in all its details, is, that the paddle-wheel steamer of to-day is really and practically in her structure (though materially improved, and possessing the vast advantage of mechanical power) the row galley of the ancients. Her machinery and coal bunkers are distinct and separate from the hold, cabins, or any other portions of the ship; and the paddles of the steamer, with the engines, take the position and perform the part of the rowers and their oars. Here modern genius and skill, as it has done in a thousand other instances, substitute mechanical for manual labour. modern paddle, in its revolutions, performs exactly the same duty as the oars of the ancients in their simultaneous movements, and the welltrained crews of the Grecian and Roman galleys in their action at the oars, were, so far as is traceable, almost as regular as the beat of the paddlewheel.

ever,

The

Nor was it necessary to appropriate for the use of the rowers, even when three hundred men were engaged, a larger space in the ship than would now be required for a steam engine of one hundred and fifty horse-power, and her fuel for twenty days. A glance at the illustrations will show that, by the plan suggested, the whole of the fore and after hold of the midship portion of the galley, besides a large space below the platform of the rowers, could be appropriated to cargo and stores, the fore and after maindecks to troops, while the rowers themselves could be berthed in that portion of the vessel where they performed their daily toil, and where there would be space, however uncomfortable, for their beds and scanty apparel. These arrangements will, howbe better understood by a reference to the accompanying deck plan (Fig. 4, and comparing it with the side view and midship section previously gi 'ven. Here it will be seen that the portion of the galley occupied by the rowers was open, though doubtless covered with an awning in warm, and a tarpaulin in wet weather. To have enclosed this space with a deck wou'd have been fatal to the men, as human beings, especially during the summer months, almost the only time when the galleys were employed, could not have existed, much less have laboured in a confined hold. Besides being pen, there would be thorough ventilation, not merely by means of the air passing through the oar-ports, but by the constant current which, in all weathers, passed through the trellised framework, extending from the upper stringer or gunwale to the side platform or catastroma, where the troops were frequently placed, and which formed the connection between the poop and forecastle decks. "The soldiers," remarks Thucydide.","occupied the catastroma on the een, that this form of an ancient rement of such a vessel, corresscanty and imperfect accounts

further side." It will therefore be
war-galley, while it answers every requi
ponds, even in matters of detail, with the

of ancient writers. "When they began," remarks Thucydides in another place, "to engage with each other, they could not be easily pulled asunder, both on account of the multitude of ships, and also because they chiefly trusted to the soldiers on the catastroma for obtaining the victory."

It may, however, be remarked that in all such matters the statements of the ancient writers are frequently very conflicting, or apparently so. For instance, the same author, describing the galleys of the Boeotians and of Philoctetes, of whom Homer also writes, says, "Nor had they, as yet, covered ships;"† whereas we find in the "Iliad" such expressions as, "He marched upon the hatches with long strides ;" and in the "Odyssey," where Ulysses is preparing to encounter Scylla, "upon the hatches of the prow of the ship he went." Mr. Howell, it is true, in opposition to the views of most translators, says that the hatches should be construed as meaning "the thwarts or seats upon which the rowers sat:" but it is obvious that no other construction can be put upon the word except that it meant the hatches of the hold, which being slightly elevated above the level of the deck, would be a much more likely place for the master or officer of the galley to walk than upon the thwarts where the rowers sat; and this opinion is confirmed by the expression in the latter quotation, where "the hatches of the prow" are distinctly mentioned as the covering of the entrance to the fore-compartment or hold of the galley.

These conflicting statements may, however, be easily accounted for by the fact that, though portions of the galleys were open, other portions were decked, while the proportion of the open and closed spaces must have varied according to the class and size of the galleys or the purposes for which they were employed. In all such matters, also, different nations had doubtless different arrangements, if not in the form, at least in the outfit and general equipment of their galleys, and these must have undergone great changes in the course of centuries. Nor does it modify the opinion that "hatches" in their literal sense are meant, for in the time of Homer, though the galleys were all single-banked and "open," they had a deck in midships and at the bow and the stern, as well as the catastroma or platform in the waist, for the use of the soldiers.

Although most of the war galleys of the ancients had high towers at the stern, and more especially at the bow, these were frequently temporary erections, and did not interfere with the general plan of the solid hull of the ship. Nor need they be here noticed, as little or no difference of opinion exists in regard to them. It may, however, be remarked

* Vol. i., cap. xlix.

+ Ibid., cap. x.

Howell's Pamphlet, p. 7.

that they appear to have varied in form and size, with the galley, the purposes to which she was applied, or the fancy of her owners; and that the oar-ports could not have been of the form generally drawn. They are more likely to have been oblong, fashioned in such a shape as to allow the oar which, in large galleys of many banks, could only be unshipped by being passed outwards, to be brought pretty close alongside of the vessel when the rowers ceased work. In regard to the seats, stools, or benches of the rowers, so frequently mentioned, and which have created a good deal of controversy, the plan here suggested satisfies all these requirements, for to each rower a separate seat or stool attached to the oblique benches or steps is appropriated. The height of each of the oar-ports above the level of the water, in that of the quinquereme, and in all vessels of greater dimensions, would be as follows:

So that the height of the sill of the port on the fifth or highest bank would be nine feet above the water line.

The space between the rowers seated on their respective benches or platforms, doubtless varied according to the size of the galley. While from four to six feet between each rower seated on the same level would be ample in the case of either uniremes, biremes, or triremes, galleys of the larger class, in many cases, most likely had an intervening space of from six to even ten feet, so as to afford room for the sweep of the handles of the oars, and enable the rowers to walk one or two steps aft and then throw themselves backwards with greater impetus into their seats as already described.

SUMMARY.

The conclusions at which we have arrived may be condensed as follows:

:

1. Ancient galleys were classed or rated according to their number of banks, rows, or tiers of oars.

2. All galleys above the unireme had their oar-ports placed obliquely above each other in horizontal rows.

3. No galley had more than five horizontal rows.

4. Every galley, from the unireme to the quinquereme inclusive, derived its name or class from the number of horizontal rows.

5. All galleys, above a quinquereme, were likewise classed according to the number of rows. In their case, however, the oblique rows were counted; but in all cases, from the smallest to the largest, including Ptolemy's tesseraconteres, each row, whether oblique or horizontal, was a distinct bank of oars, which, like the number of guns wherever they were placed in wooden men-of-war, constituted the only basis for their classification.

6. The portion of the galley appropriated to the rowers and their oars was as separate from the other portions of the vessel as is the machinery of a paddle-wheel steamer. The rowers, also, like the modern engineers and stokers, were entirely distinct from the seamen and marines; and amongst them were leaders and crack rowers, who were as indispensable to get the galley under weigh and keep the rest of the rowers in time, as are the engineers of our own day, who start and keep the machinery in proper working order.

In a word, the row-galley constituted the steamship of the ancients, as distinguished from their sailing vessels. She had sails to aid her progress when the winds were fair, as a steamer now has, but the one depended on her oars as much as the other now does upon her machinery; and, however vast the improvements, there is really no difference in principle between the galley of the ancients and the steamship of to-day. In practice they are the same, except that steam is substituted for manual labour. An oar is a paddle, and the blades of the oars fastened together, like the spokes round the axle of a wheel, and projecting into the water, constitute the paddle-wheel of modern times.

THE SEAMANSHIP OF ULYSSES.

ONE day last month, after having looked through the wreck reports, casualty returns, depositions, reports of official inquiries into wrecks and misconduct, as printed in the Shipping and Mercantile Gazette, and the various reports daily furnished by the post, the telegraph, and the general press, respecting the navies of the world; and after having been refreshed by reading the reports of cases tried before the learned Judge of the Admiralty Court, one of our friends of a speculative, and to our thinking somewhat of an ironical habit of mind, called in; and, after passing his congratulations and the usual civilities, inquired of us whether we did not find our mind enlarged, and our morality strengthened