II
THE HIGHWAY OF THE WATERS
THERE is no doubt that the use of sails for propelling boats is as old as civilization itself. We know that the Egyptians used sails at least 4,000 years before the Christian era. They did not depend entirely upon the sails, however, but used oars in combination with them. Steering was done with single or double oars lashed to the stern and controlled by ropes or levers. This method of steering remained in use until late in the Middle Ages, the invention of the rudder being one of the few nautical inventions made during the centuries immediately following that unproductive period of history known as the Dark Age.
Following the Egyptians, the Phœnicians were the greatest maritime nation of ancient times, but unfortunately they have left no very satisfactory and authentic records describing their boats. In all probability, however, their ships were galleys having one or two banks of oars, fitted with sails similar to those of the Egyptians.
If our knowledge of Phœnician boats is meager, our knowledge of Greek boats, particularly the fighting craft, is correspondingly full. From the nature of its geographical location Greece was necessarily a maritime nation, and it was here that boat-building reached a very high state of development during the period of Greek predominance. Large ships fitted with sails and having several banks of rowers were used habitually in commerce and war, and it was here also that the management of sails became so well understood that oars were often dispensed with except as auxiliaries.
It was in Greece that the custom of having several banks of oars superimposed reached its highest development, but the fabulous number of such banks credited by some authors seems to be entirely without foundation. It is possible that as many as seven banks were used, although the evidence in favor of more than five is very slight.
The writings of Callixenos describe a ship said to have been used by Ptolemy Philopater, which was a forty-banker. This ship is described as 450 feet long, 57 feet broad, carrying a crew of about 7,000 men, of whom 4,000 were rowers. This description need not be taken seriously, as there is no proof that boats of such proportions were ever attempted in ancient times. But it is certain that the Greeks did build large vessels, some of them at least one hundred and fifty feet long—perhaps even larger than this. The tendency of shipbuilders during the later Greek period was to build large, unwieldy boats, which used sails under favorable circumstances, but depended entirely upon oars for manœuvering in battle.
The Romans used similar vessels of large size until the time of the battle of Actium, where the clumsy, many-banked ships of Antony and Cleopatra were destroyed by the lighter single- or double-banked vessels of Augustus. Augustus had adopted the low, swift, handy vessels of a piratical people, the Liburni, who had learned in their sea fights against all kinds of vessels that the lighter type of boat could be used most effectively. Structurally the hulls of these boats were not unlike modern wooden vessels.
While the various types of vessels were being developed in the Mediterranean region, a race of mariners far to the north were perfecting boats in which they were destined to overrun the Western seas from the tropics to the arctic circle. These people, the Norsemen, left few written descriptions that give a good idea of the construction of their boats, which were sufficiently seaworthy to enable the Danes to cross the Atlantic and colonize America. But thanks to one of their peculiar burial customs some of their smaller boats have been preserved and brought to light in recent years. It was their custom when a great chief died, to bury him in a ship, heaping earth over it to form a great mound. In most instances the wood of such boats, buried for a thousand years, has entirely disappeared; but in some mounds the boats have been preserved almost intact.