58

HISTORY OF MARINE ARCHITECTURE

worked with any effect by one man only, even though he is placed at thedistance of twelve feet from the row-lock. But if the same person were fixedat the distance of one foot only from the port, it is too well known to admitof dispute, that he would only possess one-twelfth part of the power, orforce, he did in the former station, and would scarcely be able to move the oara nail’s breadth; for it is the fixed and immutable law of statics, that one manplaced twenty feet from the fulcrum, or supporting point, possesses exactly thesame power twenty men would do who were placed at the distance of onlyone foot from it.

Seeing therefore that there are so many difficulties and absurdities in thesystems proposed by others, which are of a nature not to be overcome or recon-ciled to our understanding by any devisable explanation, let a fresh opinion bestarted, which appears to explain them all, “ at least,” says Vossius, “ such ismy idea.” Let us suppose, that in the lower tier one man only was stationedto an oar, which being short, and but trivially elevated above the surface of thewater, he might be able to work without much difficulty : The oars in all supe-rior tiers, as they increased in height from the water, increased also in length,-within board as well as without, leaving room for a greater number of rowersto work each in progressive proportion to their length, so that we are not tolook for a solution of the decereme, quindecereme, and quadragesireme in somany tiers of oars, but in the number of seats for rowers comprised in one obliquetier. In contradiction to the general opinion which has prevailed, that theseats of the rowers were parallel to the surface of the water, we must begleave to suppose, that they raked inclining towards the row-ports, in con-formity with the range of the deck, and were also placed obliquely, as theyprogressively rose in height, each seat being fixed in such a situation,that it fore-reached that below it at least eighteen inches. If these alterationsare admitted as probable, every difficulty appears to give way, as will be ren-dered more apparent on referring to the Figure No. 2, Plate 1.

It exhibits, as the first, a parallelogramic section, shewing the supposed situationof a sufficient number of seats, reformed according to the new system. A Arepresents the. surface of the water ; the line B B the range of the lowest tierof row-ports, which are continued, at equal intervals, on the different lines tothat of D D, which is nine feet above the water, the interspace between eachof the tiers being eighteen inches: the seat of the rower, w'orking the lowest,,is placed four inches higher than the row-port, and four feet within the vessel,

in.