74 



HISTORY OF THE SEA. 



statue of Apollo, one hundred feet high, seems to have been 

 erected in assertion of their commercial supremacy, for the 

 legend is that it stood across the mouth of the harbor, and that 

 vessels passed between its legs. 



Navigation still remained what it had been before, the Greeks 

 seldom venturing into the open sea, and considering it necessary 

 to remain in sight of the coast by day and to observe the rising 

 and setting of the stars by night, in order to replace the land- 

 marks no longer visible in the darkness. In winter, navigation 

 was suspended altogether. Rather than double a cape, they would 

 drag their vessel across a neck of land from one sea to another, 

 by machines contrived for the purpose. This was frequently 

 done across the Isthmus of Corinth. The ordinary size of a 

 war-galley or trireme may be inferred from the fact that its 

 complement of men was two hundred and thirty; and its speed 

 in smooth water and with a favorable wind may be stated as 

 very nearly that of a modern steamboat. 



Dionysius of Syracuse (405 B.C.) is said to have built the first 

 quadrireme and quinquereme in Greece, — inventions which he 

 probably obtained from the Carthaginians and Salaminians. 

 Alexander the Great built ships w T ith twelve and thirty ranks 

 of oars. Ptolemy Philopator, of Egypt, is said to have con- 

 structed one of forty, after a Greek model. Callixenus has 

 left a description of this vessel; and this, having been tran- 

 scribed by Plutarch and Athenseus, was, until very lately, thus 

 supported by competent authority, regarded as quite authentic. 

 Late investigations have shown conclusively that the vessel, 

 with the proportions given, never could have existed. She was 

 said to have had forty tiers of oars, one above the other. It is 

 clear that the uppermost tiers must have been of enormous 

 length to reach the water, and we find their length stated, in 

 consequence, at seventy feet. Sixty feet of this length must 

 naturally have been without the vessel, leaving ten feet of 

 handle within. As the strength of no one man would be suffi- 



