The balza of the western coast of South America, in use within the last hundred years, appears to have been a raft of logs of very light wood carefully fastened together, and capable of carrying occasionally as much as twenty tons.[10]
Such were probably the rude beginnings of the art of ship-building.
Earliest boats or ships.
Though it is impossible to give any authentic details of forms and means of navigation, such as those we have mentioned—remembrances as they are of pre-historic times—we need not doubt that the earliest people who practised navigation, in any sense after the manner since recognised, by ships or boats as distinguished from rafts, were the inhabitants of the eastern coast of the Mediterranean, and, notably, the Phœnicians of Sidon and Tyre.
The Phœnicians, however, as is now admitted, were not originally inhabitants of the territory they have made famous by their commercial operations, but immigrants from the shores of the Persian Gulf, whence they carried with them the nautical tastes and knowledge they had been maturing, perhaps for centuries, to develop them in a new and enlarged sphere. Indeed, it is not unlikely that, antecedently to History, these enterprising people had made voyages even to the far-distant East, as the “Erythræan Sea” comprehended an area far wider than our Red Sea, being really, as in Herodotus,[11] what we now call the “Indian Ocean.” If it be true that Jacob’s blessing,[12] “Zebulun shall dwell at the haven of the sea; and he shall be for an haven of ships,” is probably the earliest written document implying navigation of any kind, it is at the same time impossible to determine at what period that prophecy was to take place, while the occurrence of the name Zidon in the next paragraph, “His border shall be unto Zidon,” might suggest the inference that the wording of this announcement, as we have it now, is of later date than Jacob himself.
Neither the Egyptians nor the Greeks have any claim to be considered among the first navigators; indeed, the former people were during their whole history averse to seafaring pursuits, and were dependent on the Phœnicians for nearly all their carrying trade, beyond what passed along their own great river, while the first Greek expedition—that of the Argonauts, to which we shall refer presently—was possibly as much a Phœnician as a Greek adventure.
Their form.
In form, we may be sure that the first boats were flat-bottomed—barges for river service rather than ships for the sea. But keels must have been added as soon as ever coasting voyages commenced, or any speed was needed. In shallow waters they may have been propelled by poles, like modern punts; but oars, and at least one sail of simple construction, must have been introduced very early.
Passing over the exploits attributed to Perseus, Theseus, and Bellerophon, from which no facts worthy of record are deducible, it is enough to state here that in the construction of the earliest rafts or boats the axe or the adze was, probably, the only implement the builders possessed, the result of their work being doubtless of the rudest character;[13] and that the timber first employed would be that most ready at hand in the countries where such vessels were first required; though but a short time would elapse, and but little experience be needed, to insure the selection of those woods which were the best for the purpose intended. Phœnicia, Cyprus, and Greece were well supplied with all the timber that could have been wanted. Hence we have early notices of the employment of the oak, the chestnut, and the cedar; while the pine, together with the alder, the ilex, and the ash, were in general use for ship-building. Many fanciful stories are told in Hesiod, Vegetius, and other writers, of the methods adopted by the ancient workmen to secure sound and durable timber; but on these we need not here dwell.
Mode of construction.