35 



getting a glimpse of land, " remis mcumbimus," having previously low- 

 ered their sails, — showing that it was the oar, and not the sail, on which 

 they put their reliance in time of danger and difficulty. 



Beautiful and picturesque as is Virgil in his descriptions of ves- 

 sels caught in a storm at sea, a very cursory comparison must show 

 the observant student, that Virgil possessed little of that practical 

 knowledge of vessels and seamanship, which we find in Homer. Virgil 

 describes his storm with all the fire and grandeur of poetry, but Ho- 

 mer adds considerable practical knowledge of maritime details to his 

 sublime powers of painting the " wonders of the deep," as seen and felt 

 by those "who go down to the sea in ships ;" witness his admirable de- 

 scription in the " Odyssey" of the way in which Ulysses managed to rig 

 up a sail, and contrive a steerage for his raft, when he escaped going to 

 the bottom with his vessel. It is just the account which a thorough 

 seaman of our time would give of such an adventure, and is as intelli- 

 gible to a Torbay fisherman as to an educated student, perhaps in many 

 cases much more so. And here occurs the consideration of a most im- 

 portant feature in ancient seamanship, — the invariable use of a steering 

 oar or paddle instead of the rudder, which last contrivance we can trace 

 back to the ships of the Norman and Danish sea kings, but not to clas- 

 sical times. 



It is clear that the " steering oar," or " gubernaculum," was not 



attached to the vessel's stern, but independent of it " Guberna- 



clum multa vi forte revulsum praecipitans traxi mecum" is the descrip- 

 tion (and most animated and spirited it is) of the means by which 

 Palinurus tells iEneas, in the Shades, that he escaped drowning, when 

 knocked overboard by the fraud of Somnus — showing that he was 

 steering exactly as the coxswain of a whale boat does at the present 

 time, which is done by a skilful turn and pressure of the oar on the 

 quarter of the boat, and not by any fixed machine of the nature of a 

 modern rudder. 



The number of rowers for a trireme in the Punic wars was estimated 

 at 300. Now, taking the length of the Galley to be about 120 feet, 

 and allowing some space forward and aft, as would be of course neces- 

 sary, we shall find there would be length for about 25 transtra, at 4 feet 

 apart ; and, placing six men on each transtrum, three to each oar, we 

 shall just arrive at a complement of 300 rowers in a trireme Galley — a 

 few feet longer than one of the Thames steam-boats — while the width 

 of 13 feet would give each rower a lateral space of full 2 feet, which is 

 enough for the free use of his arms, and shoulders. 



Montfaucon, with his usual accuracy, gives a precis of the different 

 views taken by the commentators and critics of the arrangement of the 

 rowers and oars on board the Greek and Roman Galleys ; but, being 

 himself unacquainted with such matters, he contents himself, wisely, 

 with placing the different theories before his readers, and leaving them 

 to form their own judgment. 



No doubt there are many medals and sculptures which represent 

 Galleys with more than one range of oars ; but, if examined closely, it will 



