HOLLAND’S struggle for life has been a constant battle against the invasion of water. If this has been, on the one hand, an enemy to be feared, it has been, on the other, the natural line of communication above all others which has made our ancestors, since time immemorial, a nation of seamen. The boat was a necessity as indispensable as the house.

It is impossible to say who invented the boat; every one has contributed his mite to its building and this has given rise to its gradual development. The discovery that wood would float was due, evidently, to chance.

Use must have been made first of the trunk of a single tree, and afterwards several must have been joined together to make a raft.

Then came the hollowed trunk which was followed, in its turn, by a boat with a framework covered with skins from which the finished boat was born.

Between the floating trunk of a tree and the most complete ship, there have come into existence all sorts of intermediate forms, of which most are still to be found even in our day.

Noah, according to the writers of antiquity, must have been the first shipwright. The old authors enter into circumstantial details on this subject and give various drawings of Noah’s “ark”. Several of these drawings are reproduced in the atlas of this work. The only value of these reproductions of the ark lies in the fact that they probably represent a ship of the time of their author. It must also be noted that the first shipbuilder is as entirely unknown as the first inventor of the boat. That which is beyond any doubt is; that the mutual influences of various nations have been important factors in the evolution of the ship. This latter, on its side, served to bring into contact nations widely separated by water and to open up countries as yet unexplored.

Hence shipbuilding must first have shone forth, under these conditions, among the most civilized races.

Mexico and Peru excepted, it may be said that civilization was developed first among the Chinese in the valley of the Hoang-Ho, then among the Babylonians in the valley of the Tigris and Euphrates, and among the Egyptians in the valley of the Nile.

The question of knowing whether the Babylonians learned shipbuilding from the Chinese, or the reverse, is one of minor importance. It is certain however that reciprocal influences were at work among the races of Asia Minor and there is no doubt that the Babylonians influenced the Phœnicians, the pioneer shipwrights of the Mediterranean. The Egyptians, who were not a seafaring people do not here enter into consideration.

As the Netherlands lay under the action exercised in Europe, where the development of naval architecture went on about two independent centres, that of the Baltic and that of the Mediterranean, Asia may be set aside in so far as its parts not bordering on the Mediterranean are concerned.

After the Baltic, which will be called the northern centre, had introduced shipbuilding among us, this centre, in so far as over seas navigation is concerned, came into contact with the Mediterranean, which will be called the southern centre, through the movements of commerce and navigation, and finally the two became fused with each other.

It is easy to see that the influence of the northern centre was preponderant on our naval architecture, hence its importance is capital for us.

The few vessels of ancient times which have been found show us what a high degree of perfection shipbuilding had already reached in almost prehistoric times; the finish of these vessels and the care given to their ornamentation might also be noticed. These observations are not extraordinary, when the large part played by the ship in the existence of nations is borne in mind; the contrary would rather have caused surprise. Nor is it astonishing that the chances of the sea should have been faced with small boats. For are not the valiant fishermen of to-day seen facing the waves of the sea, in still smaller boats than those of the ancients, to ply their rude and perilous trade, and that too during the entire year? For let it not be forgotten indeed, that ocean navigation during the Middle Ages was, as a matter of fact, carried on only in Summer. NIC. WITSEN wrote in 1671, p. 195 of his book, on this subject: “dat men oulinckx in deze landen nimmer ’t zee ging als naer besloten boeken, besproken uiterste wille en met God zich te hebben verzoent: wanneer men het gevaar meer ontzag als heden nu dorst men althans zee kiezen zonder aanzien van tijdt of weer van outs wiert de zee gesloten in de quaetste tijden van het jaar!”[2]

To know what we can do, to know of what we are capable, and, above all, to know what there is still to be learned and even what has to be imitated, are the most important demands of all individual education as they are the fundamental requirements of a race which, after all, is but an unit in the series of the nations.

May this book add its mite to a knowledge of the gradual evolution of shipbuilding; may it also cause to disappear this ridiculous way in which ancient ships used to be represented and, most of all, may it awaken the love for the building of ships.

I am, in this connection, fully of the opinion expressed by WITSEN as follows: “Zoo groot dunkt mij de waerdigheidt dezer wetenschap te zijn dat niemant derzelve hier ten lande, daar de zeevaert de sterkste zenuwe van den staet is, behoorde onkundig te zijn.”[3]