Ancient and Modern Ships Part 1

Ancient and Modern Ships.

by George C. V. Holmes.

PREFACE.

An endeavour has been made in this handbook, as far as s.p.a.ce and scantiness of material would permit, to trace the history of the development of wooden ships from the earliest times down to our own.

Unfortunately, the task has been exceedingly difficult; for the annals of shipbuilding have been very badly kept down to a quite recent period, and the statements made by old writers concerning ships are not only meagre but often extremely inaccurate. Moreover, the drawings and paintings of vessels which have survived from the cla.s.sical period are few and far between, and were made by artists who thought more of pictorial effect than of accuracy of detail. Fortunately the carvings of the ancient Egyptians were an exception to the above rule. Thanks to their practice of recording and ill.u.s.trating their history in one of the most imperishable of materials we know more of their ships and maritime expeditions than we do of those of any other people of antiquity. If their draughtsmen were as conscientious in delineating their boats as they were in their drawings of animals and buildings, we may accept the ill.u.s.trations of Egyptian vessels which have survived into our epoch as being correct in their main features. The researches now being systematically carried out in the Valley of the Nile add, year by year, to our knowledge, and already we know enough to enable us to a.s.sert that ship building is one of the oldest of human industries, and that there probably existed a sea borne commerce in the Mediterranean long before the building of the Pyramids.

Though the Phoenicians were the princ.i.p.al maritime people of antiquity in the Mediterranean, we know next to nothing of their vessels. The same may be said of the Greeks of the Archaic period. There is, however, ground for hope that, with the progress of research, more may be discovered concerning the earliest types of Greek vessels; for example, during the past year, a vase of about the eighth century B.C. was found, and on it is a representation of a bireme of the Archaic period of quite exceptional interest. As the greater part of this handbook was already in type when the vase was acquired by the British Museum, it has only been possible to reproduce the representation in the Appendix. The drawings of Greek merchant-ships and galleys on sixth and fifth-century vases are merely pictures, which tell us but little that we really want to know. If it had not been for the discovery, this century, that a drain at the Piraeus was partly constructed of marble slabs, on which were engraved the inventories of the Athenian dockyards, we should know but little of the Greek triremes of as late a period as the third century B.C. We do not possess a single ill.u.s.tration of a Greek or Roman trireme, excepting only a small one from Trajan's Column, which must not be taken too seriously, as it is obviously pictorial, and was made a century and a half after many-banked ships had gone out of fashion.

In the first eight centuries of our era records and ill.u.s.trations of ships continue to be extremely meagre. Owing to a comparatively recent discovery we know something of Scandinavian boats. When we consider the way in which the Nors.e.m.e.n overran the seaboard of Europe, it seems probable that their types of vessels were dominant, at any rate in Northern and Western European waters, from the tenth to the twelfth century. From the time of the Norman Conquest down to the reign of Henry VIII. we have to rely, for information about ships, upon occasional notes by the old chroniclers, helped out by a few ill.u.s.trations taken from ancient corporate seals and from ma.n.u.scripts. From the time of Henry VIII., onwards, information about warships is much more abundant; but, unfortunately, little is known of the merchant vessels of the Tudor, Stuart, and early Hanoverian periods, and it has not been found possible to trace the origin and development of the various types of merchant sailing-ships now in existence.

The names of the authorities consulted have generally been given in the text, or in footnotes. The author is indebted to Dr. Warre's article on ships, in the last edition of the "Encyclopaedia Britannica," and to Mr.

Cecil Torr's work, "Ancient Ships," for much information concerning Greek and Roman galleys, and further to "The Royal Navy," a history by Mr. W. Laird Clowes, and the "History of Marine Architecture" by Charnock, for much relating to British warships down to the end of the eighteenth century.

5, ADELPHI TERRACE, W.C., _January, 1, 1900_.

ANCIENT AND MODERN SHIPS.

PART I.

_WOODEN SAILING-SHIPS._

CHAPTER I.

INTRODUCTION.

A museum relating to Naval Architecture and Shipbuilding is of the utmost interest to the people of Great Britain, on account of the importance to them of everything that bears on the carrying of their commerce. Every Englishman knows, in a general way, that the commerce of the British Empire is more extensive than that of any other state in the world, and that the British sea-going mercantile marine compares favourably in point of size even with that of all the other countries of the world put together; but few are probably aware of the immense importance to us of these fleets of trading ships, and of the great part which they play in the maintenance of the prosperity of these isles. The shipping industry ranks, after agriculture, as the largest of our national commercial pursuits. There is more capital locked up in it, and more hands are employed in the navigation and construction of ships, their engines and fittings, than in any other trade of the country excepting the tillage of the soil.

The following Table gives the relative figures of the merchant navies of the princ.i.p.al states of the civilised world in the year 1898, and proves at a glance the immense interest to our fellow countrymen of all that affects the technical advancement of the various industries connected with shipping:--

NUMBER AND TONNAGE OF SAILING-VESSELS OF OVER 100 TONS NET, AND NUMBER AND TONNAGE OF STEAMERS OF OVER 100 TONS GROSS, BELONGING TO EACH OF THE COUNTRIES NAMED, AS RECORDED IN LLOYDS' REGISTER BOOK.

------------------------------------------------------------------ Total No. of Total tonnage of Flag. steam and sailing steam (gross) and of vessels. sailing-vessels (net).

----------------------+-------------------+----------------------- United Kingdom 8,973 12,926,924 Colonies 2,025 1,061,584 +-------------------+----------------------- Total 10,998 13,988,508 United States of } America, including } 3,010 2,465,387 Great Lakes } Danish 796 511,958 French 1,182 1,242,091 German 1,676 2,453,334 Italian 1,150 875,851 j.a.panese 841 533,381 Norwegian 2,528 1,694,230 Russian 1,218 643,527 Spanish 701 608,885 Swedish 1,408 605,991 All other countries 2,672 2,050,385 +-------------------+----------------------- Total 28,180 27,673,528 ----------------------+-------------------+-----------------------

The part played by technical improvements in the maintenance of our present position cannot be over-estimated; for that position, such as it is, is not due to any inherent permanent advantages possessed by this country. Time was when our mercantile marine was severely threatened by compet.i.tion from foreign states. To quote the most recent example, about the middle of last century the United States of America fought a well-contested struggle with us for the carrying trade of the world.

Shortly after the abolition of the navigation laws, the compet.i.tion was very severe, and United States ships had obtained almost exclusive possession of the China trade, and of the trade between Europe and North America, and in the year 1850 the total tonnage of the shipping of the States was 3,535,434, against 4,232,960 tons owned by Great Britain. The extraordinary progress in American mercantile shipbuilding was due, in part, to special circ.u.mstances connected with their navigation laws, and in part to the abundance and cheapness of excellent timber; but, even with these advantages, the Americans would never have been able to run such a close race with us for the carrying trade of the world, had it not been for the great technical skill and intelligence of their shipbuilders, who produced vessels which were the envy and admiration of our own constructors. As a proof of this statement, it may be mentioned that, the labour-saving mechanical contrivances adopted by the Americans were such that, on board their famous liners and clippers, twenty men could do the work which in a British ship of equal size required thirty, and, in addition to this advantage, the American vessels could sail faster and carry more cargo in proportion to their registered tonnage than our own vessels. It was not till new life was infused into British naval architecture that we were enabled to conquer the American compet.i.tion; and then it was only by producing still better examples of the very cla.s.s of ship which the Americans had been the means of introducing, that we were eventually enabled to wrest from them the China trade. Another triumph in the domain of technical shipbuilding, viz., the introduction and successful development of the iron-screw merchant steamer, eventually secured for the people of this country that dominion of the seas which remains with them to this day.

Among the great means of advancing technical improvements, none takes higher rank than a good educational museum; for it enables the student to learn, as he otherwise cannot learn, the general course which improvements have taken since the earliest times, and hence to appreciate the direction which progress will inevitably take in the future. Here he will learn, for instance, how difficulties have been overcome in the past, and will be the better prepared to play his part in overcoming those with which he, in his turn, will be confronted. In such a museum he can study the advantages conferred upon the owner, by the successive changes which have been effected in the materials, construction, and the means of propulsion of ships. He can trace, for instance, the effects of the change from wood to iron, and from iron to steel, in the carrying capacity of ships, and he can note the effects of successive improvements in the propelling machinery in saving weight and s.p.a.ce occupied by engines, boilers, and bunkers; and in conferring upon a ship of a given size the power of making longer voyages. Here, too, he can learn how it was that the American clipper supplanted the old English sailing merchantman, and how the screw iron ship, fitted with highly economical engines, has practically driven the clipper from the seas. In fact, with the aid of a good museum the student is enabled to take a bird's-eye view of the whole chain of progress, in which the existing state of things const.i.tutes but a link.

Signs are not wanting that the compet.i.tion with which British shipowners had to contend in the past will again become active in the near future.

The advantages conferred upon us by abundant supplies of iron and by cheap labour will not last for ever. There are many who expect, not without reason, that the abolition or even the diminution of protection in the United States will, when it comes to pa.s.s, have the same stimulating effect upon the American shipbuilding industry which the abolition of the old navigation laws had upon our own; and when that day comes Englishmen will find it an advantage to be able to enter the contest equipped with the best attainable technical education and experience.

CHAPTER II.

ANCIENT SHIPS IN THE MEDITERRANEAN AND RED SEAS.

It is not difficult to imagine how mankind first conceived the idea of making use of floating structures to enable him to traverse stretches of water. The trunk of a tree floating down a river may have given him his first notions. He would not be long in discovering that the tree could support more than its own weight without sinking. From the single trunk to a raft, formed of several stems lashed together, the step would not be a long one. Similarly, once it was noticed that a trunk, or log, could carry more than its own weight and float, the idea would naturally soon occur to any one to diminish the inherent weight of the log by hollowing it out and thus increase its carrying capacity; the subsequent improvements of shaping the underwater portion so as to make the elementary boat handy, and to diminish its resistance in the water, and of fitting up the interior so as to give facilities for navigating the vessel and for accommodating in it human beings and goods, would all come by degrees with experience. Even to the present day beautiful specimens exist of such boats, or canoes, admirably formed out of hollowed tree-trunks. They are made by many uncivilized peoples, such as the islanders of the Pacific and some of the tribes of Central Africa.

Probably the earliest type of _built-up_ boat was made by stretching skins on a frame. To this cla.s.s belonged the coracle of the Ancient Britons, which is even now in common use on the Atlantic seaboard of Ireland. The transition from a raft to a flat-bottomed boat was a very obvious improvement, and such vessels were probably the immediate forerunners of ships.

It is usual to refer to Noah's ark as the oldest ship of which there is any authentic record. Since, however, Egypt has been systematically explored, pictures of vessels have been discovered immensely older than the ark--that is to say, if the date usually a.s.signed to the latter (2840 B.C.) can be accepted as approximately correct; and, as we shall see hereafter (p. 25), there are vessels _now in existence in Egypt which were built_ about this very period. The ark was a vessel of such enormous size that the mere fact that it was constructed argues a very advanced knowledge and experience on the part of the contemporaries of Noah. Its dimensions were, according to the biblical version, reckoning the cubit at eighteen inches; length, 450 feet; breadth, 75 feet; and depth, 45 feet. If very full in form its "registered tonnage" would have been nearly 15,000. According to the earlier Babylonian version, the depth was equal to the breadth, but, unfortunately, the figures of the measurements are not legible.

It has been sometimes suggested that the ark was a huge raft with a superstructure, or house, built on it, of the dimensions given above.

There does not, however, appear to be the slightest reason for concurring with this suggestion. On the contrary, the biblical account of the structure of the ark is so detailed, that we have no right to suppose that the description of the most important part of it, the supposed raft, to which its power of floating would have been due, would have been omitted. Moreover, the whole account reads like the description of a ship-shaped structure.

SHIPBUILDING IN EGYPT.

The earliest information on the building of ships is found, as might be expected, on the Egyptian tombs and monuments. It is probable that the valley of the Nile was also the first land bordering on the Mediterranean in which ships, as distinguished from more elementary craft, were constructed. Everything is in favour of such a supposition.

In the first place, the country was admirably situated, geographically, for the encouragement of the art of navigation, having seaboards on two important inland seas which commanded the commerce of Europe and Asia.

In the next place, the habitable portion of Egypt consisted of a long narrow strip of densely peopled, fertile territory, bordering a great navigable river, which formed a magnificent highway throughout the whole extent of the country. It is impossible to conceive of physical circ.u.mstances more conducive to the discovery and development of the arts of building and navigating floating structures. The experience gained on the safe waters of the Nile would be the best preparation for taking the bolder step of venturing on the open seas. The character of the two inland seas which form the northern and eastern frontiers of Egypt was such as to favour, to the greatest extent, the spirit of adventure. As a rule, their waters are relatively calm, and the distances to be traversed to reach other lands are inconsiderable. We know that the ancient Egyptians, at a period which the most modern authorities place at about 7,000 years ago, had already attained to a very remarkable degree of civilisation and to a knowledge of the arts of construction on land which has never since been excelled. What is more natural than to suppose that the genius and science which enabled them to build the Pyramids and their vast temples and palaces, to construct huge works for the regulation of the Nile, and to quarry, work into shape, and move into place blocks of granite weighing in some cases several hundreds of tons, should also lead them to excel in the art of building ships? Not only the physical circ.u.mstances, but the habits and the religion of the people created a demand, even a necessity, for the existence of navigable floating structures. At the head of the delta of the Nile was the ancient capital, the famous city of Memphis, near to which were built the Pyramids, as tombs in which might be preserved inviolate until the day of resurrection, the embalmed bodies of their kings. The roofs of the burial chambers in the heart of the Pyramids were prevented from falling in, under the great weight of the superinc.u.mbent ma.s.s, by huge blocks, or beams, of the hardest granite, meeting at an angle above the chambers. The long galleries by which the chambers were approached were closed after the burial by enormous gates, consisting of blocks of granite, which were let down from above, sliding in grooves like the portcullis of a feudal castle. In this way it was hoped to preserve the corpse contained in the chamber absolutely inviolate. The huge blocks of granite, which weighed from 50 to 60 tons each, were supposed to be too heavy ever to be moved again after they had been once lowered into position, and they were so hard that it was believed they could never be pierced. Now, even if we had no other evidence to guide us, the existence of these blocks of granite in the Pyramids would afford the strongest presumption that the Egyptians of that remote time were perfectly familiar with the arts of inland navigation, for the stone was quarried at a.s.souan, close to the first cataract, 583 miles above Cairo, and could only have been conveyed from the quarry to the building site by water.

In the neighbourhood of Memphis are hundreds of other blocks of granite from a.s.souan, many of them of enormous size. The Pyramid of Men-kau-Ra, or Mycerinus, built about 3633 B.C., was once entirely encased with blocks from a.s.souan. The Temple of the Sphinx, built at a still earlier date, was formed, to a large extent, of huge pieces of the same material, each measuring 15 5 32 feet, and weighing about 18 tons.

The mausoleum of the sacred bulls at Sakara contains numbers of a.s.souan granite sarcophagi, some of which measure 13 8 11 feet. These are but a few instances, out of the many existing, from which we may infer that, even so far back as the fourth dynasty, the Egyptians made use of the arts of inland navigation. We are, however, fortunately not obliged to rely on inference, for we have direct evidence from the sculptures and records on the ancient tombs. Thanks to these, we now know what the ancient Nile boats were like, and how they were propelled, and what means were adopted for transporting the huge ma.s.ses of building material which were used in the construction of the temples and monuments.

The art of reading the hieroglyphic inscriptions was first discovered about the year 1820, and the exploration of the tombs and monuments has only been prosecuted systematically during the last five-and-twenty years. Most of the knowledge of ancient Egyptian ships has, therefore, been acquired in quite recent times, and much of it only during the last year or two. This is the reason why, in the old works on shipbuilding, no information is given on this most interesting subject. Knowledge is, however, now being increased every day, and, thanks to the practice of the ancient Egyptians of recording their achievements in sculpture in a material which is imperishable in a dry climate, we possess at the present day, probably, a more accurate knowledge of their ships than we do of those of any other ancient or mediaeval people.

By far the oldest boats of which anything is now known were built in Egypt by the people who inhabited that country before the advent of the Pyramid-builders. It is only within the last few years that these tombs have been explored and critically examined. They are now supposed to be of Libyan origin and to date from between 5000 and 6000 B.C. In many of these tombs vases of pottery have been discovered, on which are painted rude representations of ships. Some of the latter were of remarkable size and character. Fig. 2 is taken from one of these vases. It is a river scene, showing two boats in procession. The pyramid-shaped mounds in the background represent a row of hills. These boats are evidently of very large size. One of them has 58 oars, or more probably paddles, on each side, and two large cabins amidships, connected by a flying bridge, and with s.p.a.ces fenced off from the body of the vessel. The steering was, apparently, effected by means of three large paddles on each side, and from the prow of one of the boats hangs a weight, which was probably intended for an anchor. It will be noticed that the two ends of these vessels, like the Nile boats of the Egyptians proper, were not waterborne. A great many representations of these boats have now been discovered. They all have the same leading characteristics, though they differ very much in size. Amongst other peculiarities they invariably have an object at the prow resembling two branches of palm issuing from a stalk, and also a mast carrying an ensign at the after-cabin.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 2.--The oldest known ships. Between 5000 and 6000 B.C.]

Some explorers are of opinion that these ill.u.s.trations do not represent boats, but fortifications, or stockades of some sort. If we relied only on the rude representations painted on the vases, the question might be a moot one. It has, however, been definitely set at rest by Professor Flinders Petrie, who, in the year 1899, brought back from Egypt very large drawings of the same character, taken, not from vases, but from the tombs themselves. The drawings clearly show that the objects are boats, and that they were apparently very shallow and flat-bottomed. It is considered probable that they were employed in over-sea trade as well as for Nile traffic; for, in the same tombs were found specimens of pottery of foreign manufacture, some of which have been traced to Bosnia.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 3.--Egyptian boat of the time of the third dynasty.]

The most ancient mention of a ship in the world's history is to be found in the name of the eighth king of Egypt after Mena, the founder of the royal race. This king, who was at the head of the second dynasty, was called Betou (Boethos in Greek), which word signifies the "prow of a ship." Nineteen kings intervened between him and Khufu (Cheops), the builder of the Great Pyramid at Ghizeh. The date of this pyramid is given by various authorities as from about 4235 to 3500 B.C. As the knowledge of Egyptology increases the date is set further and further back, and the late Mariette Pasha, who was one of the greatest authorities on the subject, fixed it at 4235 B.C. About five centuries intervened between the reign of Betou and the date of the Great Pyramid.

Hence we can infer that ships were known to the Egyptians of the dynasties sixty-seven centuries ago.

Fortunately, however, we are not obliged to rely on inferences drawn from the name of an individual; we actually possess pictures of vessels which, there is every reason to believe, were built before the date of the Great Pyramid.

The boat represented by Fig. 3 is of great interest, as it is by far the oldest specimen of a true Egyptian boat that has yet been discovered. It was copied by the late Mr. Villiers Stuart from the tomb of Ka Khont Khut, situated in the side of a mountain near Kau-el-Kebir, on the right bank of the Nile, about 279 miles above Cairo.[1] The tomb belongs to a very remote period. From a study of the hieroglyphs, the names of the persons, the forms of the pottery found, and the shape, arrangement, and decoration of the tomb, Mr. Villiers Stuart came to the conclusion that it dates from the third dynasty, and that, consequently, it is older than the Great Pyramid at Ghizeh. If these conclusions are correct, and if Mariette's date for the Great Pyramid be accepted, Fig. 3 represents a Nile boat as used about 6,300 years ago--that is to say, about fifteen centuries before the date commonly accepted for the ark. Mr. Villiers Stuart supposes that it was a dug-out canoe, but from the dimensions of the boat this theory is hardly tenable. It will be noted that there are seven paddlers on each side, in addition to a man using a sounding, or else a punt, pole at the prow, and three men steering with paddles in the stern, while amidships there is a considerable free s.p.a.ce, occupied only by the owner, who is armed with a whip, or courbash. The paddlers occupy almost exactly one-half of the total length, and from the s.p.a.ce required for each of them the boat must have been quite 56 feet long. It could hardly have been less than seven feet wide, as it contained a central cabin, with sufficient s.p.a.ce on either side of the latter for paddlers to sit. If it were a "dug-out," the tree from which it was made must have been brought down the river from tropical Africa. There is no reason, however, to suppose anything of the sort; for, if the epoch produced workmen skilful enough to excavate and decorate the tomb, and to carve the statues and make the pottery which it contained, it must also have produced men quite capable of building up a boat from planks.