The British Navy Book

Many writers on naval matters are of the opinion that our British ancestors whose coracles are described by Cæsar had even at that time really stout and formidable ships. The reason is this. The Veneti a race who inhabited western Brittany and the country at the mouth of the Loire were a kindred race and when attacked by Cæsar received assistance from Britain. Now the strength of the Veneti seems to have been in their ships which gave the Roman galleys considerable trouble and it seems more than likely that the British assistance they received came in the form of a squadron of similar vessels.. According to Cæsar the ships of the Veneti were built and fitted out in manner their bottoms were somewhat flatter than ours the better to adapt them to the shallows and to sustain without danger the ebbing of the tide. Their prows were very high and erect as likewise their sterns to bear the hugeness of the waves and the violence of the tempests. The hull of the vessel was entirely of oak to withstand the shocks and assaults of that stormy ocean. The benches of the rowers were made of strong beams about a foot wide and were fastened with iron bolts an inch in thickness. Instead of cables they used chains of iron and for their sails utilized skins and a sort of thin pliable leather either because they had no canvas and did not know how to make sailcloth or more probably because they thought that canvas sails were not so suitable to stand the violence of the tempests the fury and rage of the winds and to propel ships of such bulk and burden. It is evident that these ships were for that period quite up to date. They were strongly built and iron-bolted and had already discarded hempen cables for iron ones.. You can follow in this book...