APPENDIX. XXI laid up, and there was no apprehension of an assault ; or in longcontinued sieges, where no danger was to be apprehended from the enemy’s navy, as in the Trojan war, when the Greeks were never attacked by sea. At other times the ships lay at anchor, or were made fast to the shore, that upon any alarm they might be ready to receive the enemy.

The ships of the ancients were very differently constructed from those which are at this day in use ; and their rate of sailing was, for the most part, even lower than that of the dullest sailing vessel we are at present acquainted with. The rate, however, varied at different times, and will be found at some periods of the Roman empire to have been extremely respectable.

The earliest ships were built with very little art or contrivance, and had neither strength nor durability, beauty nor ornament ; they consisted of nothing more than single planks laid together, just sufficiently united to keep out the water, and were in some places nothing more than trunks of trees hollowed out, forming vessels of single pieces of timber. Other materials besides wood were also employed in the construction of ships ; among which may be mentioned the Egyptian papyrus, and more especially the hides of different animals, of which the primitive vessels were very frequently composed. These were sometimes girt with wicker-work, and frequently used in that manner, even in later times, on the rivers of Egypt, Ethiopia, and Sabsean Arabia.

In early periods, however, when vessels of this construction were employed, we find no mention of anything but leather, or hides sewed together. It was in a ship of this kind that Dardanus secured his flight from Saraothracia to the country afterwards called Troas ; and Charon’s boat was also (according to Virgil) constructed of the same material *.

On their first invention, all ships, for whatever purpose they might Gemuit sub pondere cymba Suctilis, et multam accepit rimosa paludem. — Mneid, vi. 414.

Construction of ancient vessels.