Page:Yachting wrinkles; a practical and historical handbook of valuable information for the racing and cruising yachtsman (IA yachtingwrinkles00keneiala).pdf/18

 a yacht manned by Corinthians and the first one that ever sailed on the Euxine, vulgarly known as the Black Sea. So far as I know, there are no photographs extant of her interior, but judging from the log of her voyage she had a fine galley on deck, in which her crew of heroes used to cook the choice parts of swine and deer for their own use, offering up the offal as a sacrifice to the immortal gods—a circumstance showing that the ancient mariners were just as level-headed as the down-to-date seamen of to-day.

The handsome barges which belonged to the high civilization of ancient Egypt used to ply on the muddy waters of the Nile, and highly ornate vessels they were, manned by fifty rowers. They had sails of crimson silk, richly embroidered. Their cabins were sumptuous, spacious and luxurious, gold, silver and precious stones being used lavishly in their decoration. In such a stately craft Cleopatra and Mark Antony passed many halcyon hours of splendid ease and amorous dalliance. The Romans and Carthaginians had their pleasure craft, and so had the Greeks and Venetians.

It was the custom of the Romans to hold regattas of biremes and triremes, and according to the chronicles a good deal of money changed hands over the results. Every schoolboy remembers the exciting boat race between those gallant Trojan captains, Cloanthus and