Egyptians, is undoubtedly
due the early progress made in sea-going ships. This remarkable people
is said to have originally come to the Levant from the shores of the
Persian Gulf. They occupied a strip of territory on the seaboard to the
north of Palestine, about 250 miles long and of the average width of
only 12 miles. The chief cities were Tyre and Sidon. There are only
three representations known to be in existence of the Phoenician
ships. They must have been of considerable size, and have been well
manned and equipped, for the Phoenicians traded with every part of the
then known world, and founded colonies--the principal of which was
Carthage--at many places along the coast-line of the Mediterranean. A
proof of the size and seaworthiness of their ships was the fact that
they made very distant voyages across notoriously stormy seas; for
instance, to Cornwall in search of tin, and probably also to the south
coast of Ireland. They also coasted along the western shores of Africa.
Somewhere between the years 610 and 594 B.C. some Phoenician ships,
acting under instructions from Pharaoh Nekau, are said to have
circumnavigated Africa, having proceeded from the Indian to the Southern
Ocean, and thence round by the Atlantic and through the Pillars of
Hercules home. The voyage occupied more than two years, a circumstance
which was due to the fact that they always landed in the autumn and
sowed a tract of country with corn, and waited on shore till it was fit
to cut. In the time of Solomon the joint fleets of the Israelites and
Phoenicians made voyages from the head of the Red Sea down the coasts
of Arabia and Eastern Africa, and even to Persia and Beluchistan, and
probably also to India. The Phoenicians were not only great traders
themselves, but they manned the fleets of other nations, and built ships
for other peoples, notably for the Egyptians and Persians. It is
unfortunate that we have so few representations of the Phoenician
ships, but we are justified in concluding that they were of the same
general type as those which were used by the Greeks, the Carthaginians,
and eventually by the Romans. The representations of their vessels known
to be in existence were found by the late Sir Austin Layard in the
palace built by King Sennacherib at Kouyunjik, near Nineveh, about 700
B.C. One of these is shown in Fig. 7. Though they were obviously rather
symbols of ships than faithful representations, we can, nevertheless,
gather from