Human Industry, Chapter 10
CAP. X.
foreign: OR, The Invention of Shipping and Sailing; as also of the Mariners Compass.
SAyling was an Invention no less usefull than bold; the Sea is a rough and dangerous Element, yet men have taken the boldness to set their foot upon the back of it, and ride upon the surging billows with a wooden horse: Equo ligneo vehuntur per vias caeruleas, saith the Comical Plautus. How farr will Art (joyned with courage) carry a man? Illi robur & aes triplex circa pectus erat, &c. That man (saith Horace) had a heart of oak and a breast lined with brass, that did first adventure to confront the winds and waves in a small tottering bark, when at every step he goes, he treads upon his grave.
Et prope tam lethum quàm prope cernit aquam.
Which the Author of the book of Wisdome hath expressed thus.
Verily, desire of gain hath devised Shipping, and the workman built it by his skill.
But thy Providence, O Father, governs it, for thou hast made a way in the sea and a safe path in the waves.
Shewing that thou caust save from all dangers, yea though a man went to sea without Art.
Nevertheless, thou wouldst not that the works of thy wisdome should be idle; and therefore do men commit their lives to a small piece of wood, and passing the rough Sea in a weak vessel, are saved. Wisd. 14. 2, 3, 4, 5.
We shall admire their holdness the more, if we consider what Implements they had in the first ages to sail in, and some people at this time. The Aegyptians used to make boats of Reeds and Bullrushes, saith Pliny. l. 13. Nat. Hist. and Lucan. l. 4. Phars:
—Sic cùm tenet omnia Nilus
Conseritur bibula Memphitica cymba papyro.
Which kinde of boat or basket Moses was put to swim in, when Pharoah's daughter took him up. The Prophet Esay makes mention of such Utensils, in that Periphrasis of Egypt; Wo to the land shaddowing with wings, that sends Embassadors by sea in Bulrushes, Isa. 18. 12. Papyraceis navibus armamentis que Nili naviga nus, Plin. Nat. Hist. The Indians had the like boats, Indorum rates Scirpeae, at que etiam vestes, Herodot. l. 1.
The Brittains of Old had their Naves Vitiles, as Pliny calls them; the Irish and the Natives call them Corraghes, & some Corracles; they were little Vessels of wicker, covered wth leather, & not much bigger than a basket, with which they would as proudly bestride the seas as Jason with his Argo. Lucan mentions and describes them thus, l. 4.
Primùm cava salix, madefacto vimine, parvam
Texitur in puppim, caeso que induta Juvenco
Vectoris patiens tumidum superenatat Amnem:
Sic Venetus stagnante Pado, fuso que Britannus
Navigat Oceano: sic cùm tenet omnia Nilus
Conseritur bibula Memphitica cymba papyro.
—Of twiggs and willow bor'd,
They made small boats, covered wth bullocks hide,
In which they reacht the Rivers farther side.
So sail the Veneti, Mr May,if Padus flow:
The Brittains sail on their calm Ocean so:
So the Aegyptians sail with wooven boats
*These kinde of Baskets or Boats described by Lucan, were … by Julius Caesar, to transport his army over the river Sicoris …ainst Petreius, and other rivers elsewhere; and he had learnt the …aking of them (as it seems) from the Brittains, when hee was … this Island, as himself confesseth in his first book de Bello …ivili; Cujus generis, cum superioribus usus Brittanniae docuer…: … h…e describes them thus: carinae primùm ac statumina ex le… materia fiebant, reliquum corpus navium vimi nibus contextum …iis integebatur. Loco citato.Of papery rushes, in their Nilus floats.
They have the like Vessels on the river …uphrates to carry commodities to Babylon, and so like to these Brittish ones, that (according to Herodotus his description of them) a man would think that either the Brittains borrowed the pattern from the Babylonians, or the Babylonians from them: For Herodotus in Clio, that is, the first book of his History, saith, that they had boats made of Osier or Willows of an orbicular for, in fashion of a Buckler, without prow or poop, and covered over on the outside with the hide of a bullock tann'd: In these, besides other Countrey-commodities, they used to carry Palm-wines (in tonns) to be sold at Babylon; two men with an oar a piece in their hands guiding the Vessel.
These Vessels were so light, that the owners used to carry them upon their backs to and from the water; the Master would carry his boat by land and the boat would carry it's Master on the water: As the Arabian Fisher-man useth to do with his Tortoise shell, which is his shallop by sea and his house on the firm land, under which he sleeps; which we have expressed in this Latine Epigram.
Haec ratis atque domus; nostrae en compendia vitae!
Hac habitat sollers, hac mare sulcat Arabs.
Se tegit hac terris, hac vict…m quaerit in undis:
Ipsa domus dominum portat, & ipse domum.
This I found expressed (afterwards) by the excellent du-Bartas, and his no less excellent interpreter Sylvester, thus:
The Tyrian Merchant or the Portugez
Can build one ship of many trees;
But of one Tortoise when he list to float,
The Arabian Fisher-man can make a boat.
And one such shell him in the stead doth stand,
Of Hulk at sea, and of a House by land.
Much like these are those which the Aeg…yptians use (at this day) upon the Nile, which they took upon their backs when they came to the Cataracts and steep falls of that River.
Boterus calls them Naves Plicatiles, De politia illustrium, lib. 4.and which they use in some places of the West-Indies. For in the year 1500, wee reade that there were brought to Roan seven Indians in one small vessel or boat, which was so light that one man could lift it up with his hand, as the same Boterus relates.
In some places of the West-Indies they fish with Fagots made of Bulrushes, which they call Balsas; having carried them upon their shoulders to the sea, they cast them in, and then leap upon them▪ & then row into the main sea with small reeds on either side, themselves standing upright like Tritons or Neptunes; and o… these Balsas they carry their cords and nets to fish with. Joseph. Acosta, l. 3. c. 15▪
Strabo sailed to Egypt in a small thing like a Basket made of wicker, as himself relates in the seventeenth of his Geogra…phy. The Indians have long boats called Canoas, neatly made up of one tre… made hollow. In Greenland the Fishe…mens boats are made like Weave… shuttles, covered outwardly with ski… of Seals, and fashioned and strengthened with the bones of the same fishes; which being sewed together with many doubles, are so strong, that in foul weather they will shut themselves up in the same secure from the rocks, winde aud weather. Purchas l. 8. of America. These are about 20 foot long, and 2 foot and a half broad, and so swift that no ship is able to keep way with them; and so light, that one man may carry many, and they carry but one oar.
I saw a ship (saith a learned man, and one that spent 40 years in travels, and the onelyonly man that I reade of that outstript Sr John Mandevill, who travelled but 33 years (as Balaeus delivers) laden with Arabian Merchandize, which was made up without Iron, but the plancks and ribs weres sewed with cords, and the sutures covered with sweet smelling Rosine, which came from the Franckincense tree. The tacklings, sails, and every part of the ship was made of one tree, which bears the Indian Nut. So Petrus Gellius in his description of the Thracian Bosphorus.
—The Indian Nut alone
Is clothing, meat and trencher, drink and kan,
Boat, cable, sail, and needle all in one.
So that pious and Seraphic Poet Mr George Herbert.
At first, one small tree did serve to make a boat, being made hollow: After this, men stitched large plancks and boards together with Prows and Poops, fit to plow up the liquid plains; then they added Masts and Sails, and gathered the winde in a sheet, for to drive those Hulks on their way. The Tyrians, who were famous Navigators of old, are said to be the first that made such kinde of Vessels.
Utque maris vastum prospectet turribus aequor,
Prima ratem ventis credere docta Tyros.
Ovid tells us, that Jason King of Thessaly was the first contriver of ships;
—primae que ratis molitor Jason.
And that his ships name was Argo, wherewith he fetcht the Golden Fleece from Colchos, and which the Astronomers afterwards have stellified or fixed as a Constellation in heaven.
Vellera cum Minyis nitido radiantia villo,
Per mare non notum primâ petiere carinâ. Ovid. Metam. l. 6.
Lucan confirms the same, l. 3.
Inde lacessitum primò mare, cùm rudis Argo
Miscuit ignotas temerato littore gentes.
The Fish called Nautilus, or the Little Mariner, was Navigiorum Archetypus, the first type or pattern of a Ship; for when he is to swim, he composeth his body and finns into the form of a Galley under sail: from the sight whereof, some (as Pliny conceives) took the first hint of framing a Ship. As from the sight of a Kite flying in the air and turning and steering himself with his tayl (as fishes do in the water) some have devised the stern of a ship, Natura monstrante in coelo, quod esset opus in profundo, as Pliny l. 10. and Seneca also Epist. 91. Nulla ars intra initium suum steterit: As there is no art but receives addition and perfection by degrees, so hath this:Suet. in Vita. Caligula made a stately Galley of Cedar, with spacious Halls, and costly rooms therein, with gardens also and trees (fresh and green) upon the Decks, like the Pensill gardens of Semiramis; so that it seemed a floating garden, as well as a floating Castle. But Ptolomaeus Philopater outstript him far, who built a Ship (saith my Author) that the like was never seen before or since;Pancirol. de rebus nuper inventis, tit. 38. It was two hundred eighty cubits in length, fifty two cubits in height from the bottome to the upper Decks; it had four hundred banks or seats of Rowers, four hundred Mariners, and four thousand Rowers, and on the Decks it could contain three thousand souldiers; there were also Gardens and Orchards on the top of it, as Plutarch relates in the life of Demetrius.
Thus what was invented at first for necessity, is now improved to Ryot and Luxury.
The Ancients had a way to drive their ships without Oar or Sayl, so that they could never be wind-bound;Vitruv. they had in their ships three wheels on each side, with eight radii of a span long jetting out from every wheel; six Oxen within did turn this Machin and wheels, which casting the water backward, did move the ship with incredible speed and force; they had in these ships an instrument called Garrum, which went with wheels in fashion of a Dyal, which at the end of every hour did let fall a stone into a Bason, and so divided the hours of the day.
There have been Boats made here in England to go under water, which my Lord of St Albans seems to touch,No. Organum, l. 2. Audimus inventam esse Machinam aliquam Naviculae aut Scaphae, quae subter aquis vehere possit ad spatia non nulla: We are not now content to sail upon the waters, but we must sail under them too.
I know not whether Julius Scaliger was a braggard or no, but he doth confidently aver, that he could make a ship that could steer her self as easily as kiss his hand (as we say) Naviculam sponte sua mobilem ac sui remigii authorem faciam nullo negotio; and to frame a flying Dove like that of Archyt…s velfacillimè profiteri audeo, saith the same great Scholar, Exer. 326.
In a Naumachia or representation of a Naval fight in the time of Claudius Caesar, a Triton (or Sea god) sprung up in the midst of the Lake, sounding aloud with a silver Trumpet, Suet. in vit. Claudii. Juvenal makes mention of earthen boats to sail with, used also in Aegypt; for speaking of the deadly feud and fighting between the Towns of Ombos and Tentyra about their gods, he speaks thus, Sat. 15.
Hac saevit rabie imbelle & inutile vulgus
Parvula fictilibus solitum dare vela Phaselis,
Et brevibus pictae remis incumbere testae.
An Appendix of the Mariners Card or Compass.
THough these flying Coaches on Sea were brought to great perfection many years since, yet there was no small deficience in the Art of Navigation before the use of the Compass was found out; which was invented first here in Europe by John Goia, or Flavius Goia, as others call him, of the Town of Amalphi in Campania, in the Kingdom of Naples▪
Prima dedit Nautis usum Magnetis Amalphi:
Du Bartas calls him Flavio in these words,
We are not to Ceres so much bound for bread,
Neither to Bacchus for his clusters red;
As Signior Flavio for thy witty tryal,
For first inventing of the Seaman's Dyal.
Before this invention, Pilots were directed in their right voyages by certain stars which they took notice of, especially the Pleiades, or Charles his Wain, and the two stars in the tayl of the Bear, called Helice and Cynosura, which are therefore called Load-stars, or leading stars; As Travellers in the Desarts of Arabia and those of Tartary were always guided by some fixed stars in the night time, to steer their courses in those pathless & uncouth ways, so Seamen were directed by the like heavenly guides, in the pathless wilderness of waters, before this excellent invention was found out.
Sidera Cuncta notat tacito labentia Caelo.
So Virgil speaks of Palinuras, who was Shipmaster or chief Pilot and Steersman to Aeneas; but if the sky chanced to be overcast, and the stars to be curtain'd with clouds, then the most experienced Mariner was at a loss, and must cast Anchor presently, and take up his rest.
Cum ne que Temo Piger,Star: l. 1. Theb. nec amico Sidere monstrat
Luna vias, medio coeli pelagique tumultu
Stat rationis inops—
But the ingenious Amalphitan hath devised a remedy against this grand inconvenience, and found a way that men might steer a certain and infallible course in the darkest nights, and this by the help of a little stone, called (from the use and benefit) the Loadstone. This Loadstone …s now our Load-star, and the Mariners Directory. This stone (for the universal benefit and use of it) is the wonder of all stones; as Rablais said, that a Milstone was the most precious stone of any other, so I may say, that a Loadstone is comparable to all the gems and precious stones in the world; it is but obscure and mean in sight, no sparkling lustre to be seen in it.
—Lapis est cognomine Magnes
Decolor,…laud. de Magnete. obsâurus, vilis, &c.
Si tamen hic nigri videas miracula saxi
Tunc superat pulchros cultus, & quicquid Eoi
Indus littoribus rubr… scrutatur in Algâ
This stone hath two strange properties, the one of Attraction, the other of Direction; this property of Direction, (which chiefly concerns our present business) is, that being set in a dish, and left to float freely upon the water, it will with one end point directly to the North, and with the other to the South, and will give this faculty or property to a needle that is rubb'd or touched with it.
From these two faculties of Attraction and Direction, many excellent, useful, and ingenious Inventions have bin found out, especially this Pyxis Nautica, or Mariners Card or Compass, which carries a needle touched with the Loadstone in the middle of it, with two and thirty Rumbs or lines drawn round about it; according to the number of the Cardinal and Collateral Winds. Now this animated needle shews with the Lilly-hand (or point) the North in any part of the world, which is a great help to the Pilot to direct him to what point of the Compass to steer his course.
This Pyx or Card is no less useful by Land then it is by Sea; so that they that travel through Desarts, as the Carovans do to Mecha and Medina, and other places, do now make good use of this device, whereas heretofore some star was their best guide by night.
Pliny speaks of the Inhabitants of Taprobana (now called Sumatra) that because they do not see the Pole-star to sayl by, they carry with them certain birds to sea, which they do often let fly; and as these birds by natural instinct fly always towards the land, so the Mariners direct their course after them.
In Syria, and some Countries of the East that are covered with sand, so that there is no tract or path to guide the Traveller, and those sands are also scortching hot, that they cannot be endured by day, they travel by night, and by the direction of certain stars, which they use as certain way-marks to steer their course by: As Mor Isaac in Philosophia Syriaca. So also in the Country of the Bactrians, as Curtius relates: Navigantium modo Sidera observant, ad quorum cursum iter dirigunt, Curt. l. 7.
Lud. Bartema relates, that they that travel over the Desarts of Arabia, which are all covered with light and fleeting sands, so that no track can ever be found, do make certain boxes of wood, which they place on Camels backs, and shutting themselves in the said boxes to keep them from the sands, and by the help of the Loadstone like the Mariners Compass, they steer their course over the vast and uncouth Desarts. Some do ascribe this invention to that ingenious people of China. Dr. Gilbert affirms, that Paulus Venetus brought it first into Italy in the year 1260, having learn'd it from the Chinois, as he saith l. 1. de Magnete, c. 2. and Ludovicus Vertomanus, another traveller, saith, that when he was in the East Indies about the year 1500 (above an hundred and fifty years since) he saw the Pilot of his ship direct his course by a Compass (framed after the same manner as we have now) when he was sayling towards Java.
The Mariners Compass is not brought yet to that perfection, but that it requires some rectification and amendment; for the Magnetique Needle doth not exactly point to the North in all Meridians. but varies and swerves (in some places more, in some less) from the Direct posture, Configuration, and Aspect of the North and South, which puts Seamen to much distraction, and makes them run oftentimes on dangerous errors. Van Helmont a great Paracelsian of Germany, professeth a ready way to rectifie this grand inconvenience, namely, how to make a Needle that should never vary or alter from the right point, which may be performed by a strong imagination, as he saith, thus; If a man in framing the Needle shall stand with his back to the North, and place one point of the Needle (which he intends for the North) directly towards himself, the Needle so made shall always point regularly and infallibly toward the North without variation. I wish that some Fancy-full man of an exalted imagination would make some Needles for experiment after Helmont's direction, since it is a business of great concernment to the publique Weal, to have this business rectified.