Man on the Ocean | Page 4

Sidon being their
great sea-port, whence their ships put forth to trade with Cyprus and
Rhodes, Greece, Sardinia, Sicily, Gaul, and Spain. Little is known of
the state of trade in those days, or of the form or size of ancient vessels.

Homer tells us, in his account of the Trojan War, that the Phoenicians
supplied the combatants with many articles of luxury; and from
Scripture we learn that the same enterprising navigators brought gold to
Solomon from Ophir in the year 1000 B.C.
A short time previous to this the Phoenicians ventured to pass through
the Strait of Gibraltar, and for the first time beheld the great Atlantic
Ocean. Proceeding along the coast of Spain, they founded Cadiz; and,
not long after, creeping down the western coast of Africa, established
colonies there. But their grandest feat was achieved about 600 years
B.C., when they sailed down the Red Sea and the eastern coast of
Africa, doubled the Cape of Good Hope, sailed up the western coast,
and returned home by the Strait of Gibraltar. Bartholomew Diaz must
hide his diminished head before this fact; for, although he gets all the
credit, the Phoenicians of old "doubled the Cape" at least twenty
centuries before him!
That long voyages were made by the men of old, before authentic
history began, seems highly probable. The expedition of the Argonauts
to Colchis in the year 1250 B.C., in search of the "Golden Fleece," is
the first ancient voyage that lays claim to authenticity. What the Golden
Fleece was is uncertain; some think it was a term used to symbolise the
mines of precious metals near the Black Sea. Whatever it was, the
Argonauts went in search of it: whether or not they found it is
unrecorded in history. Jason, son of the King of Thessaly, was the
leader of this expedition, which consisted of one ship and fifty men. A
man named Argus built the ship, which from him was named the Argo,
hence the name of Argonauts.
In treating of ancient vessels, we may as well proceed on the principle
suggested by a sagacious child, who, when his mother was about to tell
him a story, usually begged of her to "bedin at the bedinning." We shall
begin at the beginning.
CHAPTER THREE.
RAFTS AND CANOES.

Rafts, as we have already remarked, must undoubtedly have been the
beginning of navigation. But they have not, like many other species of
ancient craft, been altogether superseded by modern inventions. True,
we do not nowadays carry on war on rafts, but we still carry on trade
with them in many parts of the world. How the rafts of ancient times
were formed we cannot tell precisely, though we can easily guess; but
one thing we know, and that is, that the first improvement made in such
craft was the thrusting of a few thick planks down into the water, to the
depth of three or four feet, between the logs which composed the raft.
These acted the part of a keel, and, by pressing against the water
side-ways when a side wind blew, prevented the raft from making
much of what is called leeway--that is, drifting in the direction in which
the wind happened to be blowing. Some sorts of Dutch vessels use
lee-boards for this purpose at the present time.
The rafts now in use on the great rivers of America are exceedingly
curious in many respects. One peculiarity of many of them is that they
float themselves, not goods, to market--the pine logs of which they are
constructed being the marketable commodity. Some of these
"lumber-rafts," as they are called, are of great size; and as their
navigators have often to spend many weeks on them, slowly floating
down the rivers, they build huts or little cottages on them, cook their
provisions on board, and, in short, spend night and day in their
temporary floating-homes as comfortably as if they were on the land.
When these rafts approach a waterfall or a rapid, they unfasten the
lashings and allow several logs tied together to run down at a time.
After the rapid is passed, the loose logs are collected together, the raft
is reconstructed, and the voyage down to the sea continued. Of course,
huts are built only on rafts which navigate the largest rivers, and are not
thus liable to be taken to pieces.
When the logs reach the sea, they are shipped to various parts of the
world where timber is scarce. Large quantities are imported into Great
Britain from Canada and other parts of America.
A bold thing has occasionally been done. Instead of shipping the logs
in vessels, enterprising and ingenious men built them into a solid ship,

leaving a small space to serve as a cabin and a hold for provisions;