was equal to only sixteen per cent of the length of the 

 boat. This is an extremely inefficient position for a mast, since it 

 allows a ship to sail only directly before the wind. From paintings 

 and pottery we can trace the gradual repositioning of the mast 

 nearer the center of the ship, the most efficient position. This ad- 

 justment took place gradually, probably based on trial and error, 

 from 3200 to 1600 B.C. 



The ships of Queen Hatshepsut around 1 500 b.c. were probably 

 a hundred feet long, with a beam of twenty-five feet, and were 

 capable of carrying eighty tons of cargo. The mast was amidships, 

 and the bows could probably be pointed as much as eighty degrees 

 off the wind. The fact that a ship will point eighty degrees off the 

 wind does not mean that it will sail in that direction, since it will 

 drift to leeward. The spoon-shaped hulls of the Egyptians were 

 particularly bad in this respect, and their best course was probably 

 less than seventy degrees off the wind. 



Because of their lack of timber, and since most of their naviga- 

 tion was confined largely to the Nile, the Egyptians did not develop 

 good seagoing hulls. There was no frame, and the planks, which 

 were imported from Syria, were four inches thick, set edge to edge 

 and keyed together with dowels and dovetails. There were, how- 

 ever, a few crossbeams at the level of the gunwale strake. Most of 

 the sea sailing of this period was done by the Minoans, but we 

 know nothing about their ships, and nothing about those of the 

 Mycenaeans. 



The Phoenicians were certainly building ships with frames 

 before 1000 b.c. This enabled them to make longer, sleeker vessels 

 with more rigid hulls. Their warships, fitted with iron beaks, were 

 powered by oars in battle and by sail when cruising. Their cargo 

 ships were broader and heavier and were sailed at all times in order 

 to save the cargo space which would be occupied by batteries of 

 rowers. 



All we know about the early Greek ships comes from Kterature 

 and sculpture; and it is clear that the ships were developed from 

 Phoenician designs. However, all attempts to interpret the terms 

 bireme, trireme, and quinquereme have been unsuccessful. If we 

 assume that they mean so many rowers to an oar, then the end man 

 is so far from where the oar pivots that he has to move an im- 

 possible distance. If we assume them to mean so many banks of 

 oars, then the oars of the top row are impossibly long. The only 

 solution is to find a Greek wreck, but so far we have not been 

 lucky enough to make such a discovery. 



Neither have we found any Carthaginian ships, but they must 

 have been very similar to the Phoenician. Roman ships, presumably 

 copied from all the types available, were carvel-built, had many 

 closely spaced ribs, and the planks were fixed with wooden pins or 

 copper nails. 



Although carbon- 1 4 dating would seem to be the most obvious 



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