The ancients did not allow the timber to season thoroughly, because it would become thereby too stiff to bend. Steaming boxes apparently had not come into use in shipbuilding. However, after the tree was felled it was allowed some time for drying, and then, when the ship was built, some time elapsed for the wood to settle. The seams were caulked with tow and other packing, being fixed with tar or wax, the underbody of the ship being coated with wax, tar, or a combined mixture, the wax being melted over a fire until soft enough to be laid on with a brush. Seven kinds of paint were used, viz., purple, violet, yellow, blue, two kinds of white, and green for pirates in order that their resemblance to the colour of the waves might make them less conspicuous. As we shall see in Fig. 21, elaborate designs were painted along the sides, but this appears to have been a later custom. The latest discoveries in Northern Africa show this decoration round the side to be very frequent about the second century of the Christian era. Earlier Greek ships had only patches of colour on the bows, blue or purple, or vermilion; the rest of the hull was painted with black tar like many of the coasters and fishing smacks of to-day. The painting on the bows was probably to facilitate the recognition of the direction taken by a vessel. Ships were not copper-bottomed, but sometimes a sheathing of lead with layers of tarred sail-cloth interposed between was affixed to the hull. [Illustration: FIG. 14. STERN OF A GREEK SHIP (_c._ 600 B.C.).] Nails of bronze and iron, and pegs of wood were used for fastening the planking, the thickness of the latter varying from 2¼ to 5¼ inches. In order to fortify the warships against the terrible shock of ramming, she had to be strengthened by wales running longitudinally around her sides. Fig. 14 shows the stern of a Greek ship of about the fifth century B.C. The wales or strengthening timbers just mentioned will be easily seen. Fig. 15 exhibits another example of the boar’s-head bow. These two illustrations are taken from a coin of Phaselis, in Lycia, now preserved in the British Museum. The _aphlaston_ will be immediately recognised in Fig. 14. Like the Egyptian ships, these ancient vessels were also provided with a stout cable—the ὑπόζωμα in Greek, _tormentum_ in Latin. The spur for ramming was shod with metal—iron or copper—and was at first placed below the water line, but subsequently came above it. The space between the oar-ports was probably about three feet, each oarsman occupying about five feet of room in width. A galley having thirty-one seats for rowing would have about seventeen feet of beam. The draught of these warships was nevertheless very small—perhaps not more than four or five feet. [Illustration: FIG. 15. BOAR’S-HEAD BOW OF A GREEK SHIP (_c._ 600 B.C.).]