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

by W. S. Lindsay

During the last three thousand years the steady tendency of commercial enterprise has been towards the West, and may, in its circuit from New York to California, even cross the Pacific and restore commercial life to Assyria, Phœnicia, and Egypt. Three thousand years hence London may have become a city of ruins, which an Egyptian antiquary may, in the interests of science, consider worthy of a visit. By the year 4873 all references to Ptolemy’s ship, constructed five thousand years before, may have been destroyed, but some account of the Great Eastern, built on the banks of the Thames in the nineteenth century of the Christian era, may have endured. The supposed Egyptian traveller may seek diligently for some proof that such a vessel was really built and launched, yet all he may ascertain, by a careful measurement of the ruined docks, will be that not one of them was large enough to receive her: he will, therefore, conclude that what he has read about her was but the vainglorious romance of the historian of the day.

Hiero’s great ship.

The Egyptian monarchs were, however, not alone in their desire of building ships of gigantic proportions; but found a worthy rival in Hiero, king of Syracuse; nay, more, while the Syracusan ruler constructed a vessel scarcely if at all inferior to that of Ptolemy, this ship surpassed the Egyptian one in accomplishing at least one successful voyage. No details have been preserved of the dimensions of Hiero’s ship; but from the description of the cargo she carried, of the number of her decks, and of the structures of various kinds above her hold, she must have been of even greater cubic contents than Ptolemy’s ship.[176]

Not unlike a modern inland American steamer.

The probability is that Hiero’s vessel was simply an enormous barge, and that, on this barge or hulk there were erected, much after the fashion of the steam-vessels on the rivers and inland waters of America, one or more decks or tiers of houses, suited to carry wool or other kinds of light cargo, or capable of being fitted up for passengers, as occasion might require. It is, however, more likely from the description we have of her, that the decks immediately above the hold were reserved entirely for cargo, and that the houses upon deck were appropriated to the passengers and the crew.

Details of her construction; accommodation, outfit, and decorations.

It is stated that, for the construction of this magnificent vessel, Hiero cut down on Mount Etna trees enough to have built sixty triremes; procuring stores of trenails, &c., from Italy and Sicily, ropes from Spain, and hemp and pitch from the banks of the Rhone; and watching himself over the progress of the works. To launch her effectively, Archimedes invented a screw of great power; and the building was pushed on with such rapidity, that, in six months from the time she was commenced, great progress had been made, every part as it was finished (referring no doubt to the sheathing of the bottom and to the interstices on the upper decks or houses) being covered with sheets of lead. She is further said to have had twenty banks of oars, and three entrances, the lowest leading to the hold, the next to the eating-rooms, while the third was appropriated to the armed men. On both sides of the middle entrance thirty rooms, each containing four couches, were assigned to the soldiers; the sailors’ supper-room held fifteen, and there were, besides, three cabins, each containing three couches. The floors of these rooms were composed of stone mosaic work, bearing on it a pictorial representation of the whole story of the Iliad. There was also a temple to Venus of cypress inlaid with ivory, furnished with rich and valuable goblets and vases. This great ship was fitted with four wooden and eight iron anchors; and the mainmast, of a single tree, was procured after much search from the mountains of the Bruttii.

But the most remarkable part of the story is that relating to her freight, as it is stated that one or two of the launches belonging to this ship, built, it may be presumed to attend upon her, were able themselves to carry three thousand talents (about eighty tons); and these tenders are said to have put on board of the Alexandrian “sixty thousand measures of corn, ten thousand jars of Sicilian salt fish, twenty thousand talents’ weight of wool, and of other cargo twenty thousand talents, all of which was in addition to the provisions required for the crew.” It is further stated that she was sent to Alexandria, partly because Hiero discovered he had no harbours in Sicily that could contain her, and partly because he had heard that at that time there was a dearth of corn in Egypt. She bore upon her the following curious inscription: “Hiero, the son of Hierocles the Dorian, who wields the sceptre of Sicily (sends this ship), bearing in her the fruits of the earth—a rich gift to all Greece and her islands. Do thou, O Neptune! preserve in safety this ship over the blue waves.”

There is no more reason for doubting the existence of this ship than there is for questioning the vessel constructed by the Egyptian king; though, in each case, there may be some exaggeration in the description preserved. Vessels not differing much from her in form may be seen on the Mississippi and traverse the stormy lakes of America; they even trade along her shores, exposed to the boisterous waves of the Atlantic; and hence it may be reasonably inferred that, though not well adapted for sea-going purposes, Hiero’s ship may have made, in perfect safety, voyages to both Greece and Alexandria.

Greek ships.