HISTORY OF MARINE ARCHITECTURE.

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posed by some to have signified what are now called hawse pieces, and by others,fenders, intended to prevent the injury that might otherwise happen to the sideof the vessel, in consequence of the anchor fluke rubbing against it. This willappear an opinion by no means lightly taken up, when it is remembered,that the ancients were accustomed to anchor indiscriminately, as occasionrequired, either from the head or stern of the vessel.

That part, continues Vossius, which was properly called the deck, or catas -troma , was laid over the transtra , or beams, yet not so completely as to coverthem from side to side, the center part remaining open, as is the custom evenin modern times, except that among the ancients the aperture appears to have beenlarger than that of the hatchways. After a few remarks tending to establish thecertainty of this fact, which common reason will very readily lead to the admissionof, our author states, that the deck not only extended over such part of the ves-sel as was nearest the side, and would now from its breadth be called a gang-way only, but also stretched a considerable length beyond it, as far as the beamsthemselves which overhung the sides, and were supported by the brackets asalready described. As to the assertion made by Thucydides, that very many ofthe gallies were without decks, previous to the Persian wars, that informationis to be understood as relating only to the interior, or part within board, for it isan absolute certainty, that the most ancient of the Grecian gallies were alwaysfurnished externally with that kind of platform just described. Homer himself fullyestablishes the truth of the idea, and Eratosthenes, as well as other authors, assert,that the Argo, early as the age was, in which she was built, and unpractised asthe artists who constructed her must have been in the science of ship-building,was nevertheless furnished with that kind of deck, or to speak more properly,that projecting platform which has been just described, and without which it wasperhaps not possible the navigation of a galley could be carried on. Therefore,when Thucydides affirmed that the ships built in the early ages of the Grecianstates were without decks, it meant only that the part within board remainedopen, as is the case with many gallies built even in later days, all of whichwere invariably provided with a projecting platform, for the soldiers to standon and fight. Vessels of the most inferior rate and size were, for the sake ofstrength, furnished, even from the earliest times, with a similar addition, merelyfor the purpose, as before observed, of strengthening and enabling them to bearthe shock of the sea; nor, if we may rely on the testimony of Thucydides himself,

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