DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.809#0267
240 EARLY MINOAN SHIPPING: 'FIXED RUDDERS'
Palai-
kastro
Model.
Early
' Fixed
Rudders',
' Fixed
Rudder'
on Primi-
tive
Vessels.
Cata-
marans
of Ma-
dras.
Fish
Ensign
on Early
Cycladic
Craft.
Fig. 137.
Clay Model of Vessel, E. M. I-
E. M. II, Palaikastro.
from hieroglyphic seals and tablets of Classes A and B,1 together with
a good example belonging to the end of E. M. Ill or the beginning of M. M. I
on a three-sided steatite seal from Platanos, here repeated, Fig. 136, a.2 With
the latter is placed an enlargement of another ship on a three-sided steatite
bead-seal of contemporary fabric found in the Knossos district (Fig. 136, 6).3
A feature in several of these representations, notably the last two,
is the projection visible at the
stern of the vessel. This is in
fact a very ancient inheritance
of Cretan shipping, as is clearly
shown by the clay model of a
vessel found at Palaikastro (Fig.
137), in an E. M. I—II ossuary.4
It there appears as a tail-like
appendage and served, in truth,
as a kind of 'fixed rudder' in which, as well as the high prow, we may recog-
nize a constructive device due to the necessity of navigating the open sea.
This 'fixed rudder', indeed, has a great comparative interest in relation to
the history of early navigation, since analogies to it occur among primitive
peoples in remote and very diverse quarters of the globe. It is seen at
Madras, for instance, as an integral part of the log-rafts or Catamarans, used
for communication between the shore and vessels out at sea, the prow of
these, too, being slightly raised as a protection against the surf. Dug-outs
equipped for sailing in the South Pacific and elsewhere show a similar
projection behind, forming an integral part of the hull. In the case
of the log-rafts this rudder-like effect is simply produced by making the
central of the three logs of which its platform is composed slightly longer
than its fellows, so that it juts out behind. The purchase thus gained
against the water, to a certain extent, stood primitive vessels of these classes
in place of a keel and made them more dirigible.
Both in the ' fixed rudder' and the high prow the clay boat has
a special importance as presenting the earliest example of a form of con-
struction which reappears on a whole series of rowing galleys—in one case
1 P. of M., p. 283, Fig. 215, d. A few
more specimens are supplied by the day
tablets of Mallia to be described by Monsieur
F. Chapouthier.
2 P. qfM., p. 118, Fig. 87, 7. Cf. Xanthu-
dides, Vaulted Tombs of Mesara (transl.
Droop), PI. XIV, no. 1079.
! For impressions of this see P. of M.,
i, p. 120, Fig. 89, a, b, c.
* R. C. Bosanquet and R. M. Dawkins,
The Unpublished Objects from the Palaikastro
Excavations, Part I (1923), p. 7, Fig. 4
(Suppl. Paper of the British School at Athens).
Palai-
kastro
Model.
Early
' Fixed
Rudders',
' Fixed
Rudder'
on Primi-
tive
Vessels.
Cata-
marans
of Ma-
dras.
Fish
Ensign
on Early
Cycladic
Craft.
Fig. 137.
Clay Model of Vessel, E. M. I-
E. M. II, Palaikastro.
from hieroglyphic seals and tablets of Classes A and B,1 together with
a good example belonging to the end of E. M. Ill or the beginning of M. M. I
on a three-sided steatite seal from Platanos, here repeated, Fig. 136, a.2 With
the latter is placed an enlargement of another ship on a three-sided steatite
bead-seal of contemporary fabric found in the Knossos district (Fig. 136, 6).3
A feature in several of these representations, notably the last two,
is the projection visible at the
stern of the vessel. This is in
fact a very ancient inheritance
of Cretan shipping, as is clearly
shown by the clay model of a
vessel found at Palaikastro (Fig.
137), in an E. M. I—II ossuary.4
It there appears as a tail-like
appendage and served, in truth,
as a kind of 'fixed rudder' in which, as well as the high prow, we may recog-
nize a constructive device due to the necessity of navigating the open sea.
This 'fixed rudder', indeed, has a great comparative interest in relation to
the history of early navigation, since analogies to it occur among primitive
peoples in remote and very diverse quarters of the globe. It is seen at
Madras, for instance, as an integral part of the log-rafts or Catamarans, used
for communication between the shore and vessels out at sea, the prow of
these, too, being slightly raised as a protection against the surf. Dug-outs
equipped for sailing in the South Pacific and elsewhere show a similar
projection behind, forming an integral part of the hull. In the case
of the log-rafts this rudder-like effect is simply produced by making the
central of the three logs of which its platform is composed slightly longer
than its fellows, so that it juts out behind. The purchase thus gained
against the water, to a certain extent, stood primitive vessels of these classes
in place of a keel and made them more dirigible.
Both in the ' fixed rudder' and the high prow the clay boat has
a special importance as presenting the earliest example of a form of con-
struction which reappears on a whole series of rowing galleys—in one case
1 P. of M., p. 283, Fig. 215, d. A few
more specimens are supplied by the day
tablets of Mallia to be described by Monsieur
F. Chapouthier.
2 P. qfM., p. 118, Fig. 87, 7. Cf. Xanthu-
dides, Vaulted Tombs of Mesara (transl.
Droop), PI. XIV, no. 1079.
! For impressions of this see P. of M.,
i, p. 120, Fig. 89, a, b, c.
* R. C. Bosanquet and R. M. Dawkins,
The Unpublished Objects from the Palaikastro
Excavations, Part I (1923), p. 7, Fig. 4
(Suppl. Paper of the British School at Athens).