Passage and cargo boats.
In another drawing, Wilkinson exhibits another description of Nile boat. Here there is a single rudder or paddle, passing through the counter, and evidently worked by some kind of machine attached to the post against which its handle rests. Or it may be worked on the one side, as the drawing is not very distinct, somewhat after the style in use in large boats or river barges of the present day. Its general character suggests that it is a passage-boat, as it has a round house, with windows at each end and a semblance of decoration for the upper yard. This yard is fitted with lines, for the purpose of drawing it down with the sail when furled to the lower yard.
One of the illustrations subjoined, taken from a bas-relief at Thebes, represents a double cattle-boat;[166] in other words, two canal boats lashed together when descending the Nile, much like the “monkey-boats,” or “wussers,” employed on the Thames or Severn. In the cabin a man is represented, inflicting the bastinado on a boatman; an occurrence probably not unusual, as we find it on the ordinary cattle-barge of the period. In the same boat a cow eats hay out of a net, precisely resembling the sherif now used in Egypt. These boats are without masts. The “house” appears to be of a light and a temporary character, and as the sailors on the top are evidently making a rope fast to bind it together, it may be inferred that such houses were chiefly used when these vessels were employed in the conveyance of cattle, and that they could be removed at pleasure.
Boat for the conveyance of the dead.
In Champollion’s great work, we find a sketch of another boat, in this instance carrying a bier. It is taken from a bas-relief on the tomb of Beni-Hassan. Here two rudders, one on each quarter, are clearly represented. Their upper extremities are, by some mode not easily understood, attached to separate upright posts, and the helmsmen appear to hold lanyards or bow-lines for the regulation of the rudders, proving that mechanical appliances of one sort or another were then in use as tillers to assist the steerage.
Although a tolerably accurate impression may be formed from the monuments of the various kinds of vessels employed on the great river and the canals, there is, beyond these, no evidence of the form and dimensions of their other vessels. We may, however, presume that, till the times of the Ptolemies, the Egyptians did not build any large sea-going ships; one reason of this probably being, that Egypt, within her own territory, had no forest timber adapted for such a purpose. Hence, indeed, as is well known, arose the sanguinary wars so long and so fiercely waged between the Ptolemies and the Seleucidæ—the inheritors from the Tyrians of the forests of Lebanon, who, mindful of the elder times, as well as of the value of this property, were little inclined to give the Egyptians the means of becoming a powerful maritime people.
Variety of boats, and their superiority.
But though, from the scarcity of suitable timber,[167] and the repugnance of its people to sea-faring pursuits, Egypt was never destined to occupy a position of any influence as a maritime nation, it surpassed all others of the old world in the number, variety, and excellence of its boats for inland navigation. Beyond those already described there were others of the most fanciful description, in form and rig. The mode of keeping the sail flat introduced only a few years ago by the famous yacht America, whose sails were lashed to spars to prevent them from bellying, was, after all, only the double yard used by the Egyptians four thousand years ago. The painted eye upon the bow, still so common in the Mediterranean, was a favourite mode of decorating the boats of ancient Egypt. Modern ship-owners of all nations have adopted their plan of deck-houses; and the decoration of the stems and sterns of their ships are in some respects not unlike those of the Nile during the reign of the Pharaohs. But the ancient Egyptians carried the decorations of their vessels sometimes to a ludicrous extent. They were frequently wont to paint even the masts, sails, and yards in the most variegated and gaudy colours. A lotus leaf usually adorned the blade of the rudder, and some other design that of the oars, the prevailing colours being, red, yellow, or green.[168]
Prosperity of Egypt under the Ptolemies, B.C. 283.