The Veneti, already mentioned as celebrated for their ships, built
them of oak; but theirs are the only vessels of antiquity that seem to have
been constructed of this kind of wood.
The timber was so little seasoned,
that a considerable number of ships are recorded as having been completely
built and equipped in thirty days, after the timber was cut down in the
forest. In the time of the Trojan war, no iron was used in the building of
ships; the planks were fastened to the ribs with cords.
In the most ancient accounts of the Grecian ships, the only mode by which
we can form a conjecture of their size, is from the number of men they were
capable of holding. At the siege of Troy, Homer describes the ships of the
Beotians as the largest; and they carried, he says, one hundred and twenty
men. As Thucydides informs us that at this period soldiers served as
rowers, the number mentioned by Homer must comprehend all the ship could
conveniently accommodate. In general the Roman trading vessels were very
small. Cicero represents those that could hold two thousand amphorae, or
about sixty tons, as very large; there were, however, occasionally enormous
ships built: one of the most remarkable for size was that of Ptolemy; it
was four hundred and twenty feet long, and if it were broad and deep in
proportion, its burden must have been upwards of seven thousand tons, more
than three times the burden of one of our first rates; but it is probable
that it was both flat bottomed and narrow. Of the general smallness of the
Greek and Roman ships, we need no other proof, than that they were
accustomed to draw them on land when in port, and during the winter; and
that they were often conveyed for a considerable space over land. They were
sometimes made in such a manner that they could easily and quickly be taken
to pieces, and put together again. Thucydides asserts that the ships which
carried the Greeks to Troy were not covered; but in this he is contradicted
by Homer.
The principal officer in ships intended for trade was the pilot: he was
expected to know the right management of the sails, rudder, &c. the wind,
and celestial bodies, the harbours, rocks, quick-sands, and course to be
steered. The Greeks were far behind the Phoenicians in many parts of
nautical knowledge: we have seen that the latter at an early period changed
the Greater for the Lesser Bear, for the direction of their course; whereas
the Greeks steered by the Greater Bear. In very early periods it was the
practice to steer all day by the course of the sun, and at night to anchor
near the shore. Several stars were observed by the pilot for the purpose of
foretelling the weather, the principal of which were Arcturus, the Dog
Star, Orion, Castor and Pollux, &c. In the time of Homer, the Greeks knew
only the four cardinal winds; they were a long time ignorant of the art of
subdividing the intermediate parts of the horizon, and of determining a
number of rhombs sufficient to serve the purposes of a navigation of small
extent. Even so late as the date of the Periphes of the Erythraean Sea,
which Dr. Vincent has fixed about the tenth year of Nero's reign, only
eight points of the compass are mentioned; these are the same as are marked
upon the temple of the winds at Athens. The utmost length to which the
ancients arrived in subdividing the compass, was by adding two intermediate
winds between each of the cardinal winds. We have noticed these particulars
relative to the winds and the constellations, in order to illustrate the
duty which the pilot had to perform, and the difficulty and responsibility
of his office, at a period when navigators possessed such a small portion
of experience and knowledge.
Besides the chief pilot, there was a subordinate one, whose duty it was to
keep a look out at the prow, to manage and direct the sails and rowers, and
to assist the principal pilot by his advice: the directions of the
subordinate pilot were conveyed to the rowers by another officer, who seems
to have answered to the boatswain of our men of war. The rowers were
enabled to pull all at once, or to keep time, by a person who sung and
played to them while they were employed. During the night, or in difficult
navigations, the charge of the sounding lead, or of the long poles, which
were used either for the same purpose, or to push the ship off, when she
got a-ground, was committed to a particular officer. There were, besides,
men whose duty it was to serve out the victuals, to keep the ship's
accounts, &c.
The usual day's sail of a ship of the ancients was five hundred stadia, or
fifty miles; and the course run over, when they sailed night and day,
double that space.
We have confined ourselves, in this account of the ships of the ancients,
principally to those particulars that are connected with the construction,
equipment, &c. of those employed for commercial purposes, and shall now
proceed to a historical sketch of the progress of discovery among the
Greeks, from the earliest records to the era of Herodotus, the father of
geographical knowledge.
The first maritime expedition of the Greeks, of which we have a particular
narration, and certainly one of the most celebrated in ancient times, is
the Argonautic expedition. As we purpose to go into some length on the
subject of this expedition, it may be proper to defend ourselves from the
charge of occupying too much space, and giving too much attention to an
enterprize generally deemed fabulous, and so obscured by fable and
uncertainty, as to be little capable of illustration, and little conducive
to the improvement of geographical knowledge.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 11 of 268
Words from 10227 to 11227
of 273188
