Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1922-12-14

7\HE first boats were made very early
indeed in the Neolithic stage of Gull
ture by riverside and lakeside peoples.
Ihey were no more than trees and floating
wood used to assist the imperfect natural
swimming powers of men. Then came the
following out of the trees, and then, with
the development of tools and "a primitive
carpentry the building of boats
/ Men In Egypt and Mesopotamia also de-
veIoped primitive type of basket work
BOAT, caulked with bitumen. Such was the
ark Of bull-rushes" in which Moses was
| hidden by his mother
In Use to This Day
kindred sort of vessel grew I'D by the
use OF skins and hides expanded upon a.
west coast Of Ireland, where there is plenty
wicker framework. To this day cowhide
wicker boats (coracles) are used upon the
of cattle and poverty of big trees. They
are also still used on the Euphrates and
on the Tony in South Wales. Inflated
skins may have preceded the coracle, and
are still used the Euphrates and upper
Ganges.
In the valleys, of the great rivers, boats
must early have become an important means
of communication; and it seems natural to
suppose that 1t was from the mouths of
the great rivers that man, already in a
reasonably seaworthy vessel, first yentured
out upon what must have seemed to him
then the trackless and homeless sea.
mo OOuDC ne V0nCureQ at IlrSL as a
fisherman, having learned the elements of
seacraft in creeks and lagoons. Men may
have navigated boats upon the Levantine
lakes before the refilling of the Meditera-
mean by the Atlantic water. The canoe was
an integral part of the heliolithic culture, it
drifted with the culture upon the warm wa
tiers of the earth from the Mediterranean
to Cat last) America.
There were not only canoes, but Sumo
rian boats and ships upon the Euphrates
and Tigris when these rivers in. 900 B. c.,
fell by separate mouths into the Persian
| Gulf. The Sumorian city Of Eridu, which
| stood at the head of the Persian Gulf (from
which it is now separated by a hundred
| and thirty miles of alluvium), had ships
| upon the sea then.
| We also find evidence of a fully developed
| sea life 5000 years ago at the eastern end
| of the Mediterranean, and possibly at that
| time there were already canoes on the seas
! among the islands Of the nearer East In
! dies. There are predynastic Neolithic
| Egyptian representations of Nile ships OF
a fair size, capable of carrying elephants.
Very soon the seafaring men must have
| realized the peculiar freedom and oppor-
| tunities the ship gave them. They could
| get away to islands; no chief nor king
! could pursue boat or ship with any GER
| tainty; every captain was king.
The Beginning of Piracy
The seamen would find it easy to. make
nests upon islands and in strong positions
| on the mainland. There they could harbor,
| there they could carry on certain agr1cul-
ture and fishery; but their speciality and
| their main business was, of course, the eX-
| petition across the sea- That was not
| usually a trading expedition; it was mucn
more frequently piratical raid; From
| what we know of mankind, we are bound to
| conclude that the first sailors plundered
! when they could, and traded when they
| had to.