WHAT ABOUT THEM EARLY, EARLY "I MEAN REAL EARLY SHIPS?"

THOSE OH SO EARLY WARRIORS OF THE SEA

You know we all seem to "not realize" in our modern computer world that even early man had to "have it altogether" as we say in our day.  They had to provide for their familes as we do today...so to compare..."Yes" they may have had to do it with much fewer "bells and whisles" but still they had to do it.  So...early man he used the 'sea' and his 'ships' as well as we are using, to help provide for all things that make life comfortable in our life, as well as his. 

The 'key' word here is 'ships'...before early man could get his buns from point "A" to point "B"...ships needed to be designed and bult....

So...lets for example talk a bit about the Greeks.  The Greeks traded to and from colonial settlements which they set up in Italy, Sicily, southern France, North Africa and the Black Sea.   Now this last colony is most interesting in our example...not only was its wheat producing area, which supplied most of the homeland of Greece, but there was 'gold' in the rivers.

The method of extracting the gold from the fast moving rivers was to pin down sheepskins on the river beds to catch the rains of gold that was washed down by the currents.  And here my fellow readers we find the basis of legend of the Golden Fleece, the Argonauts and their ship , "Argo."

Now this is what is interesting, that is if your into 'ships'....actually there is quite a bit about the "Argo" that is known.  She was built of pine felled on the slopes of Pelion, the pine trunks being shaped into planks with an axe.  She was built as a "galley" and her top strakes were pierced for fifty oars.....yep you read right...50 of them suckers....  Her whole hull was covered with pitch...inside and out....except for her bows which were painted vermilion, the standard coloring for all Greek ships, and on either bow there was the traditional "eye," so that the ship could see her way across the waters.

Ok.....That is all I'm going to describe here....there is much more to this article....which if you click on this link:   Early Warriors of the Sea   it will take you to the that article with pictures and a ton of interesting facts...as well as just some down right interesting reading.....and get a load of the amount of oars and manpower that had to be used on these ships....

If you have a comment....or and opinion about the article..or any of my articles....never hesitate to made a comment...good, bad....or whatever....

END

Bud Shortridge