Proceedings of the expedition to explore the northern coast of Africa, from Tripoly eastward

by Frederick William Beechey; H. W. Beechey

Most harbours were adorned with temples, or altars, where sacrifices were offered to the tutelar deities of the place, and to those which presided over the sea and the winds. The adjacent places were filled with inns and other places of public entertainment, for the use of mariners, merchants, &c., who might be stationed or touch at the port.

In times of war, harbours were also defended on the land side by a ditch and parapet, or by a wall, built in the form of a semicircle, extending from one point of the sea to the other. The wall was occasionally defended by towers, and beautified with gates, through which the garrison sometimes issued to attack their enemies.

Towards the sea, or within it, pales of wood were also fixed, like those in the harbours, before which the vessels of burthen were placed in such order as to serve instead of a wall, and to give protection to those within. Nicias is reported by Thucydides to have entrenched himself in this manner; but it seems only to have been practised when the enemy were supposed to be very superior in strength, or excited unusual apprehension: at other times a few ships were appointed to reconnoitre the hostile squadron, and to observe the enemy’s motions.

When the fortifications were considered sufficiently strong to resist any assault which might be made upon them, the vessels were usually hauled up on the beach, and around them were pitched the tents of the soldiers and sailors, as appears everywhere in Homer, Thucydides, &c. This practice, however, seems only to have been resorted to in the winter season, when the enemy’s fleet was equally laid up, and there was no apprehension of an assault; or in long-continued sieges, where no danger was to be apprehended from the enemy’s navy, as in the Trojan war, when the Greeks were never attacked by sea. At other times the ships lay at anchor, or were made fast to the shore, that upon any alarm they might be ready to receive the enemy.

Construction of ancient vessels.The ships of the ancients were very differently constructed from those which are at this day in use; and their rate of sailing was, for the most part, even lower than that of the dullest sailing vessel we are at present acquainted with. The rate, however, varied at different times, and will be found at some periods of the Roman empire to have been extremely respectable.

The earliest ships were built with very little art or contrivance, and had neither strength nor durability, beauty nor ornament; they consisted of nothing more than single planks laid together, just sufficiently united to keep out the water, and were in some places nothing more than trunks of trees hollowed out, forming vessels of single pieces of timber. Other materials besides wood were also employed in the construction of ships; among which may be mentioned the Egyptian papyrus, and more especially the hides of different animals, of which the primitive vessels were very frequently composed. These were sometimes girt with wicker-work, and frequently used in that manner, even in later times, on the rivers of Egypt, Ethiopia, and Sabæan Arabia.

In early periods, however, when vessels of this construction were employed, we find no mention of anything but leather, or hides sewed together. It was in a ship of this kind that Dardanus secured his flight from Samothracia to the country afterwards called Troas; and Charon’s boat was also (according to Virgil) constructed of the same material[13].

On their first invention, all ships, for whatever purpose they might have been designed, appear to have been of the same form; but the various ends of navigation, some of which were better answered by one form, some by another, soon gave occasion for a distinction, not only in point of size, but also in the mode of construction and equipment.

Without attempting to enumerate every trifling alteration, we may state generally, that the vessels of the ancients were divided into three classes—ships of burthen, of war, and of passage; and these again had their several distinctions into other classes and subdivisions. Ships of burthen were usually of an orbicular form, having large and capacious hulls for the convenience of stowage; whereas, ships of war were of a greater length in proportion to their size, as we find to be the case at the present day. Transport vessels were of a form between the ships of war and of burthen, being more capacious than the former, and longer than the last-mentioned species.

Management of the vessels.There was at the same time a difference in the management of the vessels enumerated. Men-of-war, though not wholly destitute of sails, were chiefly managed with oars, that they might be more able to tack and manœuvre in light or contrary winds, and to lay themselves alongside the enemy to advantage; while the other two species were commonly governed by sails, and vessels of transport were towed, when it was practicable, with ropes. All three modes of government (by sail, oar, and tow-rope) were, however, occasionally adopted by each of the classes. The rowers were not placed, as some have imagined, upon the same level in different parts of the ship, nor perpendicularly above each other’s heads; but their seats, being fixed one at the back of another, ascended gradually in the manner of stairs. The most usual number of these banks was three, four, and five, composing what are called trireme, quadrireme, and quinquireme Number of banks of oars.galleys; the second of these having a range of oars more than the first, and the third a range more than the second—the height of the vessel always increasing in proportion to the number of ranges. In primitive times, the long ships had only one bank of oars; and therefore, when we find them called πεντεκοντοροι (fifty-oared), and εκατοντοροι (hundred-oared), we are not to suppose they were rowed with fifty and an hundred banks, but only with so many oars. The ship Argo, invented by Jason, was rowed with fifty oars, and, according to some writers, was the first of the long ships; all vessels, till that time, having been of a form much more inclining to oval. Others carry the invention of long ships somewhat higher, referring it to Danaus, who sailed from Egypt to Greece in a ship (we are told) of fifty oars; and even if Jason be allowed to have been the first who introduced the long ships into Greece, yet he cannot be considered as the original contriver of them, but rather an imitator of the Egyptian or African model, the latter of which was constructed some time before by Atlas, and much adopted in that part of the Mediterranean. The first who used a double bank of oars were the Erythræans, and Aminocles of Corinth added a third, as Herodotus, Thucydides, and Diodorus have reported; although Clemens Alexandrinus attributes this invention to the Sidonians. A fourth bank was added by a Carthaginian called Aristotle; and Nesicthon of Salamis (according to Pliny), or Dionysius the Sicilian (according to Diodorus), increased the number to five; Xenagoras of Syracuse added a sixth; and Nesigiton increased the number to ten. Alexander the Great and Ptolemy Soter had vessels of twelve and fifteen banks of oars; and Philip, the father of Perseus, is said to have had one of sixteen.