Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1874-06-18

weak and ill, unused to the sea, were
forced to rough it out on tho upper
deck through the storm and pitilcss
rain. I would willingly draw a veil
over the rest of this sad story, but pub
icity is the only safeguard against such
mistake being allowed to take place
second time. have tried to get at the
exact number, but have not been quite
successful. However, I am ON the
right side when tell you that one
tenth of the whole were dead within
four days of the cyclone-they at any
rate have been emanclpated. Twenty
have died since that !; SO I fancy the
survivors would tell a strange story of
capture and recapture if ever they re-
turned to their native country"
3. Ancient Vessels.
Magnificent and large as are some of
our modern steam vessels, they are in
ferior, if we may Judge from descrip-
tion, both in size and splendor, to the
vessels constructed by the Kings of
Egypt and Syracuse, on a scale of gran
deur corresponding to the immense
preparations of their sculpture and
architecture. Ptolemaus Philopater,
King Of Egypt, built a vessel 420 feet
long 56 feet broad, Is feet high from
the keel to the top of the prov, but 80
feet to the top of the poop. She had
four helms of 60 feet her largest oars
were SO feet long, with leaden handles,
so as to work more easily by the r6wers;
she had two prows, two sterns, seven
rostra or beaks, successfully rising and
swelling out one over the other, the top
most one most prominent and stately
on the poop and prov she had figures of
animals, not less than eighteen feet
high all the interior of the vessel was
beautified with a delicate sort of paint,
ing of waxen color. She had 4,OOQ
rowers 400 cabin boys or servants
marines to do duty on deck $3.50 with
an immense store of arms and provi-
sions. The same prince built another
ship called the Thalamegus, or bed
chamber ship, which was only used as
a pleasure yatch for sailing up and
down the Nile. She was not so long
or large Us the preceding, but more
splendid in the chambers and their fur
nishings. Hero, King of Syracuse,
built an enormous vessel, which he in
tended for q corn trader her length is
not given, She was built at Syracuse
by Corinthiar ship-builder, and was
launched by an apparatus devised by
Archimedes. All her bolts aud nails
were of brass she had twenty rows of
oars her apartments were all paved
with neat, square variagated tiles on
which was painted all the story of
Homer's Iliad. She had gymnasium,
with shady walks, on.her upper decks,
garden plotsstocked with various plants,
and 1noistened by lmpid water that
flowed circula&ing around them in q
canal of lead. She had, here and there
on deck, arbors mant1ed with ivy and
vine branches, which aourished in full
grcenness, being supplied with the
principle of growth from the leaden CO.
nal. She had one chamber particularly
splendid, whose pavement was of agate
and other precious stones, and whose
panels, door, and roofs were of ivory
and wood of the thya tree. She had a
scholasterium or library with five
couclles, it's roof arched into polus or
vault, with stars embossed she had
a bath, with its accompaniments, all
most magnificent she had on each side
of her deck 10 stalls for horses,
with fodder and furnishings for the
grooms and riders a sh-pond of lead
full of fish, whose water could be let
out or admitted ut pleasure; she had
two towers on the poop, two on the
prov, and four in the middle, full of
armed men, that managed the machines
invented by Archimedes for throwing
stones of 800 pounds weight and arrows
Is feet long to the distance of q furlong.
She had three nasts, and two antenn;e
or yards, that swung with hooks and
masses of lead attached. She had
round the whole circuit of her deck a
rampant of iron, with iron crows, which
took hold of ships and dragged them
nearer for the purpose of destroying
them. The tunnels or bowls on her
masts were of brass, with men in each.
She had IL anchors and three masts.
1t was with difficulty they could get a
tree largo and strong enough for her
highest mast. Great Britian-an omin-
ous circumstance for the superiority of
British ouk-had the glory of bcstow-
ing upon her a sufficient tree for that
purpose. It was discovered amid the
recesses of AlbiOn's forests by swine
herd What is remarkable in the con-
struction Of this gigantic vessel is, that
her sentina, or sink, though large md
deep, was emptied by one man by means
Of pump invented by Archimedes.
Hero, on finding that the Syracusan
was too unwieldy to be admitted will,
safety into the harbors of Sicily, made
present of her to Ptolemy, and changed
her name to Alexandrian. Archimelus,
the Greek epigramatist, wrote little
poem on the large vessel, which was re-
warded by Hero, with a present to its
talented author of 1000 measures of
corn-a premium propotioned, if not to
the poem, at least to the magnitude of
| the theme celebrated,