Rope fastening of several rafts or barges. Golden bars. logs fastened in several rows for swimming
A raft is primarily a means of rafting or crossing. It is less maneuverable, slow-moving and can only be used on sufficiently deep rivers, with a fast current, on which there are no impassable blockages. Possessing such positive qualities as buoyancy, strength, stability, resistance to waves, the raft allows you to successfully overcome difficult natural obstacles that are typical for mountain and taiga rivers.
Among the many designs of rafts used in travel, there are several types that differ in size, binding methods and basic materials that provide the raft with the necessary buoyancy.
The most widely used rafts, the base of which is knitted from dry trunks of spruce, larch, cedar, fir, etc. To build such a raft, it is enough to have a saw, a good carpenter's ax and the necessary skills to work with tools. With the right building material, even a small group is quite capable of making a strong and reliable vessel, capable of not only lifting them along with the load, but also obedient in control.
For swimming on small, uncomplicated rivers, light rafts are built, designed for two or three people. The rafts can also be used for fishing, crossings and when passing sections of the river, limited by blockages or impassable rapids. The construction of a raft is often resorted to in order to save time: tying five to seven logs 3-4 m long is not so difficult. Sometimes another goal is also pursued here: in the upper reaches of the river, where the depth is insignificant, such a raft is more convenient for navigation, since it has a smaller draft.
For navigation on rapids, mountain, taiga rivers, stronger and heavier rafts are used, which have a significant carrying capacity, stability and reliability of connections. Managing them is a complex matter and is possible only with special equipment.
Before proceeding with the construction of such a raft, it is necessary to determine the dimensions of its stave: the length, the required number of logs, their diameter. The task is to not only calculate the amount of wood required to ensure the carrying capacity, but also to find the most favorable ratio between its sizes.
In order for the raft to have good driving performance, its width and length should be selected in such a way that their ratios are 1: 3. It should be taken into account that a large width violates the stability of the raft, and with a longer length it loses controllability.
The strength of the raft, its ability to withstand large waves, shocks and pitfalls for a long time, rocks depend to a large extent on the reliability of the connections between the individual logs. In practice, two methods of tying logs are used: ronzhins (using loops) and arrows (in an open or closed groove).
When tying the stav with ronzhins, the material for the loops is a strong hemp rope with a diameter of at least 20 mm, a nylon rope, a steel cable with an anti-corrosion coating, as well as wicks - elastic bundles made from branches and thin young trees by unwinding, steaming, etc.
The size of the loop is selected in such a way that it freely embraces two adjacent logs and, then thrown over the ronzhin, allows the dowel to enter the nest with great effort, completely choosing the gap.
Starting the marking, the logs cleared of branches are laid on transverse slabs and leveled in height. I must say that it is this preliminary operation that decides the success of the case. The more powerful the raft, the more logs to be tied, the more carefully the marking should be done, paying special attention to maintaining the same size between the grooves of each log. If this size is not maintained within strict limits, then during assembly it may turn out that the raft is assembled on only one arrow, and for that, logs. To avoid abrasion on stones, the loop is recessed into the grooves cut in the bottom of the log. You should not remove the bark from the ronjin, otherwise the strapping will slip. This method of tying logs is used mainly for the construction of a raft, as well as rafts intended for navigation on relatively calm rivers. The final assembly of the raft, as a rule, is carried out on the water. Logs are alternately strung on both arrows. If an open groove is used, then first two middle logs are brought in and, having secured them with wedges, the raft is built up from the middle. The closed groove allows the assembly to the extreme log, that is, the logs are sequentially strung on one side of the stave.
In comparison with other types of tourist vessels, a raft is a bulky, heavy structure with a large inertia, which has an insignificant own speed relative to the flow. Its control actually comes down to transverse movement along the surface of the river to those parts of the stream that provide it with the most rational and safe path. On small, shallow rivers, when rafting on rafts, they often manage with poles, resting on the bottom or stones.
However, for serious navigation on difficult rivers, rows are needed, which are installed on the bow and stern of the raft and with which you can control the vessel regardless of the depth and speed of the current. The ridges serve as supports for the ridges.
Rafts connected from logs are used for rafting in taiga or mountain-taiga regions, that is, where there is a sufficient amount of wood suitable for tying a stav. For the construction of a wooden raft, only selected timber is suitable, not subject to decay, capable of staying afloat for a long time. But what if there is no building material for the construction of the raft?
Vessels based on rubber chambers filled with air have become widespread. They are not only suitable for navigation on rivers of varying complexity, but can also successfully compete with wooden ones due to a number of advantages. During the construction of such rafts, the time for their construction is significantly reduced, they retain a reserve of buoyancy for a long time (wooden rafts, as you know, absorb water during navigation), are distinguished by their low own weight, low draft and ease of control.
Building an inflatable raft does not require timber, which is known to be of great value.
There are two types of inflatable rafts: rafts assembled from automobile (tractor) or volleyball chambers (the latter are sometimes called catamarans or trimarans).
When calculating the carrying capacity of a raft, here, as well as when building a wooden raft, they take into account the weight of not only the crew and cargo, but also all surface structures. Despite the fact that the carrying capacity of the chambers remains constant during swimming, it is always necessary to have a sufficient reserve of buoyancy in case of a puncture of one, or maybe two chambers at once.
When building a raft, it is often found that the area occupied by the cameras is much less than the area needed to accommodate people, cargo and control. In such cases, the cameras are dispersed.
The basis of the raft is a rigid frame, assembled from transverse and longitudinal wooden elements, firmly fastened together. Automobile chambers (in two rows) are inserted into the frame cells, which are tied to the longitudinal elements with a thin nylon rope and abut against transversely laid bars fastened to the frame with ronjins and rope loops. In places of contact with the beams, the chambers are also connected with a nylon rope. From above, the raft closes the flooring, assembled from thin trunks of trees, shrubs, etc. The design provides for the possibility of repairing (or replacing) individual chambers without disassembling the raft as a whole. The raft is steered with the help of rows mounted on U- or M-shaped row boxes.
When setting sail, it is necessary to take care in a timely manner of providing ships (whether it be a raft or a boat) with reliable life-saving equipment necessary to maintain the safety of navigation.
Unfortunately, the usual standard means: lifebuoys and bibs filled with plate cork or foam plastic, produced by the industry and used when sailing on boats and motor boats, are of little use for boating, as they are very heavy and bulky. Therefore, the manufacture of individual rescue equipment almost entirely depends on the imagination of the rafting themselves, their capabilities and the availability of improvised material.
For this purpose, inflatable volleyball or football rubber tubes can be used, which are enclosed in a shell of a fishing net and connected in pairs. The carrying capacity of such a bundle can reach 15-25 kg.
Stav assembly
The most common ways of joining logs into a stave are fastening them with dowels and knitting with knitting. In the first method, transverse bars - dowels - are inserted into the grooves sawn near the ends of the logs, and they are wedged there. The construction is very rigid and durable. Most rafts for sailing on difficult rapids are assembled in this way. In the second method, longitudinal logs are tied with wicks (twisted trunks or branches of young trees) to two thin transverse logs - ronzhins. A raft on vices is less reliable than on dowels, but it is done faster.
Dowel fastening. Dowels are hewn from raw spruce. You can also use larch, but it is more brittle. A dry wood dowel is good because it does not increase the weight of the raft and can be as thick as technological considerations dictate. However, a tree that has dried up at the root has many cracks, which affects the strength of the key and the reliability of its jamming in the grooves; dry dowels can only be recommended for small rafts. The workpiece should be 50 cm longer than expected
The given width of the raft. Choose a log for the dowel without a strong bend, large branches and not twisted (it is difficult to process). With a lack of carpentry skills, pre-mark the log, as shown in fig. 9. With a charcoal or pencil on the end of a smaller diameter, draw a section of the key. Having measured the main dimensions of the section, make the same drawing on the other end of the log, paying attention to the parallelism of the lines of both drawings. For this you can
Rice. 9. Key
Apply a plumb line. After sanding the log in the right places, draw by eye or beat off with a cord the longitudinal lines 3 (Fig. 9), formed by the intersection of the vertical edge of the future key / with the cylindrical surface of the log. To beat off straight lines, nails or small wooden pegs are driven into their intended ends, onto which a string rubbed with charcoal with a diameter of 2-3 mm is pulled. A pulled and sharply released string, clicking on a log, leaves a straight line on it. If the log is long, it is better to beat the line in parts, pressing the stretched twine with your hand and foot at the ends of each section.
It is not necessary to make the key in the form of an isosceles trapezoid: it will be difficult to maintain the correct angles and even more difficult to cut the front and rear grooves in the logs at the same distance. It is much easier to do this if one of the corners is straight (Fig. 9, corner a). The alpha angle is 75-80°. If this angle is too small, then the wedge that secures the key presses strongly upwards and can split the log, and if it is close to 90 °, then with powerful blows against stones, the wood will collapse and the log will jump off the key.
The height of the key h is usually 0.5-0.7 of the diameter of the stack logs at its location and 1.3-1.5 of the width of the key at the base b. Dimensions of dowels for a raft for 7 people: butt - height h - 20 cm, width b - 12 cm (section fits into a circle with a diameter of 24 cm); for peaks - height 15 cm, width 10 cm (fits into a circle with a diameter of 18 cm). It is not known whether the specified dimensions are optimal, but they are sufficient, at least the author does not know of cases of dowel breakage of this size during normal raft accidents. After marking, the log-blank for the key is placed on 2 transverse logs with cuttings so that it does not roll. It is not necessary to sand the whole log, then it lies more stable.
The edges of the key are carved with an axe. Before the beginning of the tesque of each face, notches are made on the surface of the log after 30-40 cm, and then the wood is cut down between them along the longitudinal marking lines. leaving a small allowance for final processing In the second pass, the allowance is removed with light strokes until a clean surface is obtained. In order to have fewer scuffs, it is necessary to hew from the top to the butt. If you need to remove a large layer of wood, then instead of notches, it is better to make transverse cuts, not bringing them 0.5-1 cm to the longitudinal marking lines. It is convenient to start hewing the key from the vertical edge /, then make the base 2 and, already having two planes at right angles, make the last inclined edge. It is even easier to make a rectangular bar first, and then chop one edge to the desired angle. Those who work well with an ax begin to hew a dowel by eye directly from a tree standing on the vine. They fill it up only by making a section of such a length as the growth of the worker allows. The production of a dowel for a raft for 7 people requires about 3 hours, and with the appropriate experience, much less.
It is better to cut the dowels not at the very ends of the logs, but closer to the middle, so that the distance from the bow and stern is approximately "/4 of the length of the raft - then the grooves will probably not chip.<саянских>) or trunk, it is desirable to move the dowels to the bow and stern, then do not cut them closer than 60-80 cm from the ends of the logs and closer than 50-70 cm from the risers of the U-shaped podgrebits.
The depth of the grooves in the butts of logs of medium diameter is 13-16 cm - slightly more than the width of the saw. At the tops, the depth of the groove should not be made more than half the diameter of the log in this place, otherwise it will break if the raft, after the impact, begins to crawl out of this log onto a stone. So that the difference in the diameters of different logs does not greatly affect the draft of the raft, saw the thicker ones deeper, distributing this difference between the bottom and the deck. If the river is rich in shoals and small boulders, it is advisable to level all the logs along the bottom to reduce the draft of the raft.
Rice. 10. Dimensions and angles of the groove and key:
1 - log; 2-key; 3 wedge;
alpha is greater than beta B - b more than 4-5 cm;
In more than the width of the ax blade;
the angle alpha is 90°;
angle gamma is less than angle beta
Cuts for the groove, like the edges of the key, are made at different angles - one vertical, the other inclined (Fig. 10). The beveled cut is made at an angle slightly sharper than the slope of the corresponding key face (gamma angle is less than beta angle), so that in case of an error in the manufacture of one of the corners, the wedge does not extrude upwards. The width of the groove at the top (A) should be greater than the width of the key at the base (b), so that the key fits easily into the groove right from above - this facilitates the assembly of the raft (the so-called<открытый паз>). The difference in the width of the bases of the groove and the key (B - B) should be at least 4-5 cm, so that the wedge is not a thin plank, which will immediately crack when hammered, but a block of wood that is not afraid of a good blow. If it is necessary to dismantle the raft, such a wedge can be knocked out or, in extreme cases, cut down without damaging the groove and keys.
The wedge is hammered from the side of the inclined edge of the key, and its vertical edge is pressed directly against the vertical cut of the groove. With this arrangement of the wedge and the key, it is necessary to maintain the distance between the vertical cuts L (Fig. 11). This is easier than maintaining the distance between the lower corners of the grooves for all logs (distance M in the figure), especially if the depth of the grooves is different. Such a problem would have to be faced if the wedge were located on the side of the vertical edge or if both sides of the key were inclined (equilateral trapezoid). The required accuracy is ensured by measuring from a pole evenly cut along the length, along which both vertical grooves are sawn. After the vertical cuts are accurately made, the inclined cuts are made at an approximate distance from them. The measure is often the width of the sole of the boot: all the same, the errors will be chosen by the wedge. You only need to follow the angle of the saw and ensure that the groove. walked across the log, and not obliquely.
Rice. 11. Keyways in a log
Having made cuts, they cut a groove along the base of the log, first from one side and then from the other side (Fig. 12, b), then, with a strong blow of the butt, the wood is knocked out of the groove (Fig. 12, c). If this does not work, additional cuts are made along the dotted lines (Fig. 12, b). If necessary, the base of the groove is cleaned with a hatchet or chisel. So that these works do not cause difficulties, the width of the groove, at least at the base, must be greater than the width of the ax blade. If there is a bough at the site of the future groove, then, in order to make it easier to clean the groove, make 3-4 cuts, drawing the middle ones as close as possible to the bough (Fig. 12, d). Simultaneously with the grooves for the dowels, grooves are made for the ridges, various columns, logs are hewn in the right places, etc. Marking and selecting all the grooves takes 4 people 3 hours.
Wedges for fastening dowels are best made from dry larch. Such a wedge is durable, does not wrinkle and does not urinate when driving. Wedges from dry spruce also hold well. Blanks for wedges should be made centrally. From the unused butts left when cutting out the logs of the stave, or from a specially selected tree, several logs of various lengths are sawn off, determined by the diameter of the logs being rallied, and split into rectangular chopping blocks. The wedge, in order for it to hold tightly, must enter tightly. You need to hammer wedges with beaters (Fig. 13, a) made of raw larch (it has many branches, and from one tree it is possible to make a whole set of beaters of different weights and for every taste). Good beaters are obtained from birch. Spruce quickly urinate.
Rice. 12. Making a keyway
The wedges are hewn out of the blanks right in place and driven into the gap between the key and the inclined wall of the groove on the side, along the key. To prevent the wedge from crawling up, they begin to hammer it, pointing it a little down (Fig. 13, b): with the correct angles of the grooves and the key, after several blows, it will stand horizontally. In order for the wedge to hold its entire surface, it is better to make it in the form of a bar with almost parallel edges, only there should be a 5-7 cm long lead-in in front. 5 cm. If the wedge went too easily, knock it back, make a new one, and this one will come in handy for a narrower gap. The wedge is driven all the way into the wedge of the previous log.
Rice. 13. Doweled raft assembly:
a - driving a wedge,
b - the position of driven and driven wedges;
c - wedge;
g - bending of the dowels during the assembly of the stave (the curvature is exaggerated)
Despite the fact that the angle of the wedge is small, it still clamps the key more strongly on the side from which it is hammered (Fig. 13, d). parallelogram view To maintain axial symmetry, assemble the raft starting from the middle, adding a log from each side. The vertical edges of the front and rear grooves should be directed in the same direction so that, despite the bending of both keys, the distance between them remains more or less constant and the next logs sit down without difficulty. If vertical cuts are made from different sides, for example, at the bow key in front, and at the stern key at the rear, then when wedges are driven from the side of the inclined edges, both keys will bend in different directions, and in order to plant the next log, they will have to be pulled together with a rope or widened the groove in log. It is better to make the wall of the groove front along the raft vertical - then when the log hits the stone, the force on the key will be transmitted through the wide, well-fitted edge of the groove, and not through the wedge. The next log is planted on both dowels, pressed with a wedge in the butt to the adjacent log and fastened with a wedge to the butt dowel. After that, the top, if it has moved to the side, is pulled to the fixed log with a rope loop, twisting it with a stick, and the wedge of the nose key is driven in. And so on, until the entire stav is assembled. For two, it takes about 4 hours to assemble a large raft.
Knitting. For knitting a raft stave, threads are used from trunks of birches or fir trees 3-4 m long and 3-5 cm in diameter in a butt, and for tying podgreb and other parts - also from branches of larch, willow, bird cherry. When twisting, the stem splits into fibers and becomes flexible without losing tensile strength. It turns out something like a thick, non-stretching rope.
Vitz production technology is simple, although it requires some skills. For vices, high stems are used without thick knots and with a small taper; they usually grow in dense areas of the forest. When clearing the tree of branches, do not chop the stem itself - it is better to let the remnants of the knots stick out slightly. At the very top of the stem, the branches are not cut down, leaving a half-meter panicle. To store more than 2-3 hours, the blanks are placed in water so that they do not dry out. The trunks should be steamed on the coals of a long fire immediately before twisting. It is harder to twist without a steamer, the percentage of rejects increases and the strength of the threads decreases due to the rupture of some of the fibers. Cold spruce trunks are better twisted than birch.
For twisting, the stem is split at the butt, a loop is inserted into the crack (tied from a meter-long piece of thin rope, for example, a cord), into which a stick 0.5-1 m long is inserted. The loop is twisted into a kind of tourniquet. This tourniquet is wrapped around the butt of the stem, thereby keeping it from further splitting; after that, the workpiece can be twisted (Fig. 14, a, b).
Rice. 14. Making vics:
a, b - fastening the collar for twisting the vice;
in - twisting of the vice; d, e - fixing the top of the vice
The easiest way is to twist the vices with two people. The first, putting on mittens, presses the top of the bow to a tree trunk with a diameter of 30-40 cm (Fig. 14, c), and the second, holding the stick-collar, proceeds to twist the stem. The operation is easy at first, as the thinnest part of the stem is twisted at the very top. When this part of the stem is sufficiently twisted, but the fibers have not yet begun to tear, at the signal of the first, the second takes several steps around the tree trunk so that the twisted part of the thread no longer hangs in the air, but is pressed against the tree trunk. The first additionally presses it with his hand, as a result of which the thicker part of the vice is now twisted. So, gradually winding the wick on the tree, bring the twist almost to the butt. Having finished twisting, the wick is unwound from the tree, unwinding it a little, and immediately put into the water. A small number of thin threads, intended for fastening the parts of the podgreb and trunk, can be twisted using the butt of the same stem, 30-50 cm long, broken across the butt as a gate. in fig. 14, d, d. It is necessary to harvest vices with a margin - one and a half times more than required by calculations.
Rice. 15. Knitting logs with vices
When assembling the raft, the logs of the stave are pulled in pairs by rings of vices to the ronzhina - a transverse log with a diameter of 10-15 cm. It is better to make a ring by wrapping its butt with the top of the vice (Fig. 15, a). The method shown in fig. 15, b, allows you to quickly adjust the diameter of the ring, breaking the butt in the right place, but a thin loop of such a thread can break if the wedge is driven too hard.
A ring of vice is put on the ends of the logs, its length is adjusted in place and pulled around the ronzhina with a strong stake (Fig. 15, d, e). Please note that the place of twisting of the thread is located in the area of the stake and the ronjin, and the butt of the twist is pressed against the ronjin by the part of the thread that falls under the log. If a whisk of branches is left at the end of the vice, then the twist does not unravel, and by tapping on the vice in the right places with the butt of an ax, it can be pulled tight. After that, instead of a stake, a wedge is inserted, made of split logs with a diameter of 12-15 cm and a length of about 0.5 m. The nose of the wedge is hemmed with a boat, as in fig. 15, c, and the bark is not removed so that it slips less. Dry wedges are lighter but more difficult to handle. Pressing the wedge with the foot, it is hammered with an ax between the ronzhina and a pair of logs (Fig. 15, f) to the position marked with the letters w and h in the same figure. If the wedge enters easily, it is removed and the wick is twisted, reducing the size of the ring. Do not drive the wedge to the very end, leave the opportunity to tighten the mount if the wedge loosens.
Each pair of logs, starting with medium ones, is tied with butts to one ronzhin, then with tops to another. Some raftmen make notches in the logs (Fig. 15, i) in order to protect the bows from being hit by stones, which is not practical: the charm of the raft on the bows is in its simplicity and quick manufacture. In addition, the bows on the move, even when the raft climbs over stones, rarely break, and if this happens, you can tie up a pair of logs that have come off, and put a new bow in a calm environment.
To fasten the parts of the bogies and the trunk with the screws in the place of fastening in the described way, weave a ring, which is twisted with a stake. You need to twist it right at the place of the weave of the ring, upsetting the vice with light blows of the butt of the ax After the first, most difficult, half turn is made, the stake is replaced with a meter stick with a diameter of 4 -6 cm, the screw is tightly twisted and, so that it does not unwind, the stick is fixed with a wedge driven into the slot of the log (Fig. 15, j). For reliability, you can also grab a stick with a thin rope. To prevent the screw from bursting, do not twist it more than 1-1.5 turns. If the loop is tightened weakly, unwind the stick and twist the twist shorter.
Despite the plaintive crackling of the vices when driving a wedge or twisting a stick, and very<непромышленный>type of construction, the strength of such fastening is very high. The wickets do not stretch over time like ropes, so the rows and trunks tied with the wickets do not sway. The author sailed on rafts, connected entirely on bows, along rapids and shivers of medium complexity, and there were no cases of their breakage. The vices, examined at the end of one of the campaigns, when it was often necessary to crawl over stones and shallows, were worn out by no more than a third of their thickness. At the same time, a knitted raft is made about a day faster than a doweled raft. Becoming going right on the water, and for two it takes about 2 hours. Therefore, if you do not expect to swim through canyons, two-meter waves and hang on rocks several times, then you can safely use vices. Such a raft can be useful for a group that, having lost the first raft and not having the time or strength to continue the fight against the river, bypassed the main rapids on foot and is trying to get out to the people as soon as possible.
In addition to rafts on dowels and on vices, you can build<гибридные>rafts, in which the butts of logs are fastened with a dowel, and the tops with ribs. In terms of labor intensity, strength and reliability, such a raft occupies an intermediate position, respectively. This design is convenient for the northern rivers flowing in the forest border zone, where the trees are stunted, with a large taper and the logs at one end are so thin that there is simply nowhere to cut the key.
About the assembly of the raft. You can assemble the raft on the ground and right on the water. For assembly on the ground, a slipway is used, on which the marking and processing of logs were carried out. The finished raft is pushed into the water with the help of a wag. If not very large boulders lie on the way, they lay them not on the ground, but on cairns or on log masonry (<колодец>). There is no need to use any rollers: the raft goes downhill quite easily on damp slopes.
For assembling a raft on the water, a quiet backwater with a depth of 0.5-1 m is ideal, at such a depth it is easy to get a drowned tool. At great depths, place a free tool only on the shore, and keep the chisel, which usually bounces far to the side with an unsuccessful blow, on a meter leash. You can also collect a raft in a fairly fast current. In this case, ropes are tied to both ends of the butt ronzhina or dowel, which are fastened upstream on the bank so that the ronzhina (key) can be held across the stream. The average pair of logs has to be fixed while standing in the water, and then you can climb out onto the bonded logs and work, remaining almost dry.
Advantages of assembling a raft on the ground: no need to climb into the water; any attachment point is easy to reach; located around the raft on the ground, people interfere with each other less; free approach and a tray of material from any side, ease of handling tools and small parts that will not sink or float away.
Advantages of assembling on the water: easy to move and put the logs in place; two people can assemble the raft, and with some skill even one person; no need to build a slipway and a special congress into the water; if the logs are fastened with screws, then even a platform on the shore is not needed - it is only necessary to cut out a small number of service grooves that do not need special accuracy, they can be made by slightly rolling the log out of the water.
Thus, it is better to assemble a raft on the water if it is large or made of heavy larch logs, and also if the coast breaks off into the water for a considerable distance or is formed by boulders having 1-1.5 m in diameter. In other cases, it is more convenient to collect the raft on the shore. Saw off the protruding ends of the key or ronzhin only after the fully completed raft with all the equipment has been tested afloat under full load.
Other ways of knitting a stav. Along with dowels and screws, logs can be fastened with ropes, wire, steel cable ... Of course, you will have to carry special fastening material with you, but it will be possible to assemble the raft in a shorter time. Knitting logs with a rope, which, as a rule, is stretchable and not strong enough, is possible only when making a temporary raft for crossing a group across a deep river on the walking part of the route or in order to quickly reach people along an already simple part of the river. You can quickly tie a fairly strong raft with a soft iron wire with a diameter of about 3 mm. A small raft is knitted in one layer; for a large one, the wire will have to be folded in half. A strong raft is obtained by fastening the logs with a 3-5 mm steel braided cable.
Using these tools, you can knit a raft according to the same principle as knitting. At the same time, the rope is not cut into pieces, but separate loops are knitted at the common long end, with which pairs of logs are attached to the ronjina. When the wedge is driven in, the wire or cable is pulled under tension, cuts into the wedge, and, since the steel is well springy, it is impossible to drive the wedge further. In order not to suffer, put
Rice. 16. Fastening logs with the long end of the cable
a - ronzhnna; b - board;
c - a wedge between the wedge and the wire, a small plank 1-2 cm thick.
Sliding on it, the wedge will fit well into place.
If the cable is of sufficient length, it is better for them to grab the logs to the ronjin one at a time, as shown in fig. 16. A ronzhin cut from above and below is placed across the logs, a board is placed on it and all together tightly braided with a cable; the cable is tied at the end, and wedges are hammered between the board and the ronzhina, pulling the cable. The advantages of this design are quick assembly and the absence of a cable or rope that tightens a pair of logs. The latter is the most vulnerable spot when fastening with separate rings, since a narrow stone, passing along the raft along the gap between a pair of logs, can break the loop that tightens this pair. In the described design, the cable covers all the logs along the lower semicircle. design vulnerability in<веревочном>execution is that the rope can be interrupted by a stone, and then the whole raft will immediately crumble. To prevent this from happening, you can entangle each ronjin with two ropes, securing even logs with one and odd logs with the other.
07:03 — REGNUM Where did Noah's Ark land? The first book of the Bible, Genesis, details the story of a man named Noah (a 10th generation descendant of Adam) who built the Ark and saved himself, his family, and animals during the flood. He settled in Armenia and became the progenitor of mankind, at least of his white race, primarily Armenians. There are many inconsistencies and inconsistencies in this description that cast doubt on the authenticity of the story itself. But one must read the Bible very, very carefully, since every word, every statement in the book has a deep meaning, which is not always clear to us yet. Despite centuries of experience in studying the Bible, it is inexhaustible. Using my engineering expertise, I have attempted, through much research and scientific commentary, to elucidate the main episodes of this story. The resulting assumptions represent a scientific and technical hypothesis confirming the authenticity of Noah's epic. Consider the main components of this version.
The flood was
American scientists from the University of Washington and Northwestern, and their English colleagues from the University of Manchester, discovered huge reservoirs of water at depths of 90-1500 km. Many scientists believe that the flood actually happened, and not just one. A catastrophic eruption of hot salty water with steam could have occurred from the underground reservoirs of the Earth, the level of the World Ocean had risen, and a downpour poured from the condensed steam, which, quite likely, lasted 40 days and 40 nights. These natural disasters led to the Flood. And then the water went back ... Nowadays, at the bottom of the ocean, so-called "black smokers" are increasingly being found - strange holes, from which water at a temperature of 400 degrees bubbles up.
American science fiction writer Isaac Asimov, in his book In the Beginning, writes: “On the northeast coast of the Persian Gulf, there is a junction of giant tectonic plates of the earth's crust, so it is likely that their shift caused an earthquake and its accompanying tidal waves that swept the coast bay." St. Petersburg scientist Anatoly Akopyants reports the same: “Noah's ship went up to Ararat up the Euphrates. It was driven by a surge caused by an unexplained natural disaster in the Persian Gulf adjacent to Mesopotamia about 4.5 thousand years ago, which reversed the course of the Euphrates River.
It is quite possible that this super-earthquake was provoked by one of the largest planetary catastrophes - the fall of a large celestial body on the Earth's surface, which occurred just 4300-4500 years ago. Most likely, this giant meteorite split into several fragments before falling, and they reached the Earth in its different parts. There was a global catastrophe, which is mentioned in various legends.
One fragment of a celestial body could have fallen in the Mediterranean Sea near the southern shores of today's Israel, the other in the Persian Gulf or somewhere near it. In this place, the junctions of large tectonic faults pass, under which there are huge volumes of hot salty water. As a result, a cosmogenic tsunami first arose (it is being studied by specialists from the Holocene Impact Working Group), which was "superimposed" by the release of water from the Earth's underground reservoirs, which formed such a super-catastrophic phenomenon called a flood.
The resulting surge wave, coming from the Mediterranean Sea and from the Persian Gulf, picked up Noah's Ark and carried it to the Ararat mountains. Simple arithmetic calculations show that during the flood, the speed of the surge current (conditionally equal to the average speed of the Ark) was about 5.5 km per day, the average speed of the rise in the water level was about 18 m per day, or 0.75 meters per hour. Such relatively low speeds led to a rather calm navigation of the Ark.
Not a ship, but rafts
According to the "technical assignment" given by Providence, Noah was ordered to build an Ark 138 meters long, 23 meters wide and 14 meters high. At the same time, Noah did not need a ship with a control system (keel, rudders, sails, etc.) and navigation, which was very complicated both in construction and in navigation. The specific construction of the Ark is not described in the Bible; most likely, it was difficult for the authors to do this. Difficulties arose with the translation of the used term "tevah", which seems to mean "chest" or "box". By the way, the wicker basket in which the baby Moses was found was also called “tevakh”. In Latin and English translations, the word "ark" was used, which means "box", in Slavic - the word "ark".
I came to the conclusion that Noah's Ark is not a long "box", and not a ship in its modern concept, but a floating craft of a peculiar design. Its base is separate rafts interconnected by flexible joints (a towing option is also quite possible). They represent a chain of 6 square rafts 23 meters long and 23 meters wide each with a total length of 138 meters (in the original - 300 cubits). Each raft has a three-story room, sealed on all sides, except for the bottom, 18-20 meters long and 6-16 meters wide, fixed on the sides with inclined logs connected from above and below, which forms a triangular section, resistant to external influences (winds). , waves) structure with a total height of 14 meters.
It is much easier to build such a structure than a ship, and, most importantly, it is ideal for drifting. The raft is practically unsinkable. All water that enters from the outside leaves through the cracks in the bottom. If Thor Heyerdahl successfully made a sea voyage on a raft, then why couldn’t Noah have carried it out even earlier, especially since he was not faced with the task of sailing somewhere specifically, the main thing was to wait and survive. By the way, Heyerdahl in 1947 sailed 8000 km on a controlled raft in 101 days, Ziganshin in 1960 traveled 2800 km on an uncontrolled barge without food and water in 49 days, Nansen's ship "Fram" at the end of the 19th century drifted in the ice of the Arctic for three year and covered a distance of more than 3,000 kilometers, Papanin's expedition in 1937 overcame 2,500 kilometers on a drifting ice floe in 274 days, and Noah's Ark sailed 1,200 kilometers in a drifting mode in 218 days (average speed 5.5 km / day).
It is quite possible that in order to simplify the conditions for keeping animals and to eliminate possible conflicts between people, Noah and his sons split up: Ham occupied two rafts, Shem occupied two rafts, Noah and his youngest son Japheth sailed on the remaining two rafts.
Construction site - the area of the megalith Rujm el-Khiri
For the preparation and construction of such a large object as the Ark, as well as for the collection and maintenance of domestic animals and wild animals, a fairly large and relatively flat surface is required, which at the same time must be close to the source of timber, and also at a sufficient height above sea level and with a less hot climate.
Such a place has been found. Perhaps Noah and his family lived there. This is the area of the Golan Heights next to the man-made megalith under the Arabic name Rujm el-Khiri (“wild cat stone rampart”). The megalith consists of several concentric rings with a mound in the center, built of large basalt boulders. Its outer diameter is 160 m and is commensurate with the length of the Ark. The megalith was built before Noah, and has survived to this day, although it has been significantly destroyed. Its purpose is not yet clear. Next to him, Israeli archaeologists found the dwelling of an ancient man - a dugout. In Armenia, near the city of Sisian, by the way, there is also a similar ancient monument - the megalith Zorats-Karer (Karahunj), built at about the same time as Rujm el-Khiri. According to one version, Karahunj was an ancient spaceport.
At the absolute height of the Rujm el-Khiri megalith region of about 1000 m above sea level (like Yerevan), the destructive supertsunami wave from the fall of a celestial body could have passed lower, the Ark was picked up and carried to the Ararat Mountains by the calmer flow of waters that came from the depths of the Earth.
At the same time, other options for the construction site of the Ark are not excluded, including in Mesopotamia (Mesopotamia).
Timber and device
It is possible that in the construction of the Ark, Noah used the existing experience in carpentry, about which little is known today, while he significantly improved the design. Noah's rafts were built from solid logs of Lebanese cedar, which, compared to other types of local timber, has the lowest density (specific gravity) - up to 400 kg / cu. m in the dried state - with a height of up to 50 m and a trunk diameter of up to 2.5 m. In the Bible, the term "gopher" is used as the name of the tree, but no one took the liberty of translating it. However, based on the practical suitability of the wood available for the construction of rafts, the most suitable local tree is the Lebanese cedar. The logs were sanded, dried and tarred. By the way, the balsa used by Heyerdahl is much lighter, only 160 kg / cu. m, and modern pine, as the closest analogue of cedar, has a density of 500 kg / cu. m, which should be taken into account when calculating the carrying capacity and seaworthiness of rafts.
On the rafts, in accordance with the "technical assignment" of Providence, hermetic rectangular rooms were built, tied at the sides and fastened at the top with long logs, which gave the whole structure a triangular shape, the most stable during various ups and downs of a long sea voyage. At the same time, flexible connections between the rafts gave the Ark the necessary resistance to waves and kept it from destruction. Other options for rafting are also possible.
Living conditions
As you know, God forbade Noah to leave the Ark, which, in the case of a completely sealed "box" or ship, makes the removal of human and animal waste very difficult. From this point of view, the raft allows them to be removed through slots or through special holes in the bottom. According to Heyerdahl, water never flows from the bottom up.
In addition, the ventilation of one raft is much more efficient than the entire long "box". Although this issue is not so simple. For effective ventilation, two holes are needed - from below and from above. The Bible says only one thing - from above. Therefore, if the Ark is a “box” or a ship sealed from all sides, then it is impossible to arrange a lower opening in it, and, accordingly, ventilation, and if it is a raft, then it is real.
End of sailing
Noah's family and animals at the end of the flood (after 218 days) arrived safely in the region of the Ararat mountains. The surge current "delivered" them, in my opinion, to Aragats, Ararat remained on the sidelines. Big Ararat (Masis) is painfully high, steep, rocky and impregnable.
The following scenario is most likely. When the water began to subside and a receding current appeared, the whole family was divided. Ham with his family and part of the animals on two rafts sailed to Mount Small Ararat (or Ararat), but from the other, southern side. He became the progenitor of the Afroasian family of peoples. Traces of his raft, in my opinion, should be looked for in this area, most likely in areas between isohypses of 2000-2500 m, which are most suitable for mooring: gentle slopes, a rather large plateau, etc.
The second son, Sim, with his two rafts, went to Mesopotamia (Mesopotamia) and became the progenitor of the Semitic group of peoples.
This scenario explains how both brothers got there after the flood. Within the framework of this hypothesis, other variants of the settlement of Hama and Sim are also possible.
On Aragats
The question of the arrival of any floating vessel to the shore is not an easy one. The coast must have certain characteristics, that is, be convenient for landing. A ship with a draft of 3-4 meters closer than 100 meters to the shore in any case will not work. How to transfer animals to the shore? The raft can come close to the shore, but the relief of the shore should be quite gentle. There are cases of tragic deaths of people who tried to land on ocean rafts and crashed on reefs and rocks.
Therefore, I believe that Noah himself with his youngest son Japheth landed on two rafts exactly one year after the start of the flood on Mount Aragats, on the territory of the modern Armenian Republic, in the area of Lake Kari (at an altitude of about 3200-3500 m above sea level). Here, God revealed a rainbow as a sign of Noah's completion of a difficult journey as a symbol of the Eternal Covenant between God and people. Then the families of Noah and Japheth descended with animals to the Ararat valley, to warmer places similar in relief and climate to their homeland (Mesopotamia or Israel), becoming the progenitors of the Armenians and the northwestern (Indo-European) peoples. Noah founded the settlement of Yerevan, lived another 350 years and died at the age of 950 years.
As part of a survey expedition, I was on this southern slope of Aragats in the summer of 1965 and I can say that this area is very suitable both for the "landing" of the raft and for the further movement of people and animals on foot. A fairly gentle slope without rocks, an abundance of streams and rivers with melt water due to the fact that the lava "cover" of Aragats is predominantly waterproof and surface water flow prevails on the mountain slopes.
The slopes of Ararat, on the contrary, are steep, there is no water on them, since the rocks that make up the mountain are “fractured” basalts, and the melt water immediately leaves the glaciers, forming mainly underground drains. By the way, they are the main source of water in a large artesian water basin under the Ararat Valley. In addition, the descent from Ararat on foot would be much more difficult than from Aragats. Therefore, I think that Providence sent Noah's Ark for landing exactly to Aragats, to the area with the most convenient mooring conditions and a relatively simple route of descent to the Ararat valley.
Hypothesis requires proof
The foregoing is only preliminary considerations, a scheme, a hypothesis that requires proof.
There can be three proofs. The first, most accessible, is the finding of any traces of the Ark on Aragats in the area of Lake Kari, including at its bottom. The second is finding any traces of the Ark (rafts of Ham) on the southern slope of the Ararat mountain range, which is very problematic. The third, most costly, but most realistic, is the construction and practical water testing of a copy of Noah's raft.
Each element of the "new" design of the Ark, each episode of this biblical story deserves comprehensive research and calculations, excavations, and full-scale modeling. Including research and development of textual, source studies, theological, as well as shipbuilding, geological, archaeological, geographical, oceanological and climatic. Computer modeling of the design of the Ark and its testing are needed. The ethical aspect of Noah's feat and precepts also needs modern comprehension. I support the idea of erecting a monument to Noah and his Ark in Yerevan.
logs fastened in several rows for swimming
Alternative descriptionsFloating platform for the crossing of people and goods
Flat-bottomed boat for crossing the river
Primitive craft
Logs fastened in several rows for timber rafting or water crossing
The building in the middle of the Neman, on which Alexander I and Napoleon signed the Treaty of Tilsit in 1807
Vehicle on the water
Transport unit in timber rafting, consisting of bundles of logs
In Yuri Loza, he is “not so bad at all”
Song of the Vine
The building in the middle of the Neman, on which Alexander I and Napoleon signed the Treaty of Tilsit in 1807
Logs left to chance
Painting by the French painter T. Gericault "... Medusa"
What did the traveler Thor Heyerdahl build from balsa wood?
river swimmer
Yuri Loza's hit
drifting bunch of logs
. "twisted from songs and words"
floating logs
A bunch of logs on the water
Logs that have become transport
Rafting boat
Entwined of songs by Yuri Loza
Megahit Yuri Loza
A team of tightly knit logs
baby boat
Hit by Yuri Loza
Roll dugout, launched
log boat
Timber rafting craft
It's not so bad at Vine
Transport, sung by Yuri Loza
. "twisted of songs and words" at Vine
A team of logs with strong ties
Watercraft with a rafter on board
floating platform
floating craft
Inflatable floating craft
Rafters' floating craft
Roll dugout, launched
Tied logs on the river
Ship's great-grandfather
Song by Yuri Loza
Logs fastened together for crossing or for timber rafting
Interconnected floating objects for the transport of goods, people
Logs fastened in several rows for rafting or crossing
On April 28, 1947, the history of shipping seemed to return to its starting point again. In Callao, the port of the Peruvian capital of Lima, a tugboat dragged several large, interconnected tree trunks past the piers, on which a young blond man sat on top of a mountain of bananas, bags and various boxes, holding a cage with a parrot in his hands - the captain of a team of five Human.
The piers were bursting with people who had gathered to send a farewell greeting to the brave navigators who came from no other time than from some other era. Dozens of photojournalists and cameramen made complex kurbets on the parapet of the embankment, trying to capture this wonderful event on film.
"Tired of life" (as the port people called the crew of the raft) was slowly taken straight into the open Pacific Ocean. The sea tug, dragging the outlandish structure, turned back. A few more minutes - and in the foggy haze one could see only the face of the idol and the word Kon-Tiki, painted on the sail of the raft.
The young Norwegian ethnographer Thor Heyerdahl undertook this unusual and risky venture to experimentally confirm his own theoretical ideas that the Polynesians could have migrated to their islands from South America on rafts made from balsa wood. And the fact that rafts made of balsa trunks, equipped with side skewers, were used by South American Indians was first recorded in his records by the Spanish captain Bartolomeo Ruiz, who saw such a sea raft off the coast of Ecuador in 1525.
The odyssey of the young Norwegian explorer lasted one hundred days and one hundred nights. A raft with a desperate crew, driven by the trade winds and two currents - the Humboldt and the Equatorial - having traveled 4300 miles, finally reached Polynesia. The badly managed ship failed to avoid a collision with a coral atoll and, overcoming the last thousand meters of its sea adventure, the brave crew was on the verge of death.
Nevertheless, Heyerdahl's hypothesis that the islands of Polynesia were inhabited by immigrants from South America remained controversial: it was opposed by other, quite weighty counterarguments. But, one way or another, the Norwegians clearly demonstrated that in the open sea you can swim not only in boats, but, under favorable conditions, on strong rafts.
It took a lot of time for a person to overcome the fear of the power of the sea. The Phoenician Sankyonaton, about 4,000 years ago, described an event that could shed light on the circumstances that made a person dare to go to sea: “A storm raged over the Tire forest. Struck by lightning, hundreds of trees flared up like torches or burst with a crash.
In panic fear, Osous grabbed one of the tree trunks, cleared it of branches and, clinging tightly to it, was the first to decide to rush into the waves.
Or maybe it was. A starving shell collector once climbed a tree trunk floating in the water to reach the shell-rich intertidal zone. The barrel withstood the load, but the stability of the "vessel" left much to be desired. The two trunks tied together no longer rotated. So, perhaps, the first raft was invented. To go from two to several trunks fastened together, special cunning was no longer required.
It was the raft, and not the single tree, which required more careful processing with sharp stone tools and fire, that became the first artificial means of transportation on water. The date, which roughly determines the exit of a person to the expanses of water, is very impressive.
It is believed that the history of shipbuilding and shipping has 6000 years! At the same time, when talking about the use of a raft by a person, they already mean a raft fastened from several logs. The use of untreated trunks, with branches and branches, as a floating means for searching for food or overcoming space, apparently began much earlier.
Who, if not a people connected with the sea, could leave behind these monuments, huge, heavy, mysteriously similar to the colossi of Easter Island and the megaliths of the Mariana and Marquesas Islands?
Did the people of that period, during their wanderings, use floating means such as rafts, when the coastal waters of the seas turned out to be the only way to move forward?
It is highly doubtful that people of those distant millennia overcame water barriers on ships of more advanced designs. However, this option cannot be completely ruled out. That seagoing ships can be built with stone tools alone, without the use of metal, was proved, albeit in later times, by the Polynesians. There is much evidence that for the first time ships of the type of junks and catamarans from two single trees arose precisely in the zone of the Pacific and Indian oceans, where already in very remote times they knew how to use the monsoons for coastal navigation from India to East Africa and back. However, we have no documentary evidence of this. Keel ships, these wonderful ocean walkers, as confirmed by documents, arose already in later times in the Eastern Mediterranean zone.
On the boat of the sun god Ra. Judging by numerous testimonies, the Nile was the first deep river on which river navigation developed.
Egypt was a long narrow strip of fertile land only a few kilometers wide.
Desert lurked on both sides of this green ribbon.
Once a year, when the equatorial African sky "opens all the floodgates", the Nile floods most of the floodplain for several months. After some time, after the muddy hollow waters of the Blue Nile reached Egypt, this zone of life turned into a lake district, and the villages located on elevated places became islands cut off from each other, for communication between which only water served.
This is what gave rise to an urgent need for floating vehicles. The country of the “breathing river” of necessity became the country of baroques and ships: at a normal level of the Nile, almost any Egyptian village could be reached on them.
Ships were vital to Egypt. For economic needs and for communication between people dependent on each other, they were much more effective here than carts that came to the country from Western Asia much later than the first ship was built.
Even Egyptian mythology has more to do with water and a ship than with land and a wagon. On certain calendar days, the pharaoh and his retinue, standing in the dark colonnade of the sacred city of Thebes, waited until the spire of the highest of the obelisks glowed from the first rays of the rising sun. After this “morning appearance of the sun god,” the column of those waiting silently marched in the direction revered by all the saints - to the barge of the sun god Ra. Only the pharaoh and the high priest were allowed to board the barque. The barge was shaped like a sickle, and a large golden disc gleamed over the deck superstructure. It was believed that Ra travels daily in a golden boat through the sky.
Another shrine was the ark of Ammon, which stood on a giant altar. It was a life-sized gilded barque, with carved ram's heads crowning its bow and stern. In the deck superstructure was God himself in the form of a golden statue. During the days of the festivities in honor of Ammon, a solemn procession of priests lowered the barge into the Nile, so that the touch of the deity would pour new life-giving forces into the river of Egypt's fate.
Ships played such a significant role among the ancient Egyptians that the sovereign lords ordered baroque models to be placed in their tombs. During the excavations of the mastaba of Pharaoh Akhtoy (Kheti), many models of cargo ships were found, and in 1955, archaeologists discovered in an underground chamber at the foot of the pyramid of Cheops an amazingly well-preserved ship in which the dead pharaoh could, if he wished, travel or follow the solar barge to sail into the realm of eternal bliss surrounded by water. According to religious ideas, the pharaohs who had departed to another world were supposed to have a place in the golden boat of the sun god Ra.
Floating reed baskets. One of the paradoxes in the history of shipping is that river shipbuilding developed for the first time in a country extremely poor in forests. At the disposal of the first shipbuilders there was nothing else but the twisted trunks of sycamores and acacias, from which, unfortunately, only very short beams and boards could be hewn.
Ancient Egypt. Ship carpenters are building a boat. (Relief on the tomb. Saqqara.)
That is why on the Nile, unlike other forest-rich places, one-trees could not be the first ships made by human hands. Such vessels here were floating craft made of papyrus, which grew luxuriantly along the banks and in the delta of the Nile. The features of this material determined both the design and shape of the ancient Egyptian baroque.
The sides of the papyrus barges were covered with skins. For strength, the individual parts were tightly connected with cables. As a tribute to this tradition in Egypt and in later times, they spoke not of building, but of tying ships, just as the Indonesians to this day call their ships “tied logs” (catamaran).
An idea of the further development of the ancient Egyptian courts is given by the wall reliefs of the dead city of Saqqara, dating back to 3000 BC. e., and the tomb of the wealthy landowner Ti, dating from 4400 BC. e. On these reliefs, separate stages of boat building are clearly visible, from the hewing of trunks to the processing of boards with a saw, an ax and a chisel.
The hulls of ships that did not have a keel and frames were recruited at first from short boards and caulked with reed and tow. The vessel was fastened with a rope, which covered it at the height of the upper cladding belt. A solid deck arose only after they began to use long cedar boards delivered from Lebanon. Their own, domestic, boards were so short that they did not reach in the middle of the vessel from side to side (the width of the vessel related to the length as 1: 3).
Without a keel, frames and support beams, these ships, of course, could not be seaworthy. Nor could the Sumerian river boats made of goat skins be seaworthy. However, they were not built for this purpose, but were intended for navigation on rivers, mainly during the flood period.
The oldest engines are wind and muscles. How were such ships set in motion? It is known that already around 6000 BC. e. on the Nile they knew the sail. Initially, they knew how to walk only with a fair wind. The rigging was attached to a bipedal, "gantry" mast. The legs of the mast were located on both sides of the diametrical plane, so that the mentally drawn line connecting their bases was perpendicular to the mast. The legs were tied at the top.
The beam fixture in the ship's hull served as a step for the mast. Strong ropes held the mast in working position. The sail was rectangular and attached to two yards - horizontally located curved wooden poles, fitted to the front side of the mast. The top rail could rotate 90° in both directions and move up and down. Thus it was possible to remove the sail and take the reefs.
Later, by about 2600 BC. e, the two-legged mast was replaced by the usual one, with one trunk. This happened, however, only after the ship's hull was significantly reinforced with transverse and longitudinal beams. Such a mast made it easier to control the sail and made it possible to already maneuver. With a "gantry" mast, in the case of a side wind, it was necessary to take reefs.
The masts could be swung down so as not to interfere with the rowers when they had to row.
The oars, which make it possible to use the principle of leverage to propel a ship or boat forward, are a younger invention than the Egyptian sail. Even more ancient movers were a two-blade paddle, such as a kayak paddle, and a push pole. A freely movable oar of a kayak type simultaneously acts as a steering device, but the stroke of an oar fixed in an oarlock is stronger.
During the time of the Egyptian pharaohs, when the slaveholding system dominated, the oars of the large Nile barges, and later merchant ships and warships, were served mainly by prisoners of war turned into slaves, for whom there was a special name in ancient Egypt, which literally meant “living dead”.
On Egyptian ships, they rowed in exactly the same way as on modern rowing boats - with their backs to the direction of travel. The fastest rowing rate of the elite rowers of the royal barge was 26 strokes per minute, which provided the ship with a speed of about 12 kilometers per hour. They steered such a vessel with the help of two stern oars. Later, steering oars began to be attached to the deck beam and, by turning them, set the desired direction of movement. The turn of the rudder to this day underlies the technical principle of ship control. The ancient Egyptian steering oar was laid with a roll on a movable fork and passed through a rope ring attached to the stern, allowing the roll to be turned.
One of the temple frescoes depicts an ancient Egyptian freighter loaded with rosewood, sacks stuffed with goods, ivory and East African baboons. This impressive-looking, clearly seaworthy vessel already had a fairly perfect steering gear with a tiller.
The tiller in the form of a steering pole was attached to the roll on a swivel. One helmsman could simultaneously set the blades of both rudders in the desired position.
The ancient Egyptians were not skilled sailors. They were mainly engaged in river navigation on the Nile.
However, for the supply of certain specific goods to Egypt, such as long timber, ivory, gold and myrrh, there was no other way at all than the sea. They usually swam near the coastline, reaching Lebanon and Cyprus. It is obvious that the vessels that first began to be used for this purpose from 2800 BC. e., without a strong hull, they were still not seaworthy enough. This high strength was given to them by a tension rope - a strong thick hemp cable stretched from bow to stern, which protected the ship's hull from breaking on a wave. He leaned on the horns above the heads of the rowers and stretched by winding on a special rolling pin.
River of people's destiny. For thousands of years the Nile flowed to the sea. He saw the pharaohs' white mourning barges, covered with lotuses, decorated with royal signs, sailing towards the Valley of the Kings - a mysterious, gigantic limestone honeycomb, molded from dozens of burrow-like crypts. This was the last voyage of the pharaohs along the great river, which was destined to survive the splendor and impoverishment of the once powerful Egyptian state, the birth, flourishing and death of entire dynasties.
It was the same Nile along which the sacred bull Apis was delivered on a gilded barge to his temple. The Nile that hauled downstream heavy ships laden with dyes and black granite. On his patient back, he carried the famous transport ship, which was 63 m long and 21 m wide with a side height of 6 m. which each pharaoh invested his share. Alexander the Great himself, who did not allow himself to be called anything other than "honorary pharaoh", built a temple there. Happy holidays were celebrated on the old and eternally young river. There has always been a lively movement here.
