el on water dates back to a very early period in human
history, men beginning with the log, the inflated skin, the dug-out
canoe, and upwards through various methods of flotation; while the
paddle, the oar, and finally the sail served as means of propulsion.
This was for inland water travel, and many centuries passed before the
navigation of the sea was dreamed of by adventurous mariners.

The paintings and sculptures of early Egypt show us boats built of sawn
planks, regularly constructed and moved both by oars and sails. At
a later period we read of the Phoenicians, the most daring and
enterprising of ancient navigators, who braved the dangers of the open
sea, and are said by Herodotus to have circumnavigated Africa as early
as 604 B. C. Starting from the Red Sea, they followed the east
coast, rounded the Cape, and sailed north along the west coast to
the Mediterranean, reaching Egypt again in the third year of this
enterprise.

The Carthaginians and Romans come next in the history of shipbuilding,
confining themselves chiefly to the Mediterranean, and using oars as
the principal means of propulsion. Their galleys ranged from one to five
banks of oars. The Roman vessels in the first Punic war were over 100
feet long and had 300 rowers, while they carried 120 soldiers. They did
not use sails until about the beginning of the fourteenth century B. C.

Portugal was the first nation to engage in voyages of discovery, using
vessels of small size in these adventurous journeys. Spain, which soon
became her rival in this field, built larger ships and long held the
lead. Yet the ships with which Columbus made the discovery of America
were of a size and character in which few sailors of the present day
would care to venture far from land.

England was later in coming into the field of adventurous navigation,
being surpassed not only by the Portuguese and Spanish, but by the
Dutch, in ventures to far lands.

Europe long held the precedence in shipbuilding and enterprise in
navigation, but the shores of America had not long been settled before
the venturous colonists had ships upon the seas. The first of these was
built at the mouth of the Kennebec River in Maine. This was a staunch
little two-masted vessel, which was named the Virginia, supposed to have
been about sixty feet long and seventeen feet in beam. Next in time came
the Restless, built in 1614 or 1615 at New York, by Adrian Blok, a Dutch
captain whose ships had been