Page:History of merchant shipping and ancient commerce (Volume 1).djvu/119

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enough to have built sixty triremes; procuring stores of trenails, &c., from Italy and Sicily, ropes from Spain, and hemp and pitch from the banks of the Rhone; and watching himself over the progress of the works. To launch her effectively, Archimedes invented a screw of great power; and the building was pushed on with such rapidity, that, in six months from the time she was commenced, great progress had been made, every part as it was finished (referring no doubt to the sheathing of the bottom and to the interstices on the upper decks or houses) being covered with sheets of lead. She is further said to have had twenty banks of oars, and three entrances, the lowest leading to the hold, the next to the eating-rooms, while the third was appropriated to the armed men. On both sides of the middle entrance thirty rooms, each containing four couches, were assigned to the soldiers; the sailors' supper-room held fifteen, and there were, besides, three cabins, each containing three couches. The floors of these rooms were composed of stone mosaic work, bearing on it a pictorial representation of the whole story of the Iliad. There was also a temple to Venus of cypress inlaid with ivory, furnished with rich and valuable goblets and vases. This great ship was fitted with four wooden and eight iron anchors; and the mainmast, of a single tree, was procured after much search from the mountains of the Bruttii.
 * nificent vessel, Hiero cut down on Mount Etna trees

But the most remarkable part of the story is that relating to her freight, as it is stated that one or two of the launches belonging to this ship, built, it may be presumed to attend upon her, were able them