The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1890-01-08
FRENCH WAR SHIP.

Ii IS singular fact tnaC Cnerc cHlStcti
in the time of Julius Caesar type of ves-
sci used in the northwest of France and
Britannia, which was decidedly superior
to the Roman vessels of every class.
Cesar, in the third book Of the Gallic
campaigns, describes them with some
detail, and it is evident that they aston
iShed him and terrified Brutus. who was
the officer in charge of the Roman fleet
1t is clear that there was considerable
discussion rs to the power of the Roman
vessels to cope with them, and if we read
between the lines, which must be done
with Cesar, for he is far from ingenious
in his statements, we shall come to tine
conclusion that perfect information was
obtained about these vessels, and regu-
lar plan formed before the campaign was
opened against the Neneti. Cesar de-
scribes these vessels as being of great
height and of immense strength, so that
the archers and singers on the Roman
triremes could do nothing when the fleets
should come to close quarters. And the
brazcn prows were also powerless, be-
cause of the extraordinary solidity of
these ships, whose knees Caesar de
scribed as being a foot thick. And they
were bolted, he writes, to the other
beams with iron spikes as thick as the
forefngcr. They were propelled by sails,
which must have been lug sails, like
those still used in the English Channel by
French fishermen and by the boatmen of
the channel islands, and their anchors
were provided with iron chains instead
of ropes. Cesar got the best of this
fleet by his quick-wittedness. He
ordered towers of wood rugged upon his
triremes over the head of the oarsmen,
and placed upon them numerous engines
called scorpions for throwing out darts.
Then when the vessels closed he had
legionaries who were armed with sickles
fastened to long poles, with which they
cut the rigging of the enemy's ships, so
that their lug sails dropped to the deck
and they remained m"tionless on the
water. The triremes then rowed all
around them and poured in a raging fire
from the scorpions, besides clouds Of
arrowc and stones from the archcrs and
singers. But so thoroughly frightened
had been the great Julius that he
massacred all of the Government of the
Vencti he could find and sold the entire
nation into slavery.
When we read of stout oak ships, and
iron spikes as big as the fore6nger, and
iron chain cables it is impossible not to
believe that this unfortunate nation was
in correspondence with some other nation
vastly more advanced than itself. Had
such a type been elaborated either in
Britannia or the French Brittany, there
would have been a corresponding civill-
zation, which would have made the
Veneti more than a match for Caesar and
his fcrocious, gore-loving lcgions. The
deduction is inevitable that the iron OBJ
iects used in the construction of these
vessels came from a foreign source.
What was that source? Hitherto this
passage in Caesars Commentaries has
been an enigma, but it is certain that
there were at that time ships of a supe-
rior type to anything recorded in history,
and that the vessels of the Veneti were
but poor copies of them. Chicago Times.