HISTORY OF MARINE ARCHITECTURE.

79

other quality was of little consequence to them. For this reason, the minds ofthose ingenious men, who considered the science of constructing vessels as a na-tional art, which the well-doing of their country particularly demanded should becarefully cultivated, were constantly applied to the discovery or advancementof some improvement. As soon as it was practically found, that the narrow-ness of their vessels contributed, in a great degree, to their swiftness, andthis was established as a fixed, an invariable principle, the next care was todispose the rowers so commodiously within the vessel, that they might not, inthe first place, impede each other in their motions, and in the second, that nopart of the side should be left vacant where it was possible to employ or workan oar. The attainment to this degree of perfection is attributed to the Sido-nians ; and the variety of the different services, which repeated warfare created,gave birth to all those different classes into which the ancient gallies weredivided.

The extravagant length, in proportion to their breadth, that the Grecians, aswell as Romans, were accustomed to give their war-gallies, was not adopted merelywith the same design as that which modern refinement has occasionally supposedeligible, under the idea that the length of a vessel, provided the principle is notstretched too far, contributes materially to its swiftness. A secondary reasonmight have encouraged the original practice ; but, certainly, the first thatsuggested it, was the opportunity it afforded of augmenting the number of oarsin each tier beyond that which could have been employed, had their war-galliesbeen no longer than those which were solely built for commercial purposes.The utility of this principle has been fully established by the practice of after-ages ; for it is by no means uncommon, to find even at the present day galliesbelonging; to different states bordering on the Mediterranean sea, the lengthof which is nearly seven times that of their breadth, or 175 to 25 ; between-which, and the proportion, said to have been established by the Romans, thereis no very considerable disparity. .

To these remarks, urged in defence of historical information, it may be'added, that the ancients seldom ventured far from the shore, or quitted theirports at those seasons when hurricanes, or weather sufficiently tempestuous toendanger their safety, might be reasonably expected; so that, however strangeand improper a vessel constructed according to the proportions already given,in respect to breadth, may to some modern artists appear, the closest investiga--

tion.