Excerpt from Story of the Ship: And Mechanic ArtSince that first boat, a myriad ships have sped, And nations' argosies have plowed the waves, Phoenician, Persian armaments have led In van of glorious conquest. Manned by slaves The far-famed Tyrian triremes bent their oars For distant commerce. Egypt rose - and Greece And launched their galleys. While from Colchian shores, To lure the heroes, shone the Golden Fleece.With prow advanced, with unabated zest, Through Gades' Strait, to Islands of the Blest, They pushed their way. Calpe's herculean wall Opened from Abyla to speed them through. From Isles of Tin, with treasures culled from Gaul, They heaped their home-bound vessels. So to new Adventures hasted. From far Euxine coasts To Indus' tide, the nations' navies swept. The ¿eets of Solomon, great Hiram's hosts Of mighty ships, and Persia's millions leapt, With eager prows and swiftly bending oars, To seek in war or peace far distant shores.With commerce, empire. Thus Byzantium rose, In rapid barks from Greece, Massilia came.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.