Ships were now capable of considerable voyages. So early as the 5th century s.c., the Carthaginian Hanno had explored the west coast of Africa, and in Roman times the fleets of Juba of Numidia brought hunting dogs from the Canaries. The Phoe nicians of Gades pushed up to Cornwall and the Scillies, and traded for tin with the inhabitants of Britain. Most important of all, Hippalus, in the 1st century A.D., observed the periodicity of the monsoons, and opened up the direct sea route from Egypt to India, with the result of a great increase in the traffic with the East. The Romans, indeed, deliberately encouraged the sea trade with India, in order to avoid the payment of tolls to the Parthians on the overland route, and the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea— a combination of "sailing directions" and commercial guide-book —bears witness to the magnitude of the traffic.
Shipping in classical times was already a well organized trade. The rights of owners, shippers, and passengers were clearly defined by law. While the ship-owner was often also the owner of the cargo, it was equally common for merchants to charter a ship, or space for the carriage of their goods. Syndicates were formed to finance particular voyages. The laws relating to bottomry (money borrowed for necessaries on the security of the ship) and to general average (the contribution made by each interest to a sacrifice, such as jettison, incurred for the common safety) were already taking shape. Demosthenes pleaded in shipping causes. The laws of the Rhodians as to average and contracts of affreight ment were quoted by jurists in comparatively modern times. Under the empire, Carthaginian ship-owners had a regular agent at Ostia ; port development was systematically undertaken.
The carrying capacity of the larger ships frequently went up to 25o tons, and was much greater in some vessels employed for special purposes, such as the carriage of the Vatican obelisk to Rome. They were, however, bad sea-boats. Classical shipbuild ing had developed along two lines. The galley, a long, narrow, oared craft, with great tactical mobility, was the man of war. The merchant ship was a broad, deep, sailing vessel, using sweeps only as auxiliaries, built for carrying capacity, but slow, clumsy, and incapable, owing to her very simple rig, of sailing near the wind. Winter voyages were almost unknown, and even in summer, ships seldom ventured far from land. The record passage from Rome to Egypt was nine days; the corn convoys probably took about 25 days on the direct voyage from Alexandria to Ostia ; but about mid-July the Etesians, a strong north-westerly wind, stopped the direct traffic, and drove the corn ships to follow the inshore tracks along the coasts of Syria and Asia Minor. The voyages of St. Paul, with their frequent stoppages and search for a safe harbour in which to winter, were typical of all early naviga tion. The direct sea-route to India was an exception due to the in fluence of the monsoon. It was by hugging the coasts that the Phoenicians came to Britain. Even if the ships had possessed greater sea-keeping capacity, the rudimentary state of navigational science, necessitating frequent landfalls, would have made long ocean passages impracticable.
ginning of modern history, there was little real progress. So long as the galley held her own as the ship of war and the merchantman was incapable of ocean voyages, the Mediterranean remained the natural centre of sea-power and commerce. After the decline of Byzantium, the Italian city States, Genoa, Pisa, and above all, Venice, dominated the trade routes with their galley fleets, and exploited them mainly with bluff apple-bowed sailing vessels that showed little improvement on the classical models. In the north, the Norsemen appear to have used the long-ship, or an adaptation thereof, for trading as well as for fighting, but the English, French and German merchantmen of the early middle ages were sailing vessels of the old type.
The great stimulus to the development of northern shipping came from the fisheries. The importance of salt fish in mediaeval times can hardly be over-estimated. It was indispensable to inland centres during the long Lenten fast ; it was indispensable as a winter provision, and for the supply of armies. The Channel and North sea fisheries were the first school of English seaman ship, and the rise of the federation of Hansa towns, during the 13th and 14th centuries, was largely due to their control of the great Scania herring fishery at the entrance to the Baltic. The Hanseatics did not themselves engage in the fishery; but they purchased and distributed the bulk of the catch.
English shipping was confined, at first, to the fisheries and the short sea trades. The first impetus to longer voyages came with the third crusade, which introduced English seamen to the more advanced Mediterranean designs, and led to the promulgation of the Laws of Oleron, a codification of the existing customary law governing maritime affairs. Progress was hampered, however, by the fiscal policy of the Plantagenet kings which, aiming at revenue rather than protection, involved the grant of large con cessions to foreigners. The export of wool fell mainly into the hands of the Hansa; direct sea trade with the Mediterranean was mostly controlled by the Italians; and those who controlled the trade carried the goods. The demands on shipping for war service also impeded the development of trade. The galley never became really acclimatized in England, the king's ships were few, and the bulk of the fleets were merchantmen serving on obligation of tenure, like the ships of the Cinque ports, or on requisition. With no strong standing navy, piracy was rampant, and private war, as between the fleets of Yarmouth and the Cinque ports, not uncommon. Moreover, the hire of requisitioned ships was often paid irregularly or not at all. Thus the prolonged wars of Ed ward III. were ruinous to ship-owners, and their complaints led, in the reign of Richard to the first abortive attempt at navi gation laws, for the encouragement of English shipping. On the other hand, the French connection led to a brisk traffic with the English possessions, and the Bordeaux trade in Gascony wines and Toulouse woad was an invaluable nursery of seamen for the ocean trades. The pilgrim traffic to the shrine of Santiago de Compostela in Spain also encouraged the building of larger ships.