4 NAVAL SCIENCES. 



namely, the hanks of oars in a vessel. The old writers speak of ships with 

 two, three, five, and even forty banks of oars, which they called biremes, 

 triremes^ quinquer ernes, &c. The pictures in Pompeii and Herculaneum, the 

 bas-reliefs on Trajan's pillar, and other monuments represent these banks 

 of oars on the outside, but not the interior arrangement of a ship. But we 

 do not know how the sides could be high enough for so many banks ; nor, if 

 this were possible, how such long oars could be managed. It would take 

 too much time to investigate this subject thoroughly here, but we are of 

 opinion that the banks of oars were arranged one after another like, a 

 ladder, corresponding with the representations that still remain. PL I, fig- 

 13, shows a ship with three banks of oars (trireme). Fig. 14, a man-of- 

 war with four banks (quadrireme). The rowers themselves were divided 

 into three classes, upper, middle, and lower, and these sat regularly one 

 above the other, the upper according to Thucydides receiving higher 

 wages, because they used longer and heavier oars. An arrangement sug- 

 gested by another writer is shown in pi. 2, Jig. 7. According to this the 

 different sets of rowers are placed at gradually ascending distances, the 

 upper at F, the middle at G, and the lower at H. 



Among the means of defence, besides the rostrum, we may enumerate : 

 a. The breastwork, behind which the men protected themselves from the 

 enemy's archers and slingers {pi. 1, fig. 10). b. The tower. This was 

 found only on the largest ships of war, and was occupied by archers, sling- 

 ers, and engines for throwing missiles (fig. 10). These towers were made 

 of wood. Some ships had eight of them. When it was desired to erect 

 them of unusual height and strength two vessels were joined together. 

 c. The baskets on the masts were found only in ships of war, rarely in 

 merchantmen, d. The dolphin was used by the Greeks as an offensive 

 weapon. It consisted of a heavy, brazen dolphin ; suspended on a yard and 

 thrown from above, it would beat in the enemy's deck or sink his boats. 

 e. The movable ram, similar to the military battering ram, and used against 

 the enemy's breastwork. /. The grappling irons were long rods with iron 

 hooks, used in boarding the enemy's vessel. PI. 2, fig. 7, represents a 

 Roman ship of war. A. The stern. B. The flag-staff. C. The com- 

 mander's seat. D. The rudder. E. The keel. F. The upper bank of 

 rowers. G. The middle. H. The lower. I. The prow. K. The aplustre. 

 L. The simple rostrum. M. The three-pointed rostrum. N. The breast- 

 work. O. The oar. P. The ship's eye. 



Ships of war were manned partly with rowers and partly with fighting 

 men. A quinquereme carried 120 fighting men and 300 row^ers, of whom 

 the last were generally slaves. They had no special places for sleeping, 

 but lay in the open air, the rowers on their benches. The commanders 

 shared all the hardships of the crew. The dress was a light tunic, and 

 afterwards a woollen overcoat. The manoeuvres of the ship were performed 

 by the rowers, after the measure of a song, or the music of the fiute and 

 harp. Merchant ships always sailed in company, partly to guard against 

 storms, partly against pirates. A well built ship sailed about one hun- 

 dred miles in the twenty-four hours. Shipwrecks were so common that 

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