54 



HISTORY OF THE SEA. 



and wrecked her, rather than lose the secret which a capture 

 would have revealed. This act was deemed so patriotic that the 

 government rewarded him, and compensated him for the loss of 

 his vessel. New Tyre was destroyed by Alexander the Great, 

 324 B.C. The inhabitants were either put to death or sold as 

 slaves, and thus the maritime glory of the Phoenicians came 

 to an untimely end. 



Little is known "of the construction and equipment of Phoe- 

 nician ships. All that can be said with certainty is, that there 

 were two kinds, — those employed in commerce and those used for 

 war, — a distinction, indeed, which all nations, both ancient and 

 modern, have found it convenient to make. The hulls of the 

 trading-vessels were round, that they might carry more goods, 

 while the fighting-ships were longer and sharp at the bottom. In 

 other respects they probably resembled the vessels of Greece 

 and Rome, for which they undoubtedly furnished models. Of 

 these fuller details have reached us, and we shall speak of 

 them in their place. The Phoenicians were better astronomers 

 than the unskilful navigators who had preceded them ; for, 

 while these attempted to guide their course by the imperfect aid 

 of the constellation known as the Great Bear, — some of whose 

 stars are forty degrees from the pole, — the Phoenicians were the 

 first to apply to maritime purposes the Lesser Bear, — the group 

 which has furnished to more modern navigation the North or 

 Polar Star. It is not probable that they fixed upon this 

 particular star, for at that period — 1250 years B.C. — it was 

 eighteen degrees from the pole, too distant to serve any positive 

 astronomical purpose. 



We come now to the Egyptians as a maritime people in the 

 earliest historical periods, of whom we have incidentally said 

 that they were characteristically disinclined to enter with spirit 

 into any maritime enterprises, whether for commerce or war. 

 This may have been owing to the want of proper timber, to 

 the insalubrity of the sea-coasts, and to the absence of good 



