Ancient Ships That Used To Rule The Sea

My love affair began long before I was old enough to know anything about an obsession. I have had a lot of them, but my thirst for knowing and understanding the life of the sea-going sailor and his ships -- is probably one of my oddest quirks.

Perhaps, it's part of that old hunger women sometimes have for the dangerous or the bad boys. I've been there and done that too, but that insanity was quickly discarded. Though, I've never lost my lust for knowing about the mysteries of the sea. Studying mysteries that are fraught with danger and excitement are a lot safer than life in the fast lane of modern day pirates.

I think it all began in my childhood, as I was born beside the sea in Long Beach, California. Some of my earliest childhood memories are the sailors and ships in that naval port.

A life-time later, when I was obsessed with genealogy, I was even more obsessed with history. If your family history goes back far enough in coming to the shores of America -- The one common denominator every one whose family immigrated to this country shares is that, at some point they arrived by sea.

I like to think about how it all began.

Was it far, far back in the misty dawn of the world, that man accidentally discovered that a floating log would support his body?

I'd bet that after he had grown used to the idea of venturing upon the water, someone tried lashing two or more logs together to form a raft. Probably when it did not upset as easily as a single log, mankind then a light bulb idea formed that it could be used to carry cargo.

Look At The Earliest Ships Who Used To Rule The Sea!

Logs and rafts, the very earliest means of water travel, were not really boats. The first true boat was the canoe, and the earliest kind of canoe was the dugout that the Stone Age man hollowed from a single log and propelled by paddles.

Next, a lighter-weight canoe was developed -- a wooden framework covered with hide, bark, or a watertight woven material.

This was followed by a boat whose covering was thin slabs of wood tied or stitched together, or fastened to an inner frame by wooden pegs.

Men learned at an early date to take advantage of the wind by using sails to catch the breeze and thus drive their craft before it. The first sails were probably little more than crude mats of woven rushes or the skins of animals crudely cured and stretched.

Much later, merchants of the ancient world needed larger, stouter vessels with greater cargo space in order to carry on trade with distant lands.

Warships became necessary to protect the merchant ships from pirates and to defend home ports against invaders.

These needs were met by the gallery, a ship driven by a square sail when the wind was favorable or by oars when the wind failed. One or two large steering sweeps slung near the stern guided the vessel.

The earliest shipbuilders of whom history has kept a record were the Egyptians. They were building boats to navigate the Nile at least eight thousand years ago.

Later, in larger ships, they became the leading seafarers of the Mediterranean. At times they made the dangerous passage down the Red Sea in quest of gold, ivory, incense, and other treasures.

Wall paintings and ship models preserved in tombs show the details of Egyptian galleys, some of which were decked in and had cabins. Their sails were of linen or papyrus.

Ancient Chinese Tower ships, or floating battalion fortresses are as elusive in most people's knowledge banks as the Chinese words to say ship -- "ting" which means to travel on the sea. For anyone who has been on a yacht -- this is where the word "yachting" also evolved.

Now in Chinese, these war ships were called "lounch" -- which perfectly describes them because "lun" is Chinese for wheel and "chaun is Chinese for ship. Chinese war ships soon had wheels to power them, long before the paddle wheel was known in western cultures.

Chinese towered ships first appeared in the Han Dynasty (200 BCE to 200 CE). Some were over one hundred feet tall, and were virtual floating weapons and very much like a fort. This didn't make them the swiftest and nimblest of navigational ships, but they were a force to be reckoned with.

With the decline of Egypt's sea power, another creation of sea kings, the Phoenicians, arose in the eastern Mediterranean. Their vessels carried masts made from the famous cedars of Lebanon.

The sides of their warships were built high enough to accommodate two rows, or banks, of oars on both sides. Such double-banked galleys are called biremes.

The Phoenicians were great traders and colonists. Their merchant ships proved the far corners of the Mediterranean and voyaged beyond -- out into the Atlantic to Britain and perhaps all the way around Africa.

In addition to the bireme, the Phoenicians may have invented a war galley with three banks of oars, the trireme.

It was the Greeks who developed the trireme and adopted it as their principal warship. Although the trireme carried a square sail of woven material or leather, it depended mainly on oar power, especially in combat. Some warships had as many as one hundred and seventy oarsmen.

Greek merchant vessels larger and broader than the fighting craft, however, depended on sails rather than on oars.

Greek naval might faded about 300 B.C. and Carthage and Rome began a long struggle for command of the sea.

Before the dawn of the Christian Era, Rome was victorious. For many centuries thereafter, she dominated the sea lanes of the Mediterranean world.

Roman galleys resembled those of the Greeks, but they tended to be larger. Early ones had as many as six or more banks of oars.

Later, when warships of many banks had proved impractical in battle, biremes became the most generally used war vessels.

The great merchantmen that carried supplies to Rome from far parts of the Empire lacked oars and were driven by sail alone. Square sails were mounted on several masts. The main mast carried a topsail.