[Illustration: FIG. 9.--A ROMAN GALLEY WITH THREE BANKS OF OARS.]
After the downfall of Rome (476 A. D.) it was a long time before there was any real progress in boat-making. The glimpses we get now and then of vessels in the Middle Ages almost make us feel that boat-building was going backward rather than forward. But such was not the case. The ship in which William of Normandy sailed (Fig. 10) when he crossed over the Channel to give battle to Harold (1066 A. D.) was not so impressive as a Roman galley, yet it was, nevertheless, a better boat. In the first place William's boat was a better sailer; it relied more upon the force of the wind and less upon the oar. In the second place, it could be steered better, for the rudder had found its way to its proper place and was worked by a tiller. Finally, the shape of the Norman boat fitted it for fiercer battles with the waves.
[Illustration: FIG. 10.--THE SHIP IN WHICH WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR CROSSED THE CHANNEL IN 1066.]
[Illustration: FIG. 11.--A MEDITERRANEAN GALLEY OF THE 14TH CENTURY.]
If we should pass from the English Channel to the Adriatic we should find that boat-making had undergone the same changes. A Mediterranean galley of the fourteenth century (Fig. 11) shows fewer oars and more sails. Instead of three rows of oars and two sails as on the Roman galley, there are three sails and one row of oars. This was the tendency of the boat-builder in the Middle Ages; he crowded on the sail and took off the rowers. A war-boat of the sixteenth century (Fig. 12) shows that the last row of oarsmen has disappeared.
[Illustration: FIG. 12.--A WAR-BOAT OF THE 16TH CENTURY, SHOWING THAT THE LAST ROW OF OARS HAD DISAPPEARED.]
[Illustration: FIG. 13.--A CHINESE COMPASS. AS THE CART MOVED THE HUMAN FIGURE IN FRONT ALWAYS POINTED NORTH.]
About the middle of the thirteenth century there began to appear on the decks of vessels almost everywhere in Europe, a little instrument that is of the greatest importance in the history of the boat. This was the _mariner's compass_. The use of the magnetic needle was known in China (Fig. 13) a thousand years before it was known to the Europeans, but in this, as in many other instances, the Chinese did not profit by their knowledge. Sailors have always sailed at night by the North star; but before the use of the compass was understood they could little more than guess their way when the night was dark and the stars could not be seen. With a mariner's needle on board they can tell the direction they are going no matter how dark the night. We can easily understand that sailors prized very highly the discovery of the compass. With the appearance of this faithful guide they became bolder and bolder and were soon venturing out upon the trackless expanse of the ocean. It was the compass that led to the discovery of the new world, for without it no sailor could have held his course due west long enough to reach the American coast.