32 



St. Paul," mentions that Adrian set sail abont daybreak, and at noon had 

 obtained a distance of 500 stadia, — ical rjXdofiev 7rpb t^s fxea^^^plas 

 ffraBi'ovs TrXelova? rj frevTaK.oclows, or more than fifty geographical 

 miles — a speed of at least eight miles per hour. 



That, indeed, the subject of Ancient Galleys is of great interest, and 

 one fraught with many difficulties, I think will be acknowledged by 

 every classical student. In the various remarks concerning the manner 

 of rowing these ships, I have not pretended to solve the difficulties ; but 

 rather to place in a concentrated form the various theories of the most 

 eminent writers on this subject. 



The Secretary of the Academy read a paper, by Lord de Eos (com- 

 municated through the President) — 



On the Construction op Ancient Galleys, and the Arrangement 

 oe their Oars and Eowers. 



There are few subjects which have attracted more notice and discussion 

 among classical students, than the details of the navigation of the Greeks 

 and Romans ; and this matter seems doubly interesting, from the proba- 

 bility that in any future naval warfare, we may see practised (though 

 with far more terrible and destructive effect) by the steam rams of late 

 invention, the very same manoeuvre of charging u prow to prow" which 

 we read of at Actium and other great sea fights of ancient times. 



Propelling by steam, whether by the use of paddle-wheels or screws, 

 brings back, in truth, after the lapse of so many hundred years, the great 

 principles of naval warfare to several of the same conditions which arose 

 from the propulsion by oars ; and, indeed, it is only of late years that 

 the speed of steam vessels has been brought to exceed so vastly that of 

 the row Galleys of former times. 



In that amusing book, Smollett's " Travels in Italy," about the year 

 1 760, he describes the mode of coasting from Spezzia to Nice by passage 

 boats, rowed with oars, as by no means a tedious way of travelling, 

 when favoured with tolerably smooth water ; and the writer of this Paper 

 recollects, when on a military mission to the Black Sea, in 1835, that 

 the "Pluto," a man-of-war paddle steamer, in which he traversed that sea 

 both from E. to W. and from N. to S., took six days for the former, and 

 three for the latter passage ; which is the very time mentioned by Strabo 

 as occupied by a Galley of his day in performing her 7r\ov9 of those very 

 same distances in the Black Sea. 



It must be mentioned, however, that the " Pluto" was a gun brig con- 

 verted into a steamer, and of such inferior quality, that, when going 

 at her best speed, seven or eight knots was all she could accomplish. 

 Now, there is no doubt but a Greek or Pom an Galley could fully 

 perform that rate, and even more, for short distances, and in smooth 

 water. But to attain any rapid speed with oars, it is scarce necessary 

 to say that the rowers must have good room, and scope for the stretch 

 of arm and play of every muscle. A cramped position, or an ill-balanced 



