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HISTORY OF MARINE ARCHITECTURE.

siderable at sea without having acquired divine honours. His reign is supposed tohave commenced about the year of the world 2539, upwards of one hundred yearsbefore Rameses, who afterwards was king of the same country. This is a verysingular circumstance, and proves strongly how vaguely divine honours were some-times bestowed,Sesostris appearing best entitled to deification, as well on the score ofpriority, as having been a more powerful prince by sea than his successor ever was.He is said to have equipped a fleet of four hundred fighting vessels for an expedi-tion into the Southern or Indian ocean, a circumstance which proves that the./Egyptians soon lost their pristine timidity, or aversion to the sea. He isreported to have afterwards caused an immense ship, or vessel, of cedar, to bebuilt, which was ornamented and enriched by gilding and other embellishments, socostly as to have excited the admiration, and envy of all the world then known.It is stated to have been two hundred and eighty cubits, or about four hundred andtwenty feet in length, more than double that of a British first rate ; and if the samedimensions * were preserved proportionately to those in modern use, was of nearlytwelve times the capacity; as this vessel, supposing that to have been the case, musthave been in burthen more than twenty-four thousand tons of our measurement.We have given this short account, not because we believe such a vessel everexisted, but that we may not be charged with the careless omission of any cir-cumstances or relations that may tend either to trace or elucidate the progress ofthe art or science we are treating of.

The next personage whom history has handed down as chronologicallyintitled to our notice is Minos, the second of that name, king of Crete.He appears to have been the next potentate who, under the degree ofdivinity, or, at least, the name of a demigod, equipped a fleet for the purposeseither of war or colonization. Diodorus, Aristotle, Thucydides, and otherancient authors, all bear testimony to this fact. Diodorus speaks of him inthe following terms : “ Kn}<racr 0 au Xeyntriv xai Svvautv vavjixvv UByaXi jv, xui

t uv tb vviruv rag "arXeigag xdjagpB^acQai, xai nrpujov tuv EXXrjvuv §xXuTjoxpcc)vi<rcti”“ He is reported to have possessed great nautical power, through which,having subdued many of the adjacent islands, he became the first Grecianprince who acquired to himself the dominion of those seas.” Aristotle confirmsthis evidence, and asserts, “ Tyv SuXdo-tnjg ctpxv v xcc]b<txbv 0 M Ivug, xou rag vytrovg, rxgplv exttpvrctjo, Tag Ib uxhtb.” “ Minos became master of the sea: he subdued severalislands, and colonised others.” Thucydides also mentions Minos as having been

* Being however much narrower, it is calculated by Dr. Arbuthnot, to have been of no more than■7182 tons burthen.

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