Page:History of merchant shipping and ancient commerce (Volume 1).djvu/346

 as meaning "the thwarts or seats upon which the rowers sat:" but it is obvious that no other construction can be put upon the word except that it meant the hatches of the hold, which, being slightly elevated above the level of the deck, would be a much more likely place for the master or officer of the galley to walk than upon the thwarts where the rowers sat; and this opinion is also confirmed by the expression in the latter quotation, where "the hatches of the prow" are distinctly mentioned as the covering of the entrance to the fore-compartment or hold of the galley.

Though parts only of the galleys were open, the proportion of open and closed spaces varied with the class and size of the galleys or the purposes for which they were employed. In all such matters, also, different nations had doubtless different arrangements, if not in the form, at least in the outfit and general equipment of their galleys, and these no doubt have undergone great changes in the course of centuries. Nor does this fact modify the opinion that "hatches" in their literal sense are meant; for, in the time of Homer, though the galleys were all single-banked and "open," they had a deck in midships and at the bow and the stern, as well as the catastroma or platform in the waist, for the use of the soldiers.

Although many of the war-galleys of the ancients had high towers at the stern, and at the bow, these were frequently temporary erections, not interfering with the general plan of the hull of the ship, and varying in form and size; the oar-ports, too, could