fifty horse-power, and her fuel for twenty days. A glance at the illustration will show that, by the plan suggested, the whole of the fore and after holds, with the midship portion of the galley, besides a large space below the platform of the rowers, could be appropriated to cargo and stores, the fore and after main-decks to troops, while the rowers themselves could be berthed in that portion of the vessel where they performed their daily toil, and where there would be space, however uncomfortable, for their beds and scanty apparel.
By reference to the accompanying deck plan, and by comparing it with the midship-section previously given, it will be seen that though the portion of the galley occupied by the rowers was open, it could be covered with an awning in warm, and by a tarpaulin in wet, weather. To have enclosed this space would have been fatal to the men, who, especially during the summer months, when the galleys were chiefly employed, could not have existed, much less have laboured in a confined hold.
In confirmation of this opinion, Thucydides, in describing the galleys of the Bœotians and of Philoctetes, of whom Homer also writes, says, "Nor had they, as yet, covered ships;"[1] and we find in the "Iliad" such expressions as, "He marched upon the hatches with long strides;"[2] and in the "Odyssey," where Ulysses is preparing to encounter Scylla, "upon the hatches of the prow of the ship he went."[3] Mr. Howell, in opposition to the views of most translators, remarks that the hatches should be construed
