MEMOIRS OF NAVIGATION AND COMMERCE, FROM THE EARLIEST PERIODS

Summary

From darkest Time her humble Birth She drew,

And slowly into Strength and Beauty grew;

As mighty streams, that roll with gather'd force,

Spring feebly forth from some sequester'd source.

Hayley.

Progress of Navigation slow and interrupted. Peculiar Dangers of the Grecian Seas. History of the Grecian Navy; their Men of War considered in detail. First invention of the Anchor. Ptolemy Philopater's Ship.–Hiero's Ship. Review of the different ranks in the Grecian Navy. Etymology of the term Admiral. Consideration of the knowledge which the Ancients are said to have possessed of The Compass. Greek Launch.–Order of sailing observed by their Fleets. Order of Battle.–Conduct after Victory.

NAVIGATION and Ship-building, as Dr. Robertson well observes, are arts so nice and complicated, that they require the ingenuity, as well as experience of many successive ages, to bring them to any degree of perfection. When the different powers of Greece had formed themselves, from a vain spirit of independence, into separate states, they each displayed a distinct Marine Force: yet neither in The Heroic Age, as it is styled, nor even at a more advanced period during The Persian War, must we look for any of that nautical skill, or daring manœuvre, which so much distinguish the exploits of the British Navy.