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]]
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.
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.
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.