APPENDIX. 
XXI 
laid up, and there was no apprehension of an assault ; or in long- 
continued sieges, where no danger was to be apprehended from the 
enemy’s navy, as in the Trojan war, when the Greeks were never 
attacked by sea. At other times the ships lay at anchor, or were 
made fast to the shore, that upon any alarm they might be ready to 
receive the enemy. 
The ships of the ancients were very differently constructed from 
those which are at this day in use ; and their rate of sailing was, 
for the most part, even lower than that of the dullest sailing 
vessel we are at present acquainted with. The rate, however, 
varied at different times, and will be found at some periods of the 
Roman empire to have been extremely respectable. 
The earliest ships were built with very little art or contrivance, 
and had neither strength nor durability, beauty nor ornament ; they 
consisted of nothing more than single planks laid together, just suffi- 
ciently united to keep out the water, and were in some places 
nothing more than trunks of trees hollowed out, forming vessels 
of single pieces of timber. Other materials besides wood were also 
employed in the construction of ships ; among which may be men- 
tioned the Egyptian papyrus, and more especially the hides of dif- 
ferent animals, of which the primitive vessels were very frequently 
composed. These were sometimes girt with wicker-work, and fre- 
quently used in that manner, even in later times, on the rivers of 
Egypt, Ethiopia, and Sabsean Arabia. 
In early periods, however, when vessels of this construction were 
employed, we find no mention of anything but leather, or hides 
sewed together. It was in a ship of this kind that Dardanus 
secured his flight from Saraothracia to the country afterwards called 
Troas ; and Charon’s boat was also (according to Virgil) constructed 
of the same material *. 
On their first invention, all ships, for whatever purpose they might 
Gemuit sub pondere cymba 
Suctilis, et multam accepit rimosa paludem. — Mneid, vi. 414. 
Construction of 
ancient vessels. 
