The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1874-07-02
NUMBER 26.
ANCIENT VESSELS
NoChing Butit 20 ssqaal tlssua IN Ezsdsrs

NoChlng Butlt 20 scquas them I'm EzSdera
Tiaaes.
BfagDi6cent and large IS are some Of
our modern steam vessels, they are iRfe-
Fior, II We may Judge from description,
both in size and splender, TO the vessels
constructed BY the kings of Egypt and
Syracuse, on q scale Of grandeur cor
responding to the immense preparations
of the sculpture and architecture.
PtolemRaus PhiloBater, king of Egypt.
built a vessel 420 feet long, 56 feet
broad, ~ feet high from the keel to the
top OF the prov, but so feet TO the top
OF the poop. She had four helms Of
so feet her largest oars were 50 feet
long, with ieaden handles, SO as to
work more easily by the rowers she
had two prozs, two sterns. seven rostra
or breaks, successively rising and swell
ing out one ever the other, the topmost
one most prominent and stately on the
poop and prov she had figures of ami
mails not less than Is feet high all the
interior Of the vessel was beautifisd
with q delicate sort of painting Of a
Waxen color. She had 1, 900 rowers,
400 cabin boys or servants T; marines 70
do duty on the deck, $50; with an
immense store of arms and provisions.
The same prince built another ship,
called the Thalamegus, or bed-chamber
ship, which was only used as pleasure
yacht for sailing up and down the Nile.
She was not so long or large as the pre-
cediuQ. but more splendid in the cham
bers and their furnishings. Hero, king
of Syracuse, built an enormous vessel,
which he intended for a eorn-trader 7;
her length is not given. She was built
at Syracuse, by a Corinthian ship
builder, and was launched by an appa-
ratus devils ed by Archimedes. All her
bolts and nails were brass she had
twenty rows of oars her apartments
were all paved with neat, square varie-
gated tiles on which was painted the
story of HomeE's Iliad. She had gym
nasium. with shady walks, on her upper
decks, garden plots stocked with vari-
ous plants, and nourished with limpid
water that flowed circulating round them
in a canal of lead. She had, here and
there on deck, arbors mantled with ivy
and vine branches, which hOurished in
full gFsenneas, being supplied with the
principle of growth from the leaden ca
nal. She had one chamber particularly
splendid, whose pavement was of agate
and other precious stones, and whose
panels. doors and roofs were of ivory
and wood of the thya tree. She had
sohoolasterium or library with five
eouches, its roof arched into polus or
vault, with the stars embossed she had
a bath, with its accompaniments, all
most magnificent; she had on each side
of her deck ten stalls for horses, with
fodder and furnishings for the grooms
and riders q fsh-pond Of lead, full of
fish, whose waters coule be let out or
admitted at pleasure she had two tow
ers 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 a furlong. She had
three nasts and two antenn@ or yards
that swung with hooks and masses of
lead attached. She had round the
whole circuit of her desk rampant of
iron, with iron crows, which took hold
of ships and dragged them nearer for
the purpose of destroying them. The
tunnels OF bowls on her masts were Of
brass, with men IN each. She had
twelve anchors and three masts. It was
with difficulty they could find a tree
large enough for her highest mast
Great Britain-al ominous circumstance
for the superiority of British Oak-had
the glory Of best0wing upon her a suf-
ficient tree for that purpose. 1t was
discovered amid the erecesses of Albion's
forests by G sWineherd What is re-
markable in the construction of this gi-
eantic vessel is that her sentiDa or sink,
though large and deep, was emptied by
one man by means of pump invented
nv Archimedes. Hero, on. finding that
the Syraeusan was too unwieldy to be
admitted with safety into the hsrbors of
Sicily, made e present of her to
Ptolemy, who changed her name to the
Alsxandrian. We may add, as a pan
ergon to this long tale of ship, that
ATchimelus, the Greek epigrammatige,
wrote little poem on the large vessel,
which was rewarded by Hero with a
present to its talented author of 1,0OO
measures of corn--a premium proper
toned, if not to the poem, at least to
the magnitude of the theme celebrated.