Page:History of merchant shipping and ancient commerce (Volume 1).djvu/360

 one hundred vessels for the transport of the two thousand horses, and from seventy to one hundred for the transport of stores and munitions of war, and, if the number conveyed was about twenty-seven thousand men, the rate would be forty-five men to each vessel, so that the vessels on the second and more important expedition were, on an average, only about one-half the size of those which had been engaged on the first, and, like those, consisted, probably, in great measure of undecked and flat-bottomed boats or barges.

One of the reasons Cæsar assigns for the preference he gave in his second expedition to small vessels was, that he had learned by his experience of the frequent changes of the tide in the Channel that the waves were not so violent as he had expected, and, therefore, that smaller boats were sufficient for his purpose; but this does not seem to be a very satisfactory view. It is true that when wind and tide are together the violence of the waves is modified materially; but when they are opposed, their violence is greatly increased. We should rather suppose that, in preferring open row boats to sailing vessels for his second expedition, Cæsar had more especially in his mind the facility with which they could be beached. One effect of Cæsar's selection of this large flotilla became, however, at once manifest in the terror it caused to the Britons, who, instead of resisting his landing, fled precipitately in all directions at the sight of so numerous a squadron, and retired into the interior. The debarkation of the troops on the second invasion was therefore effected without