Mate.
Boatswain.
Next in authority to the master was the mate, whose place was at the prow of the ship, and who had charge of the tackle and of the rowers, who were placed by him on their proper seats.[38] With him was associated a third officer, whom we may call the boatswain and steward, as he gave the word to the rowers and distributed the rations.[39] There was also a fourth officer, whose especial duty it was to take heed of possible rocks or shoals, and to direct the ship at night by the aid of long poles.
ST. PAUL’S SHIP, FROM THE WORK BY MR. SMITH OF JORDAN HILL.
St. Paul’s ship.
It is remarkable that while we have many notices of matters comparatively unimportant, no writer of antiquity has given us any intelligible account of the capacity of their ships of burthen, at least anterior to the Christian era. Nor have the speculations of modern authors been much more successful; with the exception of Mr. Smith, of Jordan Hill. His essay “On the Voyage and Shipwreck of St. Paul,” the work of a man of much practical experience in the management of sailing craft, and a yachtsman of thirty years’ practice, is a really valuable contribution to the history of ancient merchant ships. Mr. Smith has tested, by modern experiences, the details furnished by St. Luke,[40] and has himself worked out the “dead reckoning” of St. Paul’s ship—a feat requiring both knowledge and skill. He has also, by a diligent comparison of the representations of ancient vessels on coins, and on the marbles and paintings of Pompeii, with the scriptural account of St. Paul’s ship, reproduced as perfect a drawing as we are ever likely to obtain of the Mediterranean merchant-ship at the dawn of Christianity.
St. Paul’s ship must have been one of considerable size, as, besides her cargo of grain, she had on board two hundred and seventy-six souls. Moreover, as she had to make a long and, as it turned out, a boisterous voyage, she must have been completely decked, and probably had two decks from the number of passengers she carried, besides a high poop and forecastle, like the ships of two or three centuries ago, though these are not shown in the illustration; her bulwarks were formed of battens fastened horizontally across the stanchions.
Mr. Smith has collected many instances bearing upon the arrangement of different parts of ancient ships. Thus, from a painting at Herculaneum, said to represent the ship of Theseus, he has shown that the ancient sailors knew the use of the capstan and hawser; but it still remains a difficulty to understand how their large ships were steered, unless some machinery were used of which we have no account, to work the very large oars thrust through portholes in either quarter. Mr. Smith has also proved, from representations on the Leaning Tower of Pisa, on the Bayeux Tapestry, and on the gold nobles of Edward III., that the primitive mode of steering by one or more oars—as visible on the reliefs of Trajan’s Column—prevailed as late as the fourteenth century; such rude appliances, however, could have been available only for small vessels.[41]
Rig and sails.