Page:History of merchant shipping and ancient commerce (Volume 1).djvu/330

278 whatever the size of the galley was, whether a bireme or trireme, up to the galley of Philopator, which had forty banks, nine feet being the highest point from the water for the scalmi, from which they could pull with effect."

Mr. Howell, in confirmation, as he conceives, of this opinion, quotes Athenæus; but, though there is nothing in the description of the great ship to lead to the conclusion that the scalmi of her highest bank of oars were only nine feet above the level of the water, we agree with Mr. Howell that an oar could not be worked effectively at a greater height, and that the seats of the rowers were arranged by the system of obliquity, so as not to interfere with each other. We, however, differ from him in other respects. "A Greek trireme," he remarks, "at the time of the invasion of Xerxes, had from one hundred and fifty to one hundred and sixty rowers and forty armed foot, while the average-sized Persian triremes carried two hundred rowers and thirty soldiers." Presuming these to be established facts, Mr. Howell endeavours to make his theory harmonize with them. "I have shown," he says, referring to the French vessel, of which we have furnished particulars, "that a modern galley pulling fifty oars has six rowers on a bench. If I am correct," he continues, "a trireme pulled thirty oars, that is, three banks, five oars in each, thus:—