HISTORY OF MARINE ARCHITECTURE.

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The galleon, or ship, which was of still more modem invention, had not asyet recommended itself so fully to the Mahometan powers, as to induce themto follow the example of their foes; though the want of success, which almostinvariably attended them in every naval encounter, from the middle of thesixteenth to the same period in the seventeenth century, might have convincedmen, less bigotted or less attached to the customs of their forefathers, of thesingular injury which they sustained from these improved vessels, particularly atthe battle of Lepanto, where the six Venetian galleons, or ships of war, with-stood, with effect, the onset of the whole Turkish fleet, and contributed mostessentially to its total discomfiture.

In regard to the different, or varied principles of ship-building adopted by theEuropean nations, it is only necessary to say, that, the rules and principles ofthe science having been derived from one stock, the pupils had not, as yet, intro-duced their own ideas, and supposed improvements, so fully as to cause any ofthose material variations which, in modern times, have so widely separated thefashion of one country from that of another. Of the general contour, or shape,with reference as well to use, as to symmetry, or ornament, only one single ideaseems to have been entertained by all the maritime powers till toward the closeof the seventeenth century. The Spaniards and Portuguese followed the exampleof the Venetians ; the Dutch, and other northern powers, derived their knowlegefrom the same masters; and the English themselves, who had for so many agesasserted and defended, against all questioners or opposers, their right to thesovereignty of the narrow-seas, were not ashamed to receive instruction fromthe Italian masters *, and change those rude ill-constructed barks, withwhich they had conquered France, and awed every other country in that partof the world then known, for the superior pieces of floating mechanism,exhibited by their preceptors. In the smaller vessels, or frigates, the formof the galley was almost wholly preserved ; but, as ships increased in rate, orforce, it became necessary to adopt those, alterations and additions which havebeen already pointed out -f*. The extravagant inflection of the upper workswas equally common to all countries ; as was also the projecting prow, or beak;at the extremity of the latter it was customary to affix, by way of ornament,a figure, in the fashion of which, and in the ornaments which decoratedthe stern, consisted nearly all the difference, or variation, by which the ships

* See page 39.

VOL. II.

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f See page 23.

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