Page:History of merchant shipping and ancient commerce (Volume 1).djvu/324

 already written on this subject, both in France and in other countries. Their opinion is certainly correct in respect to the tiers of oars being placed obliquely over each other. Existing remnants of antiquity convince us clearly of the fact; but there still remains a much heavier difficulty to be got over: it is, in what manner the oars of the upper tier could be worked and managed by one person only; for it is denied that more than one was stationed to each oar, and the perplexity of the enigma is not a little increased by the assertion that a very small part of the oar reached within board. It is well known that there are no weights whatever which, by the proper assistance and combination of mechanical power, may not be moved even by a single person; but we are at the same time certain, that the greater the weights are, so much the slower can they be moved. Oars, it must be remembered, become almost useless unless they are impelled with quickness and spirit, as well as brought back to their original station, for a renewal of the stroke with equal celerity. The mechanical powers are of no use in this instance, as the law remains fixed and immutable, that any operation which, in the ordinary course of things, requires ten men to perform it, and one only is employed, may indeed be executed by that one, but will require a period ten times as long to perform it in; for nature will not suffer herself to be deceived, or her laws perverted by any such vainly-hoped-for advantage."

While Vossius was of opinion that no vessel had ever more than seven tiers of oars,—though he does