Page:History of merchant shipping and ancient commerce (Volume 1).djvu/416

 better adapted to encounter stormy weather and rough seas than the vessels of a similar size and class in the Mediterranean. All details respecting them must, however, be conjectural; and a drawing of one class, even if accurate, may give as faint an impression of ships of another class, as the collier of to-day would afford of a modern Indiaman or Ocean-Steamer.

Nor, indeed, is it likely that the Conqueror's fleet included many ships of a superior class or size, as we know that the great bulk, if not the whole of them, were built or collected, and fitted between the first of January and the latter end of August. Norman writers of the period state that their merchant vessels or transports were in length about three times their breadth, sometimes propelled by oars, but generally by sails: their galleys appear to have been of two sorts, the larger, occasionally called galleons, carrying in some instances sixty men, well armed with iron armour, besides the rowers. The smaller galleys, which are not specially described, doubtless resembled ships' launches in size, but of a form enabling them to be propelled at considerable speed. Besides these, the Normans would appear to have also used, for purposes of war, small light boats covered with leather resembling those already described.

It is almost as difficult to arrive at any sound conclusion with regard to the actual state of trade and