The monster emerged from the morning mists in
the pearly light of dawn. The massive head, with
its long snout and flaring nostrils, advanced toward
shore where the hunter knelt, bowstring taut to his
cheek, eyes focused on a deer grazing in the marsh. A
rippling sound caught the hunter’s ear and he glanced
out at the water. He uttered a fearful moan, threw the
bow aside, and leaped to his feet. The startled deer
disappeared into the woods with the terrified hunter
close on its tail.
The tendrils of fog parted to reveal a giant sailing
ship. Curtains of seaweed fringed the vessel’s twohundred-
foot-long wooden hull of reddish brown.
A man stood on the ship’s upswept stem behind
the carved figurehead of a snorting stallion. He had
been gazing into a small wooden box. As the ghostly
shoreline materialized, the man raised his head and
pointed to the left.
The helmsmen at the twin steering oars brought
the ship around in a graceful turn that sent it on a
new course parallel to the densely wooded shoreline.
Deckhands expertly adjusted the vertically striped
red-and-white square sail to compensate for the
change in direction.
The captain was in his mid-twenties, but the
serious expression on his handsome face added years
to his appearance. His strong nose was curved slightly
at the bridge. His thick black beard was arranged
in rows around a full mouth and square jaw. Sun
and sea had tanned his skin to a mahogany hue.
The unfathomable eyes that scanned the shoreline
were a deep brown that was so dark the pupils were
almost invisible.
The captain’s high station in life entitled him to
wear a purple robe dyed with the valuable extract from
the murex snail. He preferred to go bare-chested,
and wore the cotton kilt of an ordinary crewman. A
floppy, conical knit cap covered the close- cropped,
wavy black hair.
The briny smell of the sea had faded as the ship
left the open ocean and entered the wide bay. The
captain filled his lungs with air that was redolent with
the scent of flowers and green growing things. He
savored the prospect of freshwater and ached to set
foot on dry land.
Although the voyage was long, it had gone well,
thanks to the handpicked Phoenician crew, all
seasoned deepwater mariners. The crew included a
scattering of Egyptians and Libyans, and others from
the countries bordering the Mediterranean. A contingent
of Scythian marines provided security.
The Phoenicians were the finest seamen in the
world, adventurous explorers and traders whose maritime
empire extended throughout the Mediterranean
and beyond the Pillars of Hercules and the Red
Sea. Unlike the Greeks and the Egyptians, whose
ships hugged the shore and dropped anchor when
the sun set, the fearless Phoenicians sailed day and
night out of sight of land. With a fair wind from
astern, their big trading ships could cover more
than a hundred miles a day.
The captain was not Phoenician by birth, but he
was well versed in the sea arts. His command of
navigation and seamanship and his cool judgment
during bouts of bad weather had quickly gained the
crew’s respect.
The vessel under the captain’s command was a
‘ship of Tarshish,’ built specifically for long-range
commerce on the open ocean. Unlike the more-tubby
short-haul traders, the vessel’s lines were long and
straight. The deck and hull timbers were hewn from
tough Lebanese cedar, and the thick mast was low
and strong. The square Egyptian-linen sail, quilted
with leather belts for strength, was the most efficient
deepwater sailing rig in existence. The curved keel and
upswept stem and stern presaged the Viking ships
that would not be built until centuries later.
The secret behind Phoenician mastery of the sea
went beyond technology. Organization aboard their
ships was legendary. Each crewman knew his place
in the well-oiled machinery that was a Phoenician
sea venture. Rigging was neatly stowed in an easily
accessible room that was the responsibility of the
captain’s assistant. The lookout man knew the location
of each piece of tackle, and constantly tested the
ship’s rigging to make sure it would work if needed
in an emergency.