The usual mode was to erect stones
for this purpose, which were bored through.
In the time of Homer, the ships of the ancients had only one bank of oars;
afterwards two, three, four, five, and even nine and ten banks of oars are
said not to have been uncommon: but it is not easy to understand in what
manner so many oars could have been used: we shall not enter on this
question, which is still unresolved. The Romans had seldom any vessels with
more than five banks of oars. Such vessels as were intended for lightness,
had only one bank of oars; this was particularly the case with the vessels
of the Liburnians, a piratical tribe on the Adriatic.
The sails, in very ancient times, were made of leather; afterwards of
rushes. In the days of Agricola, the Roman sails were made of flax: towards
the end of the first century, hemp was in common use among them for sails,
ropes, and new for hunting. At first there was only one sail in a ship, but
afterwards there appear to have been several: they were usually white, as
this colour was deemed fortunate; sometimes, however, they were coloured.
At the time of the Trojan war, the Greek ships had only one mast, which was
lowered upon the deck when the ship was in harbour: near the top of the
mast a ribband was fastened to point out the direction of the wind. In
later times there seem to have been several masts, though this is denied by
some authors.
It remains now to speak of the materials of which the ships were built,
their size, and their crews.
The species of wood principally employed in the construction of the Grecian
ships were alder, poplar, and fir: cedar, pine, and cypress, were also
used. 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.
