Chapter X: Navigation

As the art of navigation was not invented by the Greeks, it will be in this place unnecessary to inquire very minutely into its rude beginnings. Most maritime tribes doubtless discovered for themselves the means of traversing such rivers, and creeks, and bays, and arms of the sea, as lay in their immediate neighbourhood and impeded their communication, whether hostile or friendly, with the various tribes on their borders. Another motive, moreover, which probably tempted men to trust themselves very early upon the waters, was the desire to regale on those dainty fish which abound on nearly all shores, and constitute among the most savage nations an important article of food. It will readily be believed that history cannot pretend to name the individual who in any country first launched his raft or canoe upon the deep. Nevertheless, tradition among the Phœnicians, endeavoured to supply the defect of history. Ousoös, we are told,[1662] a primitive Arab hero, observing the trunk of a large tree overthrown, perhaps by a hurricane, near the shore, lopped off the branches, set it afloat, and committed himself along with it to the mercy of the waves. He had very soon an abundance of imitators. In every part of the Red Sea, on the Nile, the Indus, and the Persian Gulf, hardy navigators made their appearance, who undertook voyages more or less hazardous, in piraguas constructed of a single bamboo, or the shell of a vast tortoise, or of a wicker-work frame covered with leather[1663]—the coracles of our British ancestors still in common use on many streams in Wales. Occasionally, too, more especially on the rivers and shores of the Euxine, capacious, long, and sturdy barks[1664] were scooped out of the trunks of enormous trees, which were denominated Monoxyla, and seem to have been at one time or another in general use all over the world from the island of Australasia to the Arctic Circle. A specimen of those employed by our own forefathers may be seen in the colonnade of our national Museum. On the Nile were several kinds of barks peculiar to Egypt, such for example, as those which were plaited from the papyrus plant,[1665] or from rushes. Most extraordinary of all, however, were their boats of earthenware, in which, furnished both with sails and oars, they glided over the serene bosom of the river.

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Footnote 1662:

Sanchoniath. ap Euseb. Præp. Evang. i. p. 23, bis. Leroy, Marine des
Anciens Peuples, p. 188.

Footnote 1663:

Herod. i. 194.

Footnote 1664:

In the sea of Marmora, a boat somewhat similar in form, though
different in construction, is still used, and known under the name of
piade. It is narrow, and “from twenty to forty feet in length, very
sharp both in the prow and stern; it is built of willow, and often
beautifully carved and ornamented.” Douglas, Essay, &c., p. 13.

Footnote 1665:

Herod. ii. 96. Theoph. Hist. Plant. iv. 8. 4.

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As soon as the Greeks began to apply themselves to maritime affairs, they constructed ports and docks in various parts of the country, where they built numerous ships, rude enough at first, perhaps; but improving by experience and study[1666] they in time equalled, and at length surpassed, the Phœnicians, by whom at the outset they may perhaps have been instructed. Among the greatest difficulties they had to encounter was the scarcity of ship-timber, for which they were always compelled greatly to depend on other countries. The materials, however, being collected, their shipwrights appear to have proceeded in much the same manner as those of modern times, laying down the keel, fixing in the ribs, planking, decking, caulking, and pitching, until the hull was completed.

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Footnote 1666:

Cf. Hom. Il. α. 316. Thucyd. i. 10.

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In their war-galleys,[1667] constructed under the superintendence of a naval architect elected by lot, they exhausted all the resources of art in their endeavours to communicate to them the greatest beauty of form and splendour of appearance. Painting, carving, and gilding,[1668] were called in to cover both stern and prow with images and ornaments of the most fanciful kinds, glowing with bright blue or vermilion,[1669] intermingled with scrolls and flourishes of other colours, and figures of burnished gold. Occasionally beneath the rim of the prow were bright cerulean bands,[1670] painted in encaustic and defended by so durable a varnish that they could neither be blistered by the sun, nor dimmed by the action of the sea-water. In this part, beneath the roots as it were of the acrostolion, were placed those ornaments resembling eyes, one on either side, over which the name of the ship was written.[1671] The sweep of the deck was a gentle curve, the lowest dip of which was at the ship’s waist. On the poop stood a deep alcove in which the pilot took his station,[1672] protected in a great degree from wind and weather, and having over his head a large lantern, in which a bright light was kindled at nightfall.

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Footnote 1667:

Vid. Gyrald. de Navig. c. xvi. t. i. col. 646. Thucyd. i. 13, seq.
Athen. xi. 49. Aristoph. Lysist. 173. On the names of different
classes of vessels, see Schol. Aristoph. Pac. 143. Eq. 1363. Thucyd.
iv. 67.

Footnote 1668:

Poll. i. 84. Goguet, iv. 261. Winkel. i. 26. n.

Footnote 1669:

Lucian. Charidem. § 25.

Footnote 1670:

Athen. v. 37.

Footnote 1671:

Poll. i. 86.

Footnote 1672:

In this he had a seat which was called ικρία. Hesych. in v.

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Firm and lofty bulwarks rose along the ship’s sides, protecting the mariners from being swept off in tempests by the passing surge. On the bows again, there was usually a square tower furnished with lofty portals, through which the combatants, protected from annoyances on both flanks, poured, in close fight, their darts into the enemy’s ship, or rushed forward to board it. At the very front of the prow, where our bowsprit is now placed, arose an elegant winding scroll, which though projecting slightly beyond the hull, could never touch the corresponding part of the enemy’s galley until the iron or brazen beaks[1673] below had met and shattered each other. The rudder[1674] consisted of two paddles placed one on either side of the ship, which was impelled along by oar and sail. The row-ports of these galleys being somewhat capacious might, if left open, have shipped a great deal of water, on which account they were furnished with strong leather bags, in form like a woman’s breast, projecting outwards, nailed to the circle of the row-port, and fitting tight about the oar. The rowers, to render their condition more comfortable, were furnished with cushions or soft-dressed fleeces.[1675]

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Footnote 1673:

Schol. Aristoph. Eq. 552.

Footnote 1674:

Spallanzani in describing the preparations made by the Portuguese for
the first doubling of the Cape of Good Hope, mentions, among other
things, a double rudder, so “that in case one should be damaged there
might be another to act.” Travels in the Two Sicilies, iv. 201.

Footnote 1675:

The sea-term ὑπηρέσιον which occurs in Thucydides, ii. 93, is very
variously explained. Mitford (Hist. Greece, iii. 154) contends, that
it means a sort of bag placed in the τρῆμα, or aperture through which
the oar passed, and was designed to prevent the flowing in of the
waves. This bag, however, as I have already remarked in pp. 289, 290,
was called ἄσκωμα. Poll. ii. 154. Potter (ii. 136,) thinks it was a
skin on which the rowers sat. Lilius Gyraldus, (De Navigiis, c. vi. p.
627,) supposes it to have been that part of the galley on which the
oar rested, and sometimes signified the oar itself. The Greek
scholiast on Thucydides, (t. v. p. 399,) agrees with Potter, saying,
that it means a sheep-skin with the fleece which covered the rowers’
benches.

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The merchantmen differed considerably both in form and general arrangements from the war-galleys. As in our own ships of burden, under the old system of admeasurement, the hull instead of sinking down sharp towards the keel, bellied outwards at the sides, so as to render the bottom almost flat. They were very much shorter, moreover, in proportion to their height than ships of the line,[1676] which, from their slender elongated figure, obtained the appellation of long galleys. In trading vessels,[1677] much greater stress was laid on sails than on oars, since the crews could never be sufficiently numerous to furnish constantly fresh relays of rowers; and, in their protracted voyages, it would have been impossible for the same men to remain perpetually on the benches. The masts consequently were here of very great height, equalling, according to rule, the length of the ship, which rendered it practicable to crowd an immense quantity of canvass, but at the same time rendered them liable to capsize in a heavy gale, as is still the case with the Levant-built ships, which are generally much taller rigged than ours. They commonly gave a greater length to the hull of transports, though not altogether so great as to ships of war. Pirate luggers were always built without decks,[1678] and extremely low that they might be the better able to approach their prey unperceived. Their sloops, smacks, and lighters,[1679] together with all the other small craft employed in the coasting trade, exhibited every variety of form, but appear to have been generally stout-built and well-appointed.

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Footnote 1676:

Cf. Schol. Aristoph. Eq. 1363.

Footnote 1677:

One of these vessels, when built for speed, would, with a fair wind,
make a hundred and fifty miles in the twenty-four hours. Herod. iv.
86.

Footnote 1678:

Thucyd. i. 10. Schol. t. v. p. 311.

Footnote 1679:

Much of the coasting trade of the Mediterranean is still carried on in
extremely small barks or open boats. See Spallanzani, Travels in the
Two Sicilies, iii. 122, sqq. In the Adriatic, however, the necessity
has at length been felt of employing vessels of a broad and flat
construction, and extremely solid, to resist the violence of the
storms so frequent in that sea, id. iv. 200.

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Respecting the tonnage and dimensions of the largest class of merchantmen, we possess little positive information. It would appear, however, that in comparison with the vessels engaged in the corn-trade, between Alexandria and Italy,[1680] they were of very moderate burden, since the appearance of one of those large ships in the Peiræeus excited general astonishment. The size of this Egyptian trader, which seems to have been no way distinguished from others engaged in the same traffic, may perhaps assist the imagination in forming some definite idea of an ancient merchantman: its length, from stem to stern, was one hundred and eighty feet, its breadth nearly fifty, and its clear depth in the hold about forty-five. It was furnished with one enormous mast, with yards in proportion, and a capacious mainsail, composed of numerous tiers of ox-hides. The cables and anchors, capstains, windlasses, with all the other appurtenances of a ship, were on a suitable scale, while the crew was so numerous as to be compared to an army. In the stem were airy and spacious cabins, above which rose the gilded figure of a goose. On either side of the bows stood an image of Isis,[1681] bending over the waves and appearing to afford her divine protection to those who had chosen her for their tutelar goddess. Among the Greeks, however, the place assigned to the tutelar divinity was sometimes the stern, where oaths were taken, expiations made, prayers and sacrifices offered up, and where such of the crew as had committed any offence took sanctuary. On the top of the mast was a vane[1682] of burnished metal which, turning and flashing in the sun, appeared like a streak of flame. As their ships, more especially during long voyages, ran perpetual risk of being assailed by pirates, they were abundantly supplied with all kinds of arms and implements of war, which were ranged along the cabin partitions and elsewhere with so much order and regularity, that they could always, by night or day, be found at a moment’s warning.

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Footnote 1680:

Lucian. Navig. § 5.

Footnote 1681:

On the bows of the Athenian war-galleys a wooden statue of Athena,
richly gilded, occupied the place here assigned to Isis. Aristoph.
Acharn. 457, et Schol.

Footnote 1682:

See on vanes, flags, &c., Beckmann, History of Inventions, iv. 161. As
many of our sailors carry about their persons a child’s caul as an
amulet to protect them against the dangers of the ocean, so the
mariners of Greece attributed a sort of miraculous power to the skins
of the seal and the hyæna, which they bound around the summits of
their masts as a safeguard against lightning and thunderbolts. Plut.
Sympos, iv. 2. 1.

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It was by very slow advances that the ancients arrived at that high degree of excellence in the art of ship-building, which, in the most flourishing ages of Greece, its maritime states exhibited. In the Homeric age, the largest vessels known were of very moderate burden, since even the poet, who would doubtless allow himself some licence, speaks of no transport which could carry more than one hundred and fifty men. These barks, too, Thucydides thinks, were undecked, like the pirate vessels of his own times, and indeed in ours also, in most parts of the Ægæan, though I have myself sailed in a large Greek brig, of piratical construction, which carried several guns, and was not only decked, but so admirably built, that after labouring ten days in a storm, she made not an inch more water than when in port.

The various stages in improvement have not been marked. They went on, however, each age excelling that which had preceded it, until at length having reached the utmost perfection of which their system was susceptible, they began to apply their skill to the creation of huge fabrics merely for show and magnificence, and calculated rather for the gratification of an insane luxury than for the genuine purposes of trade. One of these naval monsters was constructed at Syracuse under the eye of Archimedes, and at the expense of king Hiero.

Having procured from the forests of Mount Ætna timber sufficient for the building of sixty triremes, together with a variety of other materials from Italy, Spain, and Gaul, as crooked timber for ribs, hard wood for pegs, with pitch and hemp, and Spanish broom[1683] for cables, he assembled a sufficient number of ship-wrights, with Archias, the Corinthian, at their head, and set them to work under the inspection of Archimedes, though he himself spent the greater part of his day overlooking the workmen at the dock. When in about six months the planking had been carried to about half the height of the hull, and properly sheathed with lead in lieu of the copper at present employed, the ship was launched[1684] by means of a machine, invented for the purpose by Archimedes, into a sort of floating dock, where it was completed in other six months. The planks were fastened to the ribs with copper bolts, of which some were of ten and others fifteen pounds’ weight, passed through holes prepared for them by the auger; and over the heads of these bolts plates of lead were fixed, having been first lined, as it were, with a layer of wadding steeped in pitch.

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Footnote 1683:

Athen. v. 40.

Footnote 1684:

By what ceremonies a ship-launch was accompanied in antiquity, I have
nowhere discovered. Those which take place on the occasion in modern
Greece are extremely pleasing, and may, perhaps, have had a classical
origin. A crown of flowers “is suspended from the prow of a vessel
when it is first launched, and the ‘καρόβακηρι,’ or master of the
ship, raises the jar of wine to his lips as he stands upon the deck,
and then pours it on the ground. Surely, nothing can be more
beautifully classical; and it were to be wished that we could trace
some part of a ceremony that takes place with us upon the same
occasion to this source, and not consider it as an imitation of one of
the most sacred rites of our religion.” Douglas, p. 65.

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They next proceeded to the interior arrangements, the explanation of which is replete with difficulty. The whole depth of the ship seems to have been divided into four stories, of which the lowest, or hold, was filled by the cargo; the second, descended to by long flights of steps, was appropriated to the rowers, who were ranged in twenty banks; the third was laid out in cabins for the use of the crew, while the military officers and the men occupied the uppermost. The kitchen was situated in the stern.

All these cabins were adorned with pavements in mosaic, representing in a long series of compartments the entire action of the Iliad; while the furniture, doors, and ceilings were furnished with proportionate splendour and elegance. On the upper deck was a gymnasium, exactly proportioned to the dimensions of the ship, together with a number of walks running through the midst of gardens laid out on leaden terraces, and containing all kinds of odoriferous plants and flowers. All these alleys were arched with trellis-work, overlaid with the intermingled foliage of the white-ivy and the vine growing out of troughs filled with earth, arranged along the promenades, and watered like other gardens. In a different part of the ship was a magnificent apartment called the Aphrodision, furnished with three couches, and having a pavement variegated with agates, and all the richest and most beautiful marbles of Sicily. It was wainscotted and roofed with cypress, while its doors were of Atlantic citron-wood inlaid with ivory. On all sides, moreover, it was adorned with pictures and statues and vases and goblets, of the most fanciful and varied forms. Contiguous to this chamber was the library, furnished with five couches and store of books. Its doors and wainscot were of box, and on its roof was a sun-dial, constructed in imitation of that in the Achradina. There was also a bath, in which were three couches, and three caldaria of bronze, together with a basin containing five metretæ, lined with Taurominian marble of various colours. There were numerous cabins fitted up for the soldiers and the crew, from whom was selected a number of persons whose sole business it was to superintend the pumps.[1685] The ship likewise contained twenty stables, ten on either hand, well supplied with fodder, and every convenience for the grooms.

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Footnote 1685:

Cf. Schol. Aristoph. Eq. 432.

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In the bows was a prodigious reservoir of fresh-water, lined with tarpaulin, and kept under lock and key; and near it lay the piscina or fish-pond, overlaid with lead, and filled with sea-water, in which was preserved an ample supply of fish for a long voyage. On projecting galleries, extending along the ship’s sides, were situated the wood-house, the kitchen, the bake-house, the mills, and other conveniences. At different distances along the sides were ranged numerous figures of Atlas, nine feet in height, supporting the triglyphs and the projecting portions of the ship: its whole surface, moreover, was adorned with suitable paintings.

There arose from the deck eight towers, two on the stern, two on the prow, and four in the ship’s waist, in diameter and elevation proportioned to the dimensions of the whole. From the outer battlements of each of these turrets projected two immense beams, hollowed out like troughs, which being balanced in the middle on the edge of the tower, could be filled with huge stones, that, by elevating the inner extremity of the machine, were launched into the enemy’s ship as it sailed beneath. These engines were probably worked by ropes and pulleys attached to the opposite battlements. Six armed men, two of whom were archers, took their station in each turret, the whole interior of which was filled with stones and darts. All round the ship, supported by a series of triangles, ran a gallery, defended by a parapet and battlements. On this stood a catapult, invented by Archimedes, which cast darts eighteen feet long, with stones upwards of three hundred and fifty pounds in weight, to the distance of a furlong. This gallery, as well, I presume, as the men who worked the engine, was protected by a close net-work of large ropes suspended from brazen chains. To each of the three masts was attached a couple of engines, which darted iron bars and masses of lead against the enemy. The sides of the ship bristled with iron spikes, designed to protect it against boarding; and on all sides were likewise grapples, which could be flung by machines into the galleys of the foe, so as to retain them within reach of the missiles from on board. Along the galleries, and round the masts and catapults, were drawn up two hundred and forty men in complete armour. In the fore, main, and mizen-tops were stationed other warriors, who were supplied with stones and similar missiles by baskets running on pulleys, and worked by boys. The ship was supplied with twelve anchors, of which four were of wood, and eight of iron.[1686]

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Footnote 1686:

Cf. Artemid. Oneirocrit. ii. 23, p. 110, with the amusing conjectures
of Goguet, &c., on the origin of anchors, Origine des Loix, ii. 221.
Pausanias attributes the invention of the anchor to Midas, i. 4. 5.
Schol. Aristoph. Eq. 753. If we may trust to the testimony of Lucian,
a small boat-anchor could be bought for five drachmas. Dialog.
Mortuorum, iv. 1.

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Very little difficulty was experienced in discovering pines sufficiently lofty for the fore and mizen-masts of this huge galley; but it was only by accident that a swineherd in the mountains of the Abruzzi found a tree of sufficient magnitude for the mainmast. It was conveyed to the sea by Philias, an engineer of Taurominium. The pump, notwithstanding its great depth, was easily worked by the screw of Archimedes, and only required the labour of one individual. The name first bestowed on this ship by Hiero was “The Syracusan;” but when afterwards he despatched it as a present to King Ptolemy, he changed it to that of the “The Alexandrian.”

Besides the individuals already enumerated, there were six hundred men stationed on the prow; and to administer justice in this floating commonwealth a court was instituted, consisting of the captain, the pilot, and the principal officers in command in the forecastle, who judged according to the laws of Syracuse. It was followed on the voyage to Egypt by a number of smaller craft, of which the majority were fishing-smacks.

The cargo of “The Alexandrian,” which, together with the vessel itself, was presented to King Ptolemy at a time when famine raged in Egypt, consisted of sixty thousand medimni of corn, two thousand jars of salt-fish, twenty thousand talents of wool, and an equal quantity of other commodities. The poet Archimelos having written a copy of verses on this nautical castle, Hiero felt so greatly flattered by the compliment that he sent the author a thousand medimni of wheat, which he landed for him at the Peiræeus.

In order to convey some idea of another department of nautical architecture among the ancients, in which there was probably a greater display of fancy than of science, we shall here introduce the description of a pleasure-barge in which Ptolemy Philopater and the ladies of his court used to sail upon the Nile.[1687] Among the caliphs and sultans of the East we find traces of a similar taste for gorgeous and magnificent barks; but neither in history nor fiction do we remember to have met any account of a vessel so curiously constructed, or so superbly and sumptuously adorned. It was, in the first place, half a furlong in length, flat-bottomed, and rising high above the water on account of the swell, with projecting keel, and prow of most graceful curvature,—or, I should rather, perhaps, say, prows, for it appeared double in front, as though a pair of galleys had been lashed together. Along the sides and stern ran two galleries, the one above the other, where the persons on board might stroll and take exercise as the barge was wafted along by the wind. Of these the lower one resembled an open peristyle, the upper a close arcade furnished at intervals with windows looking out upon the river.

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Footnote 1687:

The great attention paid to navigation by the Egyptians, under the
government of the Ptolemies, may be inferred from the fact, that they
possessed at one time upwards of four thousand ships of all sizes.
Athen. v. 36.

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Considering the whole barge as one great building, the architect placed the extreme hall encircled by a single row of columns at the extremity of the stern, where it was, doubtless, approached from the upper gallery. Having traversed this, you next beheld a propylæon erected with the most precious wood and ivory. This led into a proscenion roofed over, in the vicinity of which lay a variety of chambers. Of these the most remarkable was a vast peripheral hall fitted up with twenty couches. This apartment was wainscotted with cedar and Milesian cypress; the doors, twenty in number, were formed of panels of citron wood richly inlaid with ivory. The hinges, the nails, the knockers, and door-handles, were of copper, gilt. The shafts of the columns were cypress wood, and the Corinthian capitals of gold and ivory were surmounted by an architrave richly overlaid with gold. Above this again was a broad frieze adorned with numerous figures of animals roughly sculptured in ivory, but remarkable for the costliness of the materials. The ceiling was of cedar wood elaborately carved and covered with a blaze of gilding. Close at hand were the apartments of the women, in the structure and ornaments of which equal magnificence was displayed. In another part of the bark was a chapel of Aphroditè surmounted by a dome. It contained a statue of the goddess in Parian marble. This sacred edifice was surrounded by other suites of apartments among which was a symposion adorned with pillars of Indian marble. Towards the prow was a saloon sacred to Dionysos, surrounded on all sides with pillars furnished with numerous couches, and adorned with gilded cornices. The roof was enriched with ornaments suited to the character of the god, that is, in all probability orgeastic processions of Bacchantes and Bacchanals, with crowns of ivy and vine leaves. On the right hand this saloon opened into a grotto or cavern, in which the colours of rocks were imitated by an incrustation of precious stones, whose brilliance was in various parts relieved by ornaments of gold. The busts of the royal family sculptured of Parian marble were ranged round the grot.

On the roof of the great saloon was erected a small symposion, in the form of a tent, exceedingly agreeable from its airiness and the fine prospect it commanded over the whole valley of the Nile. It was completely open in front, and the roof consisting of a series of semicircular hoops like the top of a calèche, it could be bent down and drawn forward at pleasure, and was covered with purple hangings. By a winding staircase constructed in a different part of the bark, you ascended to another hall, constructed and decorated after the Egyptian manner, being adorned with a number of round pillars composed of a succession of blocks of equal height, alternately white and black. Their capitals, likewise were round, but contracting rather than expanding at the top like an elongated rose-bud.

In all this part of the column, technically denominated calathos, there were neither volutes nor rows of open and projecting foliage as in Greek architecture, but bells of the river lotos, or other flowers, intermingled with newly formed fruit of the date palm. To correspond with these columns, the walls of Egyptian edifices were frequently lined with black and white slabs alternating with each other. Of these the white were sometimes of alabaster.

This bark was furnished with but one mast, one hundred and five feet in height, to which was fitted a single sail of byssus with purple fringe. The dimensions of the sail must, however, have been prodigious, but from the fineness of its fabric it could never have been hoisted in rough weather.

If we turn now to the materials wherewith the ships of the ancients were constructed we shall find that they here differed as much from the practice of modern nations, at least in the north, as in the form and style of rigging. With us scarcely anything but oak or teak is employed in those parts which come in contact with the water, whereas the Greeks constructed their war galleys, in which speed was of the greatest moment, of fir,[1688] while they chiefly made use of pitch pine in the building of merchantmen, as that wood long resists the corrosive action of the sea.

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Footnote 1688:

Theoph. Hist. Plant. v. 6. 5. Plat. de Legg. iv. t. vii. 333.

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The Cypriotes appear in all cases to have given the preference to the pine which abounds in the island, and was esteemed superior to the pitch tree,[1689] though the latter was sometimes appropriated to the building of ships of war. Among the Syrians and Phœnicians, in whose country a supply of pine was not to be obtained,[1690] the custom prevailed of building ships entirely of cedar.[1691] The practice of employing oak[1692] had, likewise, already been introduced, though it does not appear to have been common; but in the larger classes of ships the keel was always of that timber, in order that, when drawn on shore, it might be able to sustain the weight of the superincumbent mass. In the holcades or merchantmen, the keel, like the ship itself, was of pitch pine; but all such vessels were in those days supplied with a false keel, called chelysma,[1693] of oak, or oxya, designed to act as a protection when they were drawn up into dry dock. Masts and yards were commonly of the silver fir;[1694] oars of such timber as grew on the northern slopes of mountains.[1695] The turned work used in ornamenting the interior was commonly of mulberry, ash, elm, or platane wood, of which the last was least esteemed.[1696]

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Footnote 1689:

Cf. Artemid. Oneirocrit. ii. 25, p. 113.

Footnote 1690:

Theoph. Hist. Plant. v. 7. 5.

Footnote 1691:

Id. iv. 5. 5. v. 6. 5. There were cedars on Mount Lebanon eighteen
feet in circumference, v. 8. 1.

Footnote 1692:

Theophrastus appears to give the preference to the oak of Epeiros, the
acorns of which had been frequently sown in other parts of Greece, but
produced, he says, inferior timber. Hist. Plant. ii. 2. 6. Cf. Orph.
Argonaut. 130. Cf. Valer. Flacc. viii. 161. i. 303.

Footnote 1693:

Theoph. Hist. Plant. v. 7. 2, seq. iii. 10. 1.

Footnote 1694:

Theoph. Hist. Plant. v. 1. 7.

Footnote 1695:

Id. iv. 1. 4. The oar was usually fastened to the row-port by a stout
thong, which, of the size used in boats, seems to have cost about two
oboloi. Lucian. Dial. Mortuor. iv. § 1.

Footnote 1696:

Theoph. Hist. Plant. v. 7. 3.

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Sails were made and manufactured from a variety of materials. It has been seen above, in speaking of the Egyptian war ships, that they sometimes consisted of a number of hides sown together. They were, likewise, in various countries, plaited, as now in China,[1697] from reeds, or rushes, but the sailcloth of the Greeks was generally, like our own, woven from hemp.[1698] For this, in Egypt, the papyrus was sometimes substituted. Princes and grandees occasionally, in their pleasure-boats, employed, in lieu of these rude materials, cotton or fine linen, dyed, to augment their beauty, of the most brilliant purple. To this Shakespeare alludes in the following passage, which though familiar, perhaps, to the reader, I must, nevertheless, beg permission to quote:

The barge she sat in, like a burnish’d throne,
Burnt on the water: the poop was beaten gold;
Purple the sails, and so perfumed, that
The winds were love-sick with ’em: the oars were silver;
Which to the tune of flutes kept stroke, and made
The water which they beat to follow faster,
As amorous of their strokes. For her own person,
It beggar’d all description. She did lie
In her pavilion, (cloth of gold of tissue,)
O’er-picturing that Venus, where we see
The fancy out-work nature. On each side her,
Stood pretty dimpled boys, like smiling cupids,
With diverse-colour’d fans, whose wind did seem
To glow the delicate cheeks which they did cool;
And what they undid, did.——
Her gentlewomen, like the Nereids, or
So many mermaids, tended her i’ th’ eyes’,
And made their bends adorning; at the helm
A seeming mermaid steers; the silken tackles
Swell with the touches of those flower-soft hands,
That yarely frame the office. From the barge
A strange invisible perfume hits the sense
Of the adjacent wharfs.[1699]

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Footnote 1697:

Goguet, iv. 260.

Footnote 1698:

Theoph. Hist. iv. 8. 4.

Footnote 1699:

Anthony and Cleopatra, Act ii. Scene 3.

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An ancient anonymous writer on the art military describes a vessel closely resembling our steamboats in construction, but in which bullocks, stationed in the hold, worked the paddle-wheels instead of an engine. It flew along the water, says the author, without oars or sails, simply by the impulses of wheels, which, rising partly above the waves, operated, when in action, like a succession of oars.

Ropes and cables[1700] were manufactured in antiquity from a great variety of materials. At first, the cordage most in use would appear to have been composed of twisted thongs; for which, in process of time, was substituted goats’ hair,[1701] the Spanish broom,[1702] the bark of the cornel[1703] and linden-tree,[1704] with byblos, hemp,[1705] and flax.[1706] The enormous cables which supported the bridge thrown by Xerxes over the Hellespont were manufactured from mixed materials, of which two-thirds were byblos and one-third white flax.[1707] They were of dimensions so vast that a piece half a yard in length weighed one hundred and twenty-five pounds.

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Footnote 1700:

Schol. Aristoph. Eq. 129. Æschyl. 175.

Footnote 1701:

Geop. xviii. 9. Common sacks and cushions for rowers on board the
galleys were likewise manufactured from the same material. Cf. Var. de
Re Rustic. ii. 7. Columel. 7. 6. 2.

Footnote 1702:

Athen. v. 40.

Footnote 1703:

Plut. Alexand. § 18.

Footnote 1704:

Theoph. Hist. Plant. v. 7. 5.

Footnote 1705:

Dioscor. iii. 165.

Footnote 1706:

Herod. vii. 25.

Footnote 1707:

Id. vii. 34. 36.

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Of the sailors, upon whose energy, skill, and courage, the success of every voyage necessarily depended, ancient writers have been more than usually scanty in their communications. We know, however, that the mariners as well on board the merchantmen of Athens as those of the other states of Greece, were partly citizens, partly strangers, and in many instances slaves. Leading a life full of hardship and danger, engaged as it were in a perpetual conflict with the elements, their tempers grew fierce, their manners boisterous and rude,[1708] and their morals none of the most elevated. During the intervals they spent on shore, they endeavoured by snatching at all the coarse pleasures within their reach, to make themselves some amends for their habitual privations. The excuse, however, for this conduct was often sophistically borrowed from religion, for during the prevalence of storms at sea, it was customary to make vows to Poseidon, or Castor and Polydeukes, or some of the other patrons of the nautical art; and on reaching port the victims were slain and offered up, and the sacrifice of necessity was accompanied by a feast. To these their boon companions, dancing-girls, female flute-players, hetairæ, jugglers, and low parasites, were invited, and the whole usually terminated in excessive intoxication and a battle royal. Most mariners were attached to some dame of equivocal reputation in the Peiræeus or elsewhere, to whom on their return from voyages they were in the habit of bringing presents, such as a pair of gilded slippers, a dainty cheese, a jar of pickles, or saltfish, or a measure or two of onions. What was the amount of wages, which enabled them to indulge in this kind of liberality, I have nowhere been able to discover, though in all probability it was at least equal to the pay received by seamen in the war-galleys, that is from three to four oboloi a-day. Their operations while on board, were regulated of course by circumstances and the accidents of the weather. Thus, when the breeze was strong and favourable, they might lounge or sit about the decks, or sleep, during the greater part of the twenty-four hours, without shifting a sail or handling an oar, though a man was always stationed at the prow to keep a sharp look-out, and watch the aspect of the sky.[1709] In calms, however, or when the swell and roar of the sea foretold an approaching tempest, the whole crew took to their cushions, and raising at the command of the boatswain,[1710] a loud chant,[1711] which contended in volume with the angry voice of the ocean, they strained every nerve to augment the velocity of their bark, and gain some friendly port before the storm fairly set in. Occasionally, however, they were overtaken by tempests in the neighbourhood of rocky islands or bleak and inhospitable promontories like the Chelidonian rocks, where from whatever point of the compass the wind might blow a heavy surge beat upon the shore perpetually. Under these circumstances it was observed, more especially during the darkness of the night, that two brilliant glancing lights played evermore about the masts and yards, shooting hither and thither, and kindling up the crest of the surge by their luminous appearance. These were the Dioscuri, the tender and affectionate brothers of Helen, whose benevolence towards mankind in general was only to be equalled by their attachment to each other. When matters came to extremities and the waves appeared ready to engulf both crew and passengers, all on board became keenly sensible to the irregularities of their past lives, and the whispered interrogation passed round the bark: “have you been initiated?” Because those to whom the truths treasured up in the sanctuary of Eleusis had been revealed, were supposed to be better prepared than other men for meeting death, and appearing at the judgment-seat of heaven. It was now that vows and prayers were heard, and that feelings of repentance were sincere, and it would have required a more than ordinary degree of apathy to forget such circumstances when, by an unlooked-for interposition of Providence, they were snatched from the jaws of death, and restored to their kindred and their homes. We may remark here, by the way, that, to passengers labouring under the effects of sea-sickness, a decoction of a species of thyme[1712] (thymum tragoriganum) was administered.

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Footnote 1708:

Plat. Phædr. t. i. p. 34.

Footnote 1709:

Aristoph. Eq. 548.

Footnote 1710:

Suid. v. κελευστὴς. Stallb. ad Plat. Rep. i. 198.

Footnote 1711:

Schol. Aristoph. Vesp. 909.

Footnote 1712:

Dioscor. iii. 35.

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In their political predilections,[1713] the mariners of Greece were almost invariably observed to be democratic, probably because being possessed of superior energy they naturally spurned all control save that of the laws, and were ready at all times and under all circumstances to contend for liberty. This was more especially the case with the Athenian seamen, who, in the flourishing periods of Hellenic history bore much the same relation to the other seafarers of Greece, as the sailors of England do to those of the neighbouring European states.

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Footnote 1713:

Plut. Themist. § 19.

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Although the mariners’ compass had not yet been invented, the ancient sailors did not, as appears to be generally supposed, creep timidly from headland to headland along the shore, but traversed boldly the open sea, directing their course by the constellations, more particularly that of the greater bear. In this practice the Arabs of Phœnicia led the way as in most other early improvements connected with seamanship.

It is sometimes believed that, in very remote ages, mankind possessed no names for the winds,[1714] because as they had not yet addicted themselves to navigation, it concerned them very little to observe how or which way they blew. Possibly, however, we somewhat exaggerate the heedlessness and ignorance of the remoter generations of men who must have been singularly obtuse in their intellect if they could not tell whether the wind blew up or down a valley, or on the back or front of their houses, and had failed to designate the several currents of the atmosphere by distinct appellations, whereby to distinguish them when they had occasion to speak of their effects. About the period of the Trojan war some inventive genius sprang up who gave a name to the north and the south winds, and already in the time of Homer the Greeks had contrived to have four points to their compass, at least the poet speaks but of the four cardinal winds, Boreas, the north; Euros, the east; Notos, the south, and Zephyros, the west. To these other four were afterwards added, and at the same time some change was introduced into the ancient nomenclature, the north-east was called Cæcias;[1715] the south-east, Euros; the name of the east being changed to Apeliotes; the south-west, Libs; the north-west, Argestes, and sometimes Olympias,[1716] or Iapyx, or Sciron; which, however, according to Pliny differed from the Argestes, and was peculiar to Athens. These are the winds represented on the tower of Andronicos Cyrrhestes at Athens, spoken of by Varro, Vitruvius,[1717] and many modern travellers. Pliny,[1718] Galen, and Aulus Gellius differ from Aristotle in confining the name of Aparctias to the north wind, and giving that of Boreas to the north-east, or Aquilo of the Romans.[1719]

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Footnote 1714:

See Gœttling’s note on v. 379, of Hesiod’s Theogon. p. 38, seq.

Footnote 1715:

Called also Ἑλλησποντίας, by Aristot. Probl. xxvi. 58. Plin. ii. 46.
Cf. Aristoph. Eq. 435.

Footnote 1716:

Cf. Theoph. Caus. Plant. v. 2. 5. Hist. Plant. iv. 14. 11.

Footnote 1717:

l. i. c. 6.

Footnote 1718:

Nat. Hist. ii. 46.

Footnote 1719:

See further in Coray, Disc. Prelim. ad Hippoc. § 61.

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Winds blowing from the northern points of the compass are most frequent in Greece. Aristotle[1720] remarks, that Boreas is strong at its commencement, but feeble towards its close; and that of the south wind, the reverse is true.[1721] It may, moreover, be added, that the north wind was not only the most common, but also the dryest and most severe, though sometimes accompanied by lightning, and hail, and snow. The same wind brought rain on the Hellespont, and at Cyrenè. The Cæcias commonly prevailed about the vernal equinox, and, in Attica and the islands, was a rainy wind;[1722] the Apetiotes was a humid but soft wind felt chiefly in the morning.[1723] The Euros, which, as Gœttling[1724] observes, is the Scirocco of the Italians, prevails about the winter solstice, and at first is warm and dry, but afterwards by blowing long over the sea becomes moist, and brings rain, particularly in Lesbos.[1725] Aristotle, however, speaks of the Notos as the chief rainy wind in this island,[1726] and observes what I have myself verified in the Delta, that during the Simoom objects appear greater than their natural size.[1727] The Notos blows chiefly about the end of autumn in Greece, as I found it also on the Nile immediately after the winter solstice, and at the commencement of spring.[1728] It likewise prevails during the dog-days[1729] (ἐπὶ κυνὶ). Naturally moist and warm, it was at first weak, but grew powerful as it drew towards its end, when it covered the sky with clouds and ended in rain.[1730] South winds blowing from the sea, by which they were cooled, were considered favourable to vegetation particularly in the Thriasian plain in Attica, lying between the Sciros and the Cephissos. These same winds were supposed to be cold in Libya; I think erroneously, since the south winds are warm in Egypt. The Libs is moist and cloudy, though less so than the Cæcias; but the clouds which it brings are quickly dispersed; it blows chiefly about Cnidos and Rhodes.[1731]

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Footnote 1720:

Meteorol. ii. 6.

Footnote 1721:

Problem. xxvi. 41.

Footnote 1722:

Arist. Problem. xxvi. 58.

Footnote 1723:

Aristot. Meteorol. ii. 6. Problem. xxvi. 33. 34. 57.

Footnote 1724:

Ad Hesiod. Theogon. 379.

Footnote 1725:

Coray, Disc. Prelim. ad Hippoc. § 61.

Footnote 1726:

Problem. xxvi. 58.

Footnote 1727:

Aristot. Problem. xxvi. 55.

Footnote 1728:

Id. xxvi. 16.

Footnote 1729:

Aristot. Prob. xxvi. 12.

Footnote 1730:

Id. xxvi. 2.

Footnote 1731:

Theophrast. De Ventis, § 51.

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The Zephyr[1732] which prevails in the spring, at mid-summer and in autumn is felt chiefly in the evening and never in the morning. According to Aristotle it is the gentlest wind that blows.[1733] Theophrastus, however, remarks, that it is cold in some countries, though less so than Boreas;[1734] but in the opinion of Hippocrates, it is most of all winds charged with rain.[1735] The Argestos is no less dry and serene than the Aparctias, though it sometimes brings thunder-clouds and hail.[1736] This wind is remarkably cold at Chalcis in Eubœa. When about the winter solstice it happens to blow, it dries up and withers the trees more than long continued heats and droughts.[1737] At Rhodes and at Cnidos it is usually accompanied by heavy clouds.[1738]

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Footnote 1732:

Ζέφυρος, τὴν ᾠδὴν τοῖς κύκνοις ἐνδιδοὺς. Philost. Icon. i. 9. p. 779.

Footnote 1733:

Meteorol. ii. 5. 6. Problem. xxvi. 33. 35. 37. 54. 57.

Footnote 1734:

De Ventis, § 31.

Footnote 1735:

De Aër. et Loc. § 26.

Footnote 1736:

Aristot. Meteorol. ii. 6.

Footnote 1737:

Theoph. Hist. Plant. iv. 17. De Caus. Plant. v. 16.

Footnote 1738:

De Ventis, § 51.

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The Etesian winds which commence immediately after the summer solstice, and continue through the dog-days, are in reality northern winds, but occasionally point obliquely both towards the west and towards the east. They prevail chiefly at night;[1739] and are sometimes exceedingly powerful on the coast of Egypt.[1740] Another class of Etesian winds prevailed earlier in the year, beginning about twenty days after the winter solstice. These are weaker, more variable, and of briefer duration than the real Etesian winds, and I will add, from my own experience, cover the sky with dark clouds, and blow extremely cold even along the shores of Marmarica and Cyrenè. In ancient Greece they obtained the name of Ornithiæ—“the Bird Winds”—because they announced the return of the birds.[1741] Or, according to another version of the matter, because they were so cold as to strike dead various kinds of birds during their flight, and strew the earth with their bodies.[1742]

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Footnote 1739:

Aristot. Meteorol. ii. 5. 6.

Footnote 1740:

Cæsar. De Bell. Civil.

Footnote 1741:

Coray, Disc. Prelim. ad Hippoc. de Aër. et Loc. §. 76.

Footnote 1742:

Schol. Aristoph. Acharn. 877.

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During the winter months these cold and piercing winds blow with so much fury over the land-locked seas and islands of Greece, that among the ancients all navigation was suspended during the brumal season. In proof of the violence of these aërial currents, which may almost be said to set steadily in one direction through a great portion of the year, it may be observed, that in several of the islands neither vines nor fig-trees can be trained upright, but are blown down and compelled to creep along the rocks.[1743] An example of the strength of the gales which sometimes also prevail on the Hellenic continent is recorded in history; during the retreat of Cleombrotos out of Bœotia, his army being overtaken by a storm as it was traversing the mountain passes leading from Creusis to Ægosthena along the shore of the sea, numerous sumpter asses were blown with their ladings over the precipices; even the shields and arms were in many cases whirled from the hands of the soldiers and precipitated into the waves below; and to prevent similar misfortune the rest of the army turned their bucklers upside down and filled them with stones, while they pushed forward, divested of defensive armour, into the Megaris, a friendly country, from which they afterwards returned and fetched off their shields.[1744]

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Footnote 1743:

Thiersch, Etat Actuel de la Grèce. t. i. p. 284. Della Rocca, Traité
Complet des Abeilles. t. i. p. 203.

Footnote 1744:

Xenoph. Hellen. v. 4. 17.

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In cases of shipwreck the protection afforded to crews and merchandise depended in most cases, perhaps, on the character and progress of civilisation of the people on whose shore the accident happened. On the coast of Thrace, in the neighbourhood of Salmydessos, where the whole maritime population appear to have been confirmed wreckers, numerous pillars were set up along the beach to mark the limits within which each little community might claim whatever booty was drifted in by the sea. Previous to this arrangement, the barbarians used frequently to come to blows in the eager pursuit of this inhuman calling, and in these brawls many lives were lost. Afterwards they appear to have carried on their war against distressed mariners with perfect harmony and equanimity.[1745] But among the Rhodians, an enterprising mercantile people, the amount of salvage was regulated by a law which, together with the rest of their commercial code, was afterwards adopted by the Romans.

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Footnote 1745:

Xenoph. Anab. vii. 5. 12, seq.

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If gold, or silver, or any other article, be brought up from the depth of eight cubits, the person who saves it shall receive one-third. If from fifteen cubits, the person who saves it shall, on account of the depth, receive one-half. If goods are cast up by the waves towards the shore, and found sunk at the depth of one cubit, the person who carries them out safe shall receive a tenth part.[1746] It was customary, moreover, in old times, to keep a number of divers on board ships for the purpose of descending to loosen the anchors when they chanced to take too firm a hold in the sand, as also to recover goods which had been thrown overboard in times of danger.[1747]

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Footnote 1746:

Beckmann, History of Inventions, i. 180.

Footnote 1747:

Lucian. Pharsal. iii. 697. Livius, xliv. 10. Manil. Astronom. 449.

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On various headlands and promontories of the ancient world beacon-fires were habitually kindled to guide the course of the ships into port; and for these, in after ages, light-houses, adorned with every beauty of architecture, and carried to a vast height, were substituted. Of these the most remarkable was that erected for Ptolemy Philadelphus, by Sostratos, the Cnidian, whose name, by permission of the king, was inscribed upon the structure.[1748] By one author it is described as four hundred and fifty feet high, and equal in dimensions at the base to one of the great pyramids of Memphis. In form it may possibly have resembled the Haram el Kedâb, which consists of a series of square towers from the basement upwards, diminishing in size, and appearing to spring up out of each other. With this the language of Strabo[1749] very well agrees, since he tells us, it was a building consisting of numerous stages. On the summit bright fires were kept perpetually burning, so that on that low shore, where there is no hill or mountain for many days’ journey, the Pharos was ever the first object which presented itself to mariners at sea, where its light, we are told, was visible at the distance of a hundred miles. Occasionally, however, from its great size and brilliance, it was mistaken for the moon, as this planet itself, rising behind the dome and towers of a great capital, has suggested to distant beholders the idea of a conflagration.[1750]

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Footnote 1748:

Cf. Lucian. Quom. Hist. sit. Conscrib. § 62.

Footnote 1749:

Geograph. xvii. 1. t. iii. p. 423.

Footnote 1750:

Vossius, ad Pomp. Mel. de Situ Orb. l. ii. c. 4. p. 272.

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