Man on the Ocean | Page 3

the solid land sink on the horizon, and beheld
nothing substantial in all the waste of waters, save their own tiny bark
that reeled beneath them on the heaving billows? Perchance these first
adventurers on the deep found their way back to land, and afterwards
tried the bold experiment of steering by the stars. Perhaps not; but at

length it did come about that ships were built, and men were found bold
enough to put to sea in them for days and weeks together.
The ark is the first ship of which we have any authentic account. We
now leave the region of conjecture; for the ark was built by Noah under
the immediate direction of the Almighty, and we have a minute account
of it in the Bible.
More than two thousand three hundred years before our Lord and
Saviour Jesus Christ came to earth, man's wickedness had attained to
such a height that God resolved to destroy the inhabitants of the world
by a deluge. But, in the midst of wrath, God remembered mercy. He
spared Noah and his family, and saved them from destruction by
placing them in the ark along with pairs of the lower animals.
Every reader of the Bible knows the story of the deluge; but everyone
may not be aware that traditions of this deluge are found in every part
of the earth. East, west, north, and south--civilised and savage--all men
tell us of a great flood which once covered the world, and from which
only one family was saved, in a boat, or a canoe, or an ark.
What the barbarous and savage nations know dimly from tradition, we
know certainly and fully from the inspired Word of God. The ark was
built; the flood came; Noah with his family and two of every living
creature entered into it; and for months the first ship floated on a sea
whose shoreless waves flowed round and round the world.
What the ark's form was we cannot precisely tell; but we know its
dimensions pretty accurately.
Although it was not intended for voyaging, the ark must necessarily
have been a perfect model of a vessel, meant to float upon the waters.
To some extent, too, it must have been fitted to ride upon turbulent
billows; for it "went upon the face of the waters" for upwards of seven
months, and before it rested finally on the top of Mount Ararat, "God
made a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters assuaged." In regard
to its size, the most interesting way to consider it, perhaps, will be to
compare it with the Great Eastern, the largest ship that has yet been

built by man. Assuming a cubit to be about 18 inches, the length of the
ark was about 450 feet, its breadth about 75 feet, and its depth about 45
feet.
The Great Eastern's length is 680 feet, its breadth 83 feet, and its depth
from deck to keel 60 feet.
The ark was built of gopher-wood, which is thought by some to be pine,
by others cedar. It consisted of three stories, and had a window and a
door, and was pitched within and without. But it had neither masts nor
rudder; and it is evident that, although it was man's refuge, the ark was
not designed to be managed by man, for after Noah and his family had
entered in, God took on himself the guidance and preservation of their
vessel. Thus our Saviour--of whom the ark was a type--specially guides
and protects those who flee to him for refuge.
But although we have noticed the ark as being the first ship, we cannot
with propriety place it in the front of the history of navigation. After the
flood the ark seems to have been soon forgotten, or at least imperfectly
remembered, and men reverted to their little canoes and clumsy boats,
which sufficed for all their limited wants. It was not until about a
thousand years later in the world's history that men built ships of
considerable size, and ventured on prolonged coasting- voyages, for the
purposes of discovery and commerce. Navigation had been practised,
and the art of ship-building had made very considerable progress, long
before men dared to lose sight of the shore and venture out upon the
mysterious bosom of the great unknown sea.
To the ancients the Mediterranean was the ocean; and among its bays,
and creeks, and islands, maritime enterprise sprang into being and rose
into celebrity. Among the Phoenicians, the Egyptians, and Hebrews, we
find the earliest traces of navigation and commerce. The first of these
nations, occupying the narrow slip of land between Mount Lebanon
and the Mediterranean, rose into fame as mariners between the years
1700 and 1100 before Christ--the renowned city of