[Illustration:  288.jpg AN EGYPTIAN TRADING VESSEL OF THE FIRST HALF OF THE XVIIIth DYNASTY]

     Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Beato.

All the towns of the mother country—­Arvad, Byblos, Berytus, Tyre, and Sidon—­possessed vessels engaged in cruising long before the Egyptian conquest of Syria.  We have no direct information from any existing monument to show us what these vessels were like, but we are familiar with the construction of the galleys which formed the fleets of the Pharaohs of the XVIIIth dynasty.  The art of shipbuilding had made considerable progress since the times of the Memphite kings.  Prom the period when Egypt aspired to become one of the great powers of the world, she doubtless endeavoured to bring her naval force to the same pitch of perfection as her land forces could boast of, and her fleets probably consisted of the best vessels which the dockyards of that day could turn out.  Phoenician vessels of this period may therefore be regarded with reason as constructed on lines similar to those of the Egyptian ships, differing from them merely in the minor details of the shape of the hull and manner of rigging.  The hull continued to be built long and narrow, rising at the stem and stern.  The bow was terminated by a sort of hook, to which, in time of peace, a bronze ornament was attached, fashioned to represent the head of a divinity, gazelle, or bull, while in time of war this was superseded by a metal cut-water made fast to the hull by several turns of stout rope, the blade rising some couple of yards above the level of the deck.* The poop was ornamented with a projection firmly attached to the body of the vessel, but curved inwards and terminated by an open lotus-flower.  An upper deck, surrounded by a wooden rail, was placed at the bow and stern to serve as forecastle and quarterdecks respectively, and in order to protect the vessel from the danger of heavy seas the ship was strengthened by a structure to which we find nothing analogous in the shipbuilding of classical times:  an enormous cable attached to the gammonings of the bow rose obliquely to a height of about a couple of yards above the deck, and, passing over four small crutched masts, was made fast again to the gammonings of the stern.  The hull measured from the blade of the cut-water to the stern-post some twenty to five and twenty yards, but the lowest part of the hold did not exceed five feet in depth.  There was no cabin, and the ballast, arms, provisions, and spare-rigging occupied the open hold.**

* To get a clear idea of the details of this structure, we have only to compare the appearance of ships with and without a cut-water in the scenes at Thebes, representing the celebration of a festival at the return of the fleet.

** M. Glaser thinks that there were cabins for the crew under the deck, and he recognises in the sixteen oblong marks on the sides of the vessels at Deir el-Bahari so many dead-lights;