HISTORY OF MARINE ARCHITECTURE.

505

which are glazed, and can be opened at pleasure. In the hold are various smallchambers for passengers, separated from each other by screens and doors, thewood-work of which is covered with neat mats. The most remote of the cabinsis considered as the best, and for that reason is given to the most distinguished tenant.The upper, or most elevated deck, is somewhat flat, and formed of planks in a'very finished state, being perfectly well joined. When the mast is lowered, it islaid upon this deck ; and, at night, the sail being spread over the whole, provides’a shelter for the sailors, who sometimes, that they may the better preserve them-selves from rain, add another covering of straw, which is always kept on board forthat purpose.

The only sail which the vessel carries is made of canvas, and very large in itsdimensions. There is but one mast, which is generally fixed about five feetabaft the midship. The sailors raise this mast by means of blocks, andlower it in the same manner when they come to an anchor. The anchors areof iron, and the cables, which are made of twisted straw, are much stronger thancan readily be imagined.

Whenever it is calm, thirty or forty oars are employed. The rowers areseated on banks, which are placed toward the stern ; they row in cadence to thetune of a song, the tone of certain words, or to a repetition of sounds, whichserves at once to regulate the motion, and animate the men. In rowing, they do’not spread, or extend the oars, but let them fall almost perpendicularly intothe water, and then draw them up : this method is described not only as havingall the advantages of that practised by Europeans, but as being less labourious,and productive of more effect; particularly when, as in passing through straits,or along side another, the vessel has but little space to move in. It is to be observedalso, that the seats of the rowers are elevated considerably above the water, andthe oars made in a form peculiarly adapted to the action. They are not, as is cus-tomary in other parts of the world, strait, but somewhat curved, and divided inthe middle by a moveable joint, which, yielding to the pressure of the water,permits them to be lifted out of it with greater ease *.

' The

* The following extract from Sir George Staunton,; containing a beautiful river-seene in China,is interesting in this place, in'the way both of illustration and comparison :

“ When there happens to be little or no stream cr wind, it is not uncommon for the sailors tomake use of two large sculls or oars, sometimes placed toward the fore part of the vessel, like thepectoral fins of a fish, and sometimes near the stern ; and, in some vessels, one only at the stern, and

one