* Torr, Ancient Ships, pl. vi. 27. t Ib. pl. vi. 28.
t Smith, V. and S. of St. Paul, pp. 192-200. § Epist. 77, cit. Smith, V. and S. of St. Paul, p. 157.
eS
SHIPS AND BOATS
SHIPS AND BOATS 367
expressed in the AV, and means to put a ship before the wind. Captain Sturmy* in describing a naval sea fight says, ‘Bear up before the wind that we may give him our starboard broadside,’ and again, ‘ He bears up before the wind to stop his leaks’; avro- ~0adpety, as a nautical expression, may have refer- ence to the eyes painted on each bow of ships in general; the term ‘eyes of the ship’ is still in general use as a sea term for the inside part of her which lies nearest to the stem. The rope cables (cxouvia, dyxipia, ancoralia or funes ancorates) which passed, as now, through holes on each side of the bow, were of from 6 in. to 44 in. in diameter, equal to from 134 in. to 18 in. modern hemp cables, and were ‘hove in’ by a capstan (c7pogetov) to weigh the anchor. Chain cables were then used only by ships of war, and, in so far as the English Navy is con- cerned, were not introduced till the beginning of the 19th century.
The terms ‘helps’ and ‘undergirding’ (Ac 27” Boj Gera, drofwyyirres) refer to the modes in use of strengthening an old or weak ship in bad weather by bracing the two curved ends of the ship, which were not water-borne, together by means of a stout rope or cable passing along the outside of the ship longitudinally, and generally below the water-line, several times; or by passing it under the keel and round the hull in a direction transverse to its length, and probably sometimes by a combination of both these methods. ‘ Undergirding’ is a literal translation of the Greek nautical term for the opera- tion of passing the above ropes or cables (imofa- para) around or under a ship; put it has never been an English sea term, although the process of trans- verse undergirding has occasionally been resorted to by our sailing ships when dangerously over- strained, and was then termed ‘ frapping’ the ship.t The internal longitudinal rope support of the ancient Egyptian ships seems to have been still in use in Roman ships to some extent under the name of tormentum,t probably from the two or four parts of rope of which it consisted being tightened, as required, by means of a piece of wood inserted between them and twisted round ; the transverse external support was termed mitra. The longitudinal support became unnecessary when the length of the ends of the ship not water-borne became greatly diminished and the amount of deck increased ; with improved shipbuilding the long curves disappeared. All Greek and Roman ships of war of the rank of triremes and upwards seem to have had the Aypozomata permanently fixed in their places on board to enable them to better withstand the shock of ramming, and were also supplied with extra ones as part of their stores ; but, in the case of merchant vessels (popraywyal) such as St. Paul’s ship, these ‘helps’ were prob-
ably improvised out of their ordinary gear. The term cxevj, translated ‘tackling’ (AV and RV
Ac 27), which the crew (and passengers [AV]) threw overboard with their own hands on the third day of the gale, probably refers to the spare stores of various kinds which followed some heavier undescribed weights (v.1*), and it was only as a last resort that the cargo of wheat (v.*8) (on which the commercial success of the voyage de- pended, and which was in charge of the ‘supercargo’ (vavkAnpos, v.1'), to whose ill advice and that of the sailing-master («uBepy7jr7s) St. Paul attributed their mishap) was ‘ jettisoned’ in order to so lighten the ship, that, when the cables were slipped (v.%°) and the foresail hoisted, she might run high up on the beach they had selected (v.”). ;
From the depth of water in which soundings were taken (Ac 27%), viz. in 20 and 15 fathoms, it is evident
* The Compleat Mariner, bk. i. p. 20, A.D. 1669. + Isidore Hisp. Op. Fol. Par. 161. t Hor. Carm. i.-xiv. 6, 7.
that a sounding-lead attached to a line (karazre:pa- Tnpla, catapirates) was used, as we see it on a bas- relief in the British Museum, suspended from the volute of the bow,* and probably ‘armed’ with grease at its lower end to determine the nature of the bottom, as in the time of Herodotus (ii. 5) and Lucilius.| The anchoring by the stern when rapidly shoaling water at night (Ac 27”) was good seaman- ship, and, in a vessel shaped alike at both ends, offered no practical difficulties, the rudder-paddles being afterwards triced up clear of the water. The ship carried at least one boat (cxd¢7), like all others of her class, for general purposes, such as laying out anchors (v.*°), communicating with the shore or with other ships ; and this boat was towed astern in charge of one of the crew,} in accordance with usual practice in fine weather, being either hoisted up to ‘davits’ outside.the ship, or hoisted on board altogether, for greater security (v.’’), when bad weather came on.
The ship in which St. Paul embarked from the island of Melita seems to have been of the same type as the wrecked one, but we have the additional detail given of her ‘sign’ (rapdonuov, insigne) (28),