Ancient Egyptian shipsFLEET OF EGYPTIAN QUEEN.
FLEET OF EGYPTIAN QUEEN.
However this may be, the lovers of our pastime, if they will consult the pages of the works above mentioned, will find rowing already well established as an employment, if not as an amusement, in the hoar antiquity of Egypt. Not only the Nile water, whether the sacred stream was within his banks or spread by inundation over the plain within his reach, was alive with boats, busy with the transport of produce of all sorts, or serving the purposes of the fowler and the fisherman, but the Red Sea and the Mediterranean coasts were witnesses of the might and power of Pharaoh, as shown by his fleets of great vesselsfully manned, ready with oar and sail to perform his behests, ready to visit the land of Orient, and bring back thence the spices and perfumes that the Egyptians loved, together with apes and sandal wood, or else to do battle with the fierce Pelesta and Teucrians and Daunians who swarmed in their piratical craft upon the midland sea, entering the Nile mouths, and raiding upon the fat and peaceable plains of the Delta.
The Egyptian boats present several noticeable features. Built evidently with considerable camber, they rise high from the water both at stem and stern, the ends finished off into a point or else curved upwards and ornamented with mystic figure-heads representing one or other of the numerous gods. The steering is conducted by two or more paddles fastened to the sides of the boat in the larger class, and sometimes having the loom of the paddle lengthened and attached to an upright post to which it is loosely bound. A tiller is inserted in the handle, and to this a steering cord fastened, by which the helmsman can turn the blade of the paddle at will. The paddles vary but little in shape. They are mostly pointed, and have but a moderate breadth of blade. In some of the paintings they are being used as paddles proper, in others as oars against a curved projection from the vessel’s side serving as a thowl. But whether this is solid or whether it is a thong, like the Greekτροπωτήρ, against which the oarsman is rowing, it is not easy to say.
The larger vessels depicted with oars have in some cases as many as twenty-five shown on one side. In others the number is less. But it is quite possible that the artist did not care to portray more than would be sufficient to indicate conventionally the size of the vessel. In some of the vessels there are apertures like oar-ports, though no oars are shown in them, which raise a presumption that the invention of the bireme, the origin of which is uncertain, may with some probability be attributed to the Egyptians. The larger vessels are all fitted with sailing gear, and the rowing is evidently subsidiary to the sail as a means of locomotion. The wall paintings of Egypt give us ample details of Egyptian ships and boats extending over aperiod, as we are told, of twenty centuries and more. In them we have a glimpse of the maritime enterprise, in which the oar must have taken a principal part, of the races which inhabited the seaboard of the Mediterranean in which piracy had its home from very early times. Teucrians, Dardanians, Pelesta (? Pelasgians), Daunians, Tyrrhenians, Oscans, all seem to have been sea-going peoples, and at intervals to have provoked by their marauding the wrath of Pharaoh and to have felt his avenging hand.
But of all the seafaring races that made their homes and highways upon the waters of the great inland sea, the most famous of early times were the Phœnicians. According to some accounts connected with Capthor (Copts), and according to others emigrants from the coast of the Persian Gulf, their genius for maritime enterprise asserted itself very early, so that already before Homer’s time they were masters of the commerce of the Mediterranean, and had rowed their dark keels beyond the mystic pillars that guarded the opening of the ocean stream.
And yet, though the facts are certain, we know but little of these famous mariners, of their vessels and their gear. The only representation of their vessels is from the walls of the palaces of their Assyrian conquerors, an inland people, not likely to detect or appreciate any technical want of fidelity in the likeness presented. And, accordingly, the pictures are conventional, telling us but little of that which we should like to know about their build, and oars, and oar ports, &c. The date, moreover, is not in all probability earlier than 900b.c.
Such being the case, we are driven for information to the more ample store of Greek literature, and to Greek vases for the earliest representations of the Greek vessel.
Homer abounds in sea pictures. He has a wealth of descriptive words, touches of light and colour which bring the sea and its waves and the vessel and its details with vivid and picturesque effect before us. His ships are black and have their bows painted with vermilion, or red of some other tone; they are sharp and swift, and bows and stern curve upwardslike the horns of oxen. And withal they are rounded on both sides, and well timbered and hollowed out, and roomy, having by the gift of the poet a facile combination of all the opposite qualities, so desirable and so difficult in practice to unite. As yet there is no spur or ram, but round the solid stempost shrieks the wave, as the vessel is urged onward either by the mighty hands of heroes, or the god-sent breeze that follows aft. Nor is the vessel decked, except for a short space at bow and stern, where it had raised platforms. On the quarterdeck, so to speak, of the stern sat the great chiefs, whose warriors plied the oar, and there they laid their spears ready for use. There also was the standing place of the steersman who wielded the long paddle which served to guide the vessel. The thwarts which tied the vessel’s sides together (yokes or keys as they are called) served as benches for the oarsmen; those amidships had the heaviest and longest oars, so that they were places of honour reserved for the heaviest and strongest men, e.g. for Hercules and Ancæus in the Argo. Whether the ‘sevenfoot,’ to which Ajax retreats from the stern deck, when defending the Greek ships against the Trojans and hard pressed by them, be bench or stretcher, it gives us an idea of the breadth of the Homeric vessel at or near the place of the stroke oar. Long low galleys they must have been, with a middle plank running fore and aft, interrupted by the ‘tabernacle,’ in which the mast when hoisted was secured, having fore and back stays. The warriors were oarsmen, the oarsmen warriors. The smallest complement, as Thucydides observes, was fifty, the largest one hundred and twenty.
It is doubtful how far the Alexandrine poets can be relied upon as giving accurate information respecting details of ancient use. Yet we have many lifelike pictures and a great profusion of details, drawn no doubt from the ample stores of antiquarian knowledge which these laborious men of letters had at their service in the great Alexandrine library, and these go to fill up that which is lacking in the Homeric picture. And so when Apollonius the Rhodian paints for us such scenes as those ofthe building of the Argo, the launching, the detail of the crew, and the starting of the vessel, we cannot help feeling that they are describedcon amore, not of the sea, or of ships, or of rowing, but of the literary beauty of similar descriptions by earlier poets. In a word, they are at second hand. But better this than none at all.
Ancient rowing and sailing boatANCIENT BOAT DEPICTED ON VASE.
ANCIENT BOAT DEPICTED ON VASE.
The ‘bireme,’ or two-banked vessel, does not appear in Homer. But, as we have seen, it was probably in existence before Homer’s time. If of Egyptian parentage, it was adapted for use on the Mediterranean waters by the shipwrights of Sidon or Tyre. It is a curious reflection that this remarkable evolution of banked vessels should, so far as we can judge, have occupied about two thousand years; the curve, if we may use the expression, of development rising to the highest point in the useless Tesseraconteres of Ptolemy, and after Actium declining to the dromons and biremes of the Byzantine Emperor Leo, and finally subsiding into the monocrota or one-banked vessels, the galleys of mediæval times.
The problem which taxed the ingenuity of those early shipwrights was briefly this, how to get greater means of propulsion by increasing the number of oars, without such increase in the length of the ship as would, by increased weight, neutralise the advantage and still further diminish that facility in turningwhich was of the greatest moment to the ancient war-vessel. Galleys with fifty oars on either side had already been constructed,[2]and all the speed that a hundred pairs of hands could give had been obtained, when the invention of the bireme exhibited the means of nearly doubling the power without much increasing the weight to be moved, since but little additional height or breadth was required.
[2]Perhaps even with a hundred, ifέκατόζυγοςis to be taken literally.
[2]Perhaps even with a hundred, ifέκατόζυγοςis to be taken literally.
The normal adjustment of the horizontal space between the oarsmen was then, as it is now, regulated by that canon of the ancient philosopher, ‘Man is the measure of all things.’ Twice the man’s cubit gives room for his legs when in a sitting posture. Hence the two-cubit standard (σχ̅ημα ’διπηχαϊκόν) which is referred to by Vitruvius as the basis of proportion in other constructions besides ships and boats. Given this as the interscalmium (space between the thowls) or distance between points at which the oars in the same tier were rowed, it is clear that the rowing space of a vessel’s side would be, for a penteconter, or twenty-five a side, seventy-five feet, and for a hecatonter, if there ever was such a thing, 150 feet. To this must be added the parts outside the oarage space (παρεξειρεσία), for the bows ten feet, and something more, say twelve feet, for the stern. So that a penteconter would be a long low galley of about ninety-seven feet in length. The new invention nearly doubled the number of oars without increasing the length of the oarage space.
It was found that by making apertures in the vessel’s sides at about three feet from the water and dividing the space between the (zyga) thwarts, room could be made for a second row of men with shorter oars, but still handy and able to add to the propulsion of the vessel. For these seats were found in the hold (thalamus), and hence while the upper tier of the bireme took their name from the zyga, benches or thwarts, and were called ‘Zygites,’ the men of the lower tier were called ‘Thalamites.’ These names were continued when the invention of the ‘thranos,’ or upper seat, had added a third or upper tierwith longer oars to the system, and so introduced the trireme. If the number of the zygites in the penteconter was twenty-five a side, and the first bireme was a converted vessel of that class, the number of thalamites, owing to the contraction of the bow and the stern, would necessarily be two or three a side less. Thus we may consider a converted penteconter to have been capable of carrying a rowing crew of between 90 and 100 men. Similarly a triaconter would have been capable of adding nearly twenty pairs of arms to her propelling power. When, in consequence of the new invention, vessels were expressly built as triremes, we may imagine that for convenience’ sake the benches or zyga would be a little raised, so as to give more room for the raised seat of the thalamites that was fastened on to the floor of the vessel.
The narrowness of the vessels affected the disposition of the rowers in the Greek galleys in a peculiar way. It is evident from the testimony of the ancients that they adhered strictly to the principle of ‘one man to each oar.’ The arrangement seen in mediæval galleys was absolutely unknown to them, and would not have suited them. It belongs to a different epoch and a different order of things, when the invention of the ‘apostis’ had made the use of large sweeps rowed by two or three men possible, and a vessel with sets of three rowing upon the same horizontal plane might be called a trireme, though utterly unlike the ancient vessel of that name.
In the ancient vessel the tiers of oarsmen must have sat in nearly the same vertical plane, obliquely arranged, one behind and below the other. Thus in the bireme the zygite, as he sat on his bench, had behind him and below him his thalamite whose head was about 18 inches behind the zygite thwart and a little above it. Moreover, as his seat was now a little raised, the zygite required anappuifor his feet, which was formed for him on the bench on which the thalamite next below and in front of him was sitting; on either side of him his feet found a resting-place. As the zygite fell back during the stroke and straightened his knees, there was plenty of room for the thalamitebelow to throw his weight also on to his oar. There seems to have been but little forward motion of the body. The arms were stretched out smartly for the recovery, as we learn from Charon’s instructions to Dionysus in the ‘Frogs’ of Aristophanes, and then adriving smitingstroke was given (cf. the wordsέλαύνειν, παίειν, άναρρίπτειν ̔άλα πηδῷ) and the brine tossed up by the blade.
When once the principle had been established, by which additional power could be gained without increasing the length of the vessel, and had been tested by practical experience, its development was sure to follow. What century witnessed the birth of the trireme is not certain, but probably by 800b.c.the earliest vessels of this description had been launched. The quick-witted sharp-eyed Greek was not slow to copy, and by the beginning of the next century the busy shipwrights of Corinth were building the new craft for Samians as well as for themselves.
It is, however, in the Attic trireme such as composed the fleets of Phormio and Conon that historical interest has centred, and though quinqueremes were commonly in use in the second and third centuries,b.c., and even still larger rates of war vessels constructed till they wereinhabilis prope magnitudinis, unwieldy leviathans, such as the sixteen-banked flagship of Demetrius Poliorcetes, yet the interest in the trireme has never failed, and the splendour of its achievements has insured to it an attention on the part of the learned which no other class of vessel has been able to attract to itself. The problem of construction of the trireme, and of the method of its propulsion, has exercised the ingenuity of scholars ever since the revival of letters. It has a literature of its own, and it may fairly be said that if the enigma has not been solved, it is not for want of industry or acumen.
One point we may as well make clear at once, viz., that whatever was the vessel the ancients invariably went upon the principle,One man, one oar. Volumes have been wasted in attempts to prove that the arrangement of the ancient galleyswith respect to propulsion were identical with, or very similar to, those of the mediæval galleys of Genoa or Venice. But the mediæval galleys were essentiallymonocrota, or one-banked vessels, though they may have been double-banked or treble-banked in the sense that two or three men were employed upon one oar.
Ancient Greek Rowing BoatBAS-RELIEF OF ANCIENT GREEK ROWING BOAT.
BAS-RELIEF OF ANCIENT GREEK ROWING BOAT.
Another distinction that it is necessary to note with reference to the ancient galleys is that they were calledAphractorKataphractaccording as the upper tier of rowers was unprotected and exposed to view, or fenced in by a bulwark stout enough to protect them from the enemy’s missiles. The system of side planking is observable as already adopted in some of the Egyptian vessels, though of the Greeks the Thasians are credited with the invention.
In the year 1834, during the process of excavating someground for new public buildings in the Piræus near Athens, some engraved stone slabs were found built up in a low wall which had been uncovered. These were happily preserved and deciphered, and were found to be records of the dockyard authorities of the Athenian admiralty in the second and third centuries before Christ. Many interesting details were thus brought to light which were set in order by the illustrious scholar Boeckh in his volume entitled ‘Urkunden über das Seewesen des attischen Staates.’ His pupil Dr. Graser has carried on his researches by the examination of innumerable coins, vases, etc., and has rescued the subject from much of the obscurity which enveloped it. The following description of the trireme, based upon his labours, is quoted, by permission, from the new edition of the ‘Encyclopædia Britannica,’ vol. xxi. pp. 806, 807.
In describing the trireme it will be convenient to deal first with the disposition of the rowers and subsequently with the construction of the vessel itself. The object of arranging the oars in banks was to economise horizontal space and to obtain an increase in the number of oars without having to lengthen the vessel. We know from Vitruvius that the ‘interscalmium,’ or space horizontally measured from oar to oar, was two cubits. This is exactly borne out by the proportions of an Attic aphract trireme, as shown on a fragment of a bas-relief found in the Acropolis. The rowers in all classes of banked vessels sat in the same vertical plane, the seats ascending in a line obliquely towards the stern of the vessel. Thus in a trireme the thranite, or oarsman of the highest bank, was nearest the stern of the set of three to which he belonged. Next behind him and somewhat below him sat his zygite, or oarsman of the second bank; and next below and behind the zygite sat the thalamite, or oarsman of the lowest bank. The vertical distance between these seats was 2 feet, the horizontal distance about 1 foot. The horizontal distance, it is well to repeat, between each seat in the same bank was 3 feet (the seat itself about 9 inches broad). Each man had a resting-place for his feet, somewhat wide apart, fixed to the bench of the man on the row next below and in front of him. In rowing, the upper hand, as is shown in most of the representations which remain, was held with the palm turned inwards towards the body. This is accounted for by the angle atwhich the oar was worked. The lowest rank used the shortest oars, and the difference of the length of the oars on board was caused by the curvature of the ship’s side. Thus, looked at from within, the rowers amidship seemed to be using the longest oars, but outside the vessel, as we are expressly told, all the oar-blades of the same bank took the water in the same longitudinal line. The lowest or thalamite oar-ports were 3 feet, the zygite 41⁄4feet, the thranite 51⁄2feet above the water. Each oar-port was protected by anascomaor leather bag, which fitted over the oar, closing the aperture against the wash of the sea without impeding the action of the oar. The oar was tied by a thong, against which it was probably rowed, which itself was attached to a thowl (σκαλμός). The port-hole was probably oval in shape (the Egyptian and Assyrian pictures show an oblong). We know that it was large enough for a man’s head to be thrust through it.
In describing the trireme it will be convenient to deal first with the disposition of the rowers and subsequently with the construction of the vessel itself. The object of arranging the oars in banks was to economise horizontal space and to obtain an increase in the number of oars without having to lengthen the vessel. We know from Vitruvius that the ‘interscalmium,’ or space horizontally measured from oar to oar, was two cubits. This is exactly borne out by the proportions of an Attic aphract trireme, as shown on a fragment of a bas-relief found in the Acropolis. The rowers in all classes of banked vessels sat in the same vertical plane, the seats ascending in a line obliquely towards the stern of the vessel. Thus in a trireme the thranite, or oarsman of the highest bank, was nearest the stern of the set of three to which he belonged. Next behind him and somewhat below him sat his zygite, or oarsman of the second bank; and next below and behind the zygite sat the thalamite, or oarsman of the lowest bank. The vertical distance between these seats was 2 feet, the horizontal distance about 1 foot. The horizontal distance, it is well to repeat, between each seat in the same bank was 3 feet (the seat itself about 9 inches broad). Each man had a resting-place for his feet, somewhat wide apart, fixed to the bench of the man on the row next below and in front of him. In rowing, the upper hand, as is shown in most of the representations which remain, was held with the palm turned inwards towards the body. This is accounted for by the angle atwhich the oar was worked. The lowest rank used the shortest oars, and the difference of the length of the oars on board was caused by the curvature of the ship’s side. Thus, looked at from within, the rowers amidship seemed to be using the longest oars, but outside the vessel, as we are expressly told, all the oar-blades of the same bank took the water in the same longitudinal line. The lowest or thalamite oar-ports were 3 feet, the zygite 41⁄4feet, the thranite 51⁄2feet above the water. Each oar-port was protected by anascomaor leather bag, which fitted over the oar, closing the aperture against the wash of the sea without impeding the action of the oar. The oar was tied by a thong, against which it was probably rowed, which itself was attached to a thowl (σκαλμός). The port-hole was probably oval in shape (the Egyptian and Assyrian pictures show an oblong). We know that it was large enough for a man’s head to be thrust through it.
Two Ancient Galleys FightingANCIENT GALLEY FIGHT, FROM POMPEII.
ANCIENT GALLEY FIGHT, FROM POMPEII.
The benches on which the rowers sat ran from the vessel’s side to timbers which, inclined at an angle of about 64° towards the ship’s stern, reached from the lower to the upper deck. These timbers were, according to Graser, called the diaphragmata. In the trireme each diaphragma supported three, in the quinquereme five, in the octireme eight, and in the famous tesseraconteres forty seats of rowers, who all belonged to the same ‘complexus,’ though each to a different bank. In effect, when once the principle of construction had been established in the trireme, the increase to larger rates was effected, so far as the motive power was concerned, by lengthening the diaphragmata upwards, while the increase in the length of the vessel gave a greater number of rowers to each bank. The upper tiers of oarsmen exceeded in number those below, as the contraction of the sides of the vessel left less available space towards the bows.Of the length of the oars in the trireme we have an indication in the fact that the length of supernumerary oars (πηρινἐῳ) rowed from the gangway above the thranites, and therefore probably slightly exceeding the thranitic oars in length, is given in the Attic tables as 14 feet 3 inches. The thranites were probably about 14 feet. The zygite, in proportion to the measurement, must have been 101⁄2, the thalamite 71⁄2feet long. Comparing modern oars with these, we find that the longest oars used in the British navy are 18 feet. The University race is rowed with oars 12 feet 9 inches. The proportion of the loom inboard was about one third, but the oars of the rowers amidship must have been somewhat longer inboard. The size of the loom inboard preserved the necessary equilibrium. The long oars of the larger rates were weighted inboard with lead. Thus the topmost oars of the tesseraconteres, of which the length was 53 feet, were exactly balanced at the rowlock.The Attic trireme was built light for speed and for ramming purposes. Her dimensions, so far as we can gather them from the scattered notices of antiquity, were probably approximately as follows:—length of rowing space (ἔγκωπον), 93 feet; bows, 11 feet; stern, 14 feet; total, 118 feet; add 10 feet for the beak. The breadth at the water-line is calculated at 14 feet, and above at the broadest part 18 feet, exclusive of the gangways; the space between the diaphragmata mentioned above was 7 feet. The deck was 11 feet above the water-line, and the draught about 8 to 9 feet. All the Attic triremes appear to have been built upon the same model, and their gear was interchangeable. The Athenians had a peculiar system of girding the ships with long cables (ὑποζώματα), each trireme having two or more, which, passing through eyeholes in front of the stem-post, ran all round the vessel lengthwise immediately under the waling-pieces. They were fastened at the stern and tightened up with levers. These cables, by shrinking as soon as they were wet, tightened the whole fabric of the vessel, and in action, in all probability, relieved the hull from part of the shock of ramming, the strain of which would be sustained by the waling-pieces convergent in the beaks. These rope-girdles are not to be confused with the process of undergirding or frapping, such as is narrated of the vessel in which St. Paul was being carried to Italy. The trireme appears to have had three masts. The mainmast carried square sails, probably two in number. The foremast and the mizen carried lateen sails. In action the Greeks did not use sails, and everything that could be lowered was stowed below.The mainmasts and larger sails were often left ashore if a conflict was expected.The crew of the Attic trireme consisted of from 200 to 225 men in all. Of these 174 were rowers—54 on the lower bank (thalamites), 58 on the middle bank (zygites), and 62 on the upper bank (thranites),—the upper oars being more numerous because of the contraction of the space available for the lower tiers near the bow and stern. Besides the rowers were about 10 marines (ἐπιβάται) and 20 seamen. The officers were the trierarch and next to him the helmsman (κυβερνήτης), who was the navigating officer of the trireme. Each tier of rowers had its captain (στοιχαρχός). There were also the captain of the forecastle (πρωρηύς), the ‘keleustes’ who gave the time to the rowers, and the ship’s piper (τριηραυλής). The rowers descended into the seven-foot space between the diaphragmata and took their places in regular order, beginning with the thalamites. The economy of space was such that, as Cicero remarks, there was not room for one man more.
The benches on which the rowers sat ran from the vessel’s side to timbers which, inclined at an angle of about 64° towards the ship’s stern, reached from the lower to the upper deck. These timbers were, according to Graser, called the diaphragmata. In the trireme each diaphragma supported three, in the quinquereme five, in the octireme eight, and in the famous tesseraconteres forty seats of rowers, who all belonged to the same ‘complexus,’ though each to a different bank. In effect, when once the principle of construction had been established in the trireme, the increase to larger rates was effected, so far as the motive power was concerned, by lengthening the diaphragmata upwards, while the increase in the length of the vessel gave a greater number of rowers to each bank. The upper tiers of oarsmen exceeded in number those below, as the contraction of the sides of the vessel left less available space towards the bows.
Of the length of the oars in the trireme we have an indication in the fact that the length of supernumerary oars (πηρινἐῳ) rowed from the gangway above the thranites, and therefore probably slightly exceeding the thranitic oars in length, is given in the Attic tables as 14 feet 3 inches. The thranites were probably about 14 feet. The zygite, in proportion to the measurement, must have been 101⁄2, the thalamite 71⁄2feet long. Comparing modern oars with these, we find that the longest oars used in the British navy are 18 feet. The University race is rowed with oars 12 feet 9 inches. The proportion of the loom inboard was about one third, but the oars of the rowers amidship must have been somewhat longer inboard. The size of the loom inboard preserved the necessary equilibrium. The long oars of the larger rates were weighted inboard with lead. Thus the topmost oars of the tesseraconteres, of which the length was 53 feet, were exactly balanced at the rowlock.
The Attic trireme was built light for speed and for ramming purposes. Her dimensions, so far as we can gather them from the scattered notices of antiquity, were probably approximately as follows:—length of rowing space (ἔγκωπον), 93 feet; bows, 11 feet; stern, 14 feet; total, 118 feet; add 10 feet for the beak. The breadth at the water-line is calculated at 14 feet, and above at the broadest part 18 feet, exclusive of the gangways; the space between the diaphragmata mentioned above was 7 feet. The deck was 11 feet above the water-line, and the draught about 8 to 9 feet. All the Attic triremes appear to have been built upon the same model, and their gear was interchangeable. The Athenians had a peculiar system of girding the ships with long cables (ὑποζώματα), each trireme having two or more, which, passing through eyeholes in front of the stem-post, ran all round the vessel lengthwise immediately under the waling-pieces. They were fastened at the stern and tightened up with levers. These cables, by shrinking as soon as they were wet, tightened the whole fabric of the vessel, and in action, in all probability, relieved the hull from part of the shock of ramming, the strain of which would be sustained by the waling-pieces convergent in the beaks. These rope-girdles are not to be confused with the process of undergirding or frapping, such as is narrated of the vessel in which St. Paul was being carried to Italy. The trireme appears to have had three masts. The mainmast carried square sails, probably two in number. The foremast and the mizen carried lateen sails. In action the Greeks did not use sails, and everything that could be lowered was stowed below.The mainmasts and larger sails were often left ashore if a conflict was expected.
The crew of the Attic trireme consisted of from 200 to 225 men in all. Of these 174 were rowers—54 on the lower bank (thalamites), 58 on the middle bank (zygites), and 62 on the upper bank (thranites),—the upper oars being more numerous because of the contraction of the space available for the lower tiers near the bow and stern. Besides the rowers were about 10 marines (ἐπιβάται) and 20 seamen. The officers were the trierarch and next to him the helmsman (κυβερνήτης), who was the navigating officer of the trireme. Each tier of rowers had its captain (στοιχαρχός). There were also the captain of the forecastle (πρωρηύς), the ‘keleustes’ who gave the time to the rowers, and the ship’s piper (τριηραυλής). The rowers descended into the seven-foot space between the diaphragmata and took their places in regular order, beginning with the thalamites. The economy of space was such that, as Cicero remarks, there was not room for one man more.
Such, we may believe, was the trireme of the palmy days of Athens. Built for speed, it was necessarily light and handy, and easily turned, so that the formidable beak could be plunged into the enemy’s side, the moment a chance was given. But it required sea room for its manœuvres, and in a narrow strait or land-locked harbour, such as that of Syracuse, was no match for the solid balks of timber with which Corinthian and Syracusan shipwrights strengthened the bows of their vessels. Against these the pride of Athens was hurled in vain, only to find itself broken up and rendered unseaworthy by the crash of its own ram.
With the defeat of Athens comes in the fashion of larger vessels with more banks of oars, quadriremes, quinqueremes, and so on up to sixteen banks, when the increase of the motive power had been more than overtaken by the increase in bulk and weight. The principles of construction in these larger vessels seem to have been the same as in the trireme. The space for each man was probably somewhat less, and the handles of the upper tiers of oars were weighted with lead, so as to give a balance at the thowl between the parts outboard and inboard.
A question difficult to solve has often been raised respecting the pace at which these ancient galleys could be propelled. If five-man power could be taken as equivalent to one-horse power, then for the propulsion of the trireme there would have been available about thirty-five horse power, but that would hardly give a very high rate of speed.
There is a passage in Xenophon[3]in which he speaks of a distance of about 150 nautical miles, from Byzantium to Heraclea, as possible for a trireme in a day, but a long day’s work. Assuming eighteen hours’ work out of the twenty-four, a speed of something over eight knots per hour would be required for this, which may perhaps seem excessive. Still we may believe that by a crew when fresh a pace not less than this could be achieved.
[3]Anab.vi. 42.
[3]Anab.vi. 42.
The Romans, though it may be inferred from treaties with Carthage and with Tarentum that they had some kind of fleet in the time even of the kings, yet did not apply themselves readily to maritime pursuits, and made no serious effort to become masters of the Mediterranean till the first Punic War. We hear then of their copying a quinquereme which had fallen into their hands by accident. A fleet was constructed in sixty days from the time that the trees were first cut down, and meantime crews were practised diligently in rowing on dry land in a framework of timber which represented the interior of the vessels that were building. This first essay at extemporising a fleet does not seem to have been very successful. But nothing daunted they persevered, and the second venture under the Admiral Duillius took with it to sea a new invention called the ‘corvus,’ a sort of boarding bridge by which, when it once fell on the enemy’s vessel, the Roman infantry soon found its way on to his deck, and made short work with the swarthy African crew. This revolutionised the maritime struggle, and gave unexpectedly the naval superiority to Rome. The large vessels of war (alta navium propugnacula) continued to be built until the time of Actium, when the light Liburnian galleys, which werebiremes, were found to be more than a match for the leviathans, whose doom from that moment was sealed.
From that time, with the exception of the accounts ofnaumachiæ, there is very little of interest about galleys to be gathered. The coins and the paintings of Pompeii show us craft degenerating in type. The column of Trajan exhibits biremes as still in vogue. Later on there is a light thrown upon the subject by theTacticaof the Byzantine Emperor Leo about 800a.d., who gives directions as to the building and composition of his fleet, which is to consist of biremes, or dromones as he calls them, and light galleys with one bank of oars.
From these latter eventually sprang the mediæval galley, which however differed from the ancient galley in the arrangement of its oars by the use of the ‘apostis,’ a projecting framework which took the place of the ancient ‘parodus,’ and upon which the thowls were placed, against which the long sweeps could be plied by two or three men attached to each. For full and accurate descriptions of these mediæval vessels the reader who has any curiosity on the subject should consult the ample works of M. Jal. HisArchéologie NavaleandGlossaire Nautiquecontain the fullest information as regards the build, and fittings, and crews of the mediæval galley. The sorrows and sufferings of ‘la Chiourme’ were enough to give rowing a bad name, as an employment too cruel even for slaves and fit to be reserved for criminals of the worst description.
It is in England, and in the hands of English free men and boys, that the oar has maintained an honourable name, as the instrument of a pastime healthy and vigorous, with a record not inglorious of struggles in which the strength and skill of the nation’s youth have contended for the pride of place and the joy of victory.
Top ornate header Ch. 2
Bottom ornate header Ch. 2HENLEY COURSE (BETWEEN RACES).
HENLEY COURSE (BETWEEN RACES).
Written records of rowing performances in the last century are but scarce. In 1715 Mr. Doggett, comedian, founded a race which has survived to the present day—to wit, ‘Doggett’s coat and badge’ (of freedom of the river). ‘Watermen’ have to serve as ‘apprentices’ for seven years, during which time they may not ply for hire on their own account, but only on behalf of their masters. When they have served their time they can become ‘free’ of the river, on payment of certain fees to the Corporation.
In order to encourage good oarsmanship, prizes which paid the fees for freedom, and bestowed a ‘coat and badge’ of merit, have often been given by patrons of aquatics. Doggett’s prize is the oldest of its class, and of all established races. The contest used to be from London Bridge to Chelsea against the ebb—asevere test of stamina; and formerly six only of the many applicants for competition were allowed to row, being selected by lot. The race is now reformed. It is managed by the Fishmongers’ Company. The course is changed, so far that it is now rowed on the flood. This makes it fairer; on the ebb, it is hard to pass a leader who hugs the shore in the slack tide. ‘Trial heats’ are now rowed, to weed off competitors till the old standard number of six only are left in. Authentic records of the race exist since 1791.
Mr. Brickwood, who has taken much pains to look up old accounts, informs us in his ‘Boat Racing’ that the Westminster ‘water ledger,’ dating June 1813, is the earliest authentic record of Thames aquatics of this century. We venture to give the result of Mr. Brickwood’s researches in his own words:—
This book commences in the year 1813 with a single list of the six-oared boat ‘Fly,’ viz., Messrs. H. Parry, E. O. Cleaver, E. Parry, W. Markham, W. F. de Ros, G. Randolph. The ‘Fly’ continued to be the only boat of this school down to 1816 inclusive, in which latter year it ‘beat the Temple six-oared boat (Mr. Church stroke), in a race from Johnson’s dock to Westminster Bridge, by half a boat; the latter men having been beat before;’ to which is added a note that the Temple boat ‘requested the K. S. to row this short distance, having been completely beat by them in a longer row the same evening.’ In 1817 there was a six-oar built for Westminster, called the ‘Defiance,’ and ‘sheepskin seats were introduced.’ In 1818, the ‘Westminster were challenged by the Etonians,’ and a six-oared crew was in course of preparation for the race, but the contest was prohibited. In 1819 an eight-oar called the ‘Victory’ was launched, but the six-oar ‘Defiance’ appears to have been the representative crew of the school, for there is a note that in the spring of 1821 ‘the boat improved considerably and beat the “Eagle” in a short pull from Battersea to Putney Bridge.’ In 1823 a new six-oared cutter was built, and the name of ‘Queen Bess’ given in honour of the illustrious foundress. In 1823 this boat was started from the Horseferry at half past five in the morning, and reached Chertsey bridge by three o’clock. On their way back they dined at Walton, and again reached the Horseferry by a quarter before nine. The crew of the eight-oar ‘Victory’ in the same year ‘distinguished themselves in theTemple race and several others.’ A new eight called the ‘Challenge’ was launched in 1824, and the record says this boat did beat every boat that it came alongside of, as also did the ‘Victory.’ And again in April 13, 1825, this boat (‘Challenge’) started from the Horseferry at four minutes past three in the morning, reached Sunbury to breakfast at half past seven, and having taken luncheon at the London Stairs, just above Staines, went through Windsor bridge by two o’clock in the afternoon. After having seen Eton, the crew returned to Staines to dinner, and ultimately arrived at the Horseferry, having performed this distance in twenty-one hours. The locks detained them full three hours, and, including all stoppages, they were detained seven hours. A waterman of the name of Ellis steered the boat in this excursion, and both steered and conducted himself remarkably well.
This book commences in the year 1813 with a single list of the six-oared boat ‘Fly,’ viz., Messrs. H. Parry, E. O. Cleaver, E. Parry, W. Markham, W. F. de Ros, G. Randolph. The ‘Fly’ continued to be the only boat of this school down to 1816 inclusive, in which latter year it ‘beat the Temple six-oared boat (Mr. Church stroke), in a race from Johnson’s dock to Westminster Bridge, by half a boat; the latter men having been beat before;’ to which is added a note that the Temple boat ‘requested the K. S. to row this short distance, having been completely beat by them in a longer row the same evening.’ In 1817 there was a six-oar built for Westminster, called the ‘Defiance,’ and ‘sheepskin seats were introduced.’ In 1818, the ‘Westminster were challenged by the Etonians,’ and a six-oared crew was in course of preparation for the race, but the contest was prohibited. In 1819 an eight-oar called the ‘Victory’ was launched, but the six-oar ‘Defiance’ appears to have been the representative crew of the school, for there is a note that in the spring of 1821 ‘the boat improved considerably and beat the “Eagle” in a short pull from Battersea to Putney Bridge.’ In 1823 a new six-oared cutter was built, and the name of ‘Queen Bess’ given in honour of the illustrious foundress. In 1823 this boat was started from the Horseferry at half past five in the morning, and reached Chertsey bridge by three o’clock. On their way back they dined at Walton, and again reached the Horseferry by a quarter before nine. The crew of the eight-oar ‘Victory’ in the same year ‘distinguished themselves in theTemple race and several others.’ A new eight called the ‘Challenge’ was launched in 1824, and the record says this boat did beat every boat that it came alongside of, as also did the ‘Victory.’ And again in April 13, 1825, this boat (‘Challenge’) started from the Horseferry at four minutes past three in the morning, reached Sunbury to breakfast at half past seven, and having taken luncheon at the London Stairs, just above Staines, went through Windsor bridge by two o’clock in the afternoon. After having seen Eton, the crew returned to Staines to dinner, and ultimately arrived at the Horseferry, having performed this distance in twenty-one hours. The locks detained them full three hours, and, including all stoppages, they were detained seven hours. A waterman of the name of Ellis steered the boat in this excursion, and both steered and conducted himself remarkably well.
Such are some of the early Westminster School annals, as collated by Mr. Brickwood. One cannot help feeling that if these long journeys were samples of the school aquatics, it is not to be wondered that parents and guardians of old days imbibed prejudices against rowing, and considered it injurious both to health and to study.
In the following decade there seem to have been plenty of aquatics current. The ‘Bell’s Life’ files of those days teem with aquatic notes. One day we read (dated May 26, 1834) a self-exculpatory letter from Dr. Williamson, head-master of Westminster School, explaining why he did not approve of his scholars rowing a match against Eton, and complaining of the ‘intemperance and excesses which such matches lead to.’
On July 3, says ‘Bell’ of July 6 in that year, a match was rowed between a randan (Campbell, Moulton, and Godfrey) and a four-oar (Harris, Eld, Butcher, and Dodd, Cole cox.)—from Putney to Westminster. The randan were favourites, and led; but Moulton fainted, and the four won. The race was for a purse of 70l.—50l.for winners and 20l.for losers. In the same paper, Williams challenges Campbell to a match—apparently for the incipient title of Champion of the Thames. Williams wishes Campbell to stake 40l.to 30l., because he is six years the younger. Compare the modesty of these stakeswith those for which modern champion, and some less important matches, are rowed!
Old-fashioned way of starting college eightsMETHOD OF STARTING THE COLLEGE EIGHTS PRIOR TO 1825—OXFORD
METHOD OF STARTING THE COLLEGE EIGHTS PRIOR TO 1825—OXFORD
‘Lyons House’ seems to have been a sort of resort for amateurs. Cole, who steered the waterman’s four (supra)v.the randan, is described as the waterman of those rooms.
On July 8, same year, a Mr. Kemp, of the 3rd Dragoon Guards, matches himself for a large stake to ‘row his own boat’ from Hampton Court to Westminster and back in nine hours. Time is favourite, but Mr. Kemp wins by 27 minutes, having met the tide for several miles of his voyage. Such are a few samples of the current style of aquatic sports between 1830 and 1840.
The ‘Wingfield Sculls’ were founded in 1830, given by the donor, whose name they bear, to be held as a challenge prize by the best sculler of the day from Westminster to Putney, against all comers, on the ‘4th of August for ever’—so a silver plate in the lid of the old box which holds the silver sculls bears testimony. Since its foundation the prize has been more than once placed on a different footing. Parliaments of old champions and competitors for the prize have been summoned, and the original donor gave assent to the changes of course andrégime. Lists of winners and competitors from year to year, with notes as to the course rowed, will be found in ‘Tables’ later on. The race has from its earliest years been described by amateurs as equivalent of ‘amateur championship.’ A panoply of silver plates has grown up in and around the box which holds the trophy, and on these plates is recorded the name of each winner from year to year. About a quarter of a century ago a ‘champion badge’ was instituted. It consists of a small edition of the Diamond Sculls (Henley) challenge prize; as to shape, it is a pair of silver sculls crossed with an enamel wreath and mounted on a ribbon like a ‘decoration’ or ‘order.’ There is a ‘clasp’ for the year of winning. A second win only adds a fresh clasp with date, but no second badge. The secretary of the ‘order’ is Mr. E. D. Brickwood, himself winner of the title in 1861.
Eight-oars had been manned at Eton before they found their way to Oxford. At Cambridge they appeared still later. At both Universities a plurality of eight-oars clubs had existed for some seasons before the first University match—1829.
In 1881, at the time when the ‘Jubilee’ dinner of University boat-racing was held, the writer took the opportunity of the presence in London of the Rev. T. Staniforth, the stroke of the first winning University eight, to inquire from him his recollections of college boat-racing in his undergraduate days.
Fortunately for posterity, Mr. Staniforth had kept a diary during his Oxford career, and it had noted many a fact connected with aquatics. He kindly undertook to bring to London at his next visit his diaries of Oxford days. He met the writer, searched his diaries, and out of them recorded history which was taken down from his lips, and reduced to the following article, which appeared in ‘Land and Water’ of December 17, 1881.[4]It is now reproduced verbatim, by leave. The writer regrets to say that, from various causes, he has been unable to pursue his researches beyond the dates when Mr. Staniforth’s diaries cease to record Oxford aquatics.
[4]SeeAppendix.
[4]SeeAppendix.
There must be many an old oarsman still alive who can recall historical facts between 1830 and 1836, and it is hoped that such memories may be reduced to writing for the benefit of posterity, and for the honour of the oarsmen of those years, beforetempus edax rerummakes it too late.
The writer considers that he will do better thus to reproduce verbatim his own former contribution to ‘Land and Water’ than to paraphrase it. The more so because much of the text of it is actually theἔπεα πτερόενταof the old Oxford stroke, taken down as uttered from his lips to the writer, and read over againto him for emendation or other alteration, before the interview in question was concluded. It may be added that Mr. Staniforth kindly showed to the writer the actual text of the diaries referred to, from which he refreshed his memory and recorded the appended history.
As to the intermediate history between 1830 and 1837, in which year the Brasenose boating record opens (two seasons before an O.U.B.C. was founded), Christ Church started head in 1837; therefore, apparently, they finished head in 1836.
Oxford eight, 1829OXFORD BOAT IN 1829.
OXFORD BOAT IN 1829.
Mr. Brickwood, in his book on ‘Boat Racing,’ has collected some history of these years, but unfortunately he does not record the source, so that what might be a tree of knowledge for inquirers to pluck more from seems to be sealed against our curiosity. We have, however, to thank him for the following information, which we reproduce (page 157 of ‘Boat Racing’):—
1833.—Queen’s College is chronicled as head of the river at Oxford this being the only record between 1825 and 1834. Christ Church, it is true, was said to have kept that position for many years, but the precise number is not given. However, there seems no doubt that Christ Church was head in 1834, 1835, and 1836, after which the official record commences.
1833.—Queen’s College is chronicled as head of the river at Oxford this being the only record between 1825 and 1834. Christ Church, it is true, was said to have kept that position for many years, but the precise number is not given. However, there seems no doubt that Christ Church was head in 1834, 1835, and 1836, after which the official record commences.
Mr. Brickwood, moreover, seems to have gleaned from some independent source sundry valuable details of early Oxford races. He tells us that ‘the first known races were those of the college eights in 1815, when Brasenose was the head boat, and their chief and perhaps their only opponent was Jesus.’ He speaks of four-oared races in the next ensuing years, and of a match between Mr. de Ros’ four and a pair manned by a B.N.C. man and a waterman—won by the pair. Then comes some information as to the years 1822, 1824, and 1825, which exactly tallies with Mr. Staniforth’s journals, save that Mr. Brickwood ascribes the discontinuance of the races in 1823 directly to the recorded quarrel between B.N.C. and Jesus; whereas Mr. Staniforth attributes it to the untimely death of Musgrave (supra).
The first University race took place in 1829, over the course from Hambledon Lock to Henley. Mr. Staniforth states that till the Oxford went to practise over the course, no one thought of steering an eight through the Berks channel, past ‘regatta’ island. However, the Oxonians ‘timed’ the two straits, and decided to select the Berks one, if they got the chance. They took that channel in the race and won easily. A foul occurred in the first essay at starting, and the boats were restarted. This pair of pioneer University crews produced men of more than usual celebrity in after life: two embryo bishops, three deans, one prebendary, and divers others hereafter
In hamlet and hallAs well known to allAs the vane of the old church spire.
In hamlet and hallAs well known to allAs the vane of the old church spire.
The full list of the crews engaged in this and in all other contests in which Universities were represented, will be found in ‘Tables’ towards the end of this volume. At this time there was no O.U.B.C., nor did such an organisation exist until 1839, when a ‘meeting of strokes’ of the various colleges was convened, and a generally representative club was founded. At Cambridge a U.B.C. had existed since 1827. In that yearthe system of college eights seems to have been instituted, according to the testimony of Dr. Merivale, still Dean of Ely, and a member of the C.U.B.C. crew of 1829. Trinity were head of the river on that occasion, and there seems to have been also a Westminster club, of an independent nature in Trinity. The records of college racing at Cambridge seem to be unbroken since their institution; whereas those of Oxford were for many years unofficial and without central organisation, and consequently without official record, until 1839. The Brasenose Club record dates from 1837.