Ships built by the Greeks and Romans for war were sharper and more elegant than those used in commerce; the latter being round bottomed and broad in order to contain cargo.

The Corinthians were the first to introduce triremes into their navy (about 700 years B.C.), and they were also the first who had any navy of importance. The Athenians soon began to emulate them, and ere long constructed a large fleet of vessels both for war and commerce. That these ancient ships were light compared with ours is proved by the fact that when the Greeks landed to commence the siege of Troy they drew up their ships on the shore. We are also told that ancient mariners, when they came to a long narrow promontory of land, were sometimes wont to land, draw their ships bodily across the narrowest part of the isthmus and launch them on the other side. Moreover, they had a salutary dread of what sailors term "blue water," that is, the deep distant sea-and never ventured out of sight of land. They had no compass to direct them, and in their coasting voyages of discovery they were guided by the stars.

The sails were made of linen in Homer's time; subsequently sail-cloth was made of hemp, rushes, and leather. Sails were sometimes dyed of various colours and with curious patterns. Huge ropes were fastened round the ships to bind them more firmly together, and the bulwarks were elevated beyond the frame of the vessels, by wickerwork covered with skins.

Stones were used for anchors, and sometimes crates of small stones or sand; but these were not long of being superseded by iron anchors with teeth or flukes.

The Romans were not at first so strong in naval power

as their neighbours, but in order to keep pace with them they were ultimately compelled to devote more attention to their navies. About 260 B. C. they raised a large fleet to carry on the war with Carthage. A Carthaginian quinquereme which happened to be wrecked on their coast was taken possession of by the Romans, used as a model, and one hundred and thirty ships constructed from it. These ships were all built, it is said, in six days; but this appears almost incredible. We must not, however, judge the power of the ancients by the standard of present times. It is well known that labour then was cheap, and we have recorded in history the completion of great works in marvellously short time, by the mere force of myriads of workmen.

The Romans not only succeeded in raising a considerable navy, but they proved themselves ingenious in the contrivance of novelties in their war-galleys. They erected towers on the decks, from the top of which their warriors fought as from the walls of a fortress. They also placed small cages or baskets on the top of their masts, in which a few men were placed to throw javelins down on the decks of the enemy, a practice which is still carried out in principle at the present day, men being placed in the tops of the masts of our men-of-war, whence they fire down on the enemy. It was a bullet from the top of one of the masts of the enemy that laid low our greatest naval hero Lord Nelson. From this time the Romans maintained a powerful navy; they crippled the maritime power of their African foes, and built a number of ships with six, and even ten, ranks of The Romans became exceedingly fond of representations of sea-fights, and Julius Caesar dug a lake in the Campus Martius specially for these exhibitions. These were

oars.

not by any means sham fights. The unfortunates who manned the ships on these occasions were captives or criminals who fought as the gladiators did-to the deathuntil one side was exterminated or spared by imperial clemency. In one of these battles no fewer than a hundred ships and nineteen thousand combatants were engaged.

Such were the people who invaded Britain in the year 55 B.C. under Julius Caesar, and such the vessels from which they landed upon our shores to give battle to the then savage natives of our country.

A brief account of one of the greatest of the naval fights of ancient days, namely the battle of Salamis, cannot fail to prove interesting here. In ancient times war seems to have been not only a necessity but actually a pleasure to men, and some nations, such as Sparta in Greece, made it their sole occupation. The gospel of Jesus Christ-the message of love-had not been preached at that time, except to the Jews.

Xerxes, the son of Darius, king of Persia, was a man who seems to have taken special delight in conquest. Having returned (480 B.c.) from a successful expedition into Egypt, he resolved to invade Greece. A pretext for invasion did not seem to be necessary in those times. He simply remarked that he did not choose to buy the figs of Attica; he would possess himself of the country, and thus have figs of his own. Accordingly, Greece was invaded, and the Persians with their countless hosts were at first successful, being supported by the co-operation of an immense fleet of war-galleys and ships carrying provisions, which were ordered along the coast of Asia Minor towards the Hellespont. The Persian army amounted to above two millions of men. The fleet consisted of fourteen

hundred and twenty-seven ships of war, besides a thousand smaller vessels, with crews amounting to six hundred thousand men.

Of all the states of Greece only two were found courageous enough to offer resistance to this overwhelming force. The Athenians and Spartans joined their forces together, and single-handed fought in defence of their native land. Their united forces did not amount to more than eleven thousand two hundred men. They were commanded by Themistocles. Their fleet consisted of only three hundred and eighty ships, but the knowledge of the Greeks in naval tactics, and of the seas in which they afterwards fought, was infinitely superior to that of the Persians. Their fleet was commanded by Eurybiades, but Themistocles directed all its operations.

BATTLE OF SALAMIS.

After the famous battle of Thermopylae, where Leonidas and his three hundred Spartans sacrificed themselves for their country, the only hope left to the Greeks was their fleet which lay at Salamis. To cope successfully with such overwhelming forces seemed impossible, but to attack and destroy the Persian fleet, and so cut off supplies from the land forces, seemed not so hopeless; for the overwhelming majority of the enemy's fleet was neutralized by the narrowness of the seas in which the battle was to be fought.

Considerable strategic genius and nautical knowledge were displayed by Themistocles in this famous engagement. In order to draw the enemy on to attack them in narrow waters, Themistocles caused it to be rumoured that the Greek fleet at Salamis was preparing for flight. The arti

fice succeeded. Xerxes immediately gave orders that Salamis should be blockaded, and soon after the opposing fleets prepared for battle.

Themistocles, knowing that a periodical wind, which would be favourable, would soon set in, delayed the attack till it arose. Then he gave orders to advance, and the Greeks bore down upon the foe. The Persian fleet hastened to make a general attack, while their army lined the adjacent shores, and their monarch himself was seated on an eminence to view the approaching battle. The narrow strait prevented the numerous ships of the Persians from being regularly brought into action, while the zeal of the commanders to distinguish themselves in the presence of their king, tended to increase the confusion. Moreover, the wind blew directly in their teeth, and the height and heaviness of their vessels rendered them almost useless.

The Greeks on the other hand, having advanced in steady and exact order, used their ponderous beaks with terrible effect, running into the hostile ships, and sinking many of them. The confusion soon became general. The Greeks gave the enemy no time to recover. Attack followed attack, and soon many of the Persian ships were driven ashore. In the midst of this melé a heroine rose conspicuous. Artemisia, queen of Halicarnassus, who had come to the assistance of Xerxes with five ships, exerted herself with so much spirit, that the Persian monarch was heard to say that his soldiers behaved like women in the conflict, and the women like soldiers. But nothing could now retrieve the fortunes of the day. The Persians fled on all sides. Many ships were sunk-more were taken ; above two hundred were burnt; the sea was so covered with corpses as to be scarcely visible (so says the poet