Page:History of merchant shipping and ancient commerce (Volume 1).djvu/323

 considers unanswerable would not be the most perfect in practice, even in vessels of an inferior class to the octoreme. The oars would be more effective in midships than at any other part of the vessel, yet our author places the greatest number of these aft and forward, near "the prow or stem and near the stern." If there is any merit in his scheme, it would consist in placing the three banks in midships, and one aft in the case of a quadrireme; one aft and one forward in the case of a quinquereme; and two instead of three near the "stem and stern."

The whole of the question of rowing ancient galleys has been exceedingly well put by Vossius, in his "Dissertation on the Construction of Ancient Ships." Speaking of the largest of all these ships, of which any record remains, he says: "If we compare the oars that must necessarily have been used on board of this (Ptolemy's) ship with those by which the modern galley is worked, and allow for their different proportions in respect to length, we must also keep in view a similar comparison in regard to their size and thickness, and we shall then have a correct idea of their relative dimensions, as well as their strength." He then goes on to remark, "Let us now consider in what manner the four thousand rowers, which are said to have been employed on board this vessel, were employed or stationed at the forty banks of oars. It is not my intention," he continues, "to combat or examine what many learned men have