34 



in a sea-going Galley, must be about 2 feet from the water (see Diagram A), 

 a trireme, thus constructed, would present a side of 13 feet high, or there- 

 abouts, above the surface of the water, — far beyond what can be allowed, 

 with any probability, for any vessel impelled by oars. Indeed, this is as 

 high out of water as our old thirty-six-gun frigates, and such a vessel 

 could have no stability without such a draught of water and weight of 

 ballast as must entirely unfit her for propulsion by oars. To haul her 

 up on the shore (as we know they hauled up the Galleys), would have 

 been utterly impossible. 



DIAGRAM A. 



Height out of Water, 13 feet. 



Scale, Jgth of an inch to a foot. 



Here ? it may be well to call attention to the remarkable fact, that 

 nowhere in the classical authors can any mention be found of the use of 

 ballast for their Galleys, — a fact which shows how entirely the ancients 

 considered sails as a mere adjunct to the use of the oars, lallast being as 

 obstructive to the requirements of a vessel propelled by oars as it is ne- 

 cessary to a vessel which depends upon sails for her propulsion, as well 

 as for her stability and safety. 



It may be said, in answer to this, that Virgil, in the Fourth Georgic, 

 does allude, by the term " saburra," to ballast, when he describes the bee 

 as taking up a small weight to steady itself in its flight ; but it is evident he 

 is alluding to light skiffs, used in fishing, which took sand on board to 

 steady them, and not to large war Galleys, which, if ballasted, could 

 neither row fast, nor be hauled up on the beach, as we know was their 

 frequent custom. 



There is another point connected with the absence of ballast in the 

 ancient Galleys : it explains, what otherwise seems so strange, "that 

 they never attempted what is termed beating to windward," bat always 

 used oars to go against the wind, and only hoisted the sail to run before 

 it. In fact we find, both in Homer and Virgil's description of sea 

 storms, that the approach of bad weather was the signal for striking 

 sail, and taking to the oars, — very different from the seamanship of 

 these days. 



JEneas, when narrating the storm in which his fleet had been caught, 

 and tossed in danger and darkness for three days, tells Dido, that on 



