Cargo barges.
Herodotus, therefore, probably refers to the smaller craft employed upon the Nile.
Many interesting drawings of these river boats are to be found in Wilkinson’s “Manners and Customs” of that ancient people. Most of them have been copied from ancient monuments, and have evidently had their imperfections corrected, as far as practicable, by a reference to the boats and barges of modern times, similarly employed. For instance, the following sketch, taken originally from one of the paintings on a tomb at Kom-el-Ahmars,[164] near Minieh, represents, in many respects, one of the large Nile barges still in use. From having twenty-two oars on each side, her length could hardly have been less than from eighty to one hundred feet, and her form shows considerable capacity for cargo.
Their rig.
Like the other boats of the Nile, this vessel has only one sail, but the mast appears to have been composed of two spars of similar size, secured by backstays to her after-part. It is not easy to understand why two spars should have been used; but it is possible that by these means a large and heavy sail might in stormy weather be lowered on either side, according to the direction of the wind; this, however, would require some mechanical contrivance not indicated. If the yard was a fixture aloft, moving on a pivot, the sail may have been triced up and furled to it: the cross bars, at the top of the masts, serving to enable the sailors more easily to furl the sail, tend to confirm this supposition. Although such a mode of furling the sail would be inconvenient and full of risk, if the ship were exposed to heavy seas, it would answer very well for barges on the Nile, as the yard and sail, when furled, would be entirely clear of the cargo while loading or unloading. It has been supposed that the sail, in this vessel, was made of papyrus, as noticed by Herodotus; but it may be doubted whether papyrus could be manufactured into a material sufficiently tough to form a large sail. The braces are apparently worked by a man seated in the stern.
Steering.
The mode of steering here depicted is different from that usually seen on the monuments, for, instead of a single oar, passing through the stern frames, or one on each quarter, there are, in this instance, three on the same quarter; and how this was managed it is not easy to discern. Nor does the drawing show the mode in which the propelling oars were triced up when not in use.
Tacitus[165] speaks of Germanic tribes who used a rudder at each end; but the practice was not general, and none of the Egyptian boats or barges were thus fitted, or had more than one sail, in these respects resembling the earliest of the Greek vessels. Sometimes a single rudder, instead of working in a rowlock, or in a porthole through the stern, was applied outside, merely over the stern-rail, and held in its place by a stout thong. This imperfect mode of steering was, however, confined to the rudest river craft, and of these we have a model in the museum at Berlin, as well as a painting at Thebes. The Berlin model shows also the position of the rowers, the arrangements of the mast, yard, and rigging, the place of the pegs and mallet, for fastening the vessel to the shore, and the landing planks, which were always kept in readiness at the bow, in charge of the man stationed there, to fathom and report the depth of the water. This boat is decked, the cabins occupying only a portion of the middle, like the pleasure vessels of the Nile, or the passage-boats at Diarbekr. But in most of the larger boats the cabin resembled our “round house,” extending from one side to the other, and was often sufficiently spacious to contain cattle, horses, and general stores.