in deadly peril. The sight of
their comrade's courage and of his danger stopped the retirement of the
Greeks. Their rowers were now straining every nerve to come to the rescue
of the isolated trireme, and from shore to shore the two fleets met with
loud outcry and the jarring crash of scores of voluntary or involuntary
collisions.

All order was soon lost. The strait of Salamis was now the scene of a vast
melee, hundreds of ships crowding together in the narrow pass between the
island and the mainland. Themistocles in the centre with the picked ships
of Athens was forcing his way, wedge-like, between the Phoenician and
Ionian squadrons into the dense mass of the Persian centre. The bronze
beaks ground their way into hostile timbers, oars were swept away, rowers
thrown in confusion from their benches stunned and with broken limbs. Ships
sank and drowning men struggled for life; the Asiatic archers shot their
arrows at close quarters, the spearmen hurled their javelins; but it was
not by missile weapons the fight was to be decided. Where the stroke of the
ram failed, the ships were jammed together in the press, and men fought
hand to hand on forecastles and upper decks. Here it was that the Greeks,
trained athletes, chosen men in the prime of life, protected by their
armour and relying on the thrust of the long and heavy spear, had the
advantage over the Asiatics. Only their own countrymen of the Ionian
squadron could make any stand against them, and the Ionians had to face the
spears of Sparta, in the hands of warriors all eager to avenge the
slaughter of Thermopylae.

Some of these Ionian Greeks, fighting under the Persian standard, won local
successes here and there in the melee. They captured or sank several of the
Spartan triremes. One of the ships of Samothrace performed an exploit like
that of Paul Jones, when with his own ship sinking under the feet of his
crew he boarded and captured the "Serapis." A Greek trireme had rammed the
Samothracian ship, tearing open her side; but as she went down her Persian
and Ionian crew scrambled on board their assailant and drove the Greeks
into the sea at the spear-point. It was noted that few of the Persian crews
were swimmers. When their ships sank they were drowned. The Greeks were
able to save themselves in such a disaster. They threw away shield, helmet,
and spear, and swam to another ship or to the island shore.

This fact would seem to indicate that with the exception of