Ship

SHIP, the generic name (O. Eng. scip, Ger. Schiff, Gr. cr/cdos, from the root skap, cf. "scoop") for the invention by which man has contrived to convey himself and his goods upon water. The derivation of the word points.to the fundamental conception by which, when realized, a means of flotation was obtained superior to the raft, which we may consider the earliest and most elementary form of vessel. The trunk of a tree hollowed out, whether by fire, or by such primitive tools as are fashioned and used with singular patience and dexterity by savage races, represents the first effort to obtain flotation depending on something other than the mere buoyancy of the material. The poets, with characteristic insight, have fastened upon these points. Homer's hero Ulysses is instructed to make a raft with a raised platform upon it, and selects trees "withered of old, exceeding dry, that might float 'lightly for him" (Od. v. 240). Virgil, glorifying the dawn and early progress of the arts, tells us, "Rivers then first the hollowed alders felt" (Georg. i. 136, ii. 451). Alder is a heavy wood and not fit for rafts. But to make for the first time a dug-out canoe of alder, and so to secure its flotation, would be a triumph of primitive art, and thus the poet's expression represents a great step in the history of the inven--tion of the ship.

Primitive efforts in this direction may be classified in the following order: (I) raftstloattng logs, or bundles of brushwood or reeds or rushes tied together; (2) dug-outshollowed trees; (3) canoes of bark, or of skin stretched on framework or inflated skins (balsas); (4) canoes or boats of pieces of wood stitched or fastened together with sinews or thongs or fibres of vegetable growth; (5) vessels of planks, stitched or bolted together with inserted ribs and decks or half decks; (6) vessels of which the framework is first set up, and the planking of the hull nailed on to them subsequently. All these in their primitive forms have survived, in various parts of the world, with different modifications marking progress in civilization. Climatic influences and racial peculiarities have imparted to them their specific characteristics, and, combined with the available choice of materials, have determined the particular type in use in each locality. Thus on the north-west coast of Australia is found the single log of buoyant wood, not hollowed out but pointed at the ends. Rafts of reeds are also found on the Australian coast. In New Guinea catamarans of three or more logs lashed together with rattan are the commonest vessel, and similar forms appear on the Madras coast and throughout the Asiatic islands. On the coast of Peru rafts made of a very buoyant wOod are in use, some of them as much as 70 ft. long and 20 ft. broad; these are navigated with a sail, and, by an ingenious system of centre boards, let down either fore or aft between the lines of the timbers, can be made to tack. The sea-going raft is often fitted with a platform so as to protect the goods and persons carried from the wash of the sea. Upright timbers fixed upon the logs forming the raft support a kind of deck, which in turn is itself fenced in and covered over. Thus the idea of a deck, and that of side planking to raise the freight above the level of the water and to save it from getting wet, are among the earliest typical expedients which have found their development in the progress of the art of shipbuilding. -

I. His~roav TO THE INVENTION OF STEAMSHIPS

Whether the observation of shells floating on the water, or of split reeds, or, as some have fancied, the nautilus, first suggested the idea of hollowing out the trunk of a tree, the practice ascends to a very remote antiquity in the history of man. Dugout canoes of a single tree have been foun.d associated with objects of the Stone Age among the ancient Swiss lake dwellings; nor are specimens of the same class wanting from the bogs of Ireland and the estuaries of England and Scotland, some obtained from the depth of 25 ft. below the surface of the soil. The hollowed trunk itself may have suggested the use of the bark as a means of flotation. But, whatever may have been the origin of the hark canoe, its construction is a step onwards in the art of shipbuilding. For the lightness and pliability of the material necessitated the invention of some internal framework, so as to keep the sides apart, and to give the stiffness required both for purposes of propulsion and the carrying of its freight. Similarly, in countries where suitable timber was not to be-found, the use of skins or other water-tight material, such as felt or canvas, covered with pitch, giving flotation, demanded also a framework to keep them distended and to bear the weight they had to carry. In the framework we have the rudimentary ship, with longitudinal bottom timbers, and ribs, and cross-pieces, imparting the requisite stiffness to the covering material. Bark canoes are found in Australia, but the American continent is their true home. In northern regions skin or woven material made watertight supplies the place of bark.

The next step in the construction of vessels was the building up of canoes or boats by fastening pieces of wood together in a suitable form. Some of these canoes, and probably the earliest in type, are tied or stitched together with thongs or cords. The Madras surf boats are perhaps the most familiar example of this type, which, however, is found in the Straits of Magellan and in Central Africa (on the Victoria Nyanza), in the Malay Archipelago and in many islands of the Pacific. Some of these canoes show a great advance in the art of construction, being built up of pieces fitted together with ridges on their inner sides, through which the fastenings are passedi These canoes have the advantage of elasticity, which gives them ease in a seaway, and a comparative immunity where ordinary boats would not hold together. In these cases the body of the canoe is constructed first and built to the shape intended, the ribs being inserted afterwards, and attached to the sides, and-having for their main function the uniting of the deck and cross-pieces with the body of the canoe. Vessels thus stitched together, and with an inserted framework, have from a very early time been constructed in the Eastern seas far exceeding in size anything that would be called a canoe, and in some cases attaining to 200 tons burthen.

From the stitched form the next step onwards is to fasten the materials out of which the hull is built up by pegs or treenails; and of this system early types appear among the Polynesian islands and in the Nile boats described by Herodotus (ii.. 96), the prototype of the modern nuggur. The raft of Ulysses described by Homer presents the same detail of construction. It is remarkable that some of the early types of boats belonging to the North Sea present an intermediate method, in which the planks are fastened together with pins or treenails, but are attached to the ribs by cords passing through holes in the ribs and corresponding holes bored through ledges cut on the inner side of each plank.

We thus arrive, in tracing primitive efforts in the art of ship construction, at a stage from which the transition to the practice of setting up the framework of ribs fastened to a timber keel laid lengthwise, and subsequently attaching the planking of the hull, was comparatively simple. The keel of the modern vessel may be said to have its prototype in the single log which was the parent of the dug-out. The side planking of the vessel, which has an earlier parentage than the ribs, may be traced to the attempt to fence in the platforms upon the sea-going rafts, and to the planks fastened on to the sides of dug--out canoes so as to give them a raised gunwale.1 The ribs of the modern vessel are the development of the framework originally inserted after the completion of the hull of the canoe or built-up boat, but with the difference that they are now priorin the order of fabrication. In a word, the skeleton of the hull is now first built up, and the skin, &c., adjusted to it; whereas in the earlier types of wooden vessels the outside hull was first constructed, and the ribs, &c., added afterwards.4 It is noticeable that the invention. of the outrigger and weather platform, the use of which is at the present time distributed from the Andaman Islands eastward throughout the whole of the South Pacific, has never made its way into the Western seas. It is strange that Egyptian enterprise, which seems at a very early period to have penetrated eastward down the Red Sea and round the coasts of Arabia towards India, should not have brought it to the Nile, and that the Phoenicians, who, if the legend of their migration from the shores of the Persian Gulf to the coast of Canaan be accepted, would in all probability, in their maritime expeditions, have had opportun.ities of seeing it, did not introduce it to the Mediterranean. That they did not do so, if they saw it at all, would tend to prove that even in that remote anticpiity both nations possessed the art of constructing vessels of atype superior to the outrigger canoes, both in speed and in carrying power.

The earliest representations that we have as yet of Egyptian vessels carry us back, according to the best authorities, to a period little short of 3000 years before Christ. Some of these are of considerable size, as is shown by the number of rowers, and by ,the cargo consisting in many cases of cattle. The earliest of all presents us with the peculiar mast of two pieces, stepped apart but joined at the top. In some the masts are shown lowered 1 Compare the planks upon the Egyptian war galleys, added so as to protect the rowers from the missiles of the enemy.

i It is curious that these two methods should still survive, and be in use, in the construction of light racing 8-oared boats. Some of these are built ribs first, and skin laid on afterwards; others, skin laid on moulds and framework first, and ribs inserted in the shell when turned over.

and laid along a high spar-deck. The larger vessels show on one side as many as twenty-one or twenty-two and in one case twenty-six oars, besides four or five steering., They show considerable camber, the two ends rising in a curved line which in some instances ends in a point, and in others is curved back and over at the stern and terminates in an ornamentation, very frequently of the familiar lotus pattern. At the bow the stem is sometimes seen to rise perpendicularly, forming a kind of forecastle, sometimes to curve backward and then forward again like a neck, which is often finished into a figure-head representing some bird or beast or Egyptian god. On the war galleys there is frequently shown a projecting bow with a metal head attached, but well above the water. This, though no doubt used as a ram, is not identical with the beak a fleur deau, which we shall meet with in Phoenician and Greek galleys. It is more on a level with the proembolion of the latter.

The impression as regards the build created by the drawings of the larger galleys is that of a long and somewhat wall-sided vessel with the stem and stern highly raised. The tendencies of the vessel to hog, or rise amidships, owing to the great weight fore and aft unsupported by the water, is corrected by a strong truss passing from stern to stern over crutches. The double mast of the earlier period seems in time to have given place to the single mast furnished with bars or rollers at the upper part, for the purpose apparently of raising or lowering the yard according to the amount of sail required. The sail in some of the galleys is shown with a bottom as well as a top yard. In the war galleys during action it is shown rolled up like a curtain with loops to the upper yard. The steering was effected by paddles, sometimes four or five in number, but generally one or two fastened either at the end of the stern or at the side, and above attached to an upright post in such a way as to allow the paddle to be worked by a tiller.

There are many remarkable details to be observed in the Egyptian vessels figured in Duemichens Fleet of an Egyptian Queen, and in Lepsiuss Denkmler. The Egyptian ship, as represented froln time to time in the period between 3000 and 1000 B.C., presents to us a ship proper as distinct from a large canoe or boat. It is the earliest ship of which we have cognizance. But there is a noticeable fact in connection with Egypt which we gather from the tomb paintings to which we owe our knowledge of the Egyptian ship. It is evident from these records that there were at that same early period, inhabiting the littoral of the Mediterranean, nations who were possessed of sea-going vessels which visited the coasts of Egypt for plunder as well as for commerce, and that sea-fights were even then not uncommon. Occasionally the combination of these peoples for the purpose of attack assumed serious proportions, and we find the Pharaohs recording naval victories over combined Dardanians, Teucrians and Mysians, and, if we accept the explanations of Egyptologists, over Pelasgians, Daunians, Oscans and Sicilians. The Greeks, as they became familiar with the sea, followed in the same track. The legend of Helen in Egypt, as well as the numerous references in the Odyssey, point not only to the attraction that Egypt had for the maritime peoples, but also to long-established habits of navigation and the possession of an art of shipbuilding equal to the construction of sea-going craft capable of carrying a large number of men and a considerable cargo besides.

But the development of the ship and of the art of navigation clearly belongs to the Phoenicians. It is tantalizing to find that the earliest and almost the only evidence that we have of this development is to be gathered from Assyrian representations. The Assyrians were an inland people, and the navigation with which they were familiar was that of the two great rivers, Tigris and Euphrates. After the conquest of Phoenicia, they had knowledge of Phoenician naval enterprise, and accordingly we find the war galley of the Phoenicians represented on the walls of the palaces unearthed by Layard and his followers in Assyrian discovery. But the date does not carry us to an earlier period than ~oo B.C. The vessel represented is a bireme war galley which is aphract, that is to say, has the upper tier of rowers unprotected and exposed to view. The apertures for the lower oars are of the same character as those which appear in Egyptian ships of a much earlier date, but without oars. The artist has shown the characteristic details, though somewhat conventionally. The fish-like snout of the beak, the line of the parodus or outside gangway, the wickerwork cancelli, the shields ranged in order along the side of the bulwark, and the. heads of a typical crew on deck (the irpoip~s looking out in front in the forecastle, an ~rL~rfl~, two chiefs by the mast, and, aft, the KXvcrT,~1 and Kv~3epv1~Tfls). The supporting timbers of the deck are just indicated. The mast and yard and fore and back stays, with the double steering paddle, complete the picture.

But, although there can be little doubt that the Phoenicians, after the Egyptians, led the way in the development of the shipwrights art, yet the information that we can gather concerning them is so meagre that we must go to other sources for the description of the ancient ship. The Phoenicians at an early date constructed merchant vessels capable of carrying large cargoes, and of traversing the length and breadth of the Mediterranean, perhaps even of trading to the far Cassiterides and of circumnavigating Africa. They in all probability (if not the Egyptians) invented the bireme and trireme, solving the problem by which increased oar-power and consequently speed could be obtained without any great increase in the length of the vessel.

It is, however, to the Greeks that we must turn for any detailed account of these inventions. The Homeric vessels were aphract and not even decked throughout their entire length. They carried crews averaging from fifty to a hundred and twenty men, who, we are expressly told by Thucydides, all took part in the labor of rowing, except perhaps the chiefs. The galleys do not appear to have been armed as yet with the beak, though later poets attribute thi~ feature to the Homeric vessel. But they had great poles used in fighting, and the term employed to describe these (vctiiucixa) implies a knowledge of naval warfare. The general characteristics are indicated by the epithets in use throughout the Iliad and the Odyssey. The Homeric ship is sharp (Ooi~) and swift (~,cema); it is hollow (KotAp, 7Xac/up?~, /.L~YctK?~Tfls), black, vermilion-cheeked (utxro7rapflos), dark-prowed (Kvavb~rpq.ipos), curved (Kopcevir, ~tu4~Xuroct), well-timbered (~i)o~rXuor), with many thwarts (iroXi~tryos, ~ear6~u,os). The stems and sterns are high, upraised, and resemble the horns of oxen (6pOoi~patpai). They present in the history of the shipping of the Mediterranean a type parallel with that of the Vikings vessels of the North Sea.

On the vases, the earliest of which may date between 700 and oo B.C., we find the bireme with the bows finished off into a beak shaped as the head of some sea monster, and an elevated forecastle with a bulwark evidently as a means of defence. The craft portrayed in some instances are evidently pirate vessels, and exhibit a striking contrast to the trader, the broad ship of burden (4rnpris ei~p~cI), which they are overhauling. The trireme, which was developed from the bireme and became the Greek ship of war (the long ship, vair /2aKp&, flays longa, par excellence), dates, so far as Greek use is concerned, from about 700 B.C. according to Thucydides, having been first built at Corinth. The earliest sea-fight that the same author knew of he places at a somewhat later date664 B.C., more than ten centuries later than some of those portrayed in the Egyptian tomb paintings.

The trireme was the war ship of Athens during her prime, and, though succeeded and in a measure superseded by the larger rates,-quadrireme, quinquereme, and so on, up to vessels of sixteen banks of oars (inhabit-is prope magnitudinis), yet, as containing in itself the principle of which the larger rates merely exhibited an expansion, a difference in degree and not in kind, has, ever since the revival of letters, concentrated upon itself the attention of the learned who were interested in such matters. The literature connected with the question of ancient ships, if collected, woo1d fill a small library, and the greater part of it turns upon the tonstruction of the trireme and the disposition of the rowers therein.

iSee Rawlinson, Ancient Monarchies, vol. ii. p. 176.

During the I9th century a fresh light was thrown upon the subject by the discovery (1834) at the Peiraeus of some records of the Athenian dockyard superintendents, belonging to several years between 3733 24 s.c. These were publishpd and admirably elucidated by Boeckh. Further researches were carried out by his pupil Dr Graser. Since the publication of Grasers notable work, Dc re navali veterurn, the subject has been copiously treated by A. Cartauld, Breusing, C. Torr and others. The references to ancient writers, and the illustrations from vases, coins, &c., have been multiplied, and, though the vexed question of the seating of the rowers cannot be regarded as settled, yet, notwithstanding some objections raised, it seems probable that something like Grasers solution, with modifications, will eventually hold the field, especially as practical experiment has shown the possibility of a set of men, seated very nearly according to his system, using their oars with effect, and without any interference of one bank with another.

On one point it is necessary to insist, because upon it depends the right understanding of the problem. The ancients did not employ snore than one man to an oar. The method employed on medieval galleys was alien to the ancient system. A. Jal, Admiral Fincati, Admiral Jurien de Ia Gravire and a host of other writers on the subject, some as recently as 1906, have been led to advocate erroneous, if ingenious, solutions of the problem, by neglect of, and in contradiction to, the testimony of ancient texts and representations, which overwhelmingly establish as an axiom of the ancient marine the principle of one oar, one man.

The distinction between aphract and cataphract vessels must not be overlooked in a description of the ancient vessels. The words, meaning unfenced and fenced, refer to the bulwarks which covered the upper tier of rowers from attack. In the aphract vessels these side plankings were absent and the upper tier of rowers was exposed to view from the side. Both classes of vessels had upper and lower decks, but the aphract class carried their decks on a lower level than the cataphract. The system of side planking with a view to the protection of the rowers dates from a very early period, as may be seen in some of the Egyptian representations, but among the Greeks it does not seem to have been adopted till long after the Homeric period. The Thasians are credited with the introduction of the improvement.

In our account of the trireme, both as regards the disposition of the rowers and the construction of the vessel, we have mainly, though not entirely, followed Graser. Any such scheme must at the best be hypothetical, based upon inference from the ancient texts, or upon necessities of construction, and in every case plenty of room will be left for the critic, along with the Horatian invitation, si quid novisti rectius istis, Candidus impertL

In the ancient vessels the object of arranging the oars in banks was to economize horizontal space, and to obtain an increase in the number of oars without having to lengthen the vessel. It has been reasonably inferred from a passage in Vitruvius i that the interscalmium, or space horizontally measured from oar to oar, was 2 cubits. This is exactly borne out by the proportions of an Attic aphract trireme, as shown on a fragment of a has-relief found in the Acropolis. The rowers in all classes of banked vessels sat in the same vertical plane, and seats ascending in a line obliquely towards the stern of the vessel. Thus in a trireme the thranite, or oarsman of the highest bank, was nearest the stern of the set of three to which he belonged. ~ext behind him and somewhat below him sat his zygite, or oarsman of the second bank; and next below and behind the zygite sat the thalamite, or oarsman of the lowest bahk. The vertical distance between these seats was probably 2 ft., the horizontal distance about 1 ft. The horizontal distance, it is. well to repeat, between each seat in the same bank was 3 ft. (the seat itself about 9 in. broad). Each man had a resting place for his feet, somewhat wide apart, fixed to the bench of the man on the row next below and iii front of him. In rowing, the upper hand, as is shown in most of the representations which remain, was held with the palm turned inwards towards the body. This is accounted for by the angle at which the oar was worked. The lowest rank used the shortest oars, and the difference of the length of the oars on board was caused by the curvature of the ships side. Thus, looked at from within, the rowers amidship seemed to be using the longest oars, but outside the vessel, as we are expressly told, all the oar-blades of the same bank took the water in the same longitudinal line. The lowest or thalamite oarports were 3 ft., the iygite 43/4 ft., the thranite 53/4 ft. above thewater. Each oar-port was protected by an ascoma or leather bag, which fitted over the oar, closing the aperture against the wash of the sea without impeding the action of the oar. The oar was attached by a thong (i-po-iri, ~poirwr,~p) to a thowl (cr,caXu6i). The port-hole was probably oval in shape (the Egyptian and Assyrian pictures show an oblong). We know that it was large enough for a mans head to be thrust through it.

The benches on which the rowers sat ran from the vessels side to timbers, which, inclined at an angle of about 64 towards the ships stern, reached from the lower to the upper deck. These timbers were, according to Graser, called the diaphragmata. In the trireme each diaphragma supported three, in the quinquereme five, in the octireme eight, and in the famous tesseraconteres forty seats of rowers, who all belonged to the same complexus, though each to a different bank. In effect, when once the principle of construction had been established in the trireme, the increase to larger rates was effected, so far as the motive power was concerned, by lengthening the diaphragmata upwards, while the increase in the length of the vessel gave a greater number of rowers to each bank. The upper tiers of oarsmen exceeded in number those below, as the contraction of the sides of the vessel left less available space towards the bows.

Of the length of the oars in the trireme we have an indication in the fact that the length of supernumerary oars (irsplssce) rowed from the gangway above the thranites, and, therefore, probably slightly exceeding the thranitic oars in length, is given in the Attic tables as 14 ft. 3 in. The thranites were probably about 14 ft. The zygite, in proportion to the measurement, must have been 103/4, the thalamite 73/4 ft. long. Comparing modern oars with these, we find that the longest oars used in the British navy are 18 ft. The university boat race has been rowed with oars 12 ft. 6 in. The proportion of the loom inboard was about one third, but the oars of the rowers amidship must have been somewhat longer inboard. The size of the loom inboard preserved the necessary equilibrium. The long oars, of the larger rates were weighted inboard with lead. Thus the topmost oars of the tesseraconteres, of which the length is given as 53 ft., were exactly balanced at the rowlock. (See OAR.)

Let us now consider the construction of the vessel itself. In the cataphract class the lower deck was I ft. above the water-line Below this deck was the hold, which contained a certain amount of ballast, and through an aperture in this deck the buckets for baling were worked, entailing a labor which was constant and severe on board an ancient ship at sea. The keel (rp6iric) appears to have had considerable camber. Under it was a strong false keel (xDwrua), very necessary for vessels that were constantly drawn up on the shore. Above the keel was the kelson, under which the ribs were fastened. These were so arranged as to give the necessary intervals for the oar-ports above. Above the kelson lay the upper false keel, into which the mast was step~ed. The stem (o-r&pa) rose from the keel at an angle of about 70 to the water. Within was an apron (~Xic~i), which was a strong piece of timber curved and fitting to the end of the keel and beginning of the stern-post and firmly bolted into both, thus giving solidity to the bows, which had to bear the beak and sustain the shock of ramming. The stem was carried upwards and curved generally backwards towards the forecastle and rising above it, and then curving forwards again terminated in an ornament which was called the acrostolion. The stern-post was carried up at a similar angle to the bow, and, rising high over the poop, was curved round into an ornament which was called aplustre (~Xaorov). But, inasmuch as the steering was effected by means of two rudders (sr~iiXia), one on either side, there was no need to carry out the stern into a rudder post as with modern ships, and the stern was left, therefore, much more free, an advantage in respect of the manivuvring of the ancient Greek man-of-war, the weapon being the beak or rostrum, and the power of turning quickly being of the highest importance.

Behind the aplustre, and curving backwards, was the cheniscus (xnvtrxoc), or goose-head, symbolizing the floating powers,of the vessel. After the ribs had been set up and covered in on both, sides with planking, the sides of the vessel were further strengthened by waling-pieces carried from stern to stem and meeting in front of the stern-post. These were further strengthened with additional balks of timber, the lower waling-pieces meeting about the water-level and prolonged into a sharp three-toothed spur, of which the middle tooth was the longest. This was covered with hard metal (generally bronze) and formed the beak. The whole structure of thebeak projected about 10 ft. beyond the stern-post. Above, it, but projecting much less beyond the stern-post, was the proembohon (s-posu$Xiov), or second beak, in which the prolongation of the upper set of walingpieces met. This was generally fashioned into the figure of a rams head, also covered with metal; and sometimes again between this and the beak the second line of waling-pieces met in another metal boss called the ,rposu~9oXts. These bosses, when a vessel was rammed, completed the work of destruction begun by the sharp beak at the water-level, giving a racking blow which caused it to heel over and so eased it off the beak, and releasing the latter before the weight of the sinking vessel could come upon it. At the point where the prolongation of the second and third waling-pieces began to converge inwards towards the stem on either side of the vessel stout catheads (~irwrtIci) projected, which were of use, not only as supports for the anchors, but also as a means of inflicting damage on the upper part of an enemys vessel, while protecting the side gangways of its own and the banks of oarsthat worked under them. The catheads were strengthened by strong balks of timber, which were fIrmly bolted to them under either extremity and both within and without, and ran to the ships side. Above the curvature of the upper walingpieces into the wpo~u,56Xuw were the cheeks of the vessel, generally painted red, and in the upper part of these the eyes (6~OaXuoL), answering to our hawse holes, through which ran the cables for the anchors. On either side the trireme, at about the level of the thranitic benches, projected a gangway (,rpoc3oi) resting against the ribs of the vessel. This projection was of about i8 to 24 in., which gave a space, increased to about 3 ft. by the inward curve of the prolongation of the ribs to form supports for the deck, for a passage on either side of the vessel. This gangway was planked in along its Outer side so as to afford protection to the seamen and marines, who could pass along its whole length without impeding the rowers. Here, in action, the sailors were posted as light-armed troops, and when needed could use the long supernumerary oars (ir~ptvcr,) mentioned above. The ribs, prolonged upwards upon an inward curve, supported on their upper ends the cross beams (cn-p<,,r,~p~s) which tied the two sides of the vessel together and carried the deck. In the cataphract class these took tho place of the thwarts (i~frya) which in the earlier vessels, at a lower level, yoked together the sides of the vessel, and formed also benches for the rowers to sit on, from which the latter had their name (luyIrai), having been the uppermost tier of oarsmen in the bireme; while those who sat behind and below them in the hold of the vessel were called OaXauIrai or OaXciffaK~,s (from OAauoc). In the trireme the additional upper tier was named from the elevated bench (~pavoi) on which they were placed (Opavlra~). On the deck were stationed the marines (tirifl~rai), fighting men in heavy armour, few in number in the Attic trireme in its palmy days, but many in the Roman quinquereme, when the ramming tactics were antiquated, and wherever, as in the great battles in the harbour at Syracuse, land tactics took the place of the maritime skill which gave victory to the ram in the open sea. The space occupied by the rowers was termed Iysc~nros. Beyond this, fore and aft, were the ,rapftp~,rtai, or parts outside the rowers. These occupied about 12 ft. of the bows and 15 ft. in the stern. In the fore part was the forecastle, with its raised deck. In the stern the decks (iicpia) rose in two or three gradations, upon which was a kind of deck-house for the captain and a seat for the steerer (Ku$cpP7~rfl1), who steered by means of ropes attached to the tillers fixed in the upper part of the paddles, which, in later times at least, ran over wheels (~poxiXiai), giving him the power of changing his vessels course with great rapidity. Behind the deck-house rose the flagstaff, on which was hoisted the pennant, and from which probably signals were given in the case of an admirals ship. On either side of the deck ran a balustrade (cancelli), which was covered for protection during action with felt (cilicium, -irapa.ppbuara TpLXiv&) or canvas (,r. Xsvth). Above was stretched a strong awning of hide (sarb.~Xvua),as a protection against grappling irons and missiles of all kinds. In Roman vessels towers were carried up fore and aft from which darts could be showered on the enemys deck; the heavy corvus or boarding bridge swung suspended by a chain near the bows; and the ponderous IsX4dc hung at the ends of the yards ready to fall on a vessel that came near enough alongside. But these were later inventions and for larger ships. The Attic trireme was built light for speed and for ramming purposes.

The dimensions of some dry docks discovered at Munychium and Zea, ship-houses as the ancients called them, afford some indications as to limitations of length and breadth in the Attic ships that used them. The measurements indicate for these houses about 150 ft. in length and 20 ft. in breadth. We may infer, therefore, that the ships housed in them did not exceed 150 by 20 ft. But there must necessarily have been some spare room in the dock houses, on either side and at both ends. Allowing 2 ft. on either side for passage room, and 10 ft. at either end, we should have room for a vessel of about 130 ft. in length including the beak, and of about 16 ft. beam. Adopting the 2 cubit interscalmium, the rowing space in the trireme (31 by 3) for the upper tier would equal 93 ft. Allowing 12 ft, for bows and 15 for stern and 10 ft. for beak, we have 130 ft. as the aggregate length of the war vessel of three banks of oars. This of course is conjectural, but we submit that it is a reasonable conjecture from the evidence which we possess. There was indeed every reason for keeping the vessel as short as was compatible with the necessary requirements, and it is to be remembered that it was constantly being hauled up on shore for the night and launched again in the morning. As to the interscalmium, it does not appear to exceed ~ ft. even in the largest boats now used in the royal navy. In the Chinese dragon boats, which are 73 ft. long and under 5 ft. beam, and have each 54 rowers or paddlers, it does not exceed 2 ft. 6 in An oarsman whose feet are nearly on a level with his seat, as in a modern racing eight, requires more room for the swing forward of the handle of his oar in the recovery, than a man whose feet rest on a level well below that of his seat. It is not likely that the ancient oarsman swung forward more than blue-jackets do now-a-days in a man-of-wars cutter. All the Attic triremes appear to have been built upon the same model, and their gear was interchangeable. The Athenians had a peculiar system of girding the ships with long cables (~nro~,uara), each trireme having two or more, which, passing through eyeholes in front of the stern-post, ran all round the vessel lengthwise immediately under the waling-pieces. They were fastened at the stern and tightened up with levers. These cables, ~ ~ ~ ~ .~- ~ ~ ~ 1-...;,~ ,-.c the vessel, and in action, in all probability, relieved the hull from part of the shock of ramming, the strain of which would be sustained by the waling-pieces convergent in the beaks. These rope-girdles are not to be confused with the process of undergirding or frapping, such as is narrated of the vessel in which St Paul was being carried to Italy. The trireme appears to have had two masts. In action the Greeks did not use sails, and everything that could be lowered was stowed below. The mainmasts and larger sails were often left ashore if a conflict was expected.

The crew of the Attic trireme consisted of from 200 to 225 men in all. Of these 170 were rowers54 on the lower bank (thalamites), 54 on the middle bank (zygites), and 62 on the upper bank (thranites),

the upper oars being more numerous because of the contraction of the space available for the lower tiers near the bow and stern. Besides the rowers were about IO marines (&irif3,~irat) and 20 seamen. The officers were the trierarch and next to him the helmsman (suj9~pvi~n-~s), who was the navigating officer of the trireme. The rowers descended into the seven-foot space between the liaphragmata and took their places in regular order, beginning with the thalamites. The economy of space was such that, as Cicero remarks, there was not room for one man more.

The improvement made in the build of their vessels by the Corinthian and Syracusan shipwrights, by which the bows were so much strengthened that they were able to meet the Athenian attack stem on (irpoo~3oXs~), caused a change of tactics, and gave an impetus to the building of larger vesselsquadriremes and quinqueremesin which increased oar-power was available for the propulsion of the heavier weights.

In principle these vessels were only expansions of the trireme, so far as the disposition of the rowers was concerned, but the speed could not have increased in proportion to the weight, and hence arose the variety of contrivances which superseded the ramming tactics of the days of Phormio. In the century that succeeded the close of the Peloponnesian War the fashion of building big vessels became prevalent. We hear of various numbers of banks of oars up to sixteen (knt~ei~pi~r)the big vessel of Demetrius Poliorcetes. The famous tesseraconteres or forty-banked vessel of Ptolemy Philopator, if it ever existed except in the imagination of Callixenus, was in reality nothing more than. a costly and ingenious toy, and never of any practical use. The story, however, of its construction indicates the perfection to which the shipwrights art had been carried among the ancients.

The Romans, who developed their naval power during the First Punic War, though it is clear from the treaty with Carthage, 509 B.C., that they had had some maritime interests and adventurings before that great struggle began, were deficient in the art of naval construction. A Carthaginian quinquereme, which had drifted ashore, served them for a model, and with crews taught to row in a framework set up on dry land they manned a fleet which was launched in sixty days from the time that the trees were felled. Their first attempt was, as might have been expected, a failure. But they persevered, and the invention of the corvus, by means of which boarding were o~pposed to ramming tactics, gave them under Duilius (260 B.C.)\ictory at Mylae, and eventually the command of the sea. From that time onwards they continued to build ships of many banks, and seem to have maintained their predilection for fighting at close quarters. The larger vessels with their turres, or castles, fore and aft, deserved Horaces description as alta navium propugnacula. The corvus and the dolphin were ready in action to fall on the enemys decks, and in Caesars battle with the Veneti off the coast of Gaul the falces, great spars with curved steel heads like a sickle, mowed through the rigging and let down the sails on which alone the foe depended for movement.

But the fashion of building big ships received a severe shock at the battle of Actium (31 B.C.), when the light Liburnian biremes, eluding the heavy missiles of the larger vessels, swept away their banks of oars, leaving them crippled and unable to move, till one by one they were burnt down to the waters edge and sank.i After this experience the Romans adopted the Liburnians as their principal model, and though the building of vessels with many banks continued for some centuries, yet the Liburnian type was so far dominant that ~ Ir~, .: t .1... ~L. ~. -.Q

the name was used generically, just as the name of trireme had been used before, to signify a man-of-war, without reference to the size of vessel or the number of banks of oars.

Meanwhile, with the peace of the Mediterranean ensured, for piracy was kept in abeyance by the imperial power, and with increased commercial activity, the building of large merchant vessels naturally followed. These were propelled by sails and not by oars, which, however, continued to furnish the principal motive power for the ship of war until the necessity for increasing its carrying power began to make it too unwieldy for propulsion by rowing.

The great corn ships, which brought supplies from Egypt to the capital, were, if we may take the vessel described by Lucian as a typical instance, 120 cubits long by 30 broad and 29 deep. The ship in which St Paul and his companions were wrecked carried 276 souls besides cargo. Even larger vessels than these were constructed by the Romans for the transport of marbles and great obelisks to Italy. These huge vessels carried three masts, with square sails, and on the main mast a topsail, which the corn ships from Alexandria alone were allowed to keep set when coming into the Italian port. All other merchant vessels were compelled to strike the sup parum.

But while the construction of large vessels for commercial purposes was thus developed, the policy of keeping the warvessel light and handy for manceuvring purposes prevailed, and, though vessels of three, four or even five banks were still built, the great majority did not rise above two banks. In the war with the Vandals (AD. 440470) we hear of ships of a single bank, with decks above the rowers. These, we are told, were of the type which at a later date were called Dromons (Sp6,uow~s) in allusion to their speedy qualities, a n.ame which gradually superseded the Liburnian, as indicating a man-of-war. During the following centpries the Mediterranean was the scene of constant naval activity. The rise of the Mussulman power, which by AD. 825 had mastered Crete and Sicily, made the maintenance of their fleet a matter of first importance to the emperors of the East, and as the Arab inroads became more threatening, and piracy more rife, so the necessity of improving their galleys as regards speed and armament became more and more pressing. It was during this period, and that very largely by the Arabs, that a great advance was made in the employment of what we should call artillery. The use of Greek fire and of other detonating and combustible mixtures, launched by siphons or in the form of bombs thrown by hand or machinery, led to various devices by way of protective armour, such as leather or felt casing, or woollen stuffs soaked in vinegar, and all such contrivances tended gradually to alter the character as well as the equipment of the war vessel.

During the same period the rise and growth of the Venetian republic mark the entrance on the scene of a new seafaring and shipbuilding power.

Meanwhile, the northern seas were breeding .a new terror. In the 5th century the Roman fleet which guarded the narrow entrance into the British Channel had disappeared. The Frankish power gradually established itself in Gaul. But behind the Franks still fiercer races, born to the use of oar and sail, were gathering for the invasion of the west and south. For a while it seemed as if the empire consolidated by Charlemagne would be able to withstand their inroads. Yet even in the year of his coronation (A.D. 800) the piratical Northmen had carried their ravages as far as Aquitaine. Charlemagne organized a naval force at Boulogne and at Ghent. But, though in alliance with the kings of Mercia and Wessex, he had not that control of the Channel which the possession of both shores had given to the Romans. The ships of the Vikings, propelled by oar and sail, were seagoing vessels of an excellent type. They were of various sizes, ranging from the skuta of about 30 oars to ask or skejd with 64 oars and a crew of 240, and to the still larger dreki or dragon boats, and the famous snekkjur or serpents, said to be represented on the Bayeux tapestry. Of these vessels we have fortunately, though of the smaller class, a typical instance in the well-known Viking ship discovered in 1880 in a tomb-mound at Gokstad near Christiania, of which the dimensions are given as: length 78 ft., beam 16 ft. 7 in., depth 5 ft. 9 in., with, high stem and stern; clinker-built of oak throughout, with 16 oars on either side. Of this type were the vessels large and small which had by the 9th century or even earlier found their way into the Mediterranean. Such were the fleets which continually infested the northern and western coasts of, Gaul, carrying swarms of the fierce Northmen who eventually came to stay, and gave their name to the portion of Neustria which they had wrested from the Frankish king (912). If, as is probable, the Danes who invaded England used the same class of vessel, Alfred the Great must, according to the Saxon Chronicle, be credited with improvements in construction, which enabled him to defeat them at sea (897). He built, we are told, vessels twice as long as those of the Danes, swifter, steadier and higher, some of them for 60 oars, and after his own design, not following either the Danish or Frisian types.

While the northern seas were thus full of activity and conflict, there, was little repose in the Mediterranean. The emperors of the West do not seem to have maintained their fleets or naval stations as they had been of old. Ravenna and Misenum were shorn of their ancient glories. But in the East things were different. There, as we have said, it was fully perceived that the maintenance of the empire depended upon sea power. The Tactica of the Emperor Leo (886911),(886911), followed by Constantine Porphyrogenitus (911959), give us full details as to tbe composition of a Byzantine fleet an.d its units. Dromons of two sizes and of two banks of oars are described, and, besides these, smaller Dromons of great speed are referred to as galleys or single-banked ships. In all these the rule was still one oar, one man, but the way was being prepared for improvements by which the medieval galley, still preserving a comparatively low freeboard, was enabled to equal or to surp~ss the manybanked vessel in speed, while it was gradually adapted to carry greater weight and more powerful means of offence.

The medieval man-of-war was essentially a one-banked vessel (j-iovacporov), but the use of longer oars or sweeps took the place of the smaller paddling oars of the ancient vessel, and altered greatly the angle at which the oars reached the water. It was the increase in the length and weight of the oar, requiring for its efficiency greaterpower than that of one man, which led to the employment of more than one man to an oar. With the longer oar the necessity arose of placing the weight at a greater distance from the power applying the lever. This was gained by the invention of the apostis, which was practically a framework standing out on each side of the hull and running parallel to it; a strong external timber, in which the thowls, against which the oars were rowed, were set. By this means it became possible not only to arrange the oars horizontally, in sets of three or more of different lengths (alla zenzile), instead of in banks one above the other obliquely, but still further to make an innovation, unknown to the ancients, which, while greatly increasing the length and substance of the oar, and its leverage, applied the strength of three or four men (or even up to seven with, the larger galleys and galleasses) for the motive power ~of each blade. As time went on oars of from 30 to 50 ft. came into vogue, the inboard portion of which was about one-third of the length, and furnished with handles (manettes) attached to the loom, while the men for each oar were arranged in steps (.alla scaloccio).

It must not be imagined that these developments took place all at once, or that any improvements in building, or in the method of propulsion, were generally adopted but by slow degrees. Moreover, as commerce increased and merchant vessels gained in size, the necessity of being able to defend themselves against piratical attacks became more and more cogent, a necessity which ultimately led the way to the supersessioxi of the galley by the sailing vessel. Yet the galley for centuries, especially in the Mediterranean, maintained its place as the ship of war par excellence, even when mixed fleets of galleys and sailing vessels were not uncommon. In the Atlantic and northern seas it was less en evidence, though even with the Spanish Armada some galleys arid galleasses were included in the invading fleet.

The period of the Crusades was one of great activity in shipbuilding, in which the Venetians and the Genoese were the leaders in the Mediterranean, but the enterprise of England under Richard Cceur de Lion (1189I 199) shows that in the northern seas great efforts were being made in the same direction, with the undoubted result that the English nation became more familiarized with the sea, and more eager for maritime adventure. Richards fleet which sailed from Dartmouth consisted of 110 vessels, and its total in the Mediterranean after reinforcement amounted to 230 vessels. Among these were Busses, or Dromons of large size, with masts and sails, ships of burden and triremes. Nor were the Saracens without great vessels, if the story of Richards destruction of a three-masted vessel, carrying reinforcements to Acre, on board of which there were no less than 1500 men, be true. The attack of a swarm of galleys upon the great ship as she lay becalmed reads almost like the attack of a swarm of torpedo boats upon a disabled battleship to-day.

The whole period of the Crusades was, as regards naval matters, one of mixed fleets, in which the sailing vessels were mostly merchant vessels armed for fighting purposes. The effect of the Crusades upon the seafaring races of northern Europe was that the revelation of the East and its traffic quickened their desire for adventure in that and other directions. Hence rivalries between them and the Mediterranean sea powers, and consequent improvement in sea-going vessels and in seamanship. The steering side-paddle gradually disappears, and the rudder slung at the stern becomes the usual means of directing the vessels course. The merchant vessels when prepared for war have fore-castles and stern-castles (compare the Roman turres) erected on them, of which the one survives in name, and the other in the quarter-deck of modern times. But a change was at hand which was destined to affect all classes, from the galley with its low freeboard to the alta propugnacula of the great sailing vessels.

The invention of gunpowder, and the consequent use of cannon on board ship, was the cause of many new departures in building and armaments. In the galleys we find guns mounted in the bows, and broadside on the upper deck, en barbette, fIring over the bulwarks. Soon, however, the need of cove1 suggested portholes cut for the guns, just as in the ancient galleys they had been cut for the oars. The desire to carry many guns led to many alterations in build, such as the tumble-home of the sides, and the desire for speed to many improvements in rig, as well as to an increase in the number of masts and consequently larger spread of sail. About1370-1380French, Venetians and Spaniards are using the new artillery in action, and the policy of maintaining a navy composed of sailing vessels built for the purposes of war, and not merely of armed merchant ships impressed for the emergency, soon began to take effect.

In England Henry V. (1413) built large vessels for his fleet, great ships, cogs, carracks, ships, barges and ballingers, some of which were of nearly 1000 tons, but the generality from 420 to 520 tons. In the list of his fleet no galleys seem to be included. Meanwhile in the south the type of vessel called caravel was being developed, in which Portuguese and Spaniards dared the Atlantic and made their great discoveries. It was in a vessel of this kind that Columbus (1492) sought to reach the Indies by a western route.i She was but little over 230 tons when fully laden. Her forecastle overhung the stem by nearly I 2 ft. Aft she had a half deck and a quarter deck. Her total length was 128 ft., her beam nearly 26 ft. She had three masts and a bowsprit. Her fore and main masts were square-rigged, but the mizzen had a lateen sail. The vessels in which Vasco da Gama first doubled the Cape of Good Hope (1497) were of the same type but larger. The ship of John Cabot (1497) in which he discovered Newfoundland must have been much smaller, as he had a crew of only eighteen men.

Among the results of these world-famous voyages and discoveries was naturally a great increase in maritime adventure.

1 See Sir G. V. Holmes, Ancient and Modern Ships, i. 87, to which the writer is indebted for many of the details concerning modern vessels.

In England during the Tudor times a great advance in shipbuilding is observable. Henry VII. with his new ships, the Regent and the Sovereign, and Henry Viii. with his Henry Grace a Dieu, or Great Harry, both came abreast of their times, but it is worthy of notice that the French then, as well as at a later period, were providing the best models for naval architecture. These big ships were arfiled at first with serpentines, and later with cannon and culverins. The representations of them show several tiers of guns, four or even five masts, and enormous structures by way of forecastles and deck-houses aft. As regards merchant vessels, the Genoese and the Venetians during the 15th and 16th centuries carried out great improvements. The carracks of the 16th century often reached as much as 1600 tons burden. There is a record of a Portuguese carrack captured by the English, of which the dimensions reached 165 ft. in length and 47 ft. in beam. She carried 32 pieces of brass ordnance and between 6oo and 700 passengers. The Spanish Armada (1588) was composed of 132 vessels, of which the largest was about 1300 tons and 30 under 100 tons. Four galleys and four galleasses accompanied the fleet. The opposing fleet consisted of 19l vessels of which only 34 belonged to the royal navy. Of these the largest was the Triumph of about jooo tons. The Ark, the flagship of the English admiral, was of 800 tons, carrying 55 guns. Among the armed merchant vessels employed with the fleet was the Buonaventure, the first English vessel that made a successful voyage to the Cape and India. The result to England of the defeat of the Spaniards was a great increase of mercantile activity. Merchants, instead of hiring Genoese or Venetian carracks, began to prefer building and owning home-built ships, and though the foreign merchant vessels appear to have been on a larger scale, yet, as sea-going craft, the English-built ships certainly held their own. We hear also during this period of many improvements in details, such as striking topmasts, the use of chain pumps, the introduction of studding, topgallant, sprit and top sails, also of the weighing of anchors by means of the capstan, and the use of long cables. In the men-of-war the lower tier of guns, which, as in the galleys, had been carried dangerously near the water-line, began to be raised. This improvement, however, does not seem to have been adopted in the English ships till after the Restoration. Meanwhile, in the Mediterranethi the galley was still in vogue, being only partially superseded by the great galleasses, six of which are recorded to have taken part in the battle of Lepanto (,5~I), in which the Venetians and their allies employed no less than 208 galleys with single banks and long sweeping oars. The contrast between the conditions and the character of the vessels used in. this battle and those engaged in the case of the Spanish Armada is interesting and instructive as typical of the different development of naval power in the inland and the open seas.

During the 17th century the expansion of trade and the increase of mercantile enterprise were incessant. The East India Company organized its fleet of armed vessels of about 600 tons, and fought its way through Portuguese obstruction to the Indian coast. The Dutch were also competing for the trade of the East and the West, and formed similar companies with this object in view. Conflicts owing to commercial rivalry and international jealousies were inevitable. Hence in the British navy the construction of large vessels such as the Prince Royal and the Sovereign of the Seas (see RIGGING), which may be considered as among the earliest types of the modern wooden manof -war. English oak afforded the best timber for shipbuilding, and skilful naval architects, such as Phineas Pett, succeeded in constructing the kind of sea-going war vessel which eventually gave England the superiority in its struggle with other naval powers in this and the following century. This, however, was by no means easily gained. The Dutch and the French were not slack in the building of merchant vessels and men-of-war. The capture of vessela from time to time on either side served to enlarge the area of improvement and to assist in the progress of the art of construction. The French navy especially, under the fostering care of Colbert, was greatly strengthened. During the 18th century it was constantly found that the dimensions of French ships exceeded those of British ships of the same date, and that French vessels were superior in speed. This led from time to time to an increase of the measurements of the various classes of vessels in the British navy. These were now rated according to the number of guns which they were constructed to carry.

A 90-gun ship of the line at the beginning of the 18th century averaged 164 ft. in length of gun deck, 47 ft. beam, and about 1570 tons, while the frigates now ran to 120 ft. with 34 ft~ beam and from 600 to 700 tons. These dimensions, however, were not always maintained, and towards the middle of the century the Admiralty seem to have recognized the consequent inferiority of their ships. The famous and ill-fated Royal George, launched in 1756, was the result of an effort to improve the lineof-battle ship of the period. She was 178 ft. in length, 52 ft. in beam, was of over 2000 tons, and carried 100 guns and a crew of 750 men. The Victory, Nelsons flagship, was built nearly ten years later. Her dimensions were 186 ft., 52 ft., 2162 tons, and she carried 100 guns. During the same period frigates, which were cruisers carrying their armament on one deck, were built to carry 32 or 36 guns, but in this class also the French cruisers were superior in speed and of larger dimensions. The remainder of the i 8th century and the beginning of the 19th witnessed a continuous rivalry in naval architecture, the French and Spanish models being constantly ahead of the British in dimensions and armament. In the American war (1812) the same disparity as regards dimensions became apparent, and the English frigates, and sloops used as cruisers, were generally outclassed, and in some instances captured, by American vessels of their own rate. This as usual led to the construction of larger vessels with greater speed, and though, after the conclusion of the long war, the activity of the royal dockyards slackened, yet the great three-deckers of the last period, before the adoption of steam power, had reached a length of over 200 ft., with more than 55 ft. beam, and over 3000 tons.

Meanwhile the mercantile navies of the world, but more especially of England, had largely increased. The East Indiaman, as the armed vessels of the East India Company were called, really performed the functions of merchant vessel, passenger ship, and man-of-war. But, where there was no monopoly, competition soon quickened the development of trading vessels. The Americans with their fast-sailing clippers again taught the English builders a lesson, showing that increased length in proportion to beam gave greater speed, while admitting of lighter rigging in proportion to tonnage, and of economy as regards the number of men required to work the ship. The English shipyards were for a long time unequal to the task of producing vessels capable of competing with those of their American rivals, and their trade suffered accordingly. But after the repeal of the Navigation Laws in 1850 things improved, and we find clippers from Aberdeen and from the Clyde beginning to hold their own on the long voyages to China and elsewhere.

At this epoch steam power appears in use on the scene, and the period of great viooden vessels closes with iron and steel taking their place in the construction of the hulls, while the sail gives way to the paddle and the screw.

LITERATUREI. For Ancient Ships:Duemicher, Fleet of an Egyptian Queen; Chabas, Etudes sur lantiquii histori-jue; Rawlinson, Ancient Monarchies; Scheffer, De militia navali veterum; Boeckh, Urkunden liber das Seewesen des attischen Staates; B. Graser, De re navali veterum; Idem, Das Model eines athenischen Fiinfreihenschiffes (Pentere) aus, der Zeit Alexanders des Grossen im KOniglichen Museum zu Berlin; Idem, Die Genimen des Koniglichen Museums zu Berlin mit Darstellungen antiker Schiffe; Idem, Die attested Schiffsdarstellungen auf antiken Munzen; A. Cartauld, La Trire athenienne; Breusing, Die Nautili der Alten; Smith, Voyage and Shipwreck of St Paul; C. Torr, Ancient Ships. 2. For medieval and modern shipping:A. Jal, Archologie navale and Glossaire naut~que; Jurien de la Gravihre, Derniers fours di la marine li rames (Paris, 1885); Fincati, Le Trsremi; C. de la Ronriere, Ilistoire de la marine francaise; Marquis de Folin, Bateaux c~ navires; W. Laird Clowes, The Royal Navy; W. S. Lindsay, History of Merchant Shipping and Ancient Commerce; Sir G. C. V. Holmes, Ancient and Modern Ships. (E. Wa.)

II. Hisio~ SINCE THE INTRODUCTION 01 STEAMSHIPS

Before steam was applied to the propulsion of, ships, the voyage from Great Britain to America lasted for some weeks; at the beginning of the 20th century the time had been~ reduced to about six days, and in 1910 the fastest vessels could do it in four and a half days. Similarly, the voyage to Australia, which took about thirteen weeks, had been reduced to thirty days or less. The fastest of the sailing tea-clippers rpquired about three months to bring the early teas from China to Great Britain; in 1910 they were brought to London. by the on-]inary P. & 0. service in five weeks. Atlantic liners now run. between England and America which maintain speeds of 25 and 26~cnots over the whole course, as compared with about 12 knots before the introduction of steam. The accommodation. in. the mesdern passenger ships is palatial compared with that in the correspnding wooden sailing ships of the middle of the I9th century.

The changes from sail power to steam power for propulsion, and from wood to iron and steel for constructional purpo~s, proceeded together, though at first very slowly. The marine steam engine was at first a very imperfect motor, and the services upon which steamships could be used to advantage were, in consequence, much restricted. There was, moreover, a national prejudice against the substitution of iron. for thc Wooden Walls of Old England.

It is recorded that an iron boat, intended apparently for passenger service, was built and launched on the river Foss, in Yorkshire, in 1777, and shortly afterwards iron was used for the shell plating of lighters for canal ~ of service. One of these, having its shell constructed j~i,, of plates five-sixteenths of an inch thick, was built near Birmingham in 1787. About the same time parts of wooden ships began to be replaced by iron, the first being beam knees. Early in the t9th century iron diagonal riders for providing the longitudinal strength were introduced by Sir Robert Seppings, and from this period down to the present day iron strengthenings for resisting both transverse and longitudinal strains have been generally used in wooden ships. The introduction of iron as a recognized material for ship construction is often given as dating from I818, when the lighter Vulcan was built on the Monkland canal, near Glasgow.

Among the early objections were: (I) from its weight iron could not be expected to float, and was therefore unsuitable for the construction of a floating body; (2) when a ship constructed of this material grounded and was exposed to bumping on a shore, the bottom would be easily perforated; (3) the bottom could not be preserved from fouling by weeds and barnacles; and (4) the iron affected the compass, making it untrustworthy, if not useless. Gradually, however, the material made its way, and the objections to it proved to be for the most part untenable. Objection (I), although often repeated, was proved to involve a fallacy. With regard to objection (2) it was found that iron ships might ground and be subjected to a great deal of bumping and rough usage without being destroyed, and that, on the whole, they were better off in this respect than. wooden ships. On more than one occasion when iron and wooden ships were stranded together by the same gale and in approximately the same circumstances, the iron ships were got off, and, apart from local injury, were found to be little the worse for the grounding, while the wooden ships were either totally wrecked, or, if got off, were strained to such an extent as to be beyond repair. The power of resistance of iron ships to the strains produced by grounding received, in 1846-1847, a remarkable confirmation in connection with the grounding of the Great Britain, the first large screw steamer built of iron. This ship had been initiated by, and built under the supervision of, Mr I. K. Brunel, who had bestowed much attention upon the details of her construction. In 1846 she ran ashore in Dundrum Bay, in Ireland, and settled on two detached rocks; and although she remained aground for eleven months, including a whole winter, she was subsequently got off and repaired, and afterwards did good service. As regards (3), the fouling of the bottom, this evil, although not preventable.

can be lessened materially by frequent cleaning and repainting, provided, of course, that docks are available. The fourth objection, the effect of iron on the compass, was very serious. After experimenting with the Rainbow at Deptford and the Ironsides at Liverpool, Sir G. B. Airy in 1839 read a paper on the subject before the Royal Society, and the rules which he gave for the correction of the error caused by the iron at once became the guide for future practice. Besides -the above, a further objection was raised which applied only to warships, namely, the nature of the damage which would be done to an iron ship by the enemys shot: this also was found to be less serious, when proper appliances were supplied, than the damage done in the same circumstances to a wooden. ship. Thus during the Chinese \Var in 1842 the Nemesis, an iron vessel, was able to repair her damage from shot in twenty-four hours at the scene of the fight, while some wooden ships had to go to Bombay, the nearest port at which repairs could be carried out.

Steel, as a material for shipbuilding, was introduced under modern conditions of manufacture during the years 1870-1875.

It is a homogeneous metal, stronger than iron, and of intro- a more uniform and more trustworthy character.

07~Z. Its quality is to a considerable extent independent of the skill of those employed in its manufacture, whereas iron is produced by a laborious and unhealthy process, and is largely dependent for its quality on the skill of the workmen. Among the advantages which experience has proved iron and steel to possess over wood for the purposes of ship construction are: (I) the structure of the ship has less weight; (2) it has greater durability; (3) the requisite general and local strengths are much more easily obtained.

The importance of the first of these advantages can scarcely be overstated. The primary object of a particular ship is to carry cargo or passengers, or both, from place to place, at a given speed (in the case of a warship, the armament, ammunition,armour,&c.,constitute the weight to be carried); and since at the maximum draught at which the vessel can properly and safely proceed on her passage the total weight of vessel, cargo, &c. ,complete, must be a definite quantity, namely, the weight of the water displaced by the ship, it follows that the less the weight required for the structure of the ship, the greater is that available for the cargo, &c.

As to durability, in wooden ships the chief source of deterioration is dry-rot, in iron or steel ships the wasting of the surfaces, especially of such portions of the outer surfaces of the bottom plating as are frequently left bare of pa.nt and exposed to the sea, and of the inner surfaces of the bottom in machinery spaces, &c. If dry-rot can be prevented, the life of the wooden ship will be lengthened; so also will the life of the iron or steel ship if the surfaces can be kept covered with paint, to prevent the corrosive action of air and water. With both wood and iron or steel ships, if the parts which have become deteriorated can be removed and replaced, this is usually worth doing when the deterioration is only local. At the end of the 1 8th century the preservation of wood was not so well understood as it is at the present day, and teak, one of the most durable of woods, was, in Great Britain at least, little known. The ships for the Royal Navy as then constructed were only expected to be available for service some fifteen or twenty years. The ships built for the East India Company made, on an average, four voyages, which occupied eight years. This at one time was considered the vessels life, so far as the Companys service was concerned; but subsequently, if on examination at the expiration of that time they appeared worth repairing, this was done, and they were allowed to make two more voyages. It was unusual for one of these ships to make ~more thaii six voyages; after this they were sold or broken up.

In certain cases, however, ships lasted a considerable length of time; a number of vessels built in the 17th century continued in the service of the Royal Navy until the middle of the 18th century, though with a reduced number of guns, and specimens of the old wooden battleships which served in the fleet in the earlier part of the last century are still to be found in the naval and other ports as training vessels, hospital ships, &c. The best-known example is Nelsons Victory (fig. 1, Plate XIII.). Laid down in 759, she had been afloat 40 years before she took part in the battle of Trafalgar, and to-day flies the flag of the commander-in-chief at Portsmouth. Of small wooden merchant vessels there are instances of the attainment of very remarkable ages. Lloyds Register for1909-1910shows one sailing vessel, the Olivia of 94 tons, as having been built as early as in 1819, two vessels built in the twenties, and twelve built between 1830 and 1840. The collier brig Brotherly Love, of South Shields, was over one hundred years old when she was broken up; and the schooner Polly built in 1805, was still sailing in 1902; as also was the brig Hvalfisken, built at Calmar in Sweden in 1801. The dimensions of the last vessel are, length, 88 ft. 8 in.; breadth, 21 ft. 2 in.; depth of hold, 14 ft. 7 in.; and her gross tonnage, 2ff. The oldest vessel afloat in 1910 was said to be the Danish sloop Constance a small wooden sailing vessel built in 1723 and still employed in the coasting trade of Denmark. This vessel is 52 ft. 6 in. long, 14 ft. 8 in. beam, 6 ft. 8 in. depth in hold and of 35 tons gross.

In the cases of these very old wooden vessels it should be remembered that many portions of the original structures have been replaced by continual repairs. We have less experience concerning the life of iron and steel ships when taken care of,and in most instances ships have been condemned and broken up only because they were obsolete; but after twenty or even forty years service, those parts which by accident or intention had remained properly covered and protected were found very little the worse for wear. Thus the inner surface of the outside plating of such vessels, coated with cement, have been found to be in as good condition as when the ships were first built. The hulls of many of the early iron vessels still afloat are known to be in excellent condition. The Himalaya, an iron vessel of 3453 tons and 700 h.p., 6 guns, length 340 ft. 5 in., breadth 46 ft. 2 in., depth 24 ft., built by Mare of Blackwall in 1853 for the P. & 0. Steam Packet Co., and purchased by the Admiralty, was actively employed, chiefly as a troop-ship, until 1896, when she was converted into a coal depot, it being found that her plating and framing were almost as good as new. Known as C. 60, she seemed likely in 1910 to survive for many years in her new service. The Warrior the first British iron battleship, built in 1861, was converted into a floating workshop forty years later at Portsmouth, where in 1910 she was known as Vernon III. The hull and framing of the vessel were then practically as sound as when first put together. Experience up to 1910 with vessels built of mild steel indicates that this is more liable to surface corrosion than iron, especially where exposed to the action of bilge water and coal ashes in boiler rooms. Some owners on this account require the plating for the tank tops under the boilers to be of iron in, vessels otherwise built of mild steel, although the iron is inferior in strength and costs more than the mild steel.

That general and local strength are more easily obtained in an iron or steel ship than in a wooden one follows partly from the fact that the weight required for the structure is less in the former than in the latter, and also from the fact that iron and steel are more suitable materials for the purpose. They can be obtained in almost any desired shape, the parts can be readily united to one another with comparatively little loss of strength, and great local strength can be provided in very little space.

For some purposes, and in some markets, wood is still in favor. In scientific expeditions to the Polar regions, it is of the highest importance to avoid any disturbance of the compass, and this can be ensured by constructing the vessel of wood, with metal fastenings. The Fram, built in 1892 for Nansens Arctic expedition, was of wood, her outside planking, in three thicknesses, amounting in the aggregate to from 24 in. up to 28 in.; she was 117 ft. long, rigged as a threemasted schooner, and provided with auxiliary machinery working a screw propeller. The America, fitted out for the Ziegler expedition to the North Pole, was an old Dundee whaler (the Esquimaux), and was reported to be still a stout ship with timbers as sound as on the day they were put in thirty-six years before. She is 157 ft. long, 291/2 ft. beam, 193/4 ft. deep, net tonnage 466; her engines have a nominal horse-power of 100, and she has a liftin,g screw. In 1901 the Discovery, a wooden vessel, 172 ft. in length, was built at Dundee for Antarctic exploration, under Captain Robert Scott, R.N.,1 and a wooden vessel for similar service was constructed in Germany, and in 1910 the Terra Nova (Plate I., fig. 2), a wooden Dundee whaler, 187 ft. long, barque-rigged and fitted with auxiliary steam power, which had already seen service in the Far South, carried to the Antarctic regions an expedition also led by Captain Scott. Some wooden sailing vessels are still built in the United States and employed in the coasting and other trades. One of these, the Wyoming, the largest wooden sailing vessel ever built, was launched in December 1909 at Bath. She was a six-masted schooner 350 ft. long, 50 ft. wide and 30 ft. deep. Wood is also in favor for most of the large and palatial river steamers of the Western states of America.

Some progress had been made in the introduction of steam propulsion. before the end of the 18th century, but Steam the advance became more rapid in the I9th. In propulsion. the early steam vessels paddle-wheels only were used for propulsion.

In1801-1802the Charlotte Dundas, one of the earliest steam vessels, was constructed by Symington in Scotland. She proved her capability for towing purposes on the Forth and Clyde canal. Fulton now made his experiments in France, and after visiting Scotland and witnessing the success of the Charlotte Dundas, constructed the Clermont on the Hudson river in America in 1807. The engines fcr this vessel were obtained from Boulton&Watt, of England. She ran as a passenger boat between New York and Albany, and at the end of her second season proved too small for the crowd that thronged to take passage in her. In 1809 the Phoenix made the passage from Hoboken, in New Jersey, to Philadelphia, and was thus the first steamer to make a sea voyage. In 1812 Bell began running his steamer Comet, with passengers, between Glasgow, Greenock and Helensburgh: she was 42 ft. long, ii ft. broad, 51/2 ft. deep, and her engine had one cylinder II in. in diameter, with a 16-in, stroke. Owing to the success achieved by these and other vessels in America and Great Britain, steamers soon began to make their appearance on many of the principal rivers of the world. Early in 1814 there were five steamboats on the Thames, and the steamboat Margery, built on the Clyde, was brought through the Forth and Clyde canal and round by the east coast to the Thames. In the same year a writer in the Gentlemans Magazine was able to say: Most of the principal rivers in North America are navigated by steamboats; one of them passes 2000 m. on the great river Mississippi in twenty-one days, at the rate of 5 m. an hour against the descending current. In 1816 the first steam passengerboat ran across the English Channel from Brighton to Havre, and a line of steamers was started to run between New York and New London. All of these vessels were built of wood; but in 1820 the first iron steatnship, the Aaron Manby, was constructed and employed in a direct service between London and Paris. In 1822 a return was made to the House of Commons showing the times occupied by steamers as compared with sailing vessels on some thirty coasting routes; the average speed given for steamers in the best of these was from eight to nine knots, while the average time taken varied from one-half to one-sixth (or even less) of the time taken by the sailing vessels.

Steam vessels were employed at a very early date upon the mail services, for besides being very much quicker than the sailing vessels, they were practically independent of the direction of the wind, and to a considerable extent of the weather; consequently the regularity of their nassages contrasted very favorably with the irregular times kept by the sailing vessels. The mail service across the Irish Channel, between Holyhead and Dublin, was especially uncertain in the days of the sailing packets, frequently occupying three or four days, and occasionally as much as seven and nine days. All this was altered when in 1821 the steamers Royal Sovereign and Meteor were placed on the service. The advantages were so apparent that steam mail packets between Great Britain and the Continent, and on many other services, were soon established. The mail boats had been for many years owned by the crown, but in 1833 the carrying of the mails to and from the Isle of Man, and between England and Holland and Hamburg, was entrusted to private companies. Marked improvement in the services, and especially in the boats employed, resulte~l from the competition to secure the distinction and other advantages of carrying His Majestys mails. An intermediate stage followed, extending over a comparatively short period, during which the crown etill held many of the mail boats, while in a considerable number of cases the mail services were let to private companies. After this the British government abandoned altogether the policy of being the owners of the boats, and the mail services have since been competed for by private companies.

The Savannah was the first steamship to cross the Atlantic. She ran from Savannah to Liverpool in 1819 in twenty-five days, under steam, however, only for a portion of the time. She was built at New York as a sailing ship, but before launching was fitted with steam power, the paddle-wheels being arranged to be removed and placed on deck when not required. She was 130 ft. long, 26 ft. broad, 161/2 ft. deep and of about 380 tons. The success of the Enterprise, of 470 tons, which made the voyage from London to Calcutta by the Cap~a of Good Hope in 1825 in 103 sailing days, is noteworthy. The distance is 11,450 nautical miles, and the vessel was under steam for 64 clays and under sail for 39 days. The steamer afterwards (1829-1830) made the trip between Bombay and Suez in 54 days, in furtherance of a scheme to reach the former place from London by the Red Sea route. The year 1838 witnessed the successful transatlantic voyages of the steamers Sirius and Great Western. The latter vessel, built under the advice of I. K. Brunel, the engineer of the Great \Vestern Railway Company, was the first steamer actually constructed for the transatlantic service. She was built of wood, her dimensions beinglength 212 ft., breadth 351/2 ft., depth 233/4 ft. and tonnoge 1340 B.O.M.; and her total displacement on a draught of i6 ft. 8 in. was 2300 tons. Although not originally built for the service, the Sirius was subsequently placed on it at the recommendation of Mr MGregor Laird of Birkenhead. This vessel also was built of wood, and was 178 ft. long, 251/2 ft. broad, 183/4 ft. deep and her tonnage was 703. Mr Lairds arguments in favor of placing the vessel on the transatlantic service throw light on the steaming capabilities of vessels of that day. He pointed to the steamers Dundee and Perth making ii m. per hour, in all weathers, winter and summer, fair and foul; and to the other vessels making from 10 to 101/2 m. per hour. He based his estimate for the coal required on the voyage on a speed of 10 m. per hour and a coal consumption of 30 tons per day, which gave 525 tons f or the whole voyage. Finally, he allowed 800 tons, corresponding to the difference of the displacement at 15 ft. load draught and at II ft. light draught, so that he had a margin of 275 tons for contingencies.

All the vessels just named were propelled by paddle-wheels. The screw propellei had been advocated as a means of propulsion by many inventors in England, France and America during the latter half of the 18th and the early part of the f9th century; a number of experiments had been made, but these had not been brought to a successful issue, as no suitable steam engine was available for driving the propeller. Benjamin Franklin, in 1775, drew attention to the inefficiency of side paddle wheels as a means of propulsion, and proposed as an alternative to set the steam engine to pump water in at the bow and force it out at the stern, the water passing along a trunk. In 1782 a boat 80 ft. long, fitted with this means of propulsion by James Rumsey, was driven at 4 m. an hour on the river Potomac, and a number of other vessels similarly fitted followed. In 1839 Dr Ruthven took out a patent for this method of propulsion in which the piston pump was replaced by a centrifugal pump; and in 1865 the Nautilus, a vessel of this type, so impressed the British Admiralty of the day that an armoured gunboatthe Waterwitch was provided with this system of propulsion. She was built of iron, 162 ft. long, 32 ft. broad, 13 ft. 9 in. deep, was double-ended and fitted with bow and stern. rudders, but was otherwise similar to the armoured gunboat Viper built at the same time and fitted with a screw propeller. Many trials were carried out with the Waterwitch and Viper, but the system adopted in the former was not repeated because of the great advances made in connection with the screw propeller. -

Many useful experiments appear to have been carried out b.y Colonel John Stevens in the United States in the early years of the I9th century, but, although some beautiful The screw models of propellers made by him still remain, the propeller.

system was not generally adopted until its commercial possibilities were more successfully demonstrated by Captain John Ericssonformerly an officer in the Swedish army and F. P. Smith of England. Smith took out his patent for the propulsion of ships by means of a screw fitted in a recess formed in the deadwood, in May 1836, and in July of the same year Ericsson, then practising as a civil engineer in London, took out his patent. Small vessels were built and fitted by both inventors and both were tested in the Thames. In 1838 Captain Robert F. Stockton, on behalf of the U.S. Navy, ordered two iron boats of Messrs Lairds of Birkenhead, to be supplied with steam engines and screw propellers of Ericssons design. The first boat was named the Robert F. Stockton, and arrived at New York under sail early in 1839, with her machinery on board. The machinery was fitted in her at Bordentown, and under the name of New jersey the boat afterwards served as a tow boat on the river Delaware. She was 70 ft. long, 10 ft. beam and 6 ft. 9 in. draught, and could steam about 10 m. an hour. Ericsson had the satisfaction of seeing his plans very largely adopted in the American Navy, but the mercantile marine adhered with great pertinacity to the paddle-wheel.

Fincham, writing in 1851, says that in England engineers were reluctant to admit the success of the screw propeller, and adds: A striking instance of prevailing disinclination to the screw propeller was shown on the issue of a new edition of the Encyclopaedia, in which the article on steam, navigation contained no notice whatever of the subject.

Smith, however, persevered, and with the assistance of some influential people of the daynotably Messrs Rennie & Co. formed the Ship Propeller Company, and in 1838 built the Archimedes, a vessel of 237 tons burthen, to illustrate the value of the plan. The length of the vessel was 106 ft. 8 in., breadth 21 ft. 10 in., depth in hold 13 ft., draught of water 9 ft. 6 in., h.p. 80 nominal, but only 66 could be developed. A speed of about 73/4 knots could usually be maintained, but on one run of 30 m. under very favorable circumstances a speed of 10-9 m. was reported. In 1840 she was placed at the disposal of the Admiralty for experiment, and the trials were favorably reported on. She afterwards passed into the hands of Brunel, who was so satisfied with the results of further trials that he modified the design of the Great Britain steamship then in hand (1843), and fitted her with a screw propeller instead of paddle-wheels as originally intended. The success of this and other vessels was sufficient to largely influence public opinion in favor of the propeller, and the Admiralty took the important step of building the Rattler, a vessel of 888 tons and 200 H.P., to test the system. She was practically a repeat of the Alecto, as far as her hull and the power of her machinery were concerned, but she was propelled by a screw propeller, whereas the Alecto was propelled by paddle-wheels. These vessels were tested together at sea in March 1845, when. the Rattler proved the faster vessel; but the great test took place on Thursday, 3rd April following, when the two vessels were secured stern to stern, and it was found that with the engines of both ships working at full power the Rattler towed the Alecto astern at a speed of s~ knots.t In. a few years the screw almost entirely superseded the paddle-wheel for war vessels, and in 1854, during the war with Russia, Great Britain possessed a screw steam fleet, including all classes of ships, built of wood.

The performances of the Greet l~Vestern and other vessels had demonstrated that ships could traverse the oceans of the world by steam power alone, but great advance had to be made in the marine engine before the ordinary trade could be carried on by its means with economy. In the early maline engines only one cylinder was provided, and various means were employed for transmitting the power to snaclilnery. the paddle shaft; later came the oscillating cylinder engine and the diagonal engine, the latter being the type of paddle engine now most frequently adopted in Great Britain. With the introduction of the screw propeller the arrangements became much modified. At first the engines were run at comparatively low speeds, as in paddle-boats, gearing being supplied to give the screw shaft the number of revolutions rctjuired, but direct-acting two-cylinder engines gradually replaced the geared engines. The compound engine was first adapted successfully to marine work by John Elder in 1854, and in time directacting vertical engines, with one high and one low pressure cylinder, became the common. type for all ships. The boiler pressure, moreover, in 1854, had been raised to 42 lb per sq. in. The further change, accompanying still higher pressures of steam, from compound to triple-expansion engines was, like inan.y other changes, foreseen and in some measure adopted by various workers at about the same time, but the first successful application of the principle was due to Dr A. C. Kirk. In 1874 he fitted a three-crank triple-expansion. engine in the Pro pontis. The boiler used proved a failure, but in 1882 he fitted a similar set of engines in the Aberdeen, with a boiler pressure of 125 It), and the result was entirely successful.

Continuous improvements have enabled engineers to produce machinery of less and less weight for the same power, and at the same time to reduce the spaces required for its accommodation, the vibration. due to the working of tl~e engines, and the consumption of fuel per horse power. For engines of high power, quadruple expansion has sometimes been adopted, while scientific methods of balancing have been employed, improved qualities of steel and bronze have been introduced, the rate of revolution has been increased, and forced lubrication fitted. In the boilers higher steam pressures have been used, superheating in some cases being resorted to; the rate of combustion has been accelerated by supplying air under pressure in the stokehold or in the furnaces, and in some cases by placing fans in. the exhaust to draw the air and products of combustion more rapidly through the fires; the former being known as forced draught and the latter as induced draught. In the Navy, with the view of saving weight, water-tube boilers have been adopted, but boilers of this type have not yet been generally fitted in the mercantile marine. Steam pressures now in common use vary from too to 180 lb per sq. in.. in. cargo .ships; from 140 to 220 lb in passenger ships, including the large Atlantic liners; from 210 to 300 lb in large warships where water-tube boilers are used; while in destroyers and other classes of warships in which small tube water-tube boilers are used it varies from I 8o to 250 lb per sq. in.

A century ago the reciprocating steam engine was slowly making its way as a means of propulsion as an auxiliary to, or as a substitute for sail powerthe steam being obtained by burning wood or coal. In 1815 nine small steam vessels, having an. aggregate tonnage 01786 tons, were built and registered in the United Kingdom; in 1825 24 steam vessels were built, having an aggregate of 3003 tons; in 1835 86 vessels were built, having an aggregate of 10,924 tons. In. 1910 the reciprocating steam engine, after reaching a very high degree of perfection and universal adoption, was being largely replaced by the turbine, coal was being replaced to a considerable extent by oil as a fuel for raising steam, and steam itself was being challenged as a motive agent by the development of the internal combustion engine.

Ill. STATISTICS

For some years before 1870 the total tonnage of sailing ships built each year in the United Kingdom had been about equal to that of steam ships, but then a great change took place; Decrease 541 sailing vessels, amounting to 123,910 tons, were added to the register of the United Kingdom, while 433 of sailing tonnage.

steam ships, amounting to 364,860 tons, were added; the steam tonnage thus added being nearly three times that of sailing vessels. A uniform rate of increase of production of steam vessels was on the whole maintained after 1870, but, as will be seen by referring to Table I. and fig. 3, considerable fluctuations have occurred, the falling off in steam tonnage being simultaneous with increases of sailing tonnage and vice versa down to 1895. The dotted lines on fig. 3 show approximately the average output for 50 years of sailing and steam tonnage separately and combined. Roughly speaking it may be said that from 1860 to 1895 the output of sailing tonnage fell from about 200,000 tons per annum to 100,000 tons; during the later nineties the falling off was more rapid, and between 1900 and 1910 the output varied between 15,000 and 30,000 tons.

The average tonnage of the sailing vessels built in the United Kingdom in 1860 was 206 tons; this increased with a fair degree of regularity to 532 tons in 1890, 749 tons in 1891 Average and 963 tons in 1892, after which a rapid decrease took size of place, and by 1898 the average size had fallen to 75 tons; sailing vessels.

there were fluctuations after this date, but the average never rose above 163 tons and these vessels are practically restricted to the coasting trac,l~ and pleasure purposes.

Although the building of large sailing vessels of wood and steel has almost ceased in the United Kingdom, the sizes of the largest of such vessels built abroad have continued to increase. Under the influence of the shipbuilding bounties granted in France between 1895 and 1902 something like f 50 sailing vessels of from 2000 to 3500 tons each were built, but few since. In Germany and in America a few large sailing vessels continue to be built.

Lloyds Register for 1841 ~ves a table of the Steam Vessels belonging to England Scotlai,~,. and Ireland in the years 1814 to 1839, which shows that in 1839 there were 720 vessels of a total tonnage of 79,240 tonS owned in the United Growth Kingdom. Between 1839 and 186o considerable numbers of steam of steam ships were built for various services, and the pro- tonnage. duction from 1860 is shown by fig. 3 and Table I. The tonnage added to the Register in 1860 amounted to 93,590 tons, rising over four years to 293,140 tons in 1865; after a gradual decline extending over three years to 100,000 tons it again rose till 1872 when nearly 500,000 tons were added. In 1876 it had fallen to about 200,000 tons; then came the great rise extending to 1883, when it reached a maximum of 885,495 tons. A rapid decrease followed, and in i886 it had fallen practically to what it had been ten years before. In another three years the figure was again what it had been in 1883; and for a period of seventeen years, with much smaller fluctuations than previously, great increases were maintained. In 1906 a maximum of 1,428,793 tons was reached, when another rapid fall occurred over two yearsthe minimum reached being 600,837 tons in 1908. The fluctuations in output, shown by fig. 3, synchronize approximately with the improvements and depressions in trade.

The average tonnage of British steam vessels rose slowly from 80 tons in i813 to 102 tons in 1830, and to 473 tons in 1860, reaching a maximum of 1442 tons in 1882. During the next four Average years it fell gradually to 896 tons, rising again to 1515 sIze, of tons in 1890, and the average tonnage built since 1890 has ste~~ remained, with a certain amount of fluctuation, nearly ships. 1500 tons. These figures may be taken as roughly representing the average tonnage of the ships produced throughout the world; but as in these averages large numbers of comparatively small vessels are included, the vast increase in the numbers of large-sized vessels which have been built, especially during recent yearv, is not adequately represented. Of the vessels built in 1890 only I % exceeded 8000 tons in displacement, whereas the vessels of over 8000

TABLE I -Showing the Number, Tonnage (Gross and Average), added to the Register of the United K

Wood and Composite. Iron.

Mode ______ _________ ______

Year. of - Gross T Gr Propulsion. No. Tounage~ No. Tonr Sail -. - 786 154,130 32 I~

I860 Steam - - 49 7,050 149 86,

Sail - - - 8o6 160,430 116 88,

i862~ Steam - - 38 5,780 344 287,

8 Sail - - - 478 72,970 63 50,

I ~0 Steam - - 51 7,290 382 357,

8-- 1 Sail 373 46,060 193 206,

i/3~ Steam - 66 8740 291 281,

88 1 Sail, - - 273 18,f59 39 40,

i 0? Steam - 20 1,779 362 447,

88 ul .~. 266 17,841 144 i6o, 2~ Steam. 37 2,751 177 148,

8 SemI -. 142 7,704 6 5,

1 90 / Steam - 26 1,326 110 40,

s Sail ... 156 8,541 3 I,

i 91 ? Steam - - 25 1,212 167 31,

18(1 5 Sail - - - 151 8,372 6 5,

~ 1 Steam - - 19 1,026 86 18,

18 Sail - - 154 7,980 4

Steam - 27 1,551 64 12,

18 Sail - - 155 7,570 3,

Steam - - 26 1,183 65 12,

18 - Sail - - 150 7,529 9

Steam.. 35 1,579 66 9,

r8 6 l Sail - 161 7,519 5

~ 1 Steam 17 591 79 II,

is 5 Sail - - 183 8,317 2

Steam, - 33 1,58! 63 9,

mS 8 Sail - - 196 8,813 6

Steam - 20 765 8o 13,

18 5 Sail - - 165 7,342 2

)t~) I Steam - - 29 1,497 64 12,

1900 Sail -.. 159 8,718 5

/ Steam 64 3,809 86 16,

190i Sail - - 146 7,826 2

Steam - 83 5,479 14 2

1902 5 Sail ... 142 7,479

Steam - 71 4,098 32 5

1 03 5 Sail - - - 139 7,637 -

Steam - 68 4,034 3

Sail - - - 161 8,626 - -

~~ Steam - 52 2,961 5

I 0~ Sail - - 130 7,962 - -

9 2 Steam - 45 1,840 2

1 06 Sail - - 104 5,731 2

Steam - - 110 6,242 I

1 07 Sail ... 121 7,017 -

~) Steam 196 15,069 - -

I 08 l Sail io8 4,93!

1 Steam - - 142 9,056 1

i 0 Sail -.. 75 3,362 -

~ Steam - - 92 3,880 - -

The above table is based upon information supplied to md Description of all Vessels (excluding Warships) built in and ngdom during each year enumerated.

Steel. Totals.

Average ss Gross Gross Gross age. Nc. Tonnage. No. Tonnage. Tonnage.

190 - - - - 818 168,420 206

540 - - - 198 93,590 473

)70 -. - - 922 249,400 270

6o -. -. 382 293,140 767

)4o - - -. 541 123,910 229

570 - - 433 364,8b0 843

~10 - - 566 252,170 446

590 - - 357 29o,f30 813

)15 4 1,671 316 59,845 189

589 26 36,493 408 485,661 ff90

)34 27 30,569 437 208,444 477

~o8 122 154,249 336 305,508 909

)iI 59 96,374 207 109,989 532

~44 432 817,Ofo 568 858,480 1515

c44 93 i78,593 252 188,678 749

I8i 388 730,051 580 762,644 1315

~21 128 260,874 285 274,367 963

)37 365 660,847 470 680,810 1449

~m8 66 113,097 224 121,495 542

~58 328 622,099 419 636,108 1518

107 67 83,167 225 90,944 404

W0 389 75I,668 480 765,251 1594

782 32 4I,3f3 191 49,624 260

/79 379 736,412 480 747,888 1558

792 36 37,709 202 46,020 228

593 398 750,106 494 762,290 1543

132 34 28,48, 219 37,030 169

~74 366 658,646 462 670,20! 1451

798 40 8,456 242 18,067 75

554 546 996,8,4 646 1,011,233 1565

182 6o 11,757 227 19,281 85

184 534 1,152,999 627 1,i66,68o 1861

420 46 8,598 210 17,736 84

375 476 1,102,890 626 1,123,074 1794

174 54 22,118 202 30,118 149

474 469 1,115,227 566 1,123,180 1984

- 63 25,985 205 33,464 163

870 476 1,109,511 579 1,119,479 1933

- 60 15,077 199 22,714 114

537 538 943,333 609 947,904 1556

- 51 15,166 212 23,792 112

827 519 1,016 324 576 1,020,112 177!

- 36 7,125 166 15,087 9!

147 567 1,204,293 614 1,206,280 2964

330 42 8,810 148 14,871 100

79 66o 1,422,472 771 1,428,793 1853

- 45 8,228 166 15,245 92

629 1,182,566 825 1,197,635 1452

97 58 18,468 167 23,496 141

483 415 591,298 558 600,837 1077

44 11,020 119 14,382 121

383 752,424 475 756,304 1592

Lloyds Registry by the Registrar-General of Shipping.

e years from 1860 to 1879 inclusive (only net tonnages having been based on the relation of srns~ to set for the years 1882 and io~

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tons built in 1900 made up 12% of the whole tonnage. Jn 1890 there were no vessels built whose displacement exceeded 9000 tons; in 1900 such vessels constituted I 13/4% of the whole, and about 3/4% of the whole were over 16,000 tons. The year 1908 was notable for the number of large vessels launched; fo British and 4 German FIG. 3.Gross tonnage of all sailing and steam merchant vessels hi added to the register of the United Kingdom during each year from 186 The dotted lines may be taken as representing the average produc year to year.

vessels were launched whose tonnage averaged about 15,000 tons each, their tons displacement being about 50% greater. In 191 0 there were afloat more than So vessels exceeding 12,000 tons, and having an average tonnage of more than 15,500 tons each (see Table XI. page 885). Six of these vessels were over 20,000 tons and had an average gross tonnage of 25,640 tons each. The tonnage of the largest vessels has almost continuously increased, and vessels with a tonnage of 45,000 tons are now being built, the fully loaded displacement of the vessels being more than 50,000 tons.

Fig. 4 shows the tonnage of wood, composite, iron and steel vessels added to the Register year by year since 1860, and figures Tonna e for a number of the years are given in Table I. The burn J tonnage of wood and composite vessels added in 1860 wood fr~i, was 161,180, increasing to 166,210 tons in 1865 and and steel then falling away at a fairly uniform rate until in 1880

only 19,938 tons were reported, and since that date practically no increase in output of this class of tonnage has taken place. The tonnage of iron ships produced in 186o was about 63% of that of wood ships; while wood shipbuilding fell off, iron shipbuilding increased, and in 1870 the tonnage of iron ships was more than five times that of wood and composite ships. The output of iron ships iiicreased until 1883, when a maximum of 856,990 tons was reached. Steel had now come into use, and iron shipbuilding fell away rapidly, amounting only to 50,579 tons in 1888; this figure fell to 10,679 tons in 1895, and since then very few vessels have been built of iron. Steel, which had been used in shipbuilding to a limited extent for special purposes for some eight years, came into use for the hulls of merchant ships in the later seventies. In 1880 the tonnage built38,164 tonswas 41/2% of that of iron ships, by 1885 the ratio was 60%, and in 1890 the tonnage of steel ships, 913,484 tons, v-as just 20 times that of iron ships. From that date the statistics of steel shipbuilding are practically those of steam vessels above given. -

From Table II., which gives the distribution of ownership of existing merchant vessels and other vessels, excepting warships, it Th appears that the total tonnage of the worlds shipping, e~, excluding vessels under 100 tons and the wood vessels on wor S, the Great Lakes of America, is about 42 millions. Of this total, rather less than one-ninth is in sailing vessels, and d dl ~ the remainder in steam vessels. Taking the number of bUf ships instead of their aggregate tonnage, the sailing vessels are 27% of the whole. Out of the 42 million tons, Great Britain and her colonies own about 19 millions, or 451/8% of the whole, 18 millions being steamers and I million sailing vessels.

Fio. 4.Gross tonnage of all wood, composite, iron and steel vessels built in and added to the register of the United Kingdom du year from 1860 to 1910.

Next to Great Britain, the largest shipowning country in the world is the United States of America, with 5 million tons of shipping, 12% of the total. Then come in order Germany, with nearly 41/2 millions, io1/2% of the total; Norway, with 4.8%; France, with 4.5%; Italy, with 3.2%; Japan, with 2.7%; Holland, Sweden and Russia with 2~4 to 2f %; and Austria-Hungary, Spain and Denmark each with abotit 1.8%. The leading particulars as to the distribution of ownership of the merchant shipping throughout the world for 1873, 1890, 1900 and 1910 respectively are represented graphically in the block diagrams given in fig. 5, which have been constructed from particulars given in Table II. and similar tables for the other years named. The total tonnage owned in these years, excluding vessels under 100 tons and wood vessels on the Great Lakes of America, is represented by -I- squares drawn to scale, in duplicate, and divided up LI I -~ amongst the countries owning shipping in proportion to ~/ ~ their ownership. Parts of each holding are shaded in the %,/j~ ~i squares on the right so as to show what portion is ~~ sailing tonnage and what steam tonnage, and in the squares on the left so as to show the distribution of the total as regards materials of construction in each country. The total tonnage owned is given for each -. year named, and the percentages owned by various countries are tabulated between the pairs of squares.

ut in and The tonnage of the shipping of the world has advanced Dto i910. at an increasing rate for many years; the character of non from this