It is evident from ancient authors, that the ships of the Phoenicians, Greeks, Romans, and other people of antiquity, had frequently more than one rudder; but it is not easy to perceive in what way more than one could be applied to the same end for which the rudder of modern ships is used.  Small vessels had only one.  Homer in his Odyssey mentions only one, which was fastened, and perhaps strengthened, so as to withstand the winds and waves on each side, with hurdles, made of sallow or osier; at the same period the ships of the Phoenicians had two rudders.  When there were two, one was fixed at each end; this, however, seems to have been the case only where, as was not uncommon, the ships had two prows, so that either end could go foremost.  With respect to vessels of four rudders, as two are described as being fixed to the sides, it is probable that these resembled in their construction and object the pieces of wood attached to the sides of small Dutch vessels and barges on the Thames, and generally all vessels that are flat-bottomed, for the purpose of preventing them from making much lee way, when they are working against the wind.

The first anchors were not made of iron, but of stone, or even of wood; these were loaded with lead.  According to Diodorus, the Phoenicians, in their first voyages to Spain, having obtained more silver than their ships could safely hold, employed some of it, instead of lead, for their anchors.  Very anciently the anchor had only one fluke.  Anacharsis is said to have invented an anchor with two.  Sometimes baskets full of stones, and sacks filled with sand, were employed as anchors.  Every ship had two anchors, one of which was never used, except in cases of great danger:  it was larger than the other, and was called the sacred anchor.  At the period of the Argonautic expedition, it does not appear that anchors of any kind but stone were known; though the scholiast upon Apollonius Rhodius, quite at variance with the testimony of this author, mentions anchors of iron with two flukes.  It has been supposed that anchors were not used by the Grecian fleet at the siege of Troy, because “the Greek word which is used to mean an anchor, properly so called, is not used in any of the poems of Homer.”  It is certain that iron anchors were not then known; but it is equally certain that large stones were used as anchors.

Homer is entirely silent respecting any implement that would serve the purpose of a sounding line; but it is expressly mention by Herodotus as common in his time:  it was commonly made of lead or brass, and attached, not to a cord, but an iron, chain.