According to the monument of Prora of Samothrace, thole pins may already have been known to the ancients. Dr. ASSMANN gives much information on this point (Baumeister Denkmälen Seewesen, p. 1632, fig. 1693).
The habit, not yet wholly given up, of painting an eye at the bow, on each side of the stem, proves how long old customs may last. It was already a habit of the Phœnicians, the Greeks and the Romans, and it is still found on a few Italian and Portuguese vessels (See: Das Seewesen, der Griechen und Römer by Dr. EMIL LÜBECK, 1890, p. 43; ASSMANN, Seewesen, p. 1597; Jahrbuch des Deutsch. Archeol. Instituts, 1889, p. 99; Archéologie Navale, JAL, p. 105; Ancient Ships by TORR, p. 69).
These eyes were a symbol: they were intended to show that the ship was seeking its own path, they have been considered sometimes, but wrongly, to be hawse holes.
Old forms have also been long preserved, and among these the ram is the most remarkable.
In this order of ideas, the Speronara of Malta, which appears in Paris’s work, Vol. IV, no 203 (no 164, etc.) is the most interesting example of the Mediterranean. The stem of this boat rises vertically from the water and is provided with a ram; even the eyes too are there.
Maltese boats without a ram are to be seen in the same figure, but these vessels differ little from the Speronara.
By bringing Layard’s drawing above mentioned close to this one, there will be seen in each some boats having a ram and a mast while others have none, but have stems which rise vertically above the water.
It can be concluded from this that, as far back as the times of the Phœnicians, ships already presented these same differences.