HISTORY OF MARINE ARCHITECTURE.

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most superficial consideration, as in that case, the vessel in question must havebeen more than seven hundred feet long, without reckoning that additionallength both of the head and stern, in which no oars were worked. Thisextent, it is shrewdly and properly remarked, must have required a breadth ofbeam nearly equal to an hundred feet, in order to render it capable of beingnavigated with safety. From hence it may be fairly concluded, either thatthere really was only one tier of oars, and that eight persons were stationed toeach, which, but for reasons already given, might easily be admitted, orthat there were three tiers, disposed in the manner we shall now attempt todescribe from Vossius, though we candidly confess, we do not, in the smallestdegree, comprehend either his meaning, or reasoning, as far as that descriptionis concerned.

“ The first, or, to speak more correctly, the lowest tier, (says he) was formedby those placed in the OaXapog, (the situation of which has been already described)the second, third, and fourth, by those occupying the gvyog, or middle space ofthe vessel’s side, the four which remain, by the thranitas, or those stationed inthe upper part. In consequence of this arrangement, you will have a vesselof great magnitude indeed, but not more than three hundred and fifty feet long,or probably not more than three hundred, if you contract the distance betweenthe rowers to somewhat less than three feet.

“ In the celebrated galley of Philopater, however, it was not possible such adisposition could have been made; for if there was only an interspace of threefeet allowed between each oar, the part necessary for them could not haveexceeded one hundred cubits, leaving a space of no less than one hundred andeighty (making two hundred and seven feet) totally unoccupied, which isdirectly contrary to the established principles of the science, since in all vesselsusing oars they extended at least three parts in four of the whole length. Athe-naeus states that not more than fifty rowers sat on each of the tiers, or rows :from thence we may easily conclude, that they were disposed in an obliqueparallelogram.” It is said, that the upper tiers were not elevated more thannine feet from the surface of the water, and the annexed Figure, Plate i,Fig- L is a representation from the same author, Vossius, of the supposedarrangement. Let the letters A B represent a space of nine feet, we shallsoon find how many seats it will contain. In the modern gallies, the seatsare in general twenty-two inches in height, which has been found, experi-mentally, to be the most convenient standard; inasmuch as, if they were

higher,