18.06.25: topic; ships [4]; Comenius XC; a Merchant ship (1)

Key vocabulary discussed in earlier posts is highlighted but not discussed. Comenius goes into considerable detail about the parts of 17th century vessels, which may appear quite specialised, but many of the Latin words are common and were all used in relation to ships. I have omitted a couple of small sections where the vocabulary is too rare to be of any value.

[1]

A Merchant-ship │ Nāvis onerāria

A ship is driven onward not by oars, but by the sole force of the winds.

Nāvigium impellitur, nōn rēmīs, sed sōlā vī ventōrum.

[i] Image #1: late 17^th century Dutch cargo vessel, described as a nāvis mercātōria, the term used by Plautus:

Ībō in Pīraeum, vīsam ecquae advēnerit / in portum ex Ephesō nāvis mercātōria │ To the Piraeus will I go; I'll go see whether any merchant-ship has come into harbour from Ephesus.

[ii] vīs, vīs [3/f] can be misread, especially in the plural

the word means ‘force’, ‘power’, ‘strength’, ‘violence’, but it is often used in the plural: vīrēs (strength; physical force) and looks similar to virī (men) but they are completely different words

Image #2: vīs is also an example of a defective noun which refers to a noun where not all the case endings are attested in Classical Latin; the English verb “can” is defective since there is no infinitive “to can”, “to be able” being used instead of the original Anglo-Saxon infinitive cunnan (Modern German: können)

[iii] impellō, -ere, impulī, impulsus [3]: drive, push forward

Nāvigium impellitur │ a ship (vessel) is pushed / driven forward

[2]

In it is a mast set up, fastened with shrowds, on all sides to the main-chains, to which the sail-yards are tied, and the sails to these, which are spread open, to the wind, …

In illō mālus ērigitur, firmātus fūnibus, undique ad orās nāvīs, cui annectuntur antennæ, hīs, vēla quæ expanduntur, ad ventum ...

The beak is in the fore-deck. │ Rōstrum est in prōrā.

[i] Passives:

Mālus ērigitur │ a mast is set up

firmātus ¦ fūnibus │fastened by /with ropes

vēla expanduntur │ the sails are spread open

annectuntur antennae │ the sail-yards are tied

[ii] Careful!

mālus, -ī [2/m]: mast of a ship

mālus, -ī [2/f]: apple tree

malus, -a, -um: evil, bad

mālum, -ī [2/n]: apple

malum, -ī [2/n]: evil, misfortune, wrongdoing

[iii] shrowds (archaic) = shrouds = the ropes that are tied around a mast = Latin: fūnis, -is [3/m], the general word for a rope or a cord

[iv] antenna (CL: antemna), -ae [1/f]: sail-yard, the horizontal spar or shaft to which a sail is attached on a sailing vessel, used to spread and support the sail 

Image #3: antenna from: A school dictionary of Greek and Roman antiquities (Smith, William, Sir, 1813-1893)

[v] It’s interesting that in the 17^th century, English is still using the word “beak” or “beakhead” i.e. the literal translation of Latin rōstrum which refers to the protruding part of the foremost section of a sailing ship

[vi] An extract from Livy describing Scipio’s tactics during a naval battle:

Scīpiō … onerāriārum quadruplicem ōrdinem prō mūrō adversus hostem opposuit │ Scipio … placed four lines of transport (ships) as a bulwark (“wall”) against the enemy.

The passage goes on to describe how Scipio prevented this line of transport ships from being broken in battle:

malīs antemnīsque ¦ dē nāve in nāvem ¦ trāiectīs ac validīs fūnibus velut ūnō inter sē vinculō inligātīs

with masts and (sail-)yards crosswise ¦ from ship to ship ¦ lashed together with stout ropes as if by a single cable (vinculum, -ī [2/n]: chain, link, cord i.e. anything used for binding).