1310.) 
deep and dénse bodies, as had beenssup- 
posed, where it would: ‘he wnpossible for 
them to attain the enemy, but in. shal- 
low lines of two, or, at most, three ranks” 
He discovered, also, that the 
in depth. 
men ought to stand, not in files, or one 
directly. behind another, but the men of 
the second rank opposite to, aud cover- 
ing, the intervals between the men in the 
front rank; and those of the third rank, 
Opposite to the intervals between the men 
in the second rank. ‘In other words, he 
found that the legionary soldiers were 
placed in a yuéncuns order, where every 
two men in the front and: third ranks, 
forming a parallelogram in length, from 
front to rear; the man of the second 
rank occupied its centre, where removed 
from the men before and behind him, at 
the greatest possible distance, or half 
the diagonal of the parallelogram, he 
had the greatest possible room-in the 
same actual space, and from which he 
could, without interruption, eniploy his 
arms freely before, behind, or on either 
side, as necessity might require. 
This theory once discovered; and duly 
unfolded, all seeming Gonteadicriene in 
antient writers weré reconciled, all per- 
plexities were unravelled, and all difficul- 
ties were removed. 
By a similar. train of reasoning, the 
General had the good fortune to solve the 
Jong-contested question respecting the 
manner of distributing the oars and the 
rowers, in the war gallies of the antients. 
It is evident from. histery, that the anti- 
ents had vessels of different denomina- 
tions, called by the Romans, ¢trrenics, 
guudriremes, quingueremes, &c. and by 
the Greeks, trigves, tetréres, pentsres, 
&c. terms expressive (if the w ord im ay be 
used) of three, four, five rowings, &c. 
{t is also ev ident, that by these rowings, 
were meant Fiche rows of oars, ae 
stem to stern, of the vessel, raised ‘in 
order, the one above the other, from the 
water upwards, Commentators being 
in general still more ignorant, if possible, 
of naval than of military aliaics, had 
propounded the most absurd notions 
concerning the nature iy these antient 
ships. The notion, however, the most 
generally received was, that the ship’s 
sides being perpendicular, or nearly so, 
to the surface of the water, the oars were 
likewise placed vertically,*the one im- 
mediately over the other below © it. 
Oiber systems were also broached, tend- 
ing, in some measure, to obviate the 
objections made to the former: but still 
the best were liable to insurmountable 
~~ 
Memoirs of the late General Méelvitles 
47 
difficulties, arising from the placing of 
the rowers, the height of the ship’s side,. 
and sit sce from the great length 
and weight of the oars, by which those 
iv the upper rows, or tiers, must have 
become utterly unmanageable.’ 
From a consideration of these objecs 
tions, it was concluded by many engqui~ 
rers on the subjeet,. that the number of 
rowings. related: not to the rows of cars, 
but to the men employed to manage one: 
oar, as is done on board the vallies i inthe 
Mediterranean ; so that a trireme, a gains 
guereme, vc, meant a vessel in. which 
ome oar was worked by three men, five 
men, &c. That this, however, was not 
the case, 13 too clearly shown in various 
passages of the antients, to adenit of any 
dunbt on the head. 
General Melville, - whose repeated 
voyages across the Atlantic had enabled 
him to unite to the theony of navigation 
much ‘more practical knewledge than 
usually falls to the lot of a landmar, , 
despairing of being enabled to untie this 
Gordian knot, by his researches amongst 
the most enlightened and experienced sea- 
men, at last, on his way home from his 
government, laying authorities and theo- 
ries of every kind ent ively we it~ 
quired in himself what were the objects 
of the antients in the arrangement: of 
their rowers. ‘To this question, the na-= 
tural answer was celerity and impetus im 
their movements,. The next question 
was, how this celerity was to be abe 
tained ; and the answer could only. be. by 
introducing the greatest possible gaa 
tity of motive power Mtoe a given Spaces 
By placing the rowers not vertically, boe 
in diagonal order, up the perpeadicular 
side of a ship, it was true that they could 
be placed in considerably less space 
than when arranged ‘one directly aver the 
head of another. A athite however, Wag 
not enough ; and, it ogeurhed to the Ge- 
neral, that, by means of a double obli- 
quity in the arrangement of the rowers, 
ae possible advantage might be ob- 
tained. He’therefore. supposed that the 
sitte of the ship, instead of rising verti- 
cally from the water, was at the distance 
of a few feet from the: surface, laid out» 
wards, diverging from the perpendicular 
at an angle of perha :ps forty-five devees, 
Upon this inciined side, the seats for the 
rowers were placed, slanting diagonally 
upwards; ;at'the same time “that; by.the 
inclination of the. si de, they slanted 
diagonally outwards, 'Vhe consequences 
of this double obliquity were, that a 
rower raised only from fifteen to eigh- 
teen 
