A Treatise On The Principles And Practice Of Harbour Engineering

2 HARBOUR ENGINEERING improvement and development, while, in the absence of natural advantages, steps have had to be taken to provide by artificial means the requisite degree of shelter and protection. Artificial Harbours.—In every country, therefore, finding itself in the possession of a seaboard, and with any pretensions to maritime enterprise, there has been formed by degrees a series of artificial or semi-artificial enclosures, constructed at first somewhat crudely and informally, but later with full application of scientific method and technical skill. There exists, indeed, no record on parchment, bronze, or stone to attest the date of the inception of the first artificial harbour. In the absence of any controverting evidence, the honour of creating the prototypes of modern maritime engineering undertakings of this kind is usually assigned to the public-spirited policy of monarchs of early Egyptian and Phænician dynasties. Yet this ascription of priority is, after all, one more of inference and assump- tion than of definite knowledge, and there is reason to suspect that artificial harbours, in an embryonic form at any rate, are of much more ancient origin, dating back through the earlier civilisations of the remoter East to a period of time of which all historical traces have been lost, and con- cerning which it would, for that reason, be useless to inquire and idle to speculate. Ancient Sea Routes.—We have no alternative but to confine our animadversions within the limits of fruitful historical research. It is known for a faet that both Egypt and Phænicia possessed commercial navies, and that they carried on an elaborate system of trading operations. Their maritime traffic was not only characterised by regularity and importance, but it was also of a mutual nature, and the two countries were linked together by ties of common interest and advantage. The sea trade of Western Asia and the contiguous pertion of Africa was conducted in ancient times principally along two routes. The first of these led from the Phænician ports, via Cyprus to Sicily and Malta, with an ex- tension along the northern coast of Africa, finally reaching Tartessus in Spain, the site of which was probably near where Gibraltar now stands. The second sea route was from Ezion Geber at the head of the Gulf of Akabah, along the Red Sea, skirting the Southern coast of Arabia to Ophir at the mouth of the Indus, the “ land of gold and precious stones.” Besides these two main routes, however, there were a number of sub- sidiary tracks intersecting one another in various directions. It has already been mentioned that close commercial relations existed between Tyre and Sidon and the deltaic ports of the Nile. Apart from these, there was considerable traffic which passed into the mouth of the Euphrates, both from the coasts of India and of Africa. Nor were the more adveuturous spirits of the age restricted to beaten tracks. Right up to the Cassiterides (Scilly Isles) in the far West sailed the Cabots and Frobishers of that age, as also they may have circumnavigated India and penetrated to Burmah and the confines of Siam in the East.