HISTORY OF MARINE ARCHITECTURE.

97

historical point of view, of a Very considerable part of the ancient marine.The fleets and power of Carthage, and of Rome, which not having existedtill that of many which have been already commemorated, were much in thewane* and some of them in an absolute state of decay, necessarily demand afuture and distinct notice, for the purpose of preserving a chronological orderas correct and perfect as may be.

The consideration of those commemorated facts,' th'e relation of which hasbeen transmitted to modern times as authentic, furnishes very sufficient evi-dence of sotne points, which afford no ihcdnsiderable insight .into the state ofMarine Architecture, as it stood at different periods. These have been alreadyslightly hinted at, but it will, probably,- not be irrelevant or improper to enterinto a short detail of those facts, and the conclusions which may naturally bedrawn from them. The fleet employed at the siege of Troy almost exceededin numbers what reason feels herself inclined td allow, or credulity itself,stretched to its utmost limits, is ready to believe;* This scepticism, however,has been in great measure occasioned by an aversion which the human mindfeels to separating ideas, which custom, and long use, have associated with par-ticular objects. When even a fleet of twelve hundred vessels is mentioned, themodern reader scarcely knows how to allow, that these vessels Wefe of any infe-rior description to triremes, and consequently, that each df them required a crewequal to a galley properly fitted for war. The fact was, in reality, far different.In the early ages of navigation, even before the introduction of gallies, or thecustom of entering into manual contests, on board them, took place, fleets werefar more powerful, if numbers only be considered as constituting force, thanproved the case in after ages, when improvement had rendered the system ofnaval architecture less artless, and considerably augmented the expence, as wellas labour, of fitting out vessels intended for warlike purposes.

Stabrabates, the opponent of Semiramis, who is supposed, by many historians,to have lived seven hundred years previous to the siege of Troy, is said to havdcollected a fleet consisting of four thousand vessels, for the purpose of resistingthe invasion df his territories by that aspiring Woman. The Grecian fleet, col-lected on account of the expedition against Trov, amounted, according to Thu-*cydidck, to twelve hundred vessels, some of which were So capacious as to containone hundred arid twenty men, and the smallest carried fifty. It must, neverthe*jess, be at the same time remembered, that they were all of them, notwithstanding'Vox.. I. Q their.