HISTORY OF MARINE ARCHITECTURE.

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reach so far within board by the whole breadth of that platform, as those of thesixth tier did. Finding, therefore, as it will prove on investigation, that theoars of both w T ere the same size and magnitude, it remains only to enquirewhat number of rowers were employed in the upper tier, or rank. It has beenshewn, that the six inferior tiers required thirty-one persons, constituting,according to the term used by the ancients, as many banks. It follows then,that if to these are added an equal number with those which may be supposedto have been employed in working the sixth tier, that forty-one were occu-pied on all the seven.

It is evident, from the testimony of Athenaeus, that the celebrated galley ofPtolemy Philopater had fifty oars in each tier, which, multiplied by seven, willproduce three hundred and fifty : this product, doubled and multiplied by forty-one, will give, according to the very strangely incorrect arithmetic of Vossius,four thousand one hundred rowers ; but, by a proper mode of reckoning, not somany by six hundred. This circumstance is a convincing proof, that the authorhas omitted some remark, or piece of information, which would have served toexplain his meaning more fully, and perhaps to the satisfaction of his readers.He proceeds by observing, in order to reconcile his system, which it must becandidly confessed has a great deal of ingenuity in it, with the testimony ofancient writers, that, speaking in round numbers, although a vessel really hadforty-one banks of oars, it was termed a forty banked ship, and the number ofrowers which it required, agreed according to his calculation with the greatestnicety, to the information of the author *, on whom he appears much to rely,and who asserts, that it contained upwards of four thousand persons employedin that kind of occupation.

With regard to the beams of the deck, between which the oars of the sixthtier were worked, they were seven feet apart from each other; and, as has beenbefore mentioned, the vacant spaces marked O and P, under the benches, orbanks of oars, were appropriated to the stowage of provisions, or stores of variouskinds, as well as to divers other uses. The middle deck, to which there was adescent of many steps, is marked Q : the two side decks (if they may be socalled) extended from D to E; they were contrived, as has been already iexplained, to serve as platforms, on which the soldiers, who were to defend thevessel, might stand for that purpose, as also did the rowers employed in workingthe upper tier.

* Athenaeus.

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K

As,