ich was
lowered upon the deck when the ship was in harbour: near the top of the
mast a ribband was fastened to point out the direction of the wind. In
later times there seem to have been several masts, though this is denied by
some authors.

It remains now to speak of the materials of which the ships were built,
their size, and their crews.

The species of wood principally employed in the construction of the Grecian
ships were alder, poplar, and fir: cedar, pine, and cypress, were also
used. The Veneti, already mentioned as celebrated for their ships, built
them of oak; but theirs are the only vessels of antiquity that seem to have
been constructed of this kind of wood. The timber was so little seasoned,
that a considerable number of ships are recorded as having been completely
built and equipped in thirty days, after the timber was cut down in the
forest. In the time of the Trojan war, no iron was used in the building of
ships; the planks were fastened to the ribs with cords.

In the most ancient accounts of the Grecian ships, the only mode by which
we can form a conjecture of their size, is from the number of men they were
capable of holding. At the siege of Troy, Homer describes the ships of the
Beotians as the largest; and they carried, he says, one hundred and twenty
men. As Thucydides informs us that at this period soldiers served as
rowers, the number mentioned by Homer must comprehend all the ship could
conveniently accommodate. In general the Roman trading vessels were very
small. Cicero represents those that could hold two thousand amphorae, or
about sixty tons, as very large; there were, however, occasionally enormous
ships built: one of the most remarkable for size was that of Ptolemy; it
was four hundred and twenty feet long, and if it were broad and deep in
proportion, its burden must have been upwards of seven thousand tons, more
than three times the burden of one of our first rates; but it is probable
that it was both flat bottomed and narrow. Of the general smallness of the
Greek and Roman ships, we need no other proof, than that they were
accustomed to draw them on land when in port, and during the winter; and
that they were often conveyed for a considerable space over land. They were
sometimes made in such a manner that they could easily and quickly be taken
to pieces, and put together again. Thucydides asserts that the ships which
carried the Greeks to Troy were not covered; but in this he is contra