Page:History of merchant shipping and ancient commerce (Volume 1).djvu/340

 A practised eye will at once perceive that rowers thus arranged could work with great effect and simultaneously, without in any way interfering with the movements of each other. Nor would there be any difficulty in placing to the best advantage, as may be seen in our illustration (see p. 285) of the tranverse midship-section of the quinquereme, the large number of three hundred rowers required for vessels of that class.

If this theory be correct, then the problem of how the various classes of galleys were rowed is solved; for, if this was the principle of their classification, the difficulty does not increase with their dimensions, as is the case in all other theories; the extreme height of the highest bank of rowers, either in the case of the quinquereme, or in that of any of the larger vessels, being not necessarily more than nine feet above the water.

At the word of command from the officer, who