The merchant ships of queen Hatsepsu’s expedi- tion to the Land of Punt, as delineated on the walls of the temple of Deir el-Bahri,* are long vessels curved upwards at each extreme, as we see the Pheenician triremes of the 7th cent. B.c. depicted
* Egyp. Expl. Fund, pt. iii. vol. 15, pl. Ixxii., xviii, Lexiv., Ixxv. ; Petrie, d.c. p. 84. Cf. figs. 3 and 4 on p. 364.
362 SHIPS AND BOATS
SHIPS AND BOATS
on the Assyrian monuments, but without their figureheads; the stern is recurved towards the bow like the uplifted trunk of an elephant, and ends in a trumpet mouth—the conventional repre- sentation of the papyrus plant—a form adopted also by the Pheenicians and Assyrians; there is also a raised forecastle and poop. The mast, in- stead of being of the more ancient ‘sheerlegs’ form (as we see it in fig. 1 on the walls of the tomb of Anta at Deshdsheh, 5th dynasty, c. B.c. 3600), consists of a single spar, placed a little forward of the centre of the ship, and is kept in its place by ‘shrouds’ and a ‘stay’; whilst additional support, when the sail is set, is given by a pair of very stout ‘jeers,’ or halliards, attached to each side of the ‘bunt,’ or middle of the ‘yard,’ and secured to the
unwale of the vessel. The sail is of the square orm and secured to two yards, the lower of which is as long as the ship herself, but the upper one is a good deal shorter. Each yard is in two pieces, ‘fished’ together in the middle of its length by means of cordage, the centre of the lower yard being securely lashed to the mast near the level of the gunwale. This lower yard is supported by numerous ‘lifts’ * at uniform intervals (apparently about seven in number on each side), which are ‘rove’ through ‘ sheaves’ or ‘snatches’ placed one
and Roman ships of later date. A noticeable arrangement for strengthening these sea-going ships is a tightly stretched and very stout cable secured to the bow and stern in the centre of the ship, inside, passing high over the heads of the rowers, and supported on strong wooden props with forked heads. This is doubtless to afford support to the weakest or curved portion of the ship at her two ends, neither of which is water-borne—a very necessary precaution under such conditions when a vessel is straining in a heavy sea. Assuming the distance between the rowers to be 4 ft., the space between the foremost oar and the extremity of the bow is about 18 ft. in length, so that the total length of the ships appears to have been 102 ft., of which a length of about 58 ft. only is water-borne, the remainder being the curves of the bow and stern. A row of port-holes, corresponding in number to the oars, is indicated on the side of the ships below the gunwale. These were probably intended for a second tier of oars, as we see in the Phoenician and Assyrian triremes of the 7th and 8th cents. B.c. The ships are steered, not ‘by a single rudder passing through the keel,’ as in the more modern arrangement described by Herodotus (ii. 96), but by two very stout paddles, one on each quarter, having simple broad blades
2. DESHASHEH (MIDDLE EGYPT). OFFERINGS TO THE TOMB,
above the other at the head of the mast, so that one rope answers for a lift on both sides of the yard. These lifts are so tightened as to give to the yard the form of a bow curving upwards at each extremity. The head of the sail is attached, in accordance with modern usage, to the upper yard, which can be hoisted to the masthead when the sail is set, or lowered so as to lie on the lower yard or remain aloft with the sail ‘ brailed up’ at plea- sure. This upper yard has a single lift on each side, attached half-way between the mast and the yardarm. The ‘ foot’ of the sail is attached to the ower yard at intervals when the sail is set, but quite detached from it when the sail isfurled. The ‘braces’ of the upper yard (not always represented in the drawings) are single ropes attached to the upper yard at the same spot as the lifts, and lead thence to the deck or gunwale; they were usually under the control of the helmsman, as we see them on the walls of the tomb of Anta at Deshdsheh. There are 15 oarsmen, seated on either side of the ships, all engaged in rowing (not pushing the oars), although the sails are set (pl. lxxiii.), and onl y one man plies each of the 30 oars—a universal rule in ancient ships. The distance between the rowers in a fore and aft direction is, apparently, about 4 ft., but possibly only 2 cubits, as we see in Greek
* Precisely as shown in the model of an Indian ship in the Indian Institute Museum at Oxford.
COFFIN OF MERA, B.C. 3500.
BOAT CONVEYING
without the remarkable letter D form of the Pheenician ones represented on the Assyrian monu- ments in the time of Sennacherib, but having long ‘looms’ or handles, which first pass through ‘strops,’ or loops of rope, placed on the gunwale midway between the upper end of the stern-curve and the point where the stern first touches the water; immediately above these strops, at a vertical height of about 4 ft., the upper portion of the looms rests on the summit of a post fixed to the gunwale close to the strop; here is placed a crutch or notch in which the loom revolves by means of a tiller fixed to its upper portion and curving downwards to the hand of the helmsman below. The ordinary mode of steering was pre- cisely as by the modern rudder, the normal position of the blades of the paddles being nearly vertical and ‘fore and aft.’ We see the same arrangement of tiller in the papyrus sail-boats painted on the tomb of the priestess of Mera at Deshdsheh,* a few miles south of the Fayum (not to be confounded with the tomb of Mera at Sakarah, belonging also to the 5th dynasty), nearly 2000 years before queen Hatsepsu’s time. A stout stirrup of rope is attached to the upper part of the post on which the loom rests, and vente over the outside of the ship, appar- ently for the helmsman to put one of his feet in whilst he placed the other against the outside of * Egyp. Expl. Fund, vol. 15, pl. xxvii. See above, fig. 2.