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The canoe navies, like other navies, did very well so long as no enemy
came with something better. But when boats began to gain ground,
canoes began to lose it. We do not know who made the first boat any
more than we know who made the first raft or canoe. But the man who
laid the first keel was a genius, and no mistake about it; for the keel
is still the principal part of every rowboat, sailing ship, and steamer
in the world. There is the same sort of difference between any craft
that has a keel and one that has not as there is between animals which
have backbones and those which have not. By the time boats were first
made someone began to find out that by putting a paddle into a notch in
the side of the boat and pulling away he could get a stronger stroke
than he could with the paddle alone. Then some other genius, thousands
of years after the first open boat had been made, thought of making a
deck. Once this had been done, the ship, as we know her, had begun her
glorious career.
But meanwhile sails had been in use for very many thousands of years.


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