Page 349 - Encyclopedia Of World History Vol IV

1650 berkshire encyclopedia of world history

Herman Melville: Sailing Ships

Herman Melville’s (1819-1891) Moby Dick is con- spaces that before were blank. At intervals, he would
sidered by many to be the greatest American novel and refer to piles of old log-books beside him, wherein
one of the major works in world fiction. It is the sea- were set down the seasons and places in which, on
story of Captain Ahab’s pursuit of the elusive White various former voyages of various ships, sperm
Whale. It is also the revelation of man’s search for cos- whales had been captured or seen.
mic meaning. In the unfolding of its rich themes, the While thus employed, the heavy pewter lamp sus-
reader hears echoes of the Old Testament, William pended in chains over his head, continually rocked
Shakespeare, and Samuel Taylor Coleridge. In the with the motion of the ship, and for every threw shift-
excerpt below, Melville gives the reader a sense of the ing gleams and shadows of lines upon his wrinkled
conditions on the sailing ship that Ahab captained in brow, till it almost seemed that while he himself was
his epic quest. marking out lines and courses on the wrinkled charts,
some invisible pencil was also tracing lines and
44.The Chart
courses upon the deeply marked chart of his forehead.
Had you followed Captain Ahab down into his cabin It was not this night in particular that, in the soli-
after the squall that took place on the night succeed- tude of his cabin,Ahab thus pondered over his charts.
ing that wild ratification of his purpose with his Almost every night they were brought out; almost
crew, you would have seen him go to a locker in the every night some pencil marks were effaced, and oth-
transom, and bringing out a large wrinkled roll of yel- ers were substituted. For with the charts of all four
lowish sea charts, spread them before him on his oceans before him, Ahab was threading a maze of
screwed-down table. Then seating himself before it, currents and eddies, with a view to the more certain
you would have seen him intently study the various accomplishment of that monomaniac thought of his
lines and shadings which there met his eye; and with soul.
slow but steady pencil trace additional courses over Source: Melville, H. Moby Dick (pp.227-228). New York: Dell Publishing Co, Inc.

Pacific large dugouts have outriggers that have sails in mast, and a rudder for a voyage down the eastern coast
addition to oars. Many scholars believe that these sorts of of Africa. A pictorial account of the voyage remains at a
craft made possible human migration throughout the temple in Deir-el-Bahari.
South Pacific. In 1982 researchers found an underwater wreck of an
Plank construction allowing larger ships developed early Levantine (relating to the countries bordering on the
independently in a number of places, including Egypt, eastern Mediterranean) commercial seagoing ship at Ulu
England, and China. The earliest evidence comes from Burun off the Turkish coast, dating to 1350 BCE. It was
Egypt, where vessels were constructed out of cedar planks a sturdier craft than Egyptian craft of the time, with a
joined edge to edge but with no internal framing or keel. large keel and planks lashed together. Egyptian wall
Because of the unique river conditions of the Nile River, paintings also reveal evidence for Minoan and Myce-
one could float downstream with the current and return naean ships, showing them to be similar in design to
under sail upstream.The earliest surviving Egyptian boat, Egyptian ships but having only sails and no rowers.
the royal ship of Cheops, dates to 2650 BCE and was The greatest ancient seafarers, the Phoenicians, sailed
excavated in 1954 from a burial pit alongside the Great ships throughout the Mediterranean Sea, and evidence
Pyramid. Many artistic depictions feature Egyptian boats, points to some voyages along the Atlantic coasts of
including seagoing vessels. These depictions invariably Africa and France. In form, their merchant ships were
show both sails and rowers. Around 1500 BCE Queen more similar to Cretan ships than Egyptian ships, with
Hatshepsut ordered the construction of a fleet of large square rigging and often two banks of rowers.The Greeks
craft similar to the Nile craft with rowers, a single large developed a specialized high-speed warship, the trireme