t Herod, i. 2, vii. 89. t Pliny, BX vli. M.
i I'errot et Chipicz, UM. dt VArt, iii. 517.
II Ceflnola, Cyprtu, pL xlv. H llawUiuoo, rhaenicia, 27S
506
SHIPS
SHITEAI
ramming.* Afterwards these were superseded by biremes, whicli were decked, liad masts and sails, and double banks of oarsmen. Later still, tri- remes, impelled by three banks of oarsmen, came into use ; and about the end of the Utii cent. B.C. boats with additional banksof oars were invented.t
l'"or some centuries the Phoenicians confined their navigation to the shores of the Mediterranean, Projiontis, and Euxine ; but before the time of Solomon (c. B.C. 930) they had launched out into the deep, had p.a.ssed the pillars of Hercules, and opened a trade with Tartessus (Tarshish) on the Atlantic coast of Spain. Coasting along Africa, they had visited the Senegal and Gambia ; and, in the opjiosite direction, had crossed the Bay of Biscay and the English Channel, and opened a trade for tin with the Cassiterides. It is no less certain that they reached the Canaries (Fortunate Islands), lying 170 mUes off the coast of Africa. In Ezk 27 we liave an eloquent description of the glories of Tyre and Sidon, and the construction of their ships.
The Greeks. — Ships with four ranks of oarsmen were first constructed by the Greeks about the year B.C. 400, when Dionysius I. of SjTacuse built the first quadriremes (rcrp^peis), with which he had probably become acquainted through the Car- thaginians.J After the time of Alexander the Great, ships with four, five, and even more ranks of rowers became general ; and, according to Poly- bius, the first Punic war was chiefly carried on with quinqueremes.§
Assyrian. — While the Phoenicians were making progress in naval architecture, their old neigh- bours and probably rivals, the Babylonians and Assyrians, were also at work in the same direc- tion, but not to any important extent. As Kaw- linson observes, it is only as fresh-water sailors that the Assyrians come within the category of navigators at all.|| They left the navigation of the Persian Gulf and Mediterranean to the Baby- lonians and Phojnicians, contenting themselves with the profits without sharing the dangers of sea voyages ; their attention being concentrated on the navigation of their two great rivers — the Tigris and Euphrates. This was effected at first by rafts of timber supported on inflated skins ; and these are still in use on the rivers of Meso- potamia.H Bas - reliefs from the most ancient palace of Nimroud show two kinds of boats : the larger contains the king in his chariot with his attendants, and is navigated by two men.** It is considered by Rawlinson to have resembled in structure the Welsh coracle, round in form and made of wicker - work covered with skins and smeared over with bitumen. To have carried such heavy loads they must have been of large size. The smaller was used for the conveyance of merchandise.
In the sculptures of Sargon, who reigned from B.C. 722-705, we have a representation of a ship
• These were probably the kind of boats in use amongst the Greeks in Homer's time, in which he represents the descent of the Grecian warriors on the coast of Ilium (Iliad, i. SCO, ii. j8.^>, 030; Smith's Diet. Greek and Jioman Antiquities, a.Tt. '^Q.ves,' T83 (1849). in which the subject is very fully treated).
t The Phtenioians had a practice of placing at the bow of their boats the fi^'ure of some monstrous form gaudily painted, in order to strike terror into the natives whose country thi.'y were invading. We seem to have something of the kind in the case of the Greek ships invading Asia Minor, * Twelve ships with scarlet bows ' {Iliad, ii. 739).
: Pliny, Uti vii. 5. 7 ; Diodor. xiv. 41, 42.
§ Polybius, i. 63; Haltaus, Genrhichte Horns im Zeitalter der Punischer Kricge, Leipzig, 607 (1SJ(>).
I Ancient Monarchies, i. 644.
^ Layard^ Sineceh, ii. 96 ; Kawlinson, Anc Mtm. L 545. A representation of such a raft carrying blocks of stone for buiUt- ing, taken from Kouj-unjik, is given ib. p. 333. The raft is impelled by two oarsmen.
** Ib. p. 546. Boats similar to these an also described by Herodotus, 1. o. 194.
of a more advanced type. Here four rowers stand- ing to their oars impel a vessel, having a figure- head of a horse, and for the stern the tail of a fish ; but it is possible that this vessel may have belonged to an invading force, not that of the Assyrian inhtibitants. *
The sculptures of Kouyunjik represent ships in great perfection. One of these represents a naval battle, as may be gathered from the introduction of marine forms, such as star-fish and jelly-fish, not found in rivers. Layard recognizes in these vessels a resemblance to those used to a compara- tively late period by the inhabitants of the cities of Tyre and Sidon on the Syrian coast. t That the Clialda?ans were skilful shipbuilders, and were proud of their attainments in this art, may be gathered from the statement in Isaiah (43'^), where they are referred to as rejoicing in their sliips.J
Christian era. — The ships in NT times, chiefly belonging to the Romans, were galleys impelled by oarsmen and using square saDs. They were sometimes of large size ; that which carried St. Paul containing in all 276 souls, besides cargo.§ Their timbers were so badly put together, that when subjected to the strain arising from a storm, they required to be undergirded (or braced) by means of strong ropes ; and they seldom ventured far out of sight of land, or some port into which they could be run in stress of weather.