According to
The Egyptian
made of the same
he
ps continued to be made of or of palm fibre as late
described by Herodotus, were really sea - going
vessels like those of queen Hatsepsu and Solomon,
though they carried many thousand talents (more than 100 tons) of cargo; and, as the making of linen cloth was an Egyptian speciality, it was probably used for the sails of sea-going ships by them as well as by Solomon and Hiram, who im-
ported it from Egypt (Ezk 27).
At Deir el-Bahri* we see the queen’s ships being laden in a port of the-Land of Punt after the same fashion as we may suppose those of Solomon to have taken in their cargoes at Ophir, by means of porters and ‘gang-boards’ connecting the ships with the shore. The cargo, which is being carried and stowed on the deck by the crew, consists of sacks of frankincense of various kinds (especially that called ‘anti’), gold dust, ebony, elephants’ tusks, gum, ostrich eggs and feathers. Live apes are climbing about the rigging as we see them in the boat depicted on the tomb of Mera at Desh- Asheh 2000 years earlier—an_indication probably of the fauna of the Land of Punt, which includes
the giraffe, peculiar to tropical Africa.
We may safely assume that Solomon’s Mediter- ranean ships were similar to those built by him at ‘Ezion-geber, on the Phoenician model, and that
the latter, again, resembled those of queen Hat- sepsu, although with possibly some modifications
of no great importance. There seems,
also, no
reason to suppose that the ships built at “Ezion- geber by Jehoshaphat king of Judah a century later (1 K 228), or the passenger ship in which
Jonah embarked at Joppa some thirty ye: for Tarshish (Jon 1%), and in which the vain use
ars later
of
the oars in the ships to endeavour to make the land is so graphically described, belonged to a
different type.
Ships of war.—The Egyptian sailors or boatmen formed, according to Herodotus (ii. 164), one of
the seven classes into which the population of the * Egyp. Lupl. Fund, pt. iii, vol. 15, pl. Ixxiv. See figs. on p. 364,
364 SHIPS AND BOATS
country was divided, the office of pilot or steers- man ranking above all other grades. Probably those belonging to merchant ships formed a superior subdivision of these. We may take it for granted that the Phoenicians and Tyrians fol- lowed the same practice in the time ot Solomon as with certain modifications the Greeks did in later times. The crews of war ships seem to have been placed in a separate category with the soldiers, who, from constant practice at the oar on the Nile, were themselves expert galleymen. Whether any of these latter were on board queen Hatsepsu’s or Solomon’s ships we are not told; but, although these were both commercial expedi- tions, it is probable that the ships were prepared
SHIPS AND BOATS
are stationed in a ‘top’ or cage at the masthead. During the engagement the sail was ‘ brailed’ up, and there was apparently no lower yard to_the square sail as we see in the ships of queen Hat- sepsu of a later date. According to Wilkinson (iil. 204), ramming was used in the attack; but the ships had no beak for this purpose as in Roman days, a lion’s, ram’s, or other animal’s head covered with metal taking its place.
There seems to be little doubt that the Egyp- tian men-of-war also took part in the Mediter- ranean in the transport of troops and in sea fights during the reign of the Ramses Pharaohs against the ships of various nations inhabiting the littoral, as they did in the time of Pharaoh-
3. TEMPLE OF DEIR EL-BAHRI.
MIDDLE COLONNADE,
SOUTH WALL,
QUEEN HATSEPSU’S EXPEDITION TO PUNT, B.C. 1500.
LOADING EGYPTIAN SHIPS AT PUNT.
st a tt
4, MIDDLE COLONNADE. SOUTIL WALL.
to fight if need be. That men-of-war were speci-
ally fitted out by the Egyptians for fighting |
purposes in the Arabian Gulf we know from Herodotus (ii. 102) and Diodorus (i. 55), who both mention the fleet of ‘long vessels’ built ex- pressly for war (called by them wa) to the number of 400, whilst the transports were called wsch (broad), and the galleys mensch;* and the employment of such vessels on the expeditions of the Pharaohs to Ethiopia was frequent, the officers who com- manded them being mentioned on the monuments and the title of ‘chief or captain of the kine’s ships’ being not uncommon. A sea fight is repre- sented at Thebes, in which the Egyptian sol- diers in military dress are seen rowing. In the men-of-war of the 4th and 5th dynasties slingers * Wilkinson, Anc. Egypt., vol. i, p. 274,
tt ne
ae a Caer ty 2X Ghee oe en cas ale eS SS Ds ee 55
LADEN EGYPTIAN SHIPS LEAVING PUNT,
necho (Herod. ii. 159); their victories over com- bined forces of Dardanians, Teucrians, Mysians, and, apparently, over Pelasgians, Daunians, Oscans, and Sicilians, being recorded on the monuments.
Of the Phanician war vessels which were con- temporaneous we have no knowledge; and it is to the Assyrian monuments of a later date that we are indebted for pictorial representations of them In a very crude way. During the three invasions of Syria and Phoenicia by Shalmaneser tv. in the reigns of Hezekiah kine of Judah and Hoshea king of Israel (B.C. 726-721, 2 K 18% 19), Josephus tells us, on the authority of Menander (342-291 B.C.), that the Assyrian monarch, in order to quell