not seem to have understood the virtue of using seasoned timber, for we
read in ancient history of fleets having been completed ready for sea in
incredibly short periods after the felling of the trees. Thus, the
Romans are said to have built and equipped a fleet of 220 vessels in 45
days for the purpose of resisting the attacks of Hiero, King of
Syracuse. In the second Punic War Scipio put to sea with a fleet which
was stated to have been completed in forty days from the time the timber
was felled. On the other hand, the ancients believed in all sorts of
absurd rules as to the proper day of the moon on which to fell trees
for shipbuilding purposes, and also as to the quarter from which the
wind should blow, and so forth. Thus, Hesiod states that timber should
only be cut on the seventeenth day of the moon's age, because the sap,
which is the great cause of early decay, would then be sunk, the moon
being on the wane. Others extend the time from the fifteenth to the
twenty-third day of the moon, and appeal with confidence to the
experience of all artificers to prove that timber cut at any other
period becomes rapidly worm-eaten and rotten. Some, again, asserted that
if felled on the day of the new moon the timber would be incorruptible,
while others prescribed a different quarter from which the wind should
blow for every season of the year. Probably on account of the ease with
which it was worked, fir stood in high repute as a material for
shipbuilding.

The structure of the hulls of ancient ships was not dissimilar in its
main features to that of modern wooden vessels. The very earliest types
were probably without external keels. As the practice of naval
architecture advanced, keels were introduced, and served the double
purpose of a foundation for the framing of the hull and of preventing
the vessel from making leeway in a wind. Below the keel proper was a
false keel, which was useful when vessels were hauled up on shore, and
above the keelson was an upper false keel, into which the masts were
stepped. The stem formed an angle of about 70 deg. with the water-line, and
its junction with the keel was strengthened by a stout knee-piece. The
design of the stem above water was often highly ornate. The stern
generally rose in a graceful curve, and was also lavishly ornamented.
Fig. 18 gives some illustrations of the highly ornamented extremities of
the stern and prow of Roman galleys. These show what considerable pains
the an