NOVEMBER, 1921 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN 25 From Trireme to Dreadnought The Development of the Warship from Ancient to Modern Times By J. Bernard Walker T is not possible to name less than one hundred were I any definite date or even used at the battle of Sala­ period when the warship, mis. An invariable feature even in its most crude form, found on all warships was came into existence. It is the ram, which consisted of probable that from the ear­ a massive projecting spur liest days the mariner found below water level, and an­ it advisable to carry with other ram-like arrangement him arms for defense, fOl' we to strike the ship between know that even centuries be­ wind and water. Ramming fore the Christian era, those was the principal tactic em­ wonderful sea traders, the ployed in ancient sea fight­ Phoenicians, were armed suf­ ing, and it sometimes hap­ ficiently to protect them­ pened that the attacking boat selves against the pirates suffered only less severely that infested the trading than the enemy. I'outes of those days. The As the Greeks followed the development of tile warship Phoenicians, so did the Ro­ is necessarily associated with mans, the Greeks, each de­ the development of the mer­ veloping and enlarging the chant ship. In fact, the one ships of predecessors. The grew out of the other. The Romans are principally to be difference between the two remembered for the develop­ was that, whereas the mer­ ment of their merchant ma- chant ship relied principally rine, with its famous corn upon its sail power, the war­ ships, which brought the Greek warship of the date oOf the Salamis battle Typical Roman TQ.emeo q{,tlte. Punic Wars ship depended principally • produce of distant Mediter- '-' for speed and maneuvering ability upon its oarsmen. from the Red Sea and coming back through the J\£e<'tt•. ran�an countries to Rome. In Roman history, as with Our earliest record of sailing ships is to be found terranean. the British Empire, the Roman merchant marine was upon those wonderful historical sculptures, engravings It is probable that the Greeks modelled their earlier the great bond between the imperial seat of power and and paintings with which the ruins of ancient Egypt ships after those of the Phoenicians, and we present an the outlying provinces. Lucian has left a most fascl­ abound. illustration of the type of Greek warship which took nating description of his visit to one of these ships, and Egyptian seamanship, however, was confined almost part in the battle of Salamis. The meager records of he speaks of the ship's cabins, of the sailors, mounting entirely to the naYigation of the Nile, and it was history fail to tell us just when it was that the ship the lofty masts by the ropes and running out along the not often that their vessels ventured beyond the Nile followed in its structure that of the skeleton of the fish, �'ards. Forward he notes the prow bearing the ship's delta into the waters of the Mediterranean. To them, with backbone and ribs, but we know that the Greek name, and aft, the vessel sweeping up into a gilded however, must be credited the familiaL' form of the ship was provided with keel and ribs to which latter goose-neck. He speaks of the capstan and the windlass, ancient ship, with its curving prow and lofty stern, and the ship's planking was fastened by means of tree-nails and finally, of the captain, "an honest fellow, bald-pated, with its long bank of rowers. This form persevered for or pegs of wood. There was also a certain amount of with a fringe of curly hair." It should interest us here some 3000 to 4000 years, and may be seen (of course use made of bronze nails. A single mast with one in America to know that the early Romans extempor­ greatly modified) in the ships of the Greeks, Romans square sail was used, and this was characteristic of ized their fighting fleets, and that they set about their and the Venetians. the early warships for many centuries. Homer tells us preparation only at the approach of war. Later, how­ The first great race of seamen was undoubtedly the that the Greek warship was manned by from twenty to ever, Rome was provided with decks; but it was not Phoenicians, whose enterprise carried them throughout fifty rowers, who sat upon transverse seats or thwarts. until the Punic War that this great military people the full length of the Mediterranean and Ultimately There was a cabin forward and another aft. On the appreCiated the need for a navy. We know that the through the Straits of Gibraltar and to the coasts of forward cabin deck was the lookout, and at the stern Romans defeated the Carthaginians with a fleet of one Britain. of the after cahin was the helmsman, the Greek ship hundred quinquiremes and twenty triremes-that is, Vie know from the Syrian sculptures that the Phoe­ having two steering oars, one on each side of the stern yessels with fiye and three banks of oars. nicians, as early as 700 B.C., were building biremes, post, which were connected by a cross bar to which was The first warships of all early nations were undecked, with two banks of oars; and that their vessels must attached the tiller. The stern of the ship was carried open boats. Then came the erection of forward and have been seaworthy and themselves great navigators up in a huge sweeping, ornamental tail. Up to the year after enclosed structures, corresponding to the fore- for those early days, is shown by Herodotus, who re­ 700 B.C., the largest ships contained fifty rowers, ar- castle and poop, and following that, or contempora­ cords that Neco, king of Egypt, failing to build a canal ranged in a single bank, but later an upper deck was neously with it, a central gallery or platform connected from the Mediterranean to the Red Sea, sent a crew of added and a second bank of oars, such ships being the two deck structures, for the use of the captain and Phoenicians on a voyage around Africa, which, wonder­ known as biremes, and this was succeeded by ships with other officials. Then, as ships increased in size, they ful to relate, they succeeded in accomplishing, leaving triple banks of oars known as triremes, of which no became completely decked, and upon the deck of the 14th Venetian galley of the Middle Ages One of the dreaded Viking craft 0 FreLHlh w.arship,middle century © 1921 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, INC 26 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN NOVEMBER, 1921 fighting galley the troops genesis of that lofty poop, were stationed, the rowers which was destined to be a being below deck. The Ro­ characteristic feature of war­ man galleys grew to formid­ ships of the Spanish Ar­ able size. The single forward fighting with artillery which mast with a fighting top was was just about to open. retained, but for speed and The next illustration in power reliance was placed order is that of one of the upon the oarsmen, the banks ships of the Spanish Ar­ of oars being increased from mada, which sailed toward the original single bank up the close of the sixteenth to as many as five. There century. Here we note, as has been a hot discussion compared with the French among the students of an­ vessel of the middle of the cient warship construction 14th century, that a third mast as to whether the oarsmen has been added and that the were placed in successive fore and main masts have tiers above one another, or grown in height until they whether they were not ar­ carry topsails and even to'­ ranged on one deck with each gallant sails. The crude two, three or more sets of cannon of that day of low oars operated through the power and short range are same porthole, the oars be­ carried on two decks, and it ing of different length to en­ will be noted that the above able the rowers to clear each water ramming stem head of other. The argument in fa­ the early days of the war­ vor of the super-position of ship still survives in the the banks of oarsmen is huge stem piece with its stronger, and certainly more super-incumbent dragon. agreeable to the pictorial Once the oar had given records that have come down place to the sail, and the from ancient times. bow and arrow to the gun, Limitations of space for­ the line of development was bid more than a passing ref­ obvious, and ships of the erence to our illustration of seventeenth and eighteenth a typical Venetian galley. century grew steadily in size The Venetians had a notable Spanish two-decker of the Armada, 1588 ·,The "Victory" of Nelson's day-a three-decker and sail power until they share in the development of reached the great three-deck- both the merchant and the ers of the Nelson period. as warship in early and medireval times in the Mediterra­ ,self_ How they did their navigation, it is impossible The largest of these craft carried many as 120 to 130 nean. We notice that the famous lateen sail which is to tell. The slln by day and the pole star by night and guns. One of our illustrations shows the "Victory," still a favorite type in Mediterranean waters, was con­ a certain fine instinct for the sea were about all that Nelson's flagship at the battle of Trafalgar, as she must spicuous on the Venetian galleys.