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Egyptian naval architecture
| Ìîðñêîé ñëîâàðü |
Dispersed in a desert-bound strip along the banks of the mighty river nile, egyptians took naturally to the water and were among the first serious shipwrights. nile winds are so constant that the hieroglyph for northbound movement (even on land) was a boat under sail, while that for southbound travel was one under oars. bundles of papyrus stalks lashed together were their earliest form of transport. these were cheap and easily manufactured, but had short service lives. during the predynastic period, around 3000 bce, larger reed boats were characterized by sharply-upturned bows and sterns, the classical egyptian hull shape for centuries to come. they were propelled by paddles or a rectangular sail, and equipped with one or two large steering oars. by the old kingdom (2575–2134 bce), wood was the preferred construction material, retaining the traditional upward angling above the water line at both ends. the nile is a tranquil river, even in spate, so shipwrights did not have to provide the rigidity needed to cope with storms or ocean waves. dispensing with ribs, keel, and planking, they pegged together thick blocks of acacia wood, with a few athwartship beams. as late as the fifth century bce, the historian herodotus reported that egyptian trading craft were “assembled as though building a brick wall.” in the absence of a keel to support the butt of a mast, bi-pod spars were stepped from the side walls of the hull in an inverted “v.” these could easily be unstepped for changes of propulsion between oars and sail. depending on the size of ship, from one to six easting 106 large steering oars were controlled by helmsmen standing on the high stern. this design proved so effective that it remained essentially unchanged through the thousand years of the middle and new kingdoms (2040–1070 bce). with minor modifications, it was applied to a wide range of river craft from small skiffs to much larger vessels. in the early 1950s, a dismantled river boat—probably first used to transport the corpse of pharaoh khufu (cheops) to its place of purification and embalmment, and then stored ready for his voyage to the afterworld—was discovered close to the face of the large pyramid at giza (see khufu ship). this vessel, which dates to 2528 bce or thereabouts, has now been reassembled. it is 43.6 metres (143 ft) long with a displacement of about forty tonnes (39 long tons). egyptians of this period must also have constructed special load-carrying river barges for the transportation of obelisks and immense pyramid building blocks. the successful river design lacked the rigidity needed by seagoing vessels, but a model found in pharaoh sahure’s mortuary temple shows that egyptian naval architects had contrived ingenious methods of preparing vessels for service in open waters. as a substitute for ribs, they provided athwartships support by girdling the entire vessel with a pair of ropes, pulled taut by a third rope zig-zagged between them. then, in the absence of a keel, they provided foreand- aft support by running a huge hawser, known as a “hogging truss,” over a series of props from bow to stern, tightening it with a pole, like a tourniquet. the sophistication of this design indicates a long period of previous maritime activity. sahure’s ships, which lacked the sharply-angled bow and stern typical of nile boats, must have been fast and reasonably seaworthy, but could never have been as reliable as keeled vessels. eight up!: when signal flag number 8 is hoisted it means “enemy in sight.” hence, “eight up!” whispered by an rn signalman warns that a senior officer is approaching.
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Hieroglyph, àíãëèéñêèé
- Afigure representing (a) an idea, and intended to convey a meaning, (b) a word or root of a word, or (c) a sound which is part of a word; esp. applied to the engraved marks and symbols
- N èåðîãëèô
Northbound, àíãëèéñêèé
(ñëåäóþùèé) â ñåâåðíîì íàïðàâëåíèè
Southbound, àíãëèéñêèé
 þæíîì íàïðàâëåíèè
Manufactured, àíãëèéñêèé
Construction, ôðàíöóçñêèé
Traditional, àíãëèéñêèé
A òðàäèöèîííûé grammar
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Eilean mor mystery, àíãëèéñêèé
Known as the hunters because of their toll on shipping, the flannan isles are a group of 45 rocks and islets in the outer hebrides off the northwest coast of scotland. only seven are big enough to be called islands, the two largest of these being steep-cliffed eilean tighe (house island) and eilean mor (big island). in the 10th century, scottish monks fleeing viking raiders arrived on the latter and dedicated a chapel to saint flann. having given the saint’s name to the islands, their monastery was abandoned during the 16th century, leaving the island uninhabited until a manned lighthouse was built in 1899. early in 1901, captain holman, master of the freighter tennessee, complained to the northern lighthouse board that no warning beam had been visible when he passed the islands at midnight on 15th december. meanwhile, lighthouse tender hesperus had left on a routine visit, arriving off eilean mor on 26th december. her master, captain harvie, was surprised not to be greeted by the usual happily waving keepers. nor was there any response to blasts of the steam whistle and siren, followed by a signal rocket. relief keeper joe moore landed, but soon returned, pale and agitated, to report that all three keepers had vanished. buoymaster allan macdonald with seamen lamont and campbell then climbed up to the lighthouse 101 meters (330 feet) above sea level. everything seemed to be in order. the gate was closed and secured, beds had been made, the table was laid for the keepers’ dinner, and their lunch plates and pans had been washed and put away. the lamp had been trimmed and its reservoir filled, the last entry in the log, made at 0900 hrs on 15th december, mentioned nothing untoward, while the duty slateboard recorded weather and wind conditions, plus the times the lantern should be illuminated that night and extinguished next morning. however the full fuel reservoir indicated it had never been lit. an inventory of clothing showed that thomas marshall had been wearing full foul weather gear, james ducat had on a jacket with seaboots, and donald mcarthur was in his shirtsleeves. this seemed to indicate that marshall had been outside and the others had hurriedly joined him. then it was noticed that the iron tramway rails and railings between landing platform and lighthouse “had been displaced and twisted in a manner difficult to believe,” that the lifeboat normally securely roped to them had been torn away and was missing, and that a rock weighing more than a ton had been displaced. as with many inexplicable maritime phenomena, speculation was rife. land-based rumors suggested that one of the keepers had gone mad, murdered the others, and thrown himself into the sea in remorse, or that all the men had been abducted by foreign spies, or that a gigantic seabird had swooped down and taken them. superstitious and imaginative seamen subscribed to the idea that davy jones had been so furious when the newly-constructed lighthouse cheated him of his accustomed harvest of shipwrecked mariners that he had risen out of the sea to register his displeasure by wreaking havoc on the island before abducting the keepers and imprisoning them. a more mundane explanation—substantiated by the fact that 35 feet (11 meters) of turf had been ripped off the top of a 200 foot (61 meter) headland—is that a powerful rogue wave crashed over the high cliffs and swept on up the steep hill, washing the men away as they rushed out to secure vital equipment at the landing platform. on the other hand, perhaps the wave really was davy’s manifestation and ducat, marshall, and mcarthur are still languishing in his locker.
Egg code, àíãëèéñêèé
The world meteorological organization system of sea ice symbology is popularly referred to as the “egg code” because it presents data inside an oval designed to make a large amount of information available at a glance. the “egg” is divided into four
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