Ship under Sail. (From a sculptured marble.)
SHIP
696
SHIP
small sails to be substituted for the larger in stormy- weather, and that the mast at the bow with its sail was the artemon. In addition to the three lower sails, they had snppnra, or topsails, to be set in light winds ; and it would appear from a coin of Nero, given by IMontfau- con ( pi. cxliii ), that they had sails above the suppara equivalent to topgallant-sails — a ship being represented with two yards above the main - yard. We have no proof that the ancients made use of what, in modern lan- guage, are termed fore-and- aft sails ; but they certain- ly had triangular sails, at
least in the war-gallevs, ^
with the aoex at the footof L^i'Se Ancient Esjrptian Boat with sail, apparently made of the papyrus, a double
^' ., ,, mast, and many rowers. (In a tomb at Kom Ahmar, above Miuieh.)
the mast ; such a sail could
writer says in reference to a similar comment on a pas- sage of Cicero, " It is hardly possible that he can have seen a ship." The sacred writer's use of Trr]Ca\ia is just like Pliny's use of rjube7-nacula (//. iV. xi,37,88) orLucre- tius's of fft/berna (iv, 440). Ancient ships were in truth not steered at all by rudders fastened or hinged to the stern, but by means of two paddle-rudders, one on each quarter, acting in a rowlock or through a port-hole, as the vessel might be small or large. This fact is made familiar to us in classical works of art, as on coins, and the sculptures of Trajan's Column. The same thing is true, not only of the Mediterranean, but of the early ships of the Northmen, as may be seen in the Bayeux tapestry. Traces of the " two rudders" are found in the time of Louis IX. The hinged rudder first appears on the coins of king Edward III. There is nothing out of harmony with this early system of steering in James ii, 4, where TnjSaXiov occurs in the singular; for " the governor" or steersman (o tv^vvwi') would onl}'' use one paddle-rudder at a time. In a case like that described in Acts xxvii, 40, where four anchors were let go at the stern, it would of course be necessary to lash or trice up both paddles, lest they should interfere with the ground tackle. When it became necessary to steer the ship again, and the anchor-ropes were cut, the lashings of the paddles would of course be unfas- tened.
4. AncJior.i. — It is probable that the ground tackle of Greek and Koman sailors was quite as good as our own. The anchors appear to have differed little from those of the moderns, except that in place of the palms or iron plates attached to the extremities of the arms, the arms themselves were beaten tlat, as in the Dutch anchors. It is a common error to suppose that they were without stocks. Thus Capt. Beechey says, " The transverse piece or anchor-stock is wanting in all of them." The annexed cut, from a coin of Antoninus Pius, shows that this is a mistake.
Two allusions to anchoring are found in the New
be braced about without interfering with the rowers, which was probably the reason whj' this form was adopted. The lower corners of the sails, or rather the ropes which attach them to the sides of the ship, in English the " sheets," were called the feet of the sails. The proj)es, fore-foot (^Trpoirovg'), a word which has puz- zled commentators, is simply the sheet which is drawn forward, and would no doubt have been called in English the fore -sheet, had that term not been applied to the sheet of the foresail. The ckevi] in ancient ships con- sisted of ffKtvi) ^vXiva (wooden gear), and (tkeui] Kps- paard (hanging gear); the first consisted of masts, j'ards, oars, rudders, etc. The o-;^oivia (funes) were the hawsers or strong ropes for the anchors, and also for fastening the ship ashore ; while the roTrtia were a lighter kind of cordaye, carefully made and attached to the masts, yards, and sails. The yards ( Kipaia ) were composed of two spars doubled in the centre. This explains an apparently absurd iwn sequitur of Pliny, He tells us that, although single spars were large enough, yet seamen were so rash as to add sail to sail — the word " non" being obviously omitted. The above cut, from the tomb of Nievoleia Tyche at Pom- peii, exidains the mode of furling the sails by drawing them up to the yard like a window-curtain, as already noticed in the ship of Theseus.
This seems the best place for noticing three other points of detail. Though we must not suppose that merchant-ships were habitually propelled by rowing, yet sweeps must sometimes have been employed. In Ezek. xxvii, 29, oars (UVL'^) are distinctly mentioned; and it seems that oak-wood from IJashan was used in making them (tic rjjc HaaavirihoQ iiToh]ftav tuq koj- irag aov, ver. 6). Again, in Isa. xxxiii, 21, l^yd "^iH. literally means " a ship of oar," i. e. an oared vessel. Itowing, too, is probably implied in Jonah i, 13, where the Sept. has simply Trnptiita'CoiTO. Another feature of the ancient as of the modern ship is the flag, or tnnfitiov, at the top of the mast (Isa. loc. rit. and xxx, 17). Here, perhaps, as in some oth- er respects, the early Egyptian paintings sup- ply our best illustration. Each ship was pro- vided also with a plumb-line for sounding (Acts xxvii, 2H ; Isidor. (hir/. xix, 4).