Page 245 - Four Thousand Years Ago by Geoffrey Bibby

--- b „ 1*3*^-1440 B.C.J
and ornaments. The bronzesmith from the royal palace, the only
smith within a week’s journey—and a foreigner to boot—found
it worth his while to come and stay a week or so in the valley
casting and hammering all day long, fashioning ornaments and

swords which he swore were identical with those now being worn
at the court.

And as usual four or five of the younger fishermen had
signed on for a voyage with the departed merchantman. For such
ships were always eager to engage the experienced seafolk of
the northern coasts.

It was some years later, when the young men of the 1510
b.c. generation were in their late teens, that a new thing occurred
in the valley. It was after a royal progress, when the king had
talked long with his earl, that the lord of the valley called the

experienced boatbuilders of his people together and gave his or­
ders. The valley was to build and equip its own ship.
For a whole year the project dominated the valley. Fishing
and farming were neglected, which mattered less than might
have been expected, since the king—who had an interest in the

venture—sent corn and meat for the workers by boat from
the north. An overseer and two shipwrights also came from the
court, though the boatbuilders of the village protested immedi­
ately that they could build a ship without the help of these for­

eigners. And certainly the ship was only a larger version of the
boats that they had built for generations, with the same clinker
construction and the same high bow and stem. But it was built
for thirty oarsmen, instead of six or eight or ten, and it was
broader in the beam, to give living space aboard and to accom­

modate the cargo. Much timber went into the vessel, pine and
oak and ash, and willow withes to stitch the planks together. By
the beginning of winter the hull was finished, and the following
spring it was launched with all the appropriate sacrifices to the

sea-god, and its thwarts and poop deck and oars added. There
was even some talk of stepping a mast; the shipwrights claimed
to know the art of setting sails to a ship, but it was felt that such
an innovation would be beyond the powers of an inexperienced

crew to control.
During all this time no visiting ship had been able to recruit