A galley of this length would only
have a beam of 19 feet and a depth of hold of 7 feet 6 inches. The sailing
ship of contemporary times would for the same length have had a beam of
about 40 feet and an extremely high freeboard; she was in consequence
necessarily slow and incapable of sailing on a wind.
So distinct at this time was the line drawn between the sailing vessel and
the galley that the actual terminology used was entirely different; that is
to say, the names of such things as masts, sails, rudder, tiller, stern,
stempost, cutwater, etc., were not the same words; the sailor who used
sails could not understand his brother mariner who used oars, and _vice
versa_.
[Illustration: GALLEY UNDER OARS.]
What was necessary of course in the galley was many oars and many hands to
use them; the vessel was most skilfully constructed for this purpose so as
to get the fullest power from her human engines; the result was that men
were crowded on board of her to such an extent that there was scarcely room
to breathe, such a craft as the one of which the dimensions have been given
having on board some four hundred men.
Barras de la Penne, a French officer who in 1713 first went on board a
galley, thus describes what he saw:
"Those who see a galley for the first time are astonished to see so many
persons; there are an infinite number of villages in Europe which do not
contain an equal number of inhabitants; however, this is not the
principal cause of one's surprise, but that so many men can be assembled
in so small a space.
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