From about 580 B.C. right down to the time of the Roman conquest, the Liparian Isles were practically a republic of corsairs. The Ionians and the Lycians were notorious pirates: the Ægean, the Pontus and the Adriatic were the corsairs’ cruising grounds. The Cretans, the inhabitants of the Balearic Islands, the Cilicians, the Carthaginians, the Illyrians and others, also, were the piratical terrors to the Mediterranean merchant ships; and it was only as long as Rome maintained a strong navy that the cancerous growth was kept under, though not finally eradicated. Thus, in those early periods when there was little enough to encourage it, the Mercantile Marine of classical times struggled along, comparatively small in numbers compared with the fleets of fighting galleys, but historically of the highest importance, since from this small flame was to burst a great blaze of light that has illumined the world; spread Christianity and civilisation, learning, exploration, trade and peace. Those little, beamy, single-sail, unhandy craft wallowing in the Mediterranean seas, suffering so much at the hands of pirates, buffeted about by storms and compelled to spend such long periods away from their home ports, were playing a lonely, uphill game; but they were achieving more than they could ever realise in the development of the world. Pioneers of the sea, undertaking the utmost risks, they have made all subsequent centuries their debtors as long as ships continue to be built and the seas shall be traversed. Such, briefly, are the first stage and the very remote period of the merchant ship in its long and glorious evolution of usefulness. Let us now see how, influenced by progressive trade, the Mediterranean continued to develop its shipping. CHAPTER II THE DEMAND FOR MERCHANT SHIPPING In our own age so many amazing developments have taken place during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries that we must not be misled. These are the exceptions and not the rule in history. Between the merchant ships of the late Roman Empire and of the next few centuries there is no evidence to cause us to think the ships materially altered. On the contrary, what little evidence we have goes to show that the cargo ship, with her mast, yard and square-sail, continued to be much the same in the thirteenth century as she was in the third, if we add a mizzen-mast and a lateen sail.