Sefoftris, the fhip of Hiero, or that more celebrated one of Ptolemy Philopater, about which nothing can be afcertained, except that fuch once actually exifted. Not that we would by any means depreciate the value of what the writer has executed; but we cannot help thinking, that if he had more fimplified his plan, he would have been at least more speedily rewarded. It remains, however, to give an analyfis of what the reader has to expect.

In a protracted Preface of an hundred pages, the plan and object of the work are detailed, in which a very comprehenfive knowledge of the fubject is evidently demonftrated; and the following fhort extract will ferve to fhow, that the author had well digefted the matter of his proposed publication.

"The maritime history of the world may be reduced to a regular fyftem, and confidered as fairly divisible, into feven different fections, clearly pointed out by as many remarkable epochs. The firft may comprehend all that dark and intricate space of time previous to the foundation of Rome, during which, all pretended authority, and the affertion of facts, no matter how pofitively given, appear fo totally founded on furmife, as to furnish very flender materials for any hiftorian who wishes his relation to be received with that venerable respect which is due to truth, in whatever homely garb it may be clothed. The fecond fection comprifes a period fomewhat lefs obfcure, in which, as the collateral teftimony and evidence of various perfons and authors may be examined and compared with each other, there certainly appears lefs difficulty in developing the real flate of facts, and unravelling, in a flight degree, thofe hiftorical ænigmas, which, on fome occafions, convert the page of history almolt into romance. It will extend from the foundation of Rome to the deftruction of her rival, Carthage, and from thence a third may find its termination in the converfion of the republic into an empire: an era when the want of naval enemies to contend with, rendered the maintenance of a fleet as connected with the profperity and falety of the ftate, a confideration not only of secondary, but certainly immaterial confequence. The death of Charlemagne may be confidered as the fourth grand epoch; fince although the maritime purfuits of the whole globe might then be deemed in an almost totally dormant ftate, yet fome circumftances appeared which feemed to promise a revival of the purfuit, by a people at that time almoft unknown, and certainly poffefling a very interior fhate of political weight in the state machine of the universe.

From the death of Charlemagne, the feience of navigation appeared progreffively acquiring ftrength, and obtaining followers, who induftriously and moft laboriously attempted to attain confiderable perfection in maritime knowledge. This, however, appeared denied to them as though by nature, till the difcovery by Europeans of the wonderful properties poffeffed by the loadstone, and the subsequent invention of that inftrument, known by the name of the mariner's compass, feemed at once to difpel the mift which had fo long obfcured that fummit, to which the art was, without much difficulty, capable of be

ing advanced, and promifed the immediate removal to a distance almoft infinite, or beyond human comprehenfion, of thofe limits, within which the practice of it had, till that time, been unavoidably confined. The fixth fection, therefore, may be fairly stated to commence with the invention juft mentioned, about the year 1260, and continue till the beginning of the fixteenth century, when the general introduction and ufe of cannon on board ships, as inftruments as well of annoyance, as defence, together with the contrivance of port-holes, gave birth to the feventh and laft epoch or æra, by attaching to veffels thofe requifites and properties, which, though imperfectly fupplied and provided for in the beginning, have, by repeated practice, and continued experience, gradually improved into that excellence, and almost unimprovable state of perfection, which the fhips built at the prefent day are, by fome, fuppofed to poffefs." P. xxi.

Mr. Charnock proceeds to difcufs the maritime hiftory of Britain, which may be divided into feven epochs, which he has enumerated. He has alfo given a chronological minute of the different naval occurrences which took place in the interval between the Conqueft and the reign of Edward III. This Preface, which well merits the attention of the reader, concludes with a difcourfe on the ftate of the navy, by Sir Robert Slingsby, Bart. Comptroller of the Navy in 1669; and a very curious paper, on the fame fubject, by a gentleman of the name of Gibson, whose opinion was asked by Government on the occafion. These documents are the more curious, because they fhow the manners and management of the British navy at a period when, having fuccefsfully combated against Holland, it became fufficiently powerful to check and overcome the enormous pride and ambition of Louis XIV.

We come now to the work itfelf, which commences with a chapter on the Origin of Marine Architecture. In the fucceeding chapters, the author confiders the skill and knowledge of the Chinefe; and obferves, that navigation was known to many even before the times of the Phoenicians and Egyptians. He next details the forms, names, and materials of the different veffels used by the ancients for commercial or warlike purposes. Some part of what fucceeds, with the quotations. from Diodorus Siculus, Philoftratus, Lactantius, Vollius, &c. do not feem to increase the intereft of the work. The account of the different fpecies of timber ufed by the ancients is more pertinent, and the explanation of the famous galley of Ptolemy Philopater is ingenious. The nautical hiftory of the Athenians, Lacedemonians, and the Greek republics, demonftrate extenfive reading; but the whole of the feventh chapter will hardly arreft the attention of the common reader. It is not fufficiently occupied by facts, about which there can be no controverfy. Many entertaining particulars are related in A a 2 the

the following portion of the work; and the accounts of the Corvus of Demetrius, and the contrivance and effects of the Greek fire, are very curious. We think, however, that even here the long .quotations from Polybius, Folard, and others, fwell out the work to an undue and unneceffary length. This is a frequent error into which the author is betrayed. Much of what immediately follows is rather a fummary of maritime hiftorical facts than a Hiftory of the progrefs of Marine Architecture; and we have again very long extracts from Gibbon, where fimple references would have been fufficient. As we do not like to quit the first volume without exhibiting a speci men of this author's ftyle and manner, the reader, we prefume, will not be diffatisfied with that which follows.

"Hiftorians have remarked, and with the ftricteft propriety, that the fyftem of naval war had received no improvement fubfequent to the time of the Peloponnefian and Punic contefts, fo that as a natural confequence, the science of Marine Architecture was to be confidered as ftationary. Some authors, fuffering their ideas of excellence to be abforbed in the accounts of those immenfe veffels, of which the almoft incredible histories of the early ages have tranfmitted an unintelligible defcription, have fuppofed it very rapidly on the decline; and as an incontrovertible proof of the juftice of their opinion, have observed, that the method of constructing veffels, fitted even with three or four tiers of oars only, rifing above each other, was as much unknown to the artificer of the eastern empire, as it is to the modern fhipwright. This is certainly taking the subject in the most modeft point of view, triremes and quadriremes being undoubtedly as much inferior to the accounts given of fome of the veffels conftructed by the ancients, as a modern floop of war is to a first rate. The gallies compofing the Conftantinopolitan fleet, in the ninth and two fucceeding centuries, were filed Dromones: they were fitted with two tiers of oars only, each tier containing twenty-five benches, on which were feated fifty rowers, making in the aggregate one hundred men, who worked the cars on both fides of the veffel; fo that the number of oars was equal to that of the perfons employed to manage them, which could not have been the cafe, had the tiers been multiplied fo as to render the oars otherwife than extremely fhort and light. To the perfons already mentioned, who were to be confidered in the loweft clafs of mariners, was to be added the captain, or commander, who in the hour of en. gagement took his ftation on the poop, as well for the purpose of viewing the occurrences which might take place during the encounter, as for that of directing the efforts of his people to any particular exertion, and alfo that of encouraging them by his voice and gesture. Two fteerfmen were stationed at the helm, and two officers at, or near the bow to one of the latter the care of the anchor was entrusted, and to the other the management of the tube of Greek fire, which fupplied, and perhaps with more dread effect, the place of modern ordnance. The remainder of the crew performed, in conformity with the custom of the early ages, the compound office of mariners and

foldiers

foldiers, being alternately or jointly employed in directing the course of the veffel, annoying their foes, or defending themselves from the

attack.

"Independent of that tremendous mode of annoyance juft mentioned under the name of the Greek fire, the arms of offence were long pikes, nothing varying from the modern implement bearing the fame name, together with hows and arrows. The latter fupplied the place of mufquetry: the archers being ftationed on the upper deck, while the pike was equally engaged in the annoyance of the foe, through the row ports of the lower ier. Although the bulk of the fleet is unequivocally faid to have been compofed of veffels of the above defcription, yet it is not contended but that there were a few gallies of more enlarged dimenfions, whofe crews confifted of three hundred perfons, feventy of whom were foldiers, and the remainder mariners. Thefe veffels were probably intended (a practice which has never fince been difcontinued) for the admiral gailies, their numbers being fo inconfiderable, as to cause them to be efteemed rather as an excrefcence from the science, than as an example of its established rules. Neceffity appeared indeed to have prefcribed to the marine architects of that time, the limits to which they were permitted to extend their art, in regard to the dimenfions of veffels. Not only the art of navigation, confidered as a fcience, but that more common branch of it, the method of managing a veffel in cafe of ftorms, or contrary winds, was little understood, the gallies themselves being calculated only for a tranquil fea. Hence it was, that the navigation round the Peloponnefian Cape was far more dreaded by the ancients than that round the fouthernmost point of South America, and the dreadful feas which wathed its fhores, was by Europeans two centuries fince. To avoid thefe fearful horrors, it is faid to have been customary to draw the imperial fleet across the Ifthmus of ancient Corinth, a point of information that might either ftagger modern belief, or fink the opinion of an ancient fleet to a mere aflemblage of boats, did not a fimilar practice, which took place in America, under the conduct of a British officer*, about twenty-five years fince, reconcile to human understanding, that the undertaking, though difficult, is practicable, and with veffels confidered even at the prefent day of no contemptible fize. Still, however, it must be obvious, that the natural limits of human exertion imperiously require, that in fuch cafes, the dimenfions of veffels thould be governed by the extent of those limits; yet when it is found, that a veffel, of more than one hundred tons burthen, named the Royal Convert, in confequence of its having been captured fome time before, was tranfported over land through an American district, where it was impoffible to execute fuch contrivances as might have been rendered fubfervient to the facilitation of the undertaking in a country more populous, and where the natural impediments afforded lefs oppofition, fome credit may be given to the account, as to the probability of con

Captain Schanck, who conveyed a confiderable number of veffels, among which were fome of no infignificant dimensions, over land from Sillery into lake Champlain."

veying a fleet of ancient gallies across an Ifthmus, where every contrivance human ingenuity, and the force of human ftrength, could fuggeft, or fupport, became united together.

The ancient principles of naval war, or what are generally known by the name of tactics, appear at this time to have been revived; for the change, if any, from that very remote æra when the fleets of Athens put to fea in the patriotic but almost desperate attempt of withftanding the power of the Perfians, was very immaterial. The difpofition for naval encounter was that of a crefcent, with the horns inward; the van, or first divifion, which might more properly be filed the center, endeavouring to affail and deftroy its adverfaries by the impreffion of the beaks; and in this circumftance, did the Greeks, and other fubjects to the eastern empire, materially differ in their management, and opinion, from their Venetian allies. In the center of the deck was erected a machine, or engine, for the purpose of throwing large ftones and darts of an extraordinary fize, in annoyance of the enemy; a contrivance fomewhat fimilar, in its fituation and effects, though with lefs dangerous and more contracted powers, to that of the mortars in a modern bomb ketch. A strong frame of timber was erected in the midfhip of the galley, bearing almoft aftrict analogy to the principle of the mortar bed, which ferved not only to fupport the weight of the engines just mentioned, but also, on certain occafions, a crane, which raifing, as was the custom in the Punic wars, and the infancy of Roman confequence as a maritime power, a number of armed men, conveyed them inftantly on board the galley of the enemy, whenever it was deemed expedient and prudent to attempt its conqueft by boarding. The code of fignals, by which in modern times the intention of the admiral is as explicitly made known through a whole fleet as though he gave his orders in perfon, was then extremely incorrect; and though the nautical manoeuvres were very fimple, and few in number, yet the method of directing them was confused, and extremely inadequate to the purpofe. Still, however, the principle was the fame with that ufed by the moderns, a felf-evident proof, that the want of practice, on the part of the ancients, was the fole caufe of the imperfection alluded to. The colour and varied pofition of the flags hoifted on board the admiral, or commanding galley, indicated the courfe the fleet was to fleer, or in action, the meafures which it was to purfue, during the day; while the different difpofition, or number of lights, on board the fame vetfel in the night, became equally expreffive of the commander's intention. Still, however, the practice was confined to the general and common manœuvres of bringing to, chacing, attacking, retreating, difperfing, or rallying; and whenever finer movements were neceffary, the skill of the officer became useless, owing to the want of power in the indication of his intention.

"Nor were the ancients deftitute of a practice bearing fome analogy to the modern mode of conveying intelligence rapidly over land to any distance, provided proper measures had been previously taken for that purpofe. Beacons or light-houfes being erected in proper pofitions, the established fignals were repea ed from mountain to mountain, through a chain of ftations, which are faid to have commanded an extent of more than five hundred miles; fo that even the inhabitants of

Conftan