Ships and seafaring in ancient times

172 Pages·1996·33.92 MB·English

by  Casson

I
1

InternationalStandard Book
Number0-292-71162-x
LibraryofCongress Catalog
CardNumber93-61490
Copyright© 1994byLionel Casson
FirstUniversityofTexas Press
edition, 1994
Allrightsreserved
PrintedinGreatBritain
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HALF-TITLE PAGE Phoenician
galley. Detail ofFig. 33.
TITLE PAGE KyreniaII, replicaofa
small Greekmerchantman ofabout
300BC,undersail.
THIS PAGE AscenefromtheBayeux
tapestry, depictingone ofWilliam
the Conqueror's ships transporting
horses as weU as men. Eleventh
centuryad.
Contents
I The Birth ofthe Boatpage 7
2 Egyptpage 13
3 Ancient Shipbuildingpage 26
4 The Sailing Vessel page 36
5 The Warship:
Origin and Early Development page 47
6 The Age ofthe Trireme page 60
7 The Age ofthe Supergalleys page 78
8 Winning with Fire:
Warships ofthe Byzantine Navy page 96
9 Merchantmen page loi
Along the Coasts, in Harbours, on Rivers page
11 In the Northpage I4i
12 A New Age page 152
Bibliographypage 155
Notes page 155
List ofIllustrationspage 156
Indexpage 158

New
Zealandaborigines paddle overlakesastridebundles ofreeds.
Iraqi herdsmen cross streams on inflatedgoatskins. Tamilnatives
The Birth
fish by drifting along with a log under the arms, while Sindhi natives
Boat fish lying prone over open-mouthed pots. Devices like these were no
of the
doubtthe earliestforms ofwatertransport, pressed into use by ancient
primitive peoples living alonglakes and rivers. Simple, convenient and
readily available, theyhave maintained theirusefulness in undeveloped
areas to this day.
Therecameatimewhenmerefloatswerenotenough,whentravellers
sought something thatwould not only buoy them up butkeep them out
ofthe water as well, even allow them to venture onto the open sea. The
first step in this directionwasthe creation ofrafts, which fully metthese
needsandhadtheadditionalvirtueofaccommodatingmorethanasingle
person. In places where trees grew, they would have been the type that
hasbecomemostfamiliar,ofboundlogs.AlongtheNileorinthemarshy
lower stretches ofthe Tigris and Euphrates, where wood is scarce but
reedsareabundant,theywereverylikelymadeofbatchesofreedbundles
tiedtogether.
Incertainareasordinaryraftscannotbeused. TheTigrisandEuphra-
tes, for example, along theirupperreaches in Armenia, run with a swift
current over many stony rapids, a combination that can easily shatter a
lograft. Fromearliesttimestheywerevitalarteries,fortheyfloweddown
into and through Mesopotamia, the birthplace ofcivilisation. To exploit
themtheinhabitantsdevisedbuoyedrafts,specificallythetypeconsisting
of a wooden frame supported by infiated animal skins. Quite possibly
they got the idea by observing people crossing the rivers on such skins:
the sightcouldwellhave triggered the thoughtthat, ifone bladder cotild
hold up the weight ofone person, a batch ofthem set under a platform
couldholdup theweightnot only ofseveral people butalso ofwhatever
they happened to be carrying. This form ofbuoyed raft was ideal for
rivers with rapids. The sharp rocks might cause a blow-out or two, but,
with the rest ofthe bladders intact, that was hardly serious - and even
thepuncturedonescouldbepatchedinshortorder.Inaddition,itoffered
a ready-made solution for the problem that afflicts aU who float down
rivers: how to get back against the current. Herodotus, the keen-eyed,
keen-minded Greek who has been called Father of History but could
equally well be called Father ofthe Travelogue, visited Babylon on the
lowerEuphrates aroundthe middle ofthe fifth cenmrybc and describes
1 HeraclessailstotheGardenofthe how raftsmen who came there from the north got themselves home.
Hesperides inapotboat. Froman
AthenianvaseintheVatican 'Each raft', he writes, 'has aboard a live donkey, the larger ones several.
Museum, about480BC. After arriving at Babylon and disposing oftheir cargo, the men auction
offthe wooden frame, load the bladders on the donkeys, and walk back
to Armenia."
Numbersinthemarginsreferto
illustrations. Colourplates are Wheretherewerenorapidstotraverse,rafts couldbebuoyedbyaline
indicatedby Romannumerals. of pots, which, though clumsier than bladders, had the advantage of
TheBirth oftheBoat