By reference to the accompanying deck plan, and by comparing it with the midship-section previously given, it will be seen that though the portion of the galley occupied by the rowers was open, it could be covered with an awning in warm, and by a tarpaulin in wet, weather. To have enclosed this space would have been fatal to the men, who, especially during the summer months, when the galleys were chiefly employed, could not have existed, much less have laboured in a confined hold. [Illustration: DECK PLAN. _A. Castle_ _B. Deck_ _C. Hatch_ _D. Coursier Deck_ _E. Catastroma Deck_] In confirmation of this opinion, Thucydides, in describing the galleys of the Bœotians and of Philoctetes, of whom Homer also writes, says, “Nor had they, as yet, _covered_ ships;”[402] and we find in the “Iliad” such expressions as, “He marched upon the _hatches_ with long strides;”[403] and in the “Odyssey,” where Ulysses is preparing to encounter Scylla, “upon the _hatches_ of the prow of the ship he went.”[404] Mr. Howell, in opposition to the views of most translators, remarks that the hatches should be construed as meaning “the thwarts or seats upon which the rowers sat:”[405] but it is obvious that no other construction can be put upon the word except that it meant the hatches of the hold, which, being slightly elevated above the level of the deck, would be a much more likely place for the master or officer of the galley to walk than upon the thwarts where the rowers sat; and this opinion is also confirmed by the expression in the latter quotation, where “the hatches _of the prow_” are distinctly mentioned as the covering of the entrance to the fore-compartment or hold of the galley. Though parts only of the galleys were open, the proportion of open and closed spaces varied with the class and size of the galleys or the purposes for which they were employed. In all such matters, also, different nations had doubtless different arrangements, if not in the form, at least in the outfit and general equipment of their galleys, and these no doubt have undergone great changes in the course of centuries. Nor does this fact modify the opinion that “hatches” in their literal sense are meant; for, in the time of Homer, though the galleys were all single-banked and “open,” they had a deck in midships and at the bow and the stern, as well as the catastroma or platform in the waist, for the use of the soldiers.