cross the river by one for himself. Lord Kames, however, thinks that beams and planks were first used in the construction of vessels, an opinion that is scarcely tenable. The remains of log canoes have been discovered under ground in Scotland, evincing a very remote but unknown antiquity. In the Lochermoss, near Kilblain, one was found that measured eight feet eight inches in length, the cavity being six feet seven; the breadth was two feet, and the depth eleven inches: it had evidently been hollowed by fire, and at one end were seen the remains of three pegs for the oars or paddles. In the same moss, in 1736, another was found which measured seven feet in length, and contained a paddle. The Welsh Triads celebrate Corfinawr, a bard, as the first who made a ship for the Cumri, and the account which Athenæus gives of the mainmast of King Hiero's great ship having been procured from the mountains of Britain is, no doubt, equally true. Coit, an obsolete term for a tree, is the name which the Highlanders apply to the simple vessel formed of a hollow log. It was also called amar, literally a trough, both appellations being in use by the Irish and Scots. When Dr. Mac Pherson wrote, about fifty years since, a few were still to be seen in some of the Western Isles. We are told by Pliny that the German rovers, who formed their boats in this way, made them sometimes sufficiently large to carry thirty men. Long is also Gaëlic for a ship; and Pryce, in his Cornish British Archæology, says it is the British log. This first essay at ship-carpentry was succeeded by a frame of wicker, covered with hides, a sort of vessel used by the Iberians, Veneti, &c. They were also used by the British tribes in the most early ages, from whom Cæsar learned their manner of construction, and by this means b Campbell's History of the Admirals. a Strabo. Virgil. c Lib. xvi. 40. conveyed his army across the river Sicoris. Lucan, referring to this circumstance, describes them "The bending willow into barks they twine, Then line the work with spoils of slaughtered kine: Such are the floats Venetian fishers know, Where in dull marshes stands the settling Po; On such to neighbouring Gaul, allur'd by gain, The Saxons, also, we learn from Sidonius Appollinaris, crossed to Britain in these apparently frail barks, in which our ancestors fearlessly ventured on the most stormy seas. The Britons went a distance of six days' sail in them to Mictis, when pursuing the trade in tin. Saints Dubslane, Machécu, and Manslunum, left Ireland in one, and after having been seven days at sea, they landed in Cornwall, a very fortunate voyage, considering that they took neither oars nor sails with them. Saint Cormac also made a voyage from Orkney to Iona, in a similar vessel, but he appears to have had less faith than the others, for he provided himself with oars.P Wicker boats continued in use by the inhabitants of Scotland, Ireland, and Wales long after they were able to construct vessels of stronger materials. Dr. Mac Pherson says it was not above thirty years since such a boat was employed in the Isle of Sky. In some parts of Ireland they are still to be found, and in Wales they are more common. One Robert Leeth, who made a survey of Ireland, in 1572, states, in his expenses, "item for a lethere boat, with three men and a gyde, to serche the said greate ryvere of Mayore." The Gaelic name for this boat is curach-in Cumraeg, it is called cwm, and corracle. The Spanish curo, applied to small vessels used on rivers, is evidently a relic of the n Lib. iv. v. 130. P Adomnan. • Marianus Scotus. primitive language. In this wide spread tongue, barc, which Pelletier acknowledges to be genuine Celtic, is a general name for shipping, and is to be found, with little alteration, in most European languages. In the English, Armoric, French, German, Swedish, and Danish, the sound is similar-the Dutch have boork, and the Spanish have barca. The curachs must have been strongly built, and often of a large size: there is a tradition that the one in which Columba made his voyages was forty feet in length, but from its dimensions preserved in an earthen mound at Iona, it appears to have been sixty-four feet. The curach, in which the above three holy men performed their voyage, was composed of 3 ox hides. One of the heroes of Morven, in Dr. Smith's Gallic Antiquities,* says, "my father wove a barc of the branches of trees." It is well known that the British tribes excelled in the formation of wicker work. The modern corracles in Carmarthenshire are only five feet and a half long, by four broad, forming an oval shape.* The hides are pitched, and they are furnished with a seat, the men being accustomed to paddle with one hand, and fish with the other; they are so small and slight, that, when brought ashore, the owners carry them home on their backs. It appears from Eumenius and Cæsar, that, on the descent of the latter, the South Britons had not one vessel of war," their shipping consisting solely, according to antiquaries, of the small skin covered boats, the reason of which appears to be that their navy was lost in the defeat of the Veneti, to whose assistance it had been sent; and to rDict. de la Langue Bretonne. * These " Mathæus Westmon. 'Antiquities" are now looked upon by Celtic scholars with a suspicion closely akin to that which "Ossian " himself is regarded. ED. t Tour in Wales, 1775. Ц Paneg. ii. Huet du Commerce. encourage the subdued tribes to improve their navy, the Romans held out considerable advantages. Certain rewards were offered to those who would fit out vessels capable of containing 10,000 modii of corn. Although it is, perhaps, impossible to ascertain when the Britons acquired the art of building vessels of timber, it must have been known very anciently. The Caledonians had certainly numerous fleets in distant ages, and it is evident that they were not all curachs. The long and perilous voyages which they made to Scandinavia and other parts, are celebrated in bardic lore. Their skill and dexterity in working their vessels, and the intrepidity with which they encountered the storms of a Northern ocean, are celebrated in a description so striking, that it is to be regretted the translator of Ossian did not meet with the poem. Those adventurous warriors, like the Ligurians described by Diodorus, made long voyages in their skiffs, daring the most tempestuous seas, and guiding their course by the reul; yet some of their vessels must have been stoutly built, and of a goodly size. The Gaëlic biorlin, the term for a ship or boat, is said, by some etymologists, learned in that language, to signify the deep or still water log, showing its original application to a rude float; but it appears, with much more reason, to be a corruption of barlin, the top of the waters, and in some parts the word is still so pronounced.* know less of the form of these ships, and the manner in which they were built, than of those used by some nations We * Cod. Theod. v. 1. 13. Campbell, in his Naval History, however, says, the Romans confined themselves to the use of the curach. y Guiding star, from ruith, course, and iul, star. * Biorlinn or birlinn has nothing to do with burlinn or bairlinn, except that the final syllable is common to both words. Bior is anything sharp-pointed of wood; linn or linne is the sea or seapool. Birlinn then is the sharp-pointed wood of the sea, i.e., a boat. ED. on the continent, a description of which may not be uninteresting or unconnected with the subject. The ships of the Suiones were so built, that either end became the prow as circumstances might require, and they were consequently impelled in any direction without the trouble of being put about. They had no sails, and the oars were not fixed, but the rowers plied in all parts of the ship, changing their position from place to place as they were led to alter their course." The Veneti, we learn from Cæsar, had a great navy, and excelled in nautical science; their ships, with which the Roman fleet had an engagement, this accomplished writer considered superior to his own galleys. They were entirely formed of oak, very strongly put together, their bottoms were flat for the purpose of clearing shallows, and the prow and stern were high to resist the waves. The benches of the rowers were a foot in width, and were fixed with inch-thick iron bolts. The cables were of iron chain, and the sails were of skins and of soft leather." The Gauls, in general, however, manufactured canvas for sails. Stones, sand-bags, &c., were first used for anchors; they were afterwards made of wood, and the invention of the double flue is ascribed to Anacharsis, the celebrated Scyth." From the figures on ancient monuments in the West Isles, and a sculpture at Iona, the prow and stern of the Caledonian ships were equally high. A single mast placed midship sustained a square sail, as represented in the vignette at the commencement of this chapter, and the flag was borne on a mast fixed at the prow. P Tac. de Mor. Germ. a Bello Gall. iii. 8, 13. Vol. i. p. 268. Some of the vessels on the Po had sails of rushes.— Pliny. The Spaniards made cables and other tackling of genista, or broom.-Ibid. xix. 2. Beloe on Herod. The distant vessel is modern, but the anachronism will be pardoned. |