The Rowing Galley

The crew of the Attic trireme consisted of from 200 to 225 men in all. Of these some 170 were rowers. Besides the rowers there were io marines and 20 seamen. The chief officer was the trierarch and next to him the helmsman, who was the navigating officer of the trireme. The economy of space was such that, as Cicero remarks, there was not room for one man more.

The improvement made in the build of their vessels by the Corinthian and Syracusan shipwrights, by which the bows were so much strengthened that they were able to meet the Athenian attack stem on, caused a change of tactics, and gave an impetus to the building of larger vessels—quadriremes and quinqueremes —in which increased oar-power was available for the propulsion of the heavier weights.

Roman Ships.

The Romans, who developed their naval power during the First Punic War, though it is clear from the treaty with Carthage, 509 B.c., that they had had some maritime interests and adventurings before that great struggle began, were deficient in the art of naval construction. A Carthaginian quinquereme, which had drifted ashore, served them for a model, and with crews taught to row in a framework set up on dry land they manned a fleet which was launched in sixty days from the time that the trees were felled. Their first attempt was, as might have been expected, a failure. But they persevered, and the invention of the "corvus," by means of which boarding was op posed to ramming tactics, gave them under Duilius (26o B.c.) vic tory at Mylae, and eventually the command of the sea. From that time onwards they continued to build ships of many banks, and seem to have maintained their predilection for fighting at close quarters. The larger vessels with their "turres," or castles, fore and aft, deserved Horace's description as "alta navium pro pugnacula." The "corvus" and the "dolphin" were ready in action to fall on the enemy's decks.

But the fashion of building big ships received a severe set back at the battle of Actium (31 B.c.), when the light Liburnian "biremes," eluding the heavy missiles of the larger vessels, swept away their banks of oars, leaving them crippled and unable to move, till one by one they were burnt down to the water's edge and sank. (Merivale, Hist. of Romans under the Empire, c. 28.) After this experience the Romans adopted the Liburnians as their principal model, and though the building of vessels with many banks continued for some centuries, yet the Liburnian type was so far dominant that the name was used generically to signify a man-of-war.

The building of large merchant vessels followed with more peaceful times. These craft were propelled by sails and not by oars. The great corn ships, which brought supplies from Egypt to the capital, were, if we may take the vessel described by Lucian as a typical instance, 120 cubits long by 3o broad and 29 deep.

The ship in which St. Paul and his companions were wrecked carried 276 souls besides cargo. Even larger vessels than these were constructed by the Romans for the transport of marbles and great obelisks to Italy. Many of these vessels are reputed to have carried three masts, although the number is doubted by modern authorities. They had square sails, and on the main mast a topsail.

Meanwhile special vessels continued to be constructed for fighting purposes. In the war with the Vandals (A.D. 440-470) we hear of ships of a single bank, with decks above the rowers. These, we are told, were of the type which at a later date were called Dromons in allusion to their speedy qualities, a name which gradually superseded the Liburnian as indicating a man-of-war. During the following centuries the Mediterranean was the scene of constant naval activity. The necessity of improving galleys as regards speed and armament became more and more pressing. Greek fire and other detonating and combustible mixtures, launched by siphons or in the form of bombs, led to various devices by way of protective armour, such as leather or felt casing, or woollen stuffs soaked in vinegar.

Meanwhile the northern seas were breeding a new terror. The ships of the Vikings, propelled by oar and sail, were seagoing vessels of an excellent type. They were of various sizes, ranging from the skuta of about 30 oars to ask or skeid with 64 oars and a crew of 240, and to the still larger dreki or dragon boats, and the famous snekkjur or serpents, said to be represented on the Bayeux tapestry. Of these vessels we have fortunately a typical instance, though one of the smaller class, in the well-known Viking ship discovered in i88o in a tomb-mound at Gokstad near Christiania (Oslo), whose dimensions are: length 78 ft., beam 16 ft. 7 in., depth 5 ft. 9 in., with high stem and stern; clinker built of oak throughout, with 16 oars on either side. Of this gen eral type were the vessels large and small which had by the 9th century or before that found their way into the Mediterranean. If, as is probable, the Danes who invaded England used the same class of vessel, Alfred the Great must, according to the Saxon Chronicle, be credited with improvements in construction, which enabled him to defeat them at sea (897). He built, we are told, vessels twice as long as those of the Danes, swifter, steadier and higher, some of them for 6o oars, and after his own design, not following either the Danish or Frisian types.