Another sailing ship, called by the artist a _myoparo_, shows two halyards, and the sail divided curtain-like as we saw in the Phœnician ships. She also has the Egyptian stern and a modified galley bow. The _myoparo_ was a light, swift vessel, chiefly used by pirates. The stem of the English word “peir” (meaning to _attempt_ to rob) is thus found in the name of the ship. Plutarch makes use of the name of this species of ship. The _prosumia_ contains just such a sail as we saw in Fig. 21, the brails being very clearly shown. A sailing ship called a _ponto_ has a small artemon foremast and main. The former has shrouds to support it, but the yard and sail are not shown. They would be kept in the hold somewhere, and only fitted when specially needed. This ship is of Gallic origin, and is mentioned by Cæsar, who refers to the “pontones quod est genus navium Gallicarum.”[22] Finally, in these mosaics, we have the _cladivata_, a ship that resembles the vessel referred to by Mr. Torr in his “Ancient Ships” as having been found at Utica, and belonging to about the year 200 A.D. This _cladivata_ has also two masts and sails of similar size, with the brailing arrangement of this period as already shown. There is some uncertainty concerning the derivation of the word, but it possibly owes its origin to being named after Claudius. Such, then, was the development of the sailing ship in the waters of Southern Europe. We shall now, leaving behind the first ships that sailed the Mediterranean, proceed in our enquiry to the shores of Northern Europe, and consider what was the nature of their ships which had to voyage under conditions far less encouraging than those of the warm southern seas. CHAPTER IV. THE EARLY SHIPS OF NORTHERN EUROPE. The evidence that we possess, in order accurately to judge, of the early ships that sailed the seas of the Baltic, German Ocean, Bay of Biscay, and English Channel, is both conclusive and diverse. We have in the writings of Cæsar and Tacitus, many details of ships that are of considerable interest. This literature is supplemented by the old Sagas[23] of Scandinavia, which, though highly informative, err on the side of exaggeration. Rock sculptures existing in the land of the Vikings, though somewhat the subject of controversy, are, in the writer’s opinion, of real, valuable help in the study of sailing ships. There is also some evidence of later ships in the old coins of Northern Europe. But it is when we come to the important excavations that have revealed—nearly always accidentally—the ships of a bygone age, many hundreds of years old, that we are confronted with the most undeniable and complete source of information that one could desire.