Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 18.djvu/126

SHIP. Tennessee and Washington of the United States Navy, which were commenced about the end of 1902. They are 502 feet long, and have a displacement of 14,500 tons, while their battery consists of four 10-inch guns, sixteen 6-inch, twenty-two 3-inch, twelve 3-pounders, four 1-pounders, and eight automatic and machine guns.

The third type of armorclad is the coast-defense ship. The ordinary type of armored coast-defense ship is the improved monitor, of somewhat similar design, a vessel carrying heavy ordnance, and fairly thick armor, with light draught and good manœuvring qualities. Coal capacity, habitability, seaworthiness, and (usually) speed are sacrificed to keep the dimensions within moderate limits. Many small countries have built coast-defense ships on these lines, realizing their inability to maintain an adequate naval force to assume offensive operations against a first-class power. In the greater navies the coast-defense ships are largely vessels of obsolete types, many of them designed originally as sea-going ships, but now unfit for modern offensive operations. For the defense of certain harbors and channels the United States has recently built several improved monitors and a few powerful coast defenders have recently been completed by France, Germany, the Netherlands, and Russia. Many of them are thoroughly seaworthy ships, however, and only regarded as in the coast defense class because of their size and moderate coal supply.

For further information, consult: Annual of the Office of Naval Intelligence (United States Navy), particularly for the year 1889 and subsequent volumes; Brassey, Naval Annual (Portsmouth, England); Laughton (ed.), The Naval Pocket Book (London, annual); Aide-mémoire de l'officier de marine (Paris, annual); Taschenbuch der deutschen und der fremden Kriegsflotten (Munich, annual); Almanach für die kaiserliche und königliche Kriegs-Marine (Pola, annual); Brassey, British Navy, vol. i., “Shipbuilding for Purposes of War” (Portsmouth, 1885); Proceedings of the United States Naval Institute (published quarterly at Annapolis, Maryland), particularly vol. ix., No. 3; Army and Navy Year Book for 1895 and 1896 (Philadelphia); Journal of the Society of Naval Engineers (published quarterly at Washington); the Proceedings of the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers (published annually, New York); Nauticus (annual, Berlin); Transactions of the Institution of Naval Architects (published annually, London); Wilmot, The Development of Navies (London, 1892); Very, The Navies of the World (ib., 1880); King, The Warships of Europe (Portsmouth, 1878); Bennitt, The Monitor and the Navy Under Steam (Boston, 1900); Buchard, Marines étrangères (Paris, 1891); annual reports of the Secretary of the Navy. See articles on  SHIPBUILDING. The simplest form of floating craft designed to support and transport men or objects is the log; the next step is the raft; then the dugout, or log hollowed out; the ‘hollowed out’ principle being established, the canoe of bark or skins stretched upon light frames naturally followed when lightness was a matter of importance. To secure increased size the dugouts were split and additional planks inserted between the sides to form a broader bottom, the next step naturally being the construction of a vessel of planks sewed together with ropes, or held together with wooden pins and braced by light interior frames. The next form was that of a vessel in which the planking was attached to strong frames by wooden pins or metal fastenings; when this point was reached the larger craft had whole or partial decks. Lastly we have the iron or steel ship of the present day.
 * , etc.

The earliest Egyptian drawings show boats constructed of sawn planks and having sails as well as oars. Notwithstanding the fact that Egyptian ships are the earliest of which we have positive knowledge, there are the strongest reasons for believing that the Egyptians were but tardy imitators of real seafaring peoples—for seafaring themselves they were not. The Chaldeans seem to have been navigators and shipbuilders, but it is certainly to the Phœnicians that belongs the principal credit for the development of the ship. As early as 900 the Phœnician war galley had reached the trireme stage, and had decks, masts, yards, stays, sails, a ram, etc. The war galleys differed from those used for carrying merchandise in being longer, faster under oars, generally larger, and probably less seaworthy.

Among the ships of the ancients there were many of great size, but it is doubtful if they were strong enough to have ‘gone to sea’ in the modern sense of the expression. They were chiefly used for harbor service or as houseboats, and, though some were fitted as men-of-war, it does not appear that they were ever in action. One great ship, of which the dimensions are not precisely known, was built for Hiero II., King of Syracuse, under the direction of Archimedes. Though the descriptions are not very clear, she seems to have been copper-fastened and sheathed with lead laid over cloths soaked in pitch. She was presented by Hiero to Ptolemy Philopater soon after completion; her further history is unknown. The ordinary trireme galley was probably 110 to 140 feet in length (including the beak), and had a breadth of 14 to 18 feet. This size seems to have been the general favorite throughout the galley period. As ramming was one of the principal methods of attack, speed, weight, and handiness were of prime importance, and these were better combined in the trireme than in vessels of greater or less size. With merchant vessels the conditions were somewhat different. Merchant galleys used their sails much more and had less imperative need of speed. They were therefore broader in proportion to the length.

As the use of sails became more common and they were better fitted, ships began to increase in average size, the advantage of speed and power being with the larger ships. As soon as the sea power of Venice began to wane the great centres of shipbuilding changed from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic, the North Sea, and the Baltic. William the Conqueror invaded England in very small vessels, but one hundred years later English ships of considerable size were in use. King John established a royal dockyard at Portsmouth. Early in the fourteenth century the use of large sailing ships and of the mariner's compass had become