gradually restricted the Phoenician merchantmen to the coasts of the
Western Mediterranean and the Atlantic: they industriously exploited
the mineral wealth of Africa and Spain, and traffic with the barbarous
tribes of Morocco and Lusitania, as well as the discovery and working of
the British tin mines, had largely compensated for the losses occasioned
by the closing of the Greek and Italian markets. Their ships, obliged
now to coast along the inhospitable cliffs of Northern Africa and to
face the open sea, were more strongly and scientifically built than any
vessels hitherto constructed. The Egyptian undecked galleys, with stem
and stern curving inwards, were discarded as a build ill adapted to
resist the attacks of wind or wave. The new Phoenician galley had a long,
low, narrow, well-balanced hull, the stern raised and curving inwards
above the steersman, as heretofore, but the bows pointed and furnished
with a sharp ram projecting from the keel, equally serviceable to cleave
the waves or to stave in the side of an enemy's ship. Motive power was
supplied by two banks of oars, the upper ones resting in rowlocks on
the gunwale, the lower ones in rowlocks pierced in the timbers of the
vessel's side. An upper deck, supported by stout posts, ran from stem to
stern, above the heads of the rowers, and was reserved for the soldiers
and the rest of the crew: on a light railing surrounding it were hung
the circular shields of the former, forming as it were a rampart on
either side.

[Illustration: 017.jpg A PHOENICIAN GALLEY WITH TWO BANKS OF OARS]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from Layard. Sennacherib affirms
that vessels of this type had been constructed by Syrian
shipwrights, and were manned by Tyrian, Sidonian, and Ionian
sailors.