Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XIV.djvu/882

 - snip covered with structures resembling houses. According to Pliny, the Thasiaus were the first to construct full decks. Merchant vessels were round-bottomed for the sake of capacity. The pro xv was furnished with an elaborately carved image, as a boar's head, dog's head, &e., which was the symbol after which the ship was named. This symbol was termed the intiynt (whence our word ensign), and has descended to our own times as the figurehead. Upon the stern, which rose high out of water, like that of a Chinese junk, was the image of the tutelar god with other ornamental devices. A pecu- liar feature in the war vessels was a projecting beak, at first made above the water line, and afterward below it, armed with pointed irons or the head of a ram, the object of which was to pierce the sides of other vessels against which it was run. This was the only part built of oak or hard wood. From want of strength in the construction of ancient vessels, and the necessity in their voyages of avoid- ing exposure to rough seas, they were bound around the outside with broad and thick ropes. During the gale which preceded its shipwreck the vessel which bore St. Paul, bearing the sign of Castor and Pollux, had to be " undergirded " (Acts xxvii. 17). The great ships of Ptolemy Philadelphia were provided with as many as 12 such bands, each of which was 900 ft. long. They were sometimes carried on board the vessels, to be put on when needed in rough weather. As the ships depended chiefly upon the use of oars, the arrangements for these were their most marked feature, and gave dis- tinctive names to the several classes of vessels. (See GALLEY, and NAVY.) A Roman ship of the time of Trajan, sunk in the lake of Kiccia and raised after it had lain there more than 1,800 years, was described by Leo Baptista Albert! in his book of "Architecture (v. 12); it was built of planks of pine and cypress, daubed over with Greek pitch and calked with linen rags ; the wood was in a good state of preservation ; the outside was sheathed with sheet lead fastened with small copper nails. In the middle ages navigation and ship building declined, and little is known of the vessels of that period. The expedition made by the An- glo-Saxons to England, A. 1 >. 449, was in frail vessels, their sides made of wicker work and covered with skins. Better vessels were un- doubtedly used by the Northmen in their per- ilous voyages. For war purposes the long low galleys of the Mediterranean gradually replaced the ancient triremes. Alfred the Great adopt- ed them in his wars with the Northmen, and he first made the English navy unequalled. In the latter part of the 14th century the best ships were of Norman construction; in the representations of their war vessels of this pe- riod the rudder is first seen as a substitute for the great steering oars always before in use. In southern Europe the credit of first build- ing vessels to be propelled by sails alone has generally been conceded to the Genoese. In England many snch vessels were employed as early as 1344. The use of cannon in naval waraura at the siege of Calais in the reign of Edward 111. led to the enrolment of - belonging to the crown. Shins of war had been numerous in the reign of John, but were owned by individuals ; the government pro- vided at that time for their accommodation the royal dockyards at Portsmouth. The ships of these periods were remarkable for the great height of their sides, their bulky rounded models, and the simplicity of their rig. They had no bowsprit, and seldom more than one mast ; the sail was attached to a yard, which was let down to the deck when not used. They were navigated by 17 to 20 sailors only, Hen- rv V. added to the number of English ships. llis vessels were of 100 to 600 tons each, some with three, others with two masts, with short topmasts and a forestnge or forecastle built up to a considerable height for the soldiers. At the mast heads were topeastles, in which men were stationed during an engagement to annoy the enemy with darts and other missiles. In the middle of the 15th century William Can- ynge, a famous merchant of Bristol, built many large ships, one at least of 900 tons burden, and employed altogether not less than 2,850 tons of shipping and 800 mariners for eight years. The navies of the Netherlands, Ven- ice, Spain, and Portugal attained great im- portance in that century. Many of the ships being so far improved as to sail upon a wind. and the compass and astrolabe having come into use, it was now possible to engage in longer voyages and prosecute explorations in unknown seas. The discovery of America and of the passage round the cape of Good Hope were early fruits of these improvements. The Portuguese employed small vessels in their voyages of discovery, as the best adapted for explorations along unknown coasts; out the Spaniards cultivated the art of building large ones, and long maintained a superiority in this respect. The Great Harry, built in 1488, is considered to have been the first shin of the English navy as it is seen to-day, although a standing fleet was first formed under Henry VIII. She had four masts, carried courses, fore and main topsails, and topgallant sails, and had guns in broadside on two covered docks. (Sv-o N.WY.) The vessels of this pe- riod, built up with high castellated structures at each end, seem intended rather for display than for actual service, and must have been far inferior sailers to the galleasses and gal- leons of the Mediterranean, which had suc- ceeded the galleys. These were of moderate height above the water, and the tirst had oxer- hanging bulwarks like the guards of modern steamboats, greatly adding to the xvidth of the decks and affording room for the rowers. The galleons, on the contrary, which depended on sails alone, wore drawn in at the top to such an extent as to contract their breadth from the water line fully one half; this feature has