their vessels, which were, from all accounts, better able to withstand the
fury of the ocean than the ships even of the Greeks and Romans, that Caesar
gave orders for the building of vessels, on the Loire, similar to those of
the Veneti, large, flat-bottomed, and high at the head and stern. Yet these
vessels, built on such an excellent model, and supplied with chain-cables,
had no sails but what were made of leather; and these sails were never
furled, but only bound to the mast. Besides cables, the ancients had other
ropes to fasten ships in the harbours: the usual mode was to erect stones
for this purpose, which were bored through.

In the time of Homer, the ships of the ancients had only one bank of oars;
afterwards two, three, four, five, and even nine and ten banks of oars are
said not to have been uncommon: but it is not easy to understand in what
manner so many oars could have been used: we shall not enter on this
question, which is still unresolved. The Romans had seldom any vessels with
more than five banks of oars. Such vessels as were intended for lightness,
had only one bank of oars; this was particularly the case with the vessels
of the Liburnians, a piratical tribe on the Adriatic.

The sails, in very ancient times, were made of leather; afterwards of
rushes. In the days of Agricola, the Roman sails were made of flax: towards
the end of the first century, hemp was in common use among them for sails,
ropes, and new for hunting. At first there was only one sail in a ship, but
afterwards there appear to have been several: they were usually white, as
this colour was deemed fortunate; sometimes, however, they were coloured.

At the time of the Trojan war, the Greek ships had only one mast, which 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