Thus the
"steer-board" (or steering side) was no new thing when its present name
of "starboard" was used by our Norse ancestors a good many hundred
years ago. The Egyptians, steering on the right-hand side, probably
took in cargo on the left side or "larboard", that is, the "load" or
"lading" side, now called the "port" side, as "larboard" and
"starboard" sounded too much alike when shouted in a gale.
Up in the bow of this old Egyptian boat stood a man with a pole to help
in steering down the Nile. Amidships stood a man with a
cat-o'-nine-tails, ready to slash any one of the wretched slave
paddlers who was not working hard. All through the Rowing Age, for
thousands and thousands of years, the paddlers and rowers were the same
as the well-known galley-slaves kept by the Mediterranean countries to
row their galleys in peace and war. These galleys, or rowing
men-of-war, lasted down to modern times, as we shall soon see. They
did use sails; but only when the wind was behind them, and never when
it blew really hard. The mast was made of two long wooden spars set
one on each side of the galley, meeting at the head, and strengthened
in between by braces from one spar to another.
Pages:
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32