In this chapter I shall devote myself to a few of the more obvious phases of seamanship, leaving navigation for the next chapter, where I shall also touch upon piloting, a related science. Seamanship, being an art, can be acquired only by practice, and seamen being formerly an all-but-unlettered class, jealous of their calling, wrote no textbooks of their art until Captain John Smith, the famous old adventurer in Virginia, and Sir Henry Mainwayring, of the Elizabethan navy, wrote their treatises on the subject in the early part of the 17th Century. It is difficult, therefore, to say with any degree of certainty just what were the general practices of seamen of earlier times. Because of this lack of definite information concerning ancient seamanship, I shall discuss the art only in its more modern aspects. It is interesting to mention again, however, what I have mentioned elsewhere, that the ancients were coasters rather than deep-sea sailors, who, until Columbus’s time, were unaccustomed to making long voyages out of sight of land save here and there, as, for instance, between Aden, at the mouth of the Red Sea, and India. On such a route they came and went with the monsoons, which blow alternately at different seasons of the year from and to the Indian coast. But, aside from such exceptions, the ancients, able seamen though they may sometimes have been, seldom sailed far out of sight of land. In ancient times a sailor, it would seem, was anxious to stay near shore, for then he could readily follow his route, indirect though that might be. To-day the sailor is more at ease if he is well away from land, for the perils of the deep sea are trifling by comparison with the perils of the coast. Storms at sea can usually be ridden out without danger. Storms that blow as ships approach the shore are cause for apprehension. The ancient sailor kept his eyes open for heavy weather and if he saw it coming he made straightway for the beach, and, if possible, pulled his little ship high and dry until it had passed. The sailor of to-day, too, keeps his eyes open for storms, but if they come he would rather be safely far out at sea than near the coast, unless he could ride it out in some safe harbour. These differences between the ancient and the modern seaman are due to the increase in the size and seaworthiness of ships, and to the universal use nowadays of the compass, an instrument unknown to the ancients. Nowadays, too, steam has changed things, for ships that carry, in their hulls, powerful engines capable of successfully combating the wind need fear that danger of the sea far less. [Illustration: A PAGE OF KNOTS IN COMMON USE]