Ships of the Seven Seas

By Hawthorne Daniel

The book the ships of seven sea is one of the best novels by Hawthorne Daniel

• Language: English
• Publisher: BEESQUARE
• Release date: Feb 5, 2024
• ISBN: 9798223098843

Book preview

FOREWORD

In gathering material for a book of this kind one’s sources of information are likely to be so numerous and so diverse as to defy classification. Some of the information I have gotten first hand on ships in which I have served or voyaged. Much more of it has been picked up from countless scattered sources during twenty years or more in which ships have been my hobby. More still, however, has been consciously taken from books on ships and shipping that I have gathered together or referred to during the time I spent actually in preparing the manuscript.

Those books to which I have most often referred, and to the authors and publishers of which I am particularly indebted, are as follows:

Ancient and Modern Ships, by Sir G. C. V. Holmes The Clipper Ship Era, by Arthur H. Clark Dictionary of Sea Terms, by A. Ansted

Elements of Navigation, by W. J. Henderson, A. M. "The Frigate Constitution," by Ira N. Hollis

Lightships and Lighthouses, by F. A. Talbot The Lookout Man, by David W. Bone

Mercantile Marine, by E. Keble Chatterton Modern Seamanship, by Austin M. Knight

Sailing Ships and Their Story, by E. Keble Chatterton

In addition to these I have received much assistance from the New York Public Library, the American Museum of Natural History, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the U. S. Congressional Library, the Marine Museum at the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, and a number of friends, who, knowing of my interest in ships, have brought me some of the most interesting of the facts that I have used.

H. D.

CONTENTS

APPENDIX. An Abridged Dictionary of Nautical Words and Expressions

295

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

A British East Indiaman 57

A Black Ball Packet 59

A Whaling Bark 61

The Red Jacket 63

The Great Republic 65

The Ariel, 1866 67

A Gloucester Fisherman 69

An American Coasting Schooner 71

The Charlotte Dundas 77

Robert Fulton’s Clermont 79

The Savannah 81

The Great Britain 83

The Great Eastern 85

The Steamship Oceanic 89

The Deutschland 93

The Majestic 97

The Leviathan 99

The Berengaria 101

The Mauretania 105

The Belgenland 107

The George Washington 111

The Homeric 115

A Mail Liner 119

An American Intermediate Liner 121

A Cargo Liner 123

A Tramp Steamer 125

An Oil Tanker 129

A Turret Steamer 131

A Whaleback 135

A Great Lakes Freight Carrier 137

An English Warship of the Time of Henry V 141

A British Line-of-Battle Ship, 1790 143

The American Frigate Constitution 145

A Steam Frigate—the U. S. S. Hartford 146

The Monitor 147

The Merrimac 149

A Torpedo Boat 151

H. M. S. Dreadnaught 153

A Submarine 155

A Modern Destroyer 157

A Modern Super-dreadnaught 159

A Battle Cruiser 161

A Scout Cruiser 163

An Airplane View of the U. S. S. Langley 165

A Map of the Port of New York 169

A Map of the Port of Liverpool 171

A Map of the Port of Rio de Janeiro 173

A Map of the Port of Cape Town 175

A Map of the Port of Marseilles 177

A Tug Boat 179

A New York Harbour Ferry 181

A New York Harbour Lighter 183

A Mississippi River Stern-wheeler 185

A Modern Venetian Cargo Boat 187

A Page of Knots in Common Use 193

Bearings and Points of Sailing 195

How a Fore-and-Aft Sail Is Reefed 197

A Freighter Tied Up to a Pier 199

A Few Types of Sailing Ships Common in European and American Waters

201

A Few Types of Sailing Boats to Be Found Around the World 203

The Rigging of a Three-masted Ship 209

The Sails of a Four-masted Ship 213

Using a Cross Staff 217

Using an Astrolabe 221

A Sextant in Use, and a Ship’s Log 225

Using a Pelorus 229

Sounding by Machine 233

The Pharos at Alexandria 237

The Tillamook Rock Light Station 239

Cape Race Lighthouse 241

Minot’s Ledge Light 243

Bishop Rock Lighthouse 245

Fire Island Lightship 247

Automatic Buoys 249

A Ship on the Ways 253

A Floating Dry Dock 255

The Olympic 259

The Aquitania 263

The Paris 265

The Spray 281

The Detroit 283

A Reconstruction of One of Caligula’s Galleys 284

A European Side-wheeler 285

A Hudson River Steamer 287

A Steam Yacht 289

An Experiment of 1924 291

INTRODUCTION

Iremember well being thrilled as a boy by the tales of various members of my family who had been engaged in the old China Trade and in the operation of clipper ships and in whaling. These stories related to a bygone age—a day when the American flag was seen in every part of the globe.

Even in my own boyhood America had no merchant marine except for the coasting trade and the freighters upon the Great Lakes. American seamen had ceased to exist and the calling of an officer in the Merchant Marine was no longer one that offered an attractive career to the American boy. It is unnecessary here to go into the reasons for the decline and fall of our nation upon the sea. The Civil War, the introduction of steam propulsion, the development of the West, and in addition a great number of economic changes, were some of the causes of the disappearance of the American flag from the Seven Seas.

It was not until the outbreak of the World War that American business men as a whole began to think seriously of the possibility of reviving American shipping; it was not until 1916 that the Congress took definite action to aid with constructive legislation; it was not until our own country entered into the war that large results appeared. In the past few years there has been an extraordinary revival of interest in everything that pertains to the sea—the novels of Melville written three quarters of a century ago have been revived in dozens of editions and the sea stories of Conrad are among the best sellers. In the same way, old books, old engravings, and crude old lithographs and woodcuts relating to almost every form of ships and shipping have been sought out and prized by an ever-growing circle of enthusiasts. This is not a passing fancy; there is something more solid behind it. I hope I am right in believing that the people of the United States are again turning their faces to the sea. Over the sea our ancestors or we ourselves have all come. We have filled the vacant spaces from the original colonies on the Atlantic Coast to the new and splendid civilization of the Pacific. No longer can we say America is sufficient for us; our thought and lives must stay at home. We are part of the world now, very dependent on the rest of the peoples of the world for our own progress, and our own

success, and even for our own safety. This is shown by the fact that every school and every college throughout the land is, in its teaching, paying more and more attention to the affairs of mankind beyond our own borders. The study of languages, the study of geography, the study of economics, of international laws—all receive increased attention.

Mr. Hawthorne Daniel has rendered a conspicuous service in writing a book which can be understood and appreciated by the average citizen. Most of us are just average citizens and whether we live a thousand miles from the nearest ocean or not, whether we have ever smelled salt water or not, it will be a good thing for us to have some knowledge of the great epic of ships and the men who have made them and sailed them.

Franklin D. Roosevelt.

HYDE PARK, N. Y.,

June 4, 1924.

SHIPS

OF THE SEVEN SEAS

SHIPS

OF THE SEVEN SEAS

CHAPTER  I

THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  SHIPS

IMAGINE the world without ships. Mighty empires that now exist and have existed in the past would never have developed. Every continent— every island—would be a world alone. Europe, Asia, and Africa could have

known each other, it is true, in time. North and South America might ultimately have become acquainted by means of the narrow isthmus that joins them. But without ships, Australia and all the islands of all the seas would still remain unknown to others, each supporting peoples whose limited opportunities for development would have prevented advanced civilization. Without ships the world at large would still be a backward, savage place, brightened here and there with tiny civilizations, perhaps, but limited in knowledge, limited in development and in opportunity. Without ships white men could never have found America. Without ships the British Empire could never have existed. Holland, Spain, Rome, Carthage, Greece, Phœnicia—none of them could ever have filled their places in world history without ships. Without ships the Bosphorus would still be impassable and the threat of Xerxes to Western civilization would never have been known. Greater still—far greater—without ships the Christian religion would have been limited to Palestine or would have worked its way slowly across the deserts and mountains to the South and East, to impress with its teachings the Arabs, the Assyrians, the Hindoos, and the Chinese.

Ships have made the modern world—ships have given the white man world supremacy, and ships, again, have made the English-speaking peoples the colonizers and the merchants whose manufactures are known in every land, whose flags are respected all around the globe, and whose citizens are now the most fortunate of all the people of the earth.

All of this we owe to ships.

Far back before the beginnings of history lived the first sailor. Who he was we do not know. Where he first found himself water-borne we cannot even guess. Probably in a thousand different places at a thousand different times a thousand different savage men found that by sitting astride floating logs they could ride on the surface of the water.

In time they learned to bind together logs or reeds and to make crude rafts on which they could carry themselves and some of their belongings. They learned to propel these rafts by thrusting poles to the bottoms of the lakes or rivers on which they floated. They learned, in time, how to make and how to use paddles, and as prehistoric ages gave way to later ages groping savages learned to construct rafts more easily propelled, on which platforms were built, to keep their belongings up above the wash of the waves that foamed about the logs.

And ultimately some long-forgotten genius hollowed out a log with fire, perhaps, and crude stone tools, and made himself a heavy, unwieldy canoe, which, heavy as it was and awkward, could still be handled much more readily than could the rafts that had served his forbears for perhaps a hundred centuries.

And with this early step forward in the art of ship-building came a little of the light that heralded the approaching dawn of civilization.

AN EGYPTIAN BOAT OF 6000 B. C.

This drawing was made from what is probably the most ancient known record of a ship. The high bow and stern seem somewhat overdone, and it is likely that they were less elevated than this picture shows them. The carving from which this was taken, however, exaggerates them still more.

The very first pages of recorded history tell us of ships, and we know that many prehistoric men were adept at building such boats as dugout canoes. In Switzerland many signs have been found of a people who dwelt there in the Stone Age, and among the simple belongings of this people of great antiquity have been found canoes hollowed from single logs. In the bogs of Ireland, and in England and Scotland similar dugouts have been occasionally found, which had been buried in the course of time far below the surface of the ground.

By the time the Stone Age came the dugout was perfected, and still later other types of boats appeared. Perhaps the hollowed log suggested the use of the curved bark of the tree as a canoe, and ultimately a framework of

wood was developed to hold the weight of the occupant while a covering of bark kept out the water. The framework was necessary for two reasons— first, to give the structure the necessary strength to keep its shape; and second, to bear the weight of the builder and his belongings. Other coverings, such as skins and woven fabrics covered with pitch, came into use in parts of the world where suitable bark was scarce.

The next step in the building of boats was a method of fastening pieces of wood together in suitable form. This probably came from a desire for boats of larger size, which required greater strength, for man early became a trader and wished to transport goods. Bark could not support a heavy hull, and dugouts are necessarily limited in size, being constructed of the trunks of single trees, although dugouts fifty or sixty feet in length, or even longer, are not unknown. Probably the earliest boats of this new type were tied together by thongs or cords. Even to-day the natives of Madras, in India, build boats by this method, and similar types are to be found on the Strait of Magellan, on Lake Victoria Nyanza in Central Africa, and in the East Indies. Many of these have been very highly developed until now they are built of heavy hand-hewn boards fitted together with ridges on their inner sides, through which holes are bored for the thongs that lash them together. The boards are fastened together first, and later a frame is attached to the interior. This construction makes a very elastic boat which bends and twists in a seaway, but which, because of this elasticity, is able to navigate waters that would prove fatal to the more rigid types of crudely constructed boats. The Hindoos often use them in the heavy surf that drives in upon the beaches from the Bay of Bengal.

A LARGE EGYPTIAN SHIP OF THE 18TH DYNASTY

The overhanging bow and stern were common on most early Egyptian ships, and the heavy cable, stretched from one end of the hull to the other and supported on two crutches, was used to strengthen these overhanging ends.

The introduction of this construction made boats of considerable size possible, and for the first time boats larger than anything that could possibly be called a canoe were successfully floated.

From this form a further step was ultimately made in which the various parts were fastened together by the use of wooden pegs, and this was the most advanced type long centuries after the dawn of history. The Nile was navigated by such boats at the height of Egypt’s civilization, and Homer describes this type of boat as the one in which Ulysses wandered on his long and wearisome journey home.

While the art of boat-building had been travelling this long, slow way, the art of propulsion had not been idle. Long since, the simple pole of the early savage had lost its usefulness, for men soon learned to navigate waters too deep for poles. The paddle followed, and was perfected to a very high point, as its use in all parts of the world still testifies.

But further means were still to come, and by the time Ulysses started on his journey from the fallen city of Troy, both the sail and the oar, which for three thousand years were to be supreme as propelling forces, had come into use.

In Ulysses’s boat, therefore, we see for the first time a combination of structural features and propelling agents that compare, remotely though it may be, with ships as they are to-day. A built-up structure with a framework, propelled by sails—it was an early counterpart of the ships of the present time.

Naturally enough this development did not take place simultaneously in all parts of the world. The most advanced civilizations such as those of Phœnicia, Greece, and China developed the most advanced ship-building methods, just as they developed the most advanced arts and sciences and thought and religion.

For instance, when Columbus discovered America a vital factor in the development of ships was entirely unknown to the natives that he found. No Indian tribe with which he or later explorers came in contact had learned the use of sails to propel the canoes they almost universally used. Civilizations of surprising worth, with art and architecture in high stages of advancement, had existed and had practically disappeared in Yucatan and Central America, and other civilizations of genuine attainment were later found, by Cortes and Pizarro, in Mexico and Peru, yet none of them knew the uses of the sail.

On the other hand, the Egyptians and the Phœnicians used the sail, and twenty-five centuries before the discovery of America the Phœnicians are thought to have sailed their ships around the continent of Africa from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean.

But while the art of ship-building progressed more rapidly after the development of the use of wooden pegs for fastenings, and the use of sails

and oars made possible more extended sea journeys, still the development was slow, and until the discovery of the power of steam in the latter part of the 18th Century no revolutionary changes in ships took place.

Just when the method originated of first constructing the frame of the ship and of covering this frame with planks, we do not know, but the transition from the method in use at the time of Homer was simple and the change was probably gradual.

A PERUVIAN BALSA

These boats are really rafts made of reeds.

It seems possible that the built-up boat may have had its origin in the attempt of some savage to raise the sides of his dugout canoe by the addition of boards in order to keep the water from harming his goods.

But all of the history of boats up to the time of written history is necessarily mostly surmise.

It is interesting to note, however, that every one of these basic types is still to be found in use. In Australia, for instance, are to be found savages whose boats are nothing but floating logs, sharpened at the ends, astride of which the owner sits. Rafts, of course, are common everywhere. Dugout canoes are to be found in many lands, among which are the islands of the Pacific and the western coast of Canada and Alaska. The birch-bark canoe is still common among the Indians of America—particularly of Canada; the skin-covered boat is still used commonly by the Eskimos, two types, the kayak, or decked canoe, and the umiak, or open boat being the most common. I have seen the latter type used also by the Indians who live on Great Bear Lake in northern Canada.

Boats fastened together with thongs or lashings are numerous in parts of India and elsewhere, the Madras surfboats being, perhaps, the best examples.

Boats built up of planks fastened together by pegs are to be found in many parts of the world. I learned to sail in a boat of this type, but very much modernized, on Chesapeake Bay. The other methods, very much perfected, are still in everyday use among boat- and ship-builders.

Thus it will be seen that some knowledge of all these various types may still serve some useful purpose, for one may find in everyday use all the fundamental types of construction that have ever existed.

AN AFRICAN DUGOUT

In this boat the builders have hollowed out the log but have not otherwise changed it. It is a present-day counterpart of boats known and used long before the dawn of history.

One type of boat I have not mentioned, yet it is of time-honoured ancestry and is still in daily use among thousands of people. This is the outrigger canoe. In different parts of the world it has different names. In the Philippines, for instance, it is called, in two of its forms, vinta and prau. These boats have one thing in common, and that is an outrigger. An outrigger is a pole made of bamboo or some other light wood, floating in the water at a distance of a few feet from the boat itself. It is held rigid and parallel to the hull by two or more cross bars. Sometimes there is an outrigger on each side but often there is only one. On the smaller boats the outrigger consists of a single pole. On larger boats, or those which are

inclined to be particularly topheavy because of the load they are intended to carry, the size of the sail, or for some other cause, several poles may make up each outrigger. The use of this addition is to secure stability, for the boats to which they are attached are usually extremely narrow and alone could not remain upright in the water, or at best could not carry sail in a seaway, where the combination of wind and wave would quickly capsize them. These outrigger canoes—and some of them are capable of carrying forty or fifty passengers—are extremely seaworthy, and the native sailors do not hesitate to take them for hundreds of miles across seas often given to heavy storms. In the development of ships, however, they play no part, for their only unique characteristic has never been incorporated into ships of higher design.

It is interesting that while all the cruder types of boats are still to be found in daily use in various parts of the world, the more highly developed designs, up to those of the 17th Century, have disappeared. Many of them, it is true, have influenced later designs, but most of the marks they left can be traced only with great difficulty.

The earliest boats of which we have definite records are those that were in use in Egypt about 3000 B. C. Some of these were of considerable size, for carvings on tombs and temples show them carrying cargoes of cattle and other goods, and show, too, on one side, as many as twenty-one or twenty- two, and in one case twenty-six, oars, besides several used for steering. Many of these boats were fitted with a strange sort of double mast, made, apparently, of two poles fastened together at the top and spread apart at the bottom. These masts could be lowered and laid on high supports when they were not needed to carry sail.

The boats themselves seem to have been straight-sided affairs with both ends highly raised, ending, sometimes, in a point and sometimes being carried up into highly decorated designs that at the bow occasionally curved backward and then forward like a swan’s neck. The end of this was often a carved head of some beast or bird or Egyptian god. On the boats intended for use as war galleys the bow was often armed with a heavy metal ram.

AN ESKIMO UMIAK

This boat is structurally similar to the kayak except that it has no deck. It is a larger boat, and will carry heavy loads and perhaps as many as a dozen people. It is made by covering a frame with skins.

These ships—for they had by this time grown to such size that they are more than canoes or boats—often extended far out over the water both forward and aft, and any concentration of weight on these overhanging extremities had a tendency to strain the hull amidships. This was offset, as it sometimes is to-day on shallow draft river boats, by running cables from bow to stern over crutches set amidships.

While the Egyptians were the first to picture their ships, it is not certain that they were the first to have ships of real size and sea-going ability, for the very temples and tombs on the walls of which are shown the ships that I have described have also the records of naval victories over raiders from

other lands who must have made the voyage to the Egyptian coast in order to plunder the wealth of that old centre of civilization.

The Egyptians, however, were never a sea-going people in the sense that the Phœnicians were. But strange as it may be, the Phœnicians, despite the fact that they probably invented the alphabet, did not make the first record, or, as a matter of fact, any very important records, of their great development in the ship-building art. The earliest picture of which we know of Phœnician ships is on the wall of an Assyrian palace and dates back only to about 700 B. C. which was after the Assyrians had conquered the Phœnicians and had for the first time (for the Assyrians were an inland people) come in contact with sea-going ships.

By this time the Phœnicians had had many years of experience on the sea, and the Assyrian representation shows a ship of more advanced design than the Egyptians had had.

There are few records, however, from which we can gain much knowledge of Phœnician ships, although we know they ventured out of the Mediterranean and were familiar with the coasts of Spain, Portugal, France, and even England, where they went to secure tin. And as I mentioned earlier, they may even have circumnavigated Africa, and it seems likely that they invented the bireme and the trireme, thus solving the question of more power for propulsion.

A bireme is a boat propelled by oars which has the rowers so arranged that the oars overlap and form two banks or rows, one above the other. A trireme is similar