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HISTORY OF TECHNOLOGY, TECHNOLOGY, OBJECTS AROUND US
Sail and ship. History of invention and production
Directory / The history of technology, technology, objects around us It is believed that the prototype of the sail appeared in ancient times, when a person just started building boats and dared to go to sea. In the beginning, the sail was simply a stretched animal skin. The person standing in the boat had to hold it with both hands and orient it relative to the wind. When people came up with the idea of strengthening the sail with the help of a mast and yards, it is not known, but already on the oldest images of the ships of the Egyptian Queen Hatshepsut that have come down to us, you can see wooden masts and yards, as well as stays (cables that keep the mast from falling back), halyards (tackle for lifting and lowering sails) and other rigging. Therefore, the appearance of a sailing ship must be attributed to prehistoric times. There is much evidence that the first large sailing ships appeared in Egypt, and the Nile was the first deep river on which river navigation began to develop. Every year from July to November, the mighty river overflowed its banks, flooding the entire country with its waters. Villages and cities were cut off from each other like islands. Therefore, ships were a vital necessity for the Egyptians. In the economic life of the country and in communication between people, they played a much greater role than wheeled carts.
One of the earliest types of Egyptian ships, which appeared about 5 thousand years BC, was the barque. It is known to modern scientists from several models installed in ancient temples. Since Egypt is very poor in forests, papyrus was widely used to build the first ships. The features of this material determined the design and shape of ancient Egyptian ships. It was a sickle-shaped boat, bound from bundles of papyrus, with a bow and stern curved upward. To give the ship strength, the hull was pulled together with cables.
Later, when regular trade with the Phoenicians was established and Lebanese cedar began to arrive in Egypt in large quantities, the tree began to be widely used in shipbuilding. An idea of what types of ships were built at that time is given by the wall reliefs of the necropolis near Saqqara, dating back to the middle of the 3rd millennium BC. These compositions realistically depict individual stages in the construction of a plank ship. The hulls of the ships, which had neither a keel (in ancient times it was a beam lying at the base of the bottom of the vessel), nor frames (transverse curved beams that ensure the strength of the sides and bottom), were recruited from simple dies and caulked with papyrus. The hull was strengthened by means of ropes that fitted the vessel along the perimeter of the upper plating belt.
Such vessels hardly had good seaworthiness. However, they were quite suitable for swimming on the river. The straight sail used by the Egyptians allowed them to sail only with the wind. The rigging was attached to a bipedal mast, both legs of which were set perpendicular to the ship's midline. At the top, they were tightly bound. The beam device in the ship's hull served as a step (nest) for the mast. In the working position, this mast was held by stays - thick cables that went from the stern and bow, and legs supported it towards the sides. The rectangular sail was attached to two yards. With a side wind, the mast was hastily removed. Later, by about 2600 BC, the bipedal mast was replaced by the one-legged one that is still used today. The one-legged mast made sailing easier and for the first time gave a ship the ability to maneuver. However, a rectangular sail was an unreliable means that could only be used with a fair wind. The main engine of the ship was the muscular strength of the rowers. Apparently, the Egyptians own an important improvement of the oar - the invention of oarlocks. They did not yet exist in the Old Kingdom, but then the oar began to be fastened with rope loops. This immediately allowed to increase the power of the stroke and the speed of the vessel. It is known that the elite rowers on the ships of the pharaohs did 26 strokes per minute, which allowed them to reach a speed of 12 km / h. They controlled such ships with the help of two steering oars located at the stern. Later, they began to be attached to a beam on the deck, by rotating which it was possible to choose the desired direction (this principle of steering the ship by turning the rudder blade remains unchanged to this day). The ancient Egyptians were not good sailors. On their ships, they did not dare to go to the open sea. However, along the coast, their merchant ships made long journeys. So, in the temple of Queen Hatshepsut there is an inscription reporting on a sea voyage made by the Egyptians around 1490 BC. to the mysterious country of incense Punt, located in the area of \uXNUMXb\uXNUMXbmodern Somalia. The next step in the development of shipbuilding was taken by the Phoenicians. Unlike the Egyptians, the Phoenicians had an abundance of excellent building material for their ships. Their country stretched in a narrow strip along the eastern shores of the Mediterranean. Extensive cedar forests grew here almost at the very shore. Already in ancient times, the Phoenicians learned how to make high-quality dugout single-deck boats from their trunks and boldly went out to sea on them. At the beginning of the 3rd millennium BC, when maritime trade began to develop, the Phoenicians began to build ships.
A marine vessel is significantly different from a boat; its construction requires its own design solutions. The most important discoveries along this path, which determined the entire subsequent history of shipbuilding, belong to the Phoenicians. Perhaps the skeletons of animals led them to the idea of installing stiffening ribs on one-poles, which were covered with boards on top. So for the first time in the history of shipbuilding, frames were used, which are still widely used. In the same way, the Phoenicians first built a keel ship (originally, two trunks connected at an angle served as a keel). The keel immediately gave the hull stability and made it possible to establish longitudinal and transverse bracing. Sheathing boards were attached to them. All these innovations were the decisive basis for the rapid development of shipbuilding and determined the appearance of all subsequent ships. From the middle of the 2nd millennium BC. the rapid flourishing of the Phoenician cities began, owing their prosperity to the Mediterranean trade. Pot-bellied Phoenician ships became a bridge between countries. They crossed the sea in all directions and returned laden with treasures. The enormous wealth that the Phoenicians extracted from their enterprises made them more resolute and brave. In distant lands, they founded their trading posts and colonies, which over time also turned into flourishing cities. Their trade routes stretched from India to Africa and Britain. Six centuries BC. several Phoenician ships sailed from the Red Sea, circled Africa and returned to the Mediterranean Sea from the Strait of Gibraltar. In addition to merchant ships, the Phoenicians built many warships equipped with powerful rams. They were the first to think about how to increase the speed of the ship. At a time when the sail played only an auxiliary role, in battle and during the chase, one had to rely primarily on oars. Thus, the speed of the ship directly depended on the number of rowers. First, the length of the ship was chosen based on the required number of oars. However, it was impossible to increase it indefinitely. The way out was found in the construction of ships with several rows of oars. At first they began to build ships in which the oars were located one above the other in two tiers.
The earliest image of a two-tiered ship was found in the palace of the Assyrian king Sannacherib. The lower row of rowers on it is hidden under the deck, and the upper one was located right on it. Later, three-tiered ships appeared - triremes. According to Clement of Alexandria, it was the Phoenicians who built the first triremes, which, as history has shown, turned out to be the most optimal version of a rowing vessel. These were ships of very considerable size, having three rows of oars arranged one above the other in a checkerboard pattern. The oars were of various lengths, depending on which row the rowers were in. The strongest sat on the upper deck, as they had to steer the longest oars. Triremes were very light on the move, maneuverable and had good speed. Following the example of the Phoenicians, all the maritime peoples of the Mediterranean began to build them.
Of course, more than once attempts were made to increase the number of rowing tiers. The Macedonian king Demetrius Poliorket had ships with 6 and 7 rows of rowers. The Egyptian king Ptolemy Philadelphus had two ships with 30 rows of oars, and another Egyptian king, Ptolemy Philopatra, had a ship with 40 rows of oars. It was not inferior in size to a large modern liner, had 4 rowers, 3 crew members and 400 servants. But all such ships were bulky and clumsy. Later, the Romans returned to the well-established triremes, which remained the main type of sea vessel throughout antiquity. Author: Ryzhov K.V.
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