History of merchant shipping and ancient commerce, Volume 1 (of 4)

by W. S. Lindsay

In concluding these introductory remarks, I may be fairly permitted to indulge the hope that, from the vast stores of knowledge bequeathed to us, we may leave more lasting records of our maritime commerce than either Tyre or Carthage, and that the improved civilization and extensive colonial possessions of Great Britain may render her pre-eminence at sea and her commercial greatness much more enduring than the once celebrated maritime city of the Phœnicians, which has become “a place for the spreading of nets in the midst of the sea,” and “a spoil to the nations.”

The first attempt to float, by means of a hollowed log, and raft.

It is impossible to say who first taught man to float upon a log or an inflated skin, or who had the genius to construct the earliest raft. The exclusive honour of the discovery of navigation—which now, through the successive improvements of many ages, and the application of steam as a motive power, has arrived at its present high state of development, tending to the safety, convenience, and civilization of mankind—is too great an honour to be awarded to any single individual. Indeed it is a glory which writers alike in ancient and in modern times have declined to confer on any frail mortal like themselves. Accordingly the Libyans and the Greeks ascribed the merit of the invention to the gods. Neptune, however little in other respects may be known of this mythological personage, was not only worshipped by the ancients as the first inventor of navigation and supreme ruler of the sea, but his glory has survived the wreck of empires and the extinction of races, and the name of a heathen god is still associated with the dominion of the ocean.

There is, however, no difficulty in conceiving what would give the first idea of flotation. At the period of the earliest history of man acknowledged by Christian nations, our first parents must have noticed leaves or branches of trees floating in the river “which went out of Eden to water the garden.” Thus would be conceived at the creation of man the idea of a vessel or of a substance which would float and could be made useful for his wants.[1] The buoyancy of the branch or trunk of a tree would suggest the means of carrying him across unfordable rivers; and there is no doubt that, long anterior to the era assigned to Noah, the first step in the art of ship-building was taken in hollowing out the log by fire, or by some rude instrument, in order to render more secure the position of any adventurous navigator. A pole or paddle might be used to propel the rude barque, but probably ages passed away without any improvement in this respect. In fact, to this day, some of the inhabitants of the Polynesian Islands have not made any greater progress in the construction of their primitive vessels; and the canoes in the Pacific, and in various parts of South America, are still formed on what is evidently the most ancient model of vessels.

While the hollow log was made to answer the purpose of a boat, a number of logs placed together would suggest the idea of a raft, for the carrying of a number of persons or animals, or of any article of greater weight than could be conveyed in a canoe across a lake or river. These, by degrees, would be improved in form, in strength, or in capacity, to suit the wants of man or the navigation for which they were intended. The ingenuity of even the rudest savages would lead them, it may be easily supposed, in course of time, to construct their raft so as to make it more easy of propulsion, and thus give to it the first form of a ship.

The Ark.

But it is doubtful if any progress were made in ship-building beyond the mere raft, anterior to the period assigned to the Flood; and the Ark[2] of Noah is unquestionably the first ship of which we have any notice, either in acknowledged history or in the legends of the earliest nations. As this vessel, however, has been so much a matter of controversy, some of our readers may think it well, in imitation of other modern writers, that we should omit the consideration of the subject. But the difficulties, physical and practical, surrounding it ought not to induce us to pass over altogether unnoticed the earliest recorded effort of naval architecture. This great ship is described in Scripture[3] as having been three hundred cubits in length, fifty in breadth, and thirty in height or depth—dimensions corresponding very nearly with those of the most approved models of the sailing vessels of the present day. If the cubit be taken at eighteen inches, her registered tonnage, reckoned according to the present mode of admeasurement, would not have been more than fifteen thousand tons, or considerably less than that of the Great Eastern.

But the probability is that, after all, the Ark was simply a raft of stupendous size, bearing on it a structure of the above dimensions resembling a huge warehouse, roofed in the usual manner, and built to float on the breast of a great flood, the narrative in the Bible neither suggesting nor requiring any means of propulsion.[4]

Boats of skin.

Although for years after the Flood[5] the raft may have been the only form of vessel for carrying heavy burthens, other means of flotation must soon have suggested themselves; and of these, the inflated skins of animals would seem to have prevailed the most generally and the most widely. Thus on the ancient monuments recently discovered by Mr. Layard, we find numerous representations of the Assyrians crossing a river—probably the Tigris—on inflated skins; and rafts may also be seen on which goods and men are floating down similarly supported.[6] The same practice is still in use among the present inhabitants of the country, and is also noticed as common on the Setlege by Baron Hügel, in his interesting “Travels in Cashmir.”[7] Baron Hügel also speaks of baskets, suspended from ropes firmly tied to each shore, for crossing the mountain waters of the same river; while coracles—basket-work over which leather or prepared flannel has been stretched—may still be seen in Wales, thus enabling the inhabitants to fish, and to cross streams not otherwise fordable. It is also worthy of note that Pliny[8] alludes to this custom, where he states that “Even now, in British waters, vessels of vine-twigs sewn round with leather are used.” Mr. Layard[9] likewise speaks of still finding on the Tigris light boats called terradas, constructed by the Southern Mesopotamians of twisted reeds, rendered watertight by bitumen, and often of sufficient consistency to support four or five men. As a remarkable proof of the long persistency of custom and of trade, we may add that the bitumen of Babylonia was exported to Egypt so early as the reign of Thothmes III., B.C. 1500, from the Is (now Hit) of Herodotus, where it is still abundant.