This brings us next to the fact that deep water ships need
sail arrangements that take advantage of the various winds. In fact, the speed
and value of a ship at sea is partly in its sail arrangement and ability to
catch the wind. Sea currents push or drive a ship forward, when the wind fills the
sails. In the Age of Sail, the sail was a critical issue in the success of a
voyage. Columbus, after reaching the Canary Islands, changed the sail
arrangement of one of his ships to add a lateen sail for later use of coastal
steerage and sailing. Apparently the lateen sail developed from a square sail
as the need to head up closer to the wind was seen to be important, meaning the
ship could sail closer to the “dead zone” or “into the wind” at a close angle
to its source.
Left: When
sailing, or running with the wind, the wind is directly behind the ship and a
square sail, like Nephi’s, is the most efficient; Right: When sailing in the
opposite direction, ”into the wind,” there is an area straight ahead referred
to as a “No-Go Zone,” where the ship cannot sail
To take advantage of this, obviously two things were done:
1) Ship Captains sailed with the wind behind them, learning where these
currents and winds blew so they could map out a course that would take them
where they wanted to sail; and 2) Add canvas (sail).
What they did not do, and what every Theorists wants to
claim they did, was just head for the Western Hemisphere through the
straightest path they could find. In the case of the Sea of Arabia and Indian
Ocean, that would have been a path to India and then on to Indonesia, down the
Malacca Channel or Strait, and winding past several islands out into the
Pacific Ocean and island-hopping across the Pacific to Central America. The sad
thing about such theorizing is that it violates every possible maritime method
of sailing in the days of Lehi, moving against winds and currents, requiring highly
efficient maneuvering around islands and their dangers by a crew that had never
before been to sea, let alone handle a 100-ton sailing vessel, and then later
set in and embark from one island after another, as though such an activity
would be like rowing a boat.
What looks
good on a flat map is misleading when you try to translate it onto a globe.
First of all, this distance is about 3 times as long as one down south through
the Southern Ocean, and extremely dangerous as has been pointed out in this
series
Consequently, ships were built to hold more canvas and
additional sails were invented, such as gallants, royals, skysails, and moon
sails above the topsail, as well as adding “studding” sails to the sides, outboard of the
main sails by rigging a temporary boom. This allowed the vessel to catch more
wind in the main sails, increasing their reach and improve speed with the wind
directly at their back.
(LtoR)
Adding sales upward, then also (far right) adding studding sails to the side of
the main sails increased the amount of sail available to the captain as he
maneuvered his vessel across the oceans
The construction of these Arabic dhows is still carried on without benefit of drawings and relies on
the master builder and his experience for direction and supervision, a general
brief for performance requirements having first been established with the
owner. While boat builders all have to be extremely skillful in their work, the
traditional craft of three-dimensional shaping of wood seemed to be more so in the
early days.
When Nephi asked, “whither shall I go that I may find ore to molten, that I may
make tools to construct the ship after the manner which thou hast shown unto me”
(1 Nephi 17:9), it is likely from the wordage used, that the Lord showed in the
vision to Nephi not only what the ship was to look like, and how the vessel was
to be built, but also the tools in their operation of use. Obviously, at that
moment, Nephi had already been shown by the Lord the ship and how it was to be
built.
No doubt, having
lived at Jerusalem all his days (1 Nephi 1:4), obviously living on a farm-like,
independent homeland somewhere outside the walls of Jerusalem, and probably
down the hillside from the city (1 Nephi 3:16, 23), where the maintaining of
the household and property might well
have required certain crafts that Nephi either learned to do growing up,
or learned from observation. One of these might have been metallurgy, which
resulted in his response to the Lord’s image and instruction of his building a
ship. “Whither shall I go that I may find
ore to molten, that I may make tools to construct the ship…”
We can probably
surmise from this that Nephi knew what was involved in building and operating a
bellows. Perhaps he had already made elementary metal objects, such as spikes, knives,
axes, chisels, tongs, door fittings, etc.
Metallurgy was well known and practiced
throughout the Middle East from the 3rd Millennium B.C. onward, and
certainly was in use around Jerusalem shortly afterward as the map shows with smelting and early metallurgy
attributed to the Hittites of Anatolia in the Late Bronze Age
Whether or not the
adze was already known to Nephi is not certain, though it was an all-around
tool used for nearly any wood work required of the time, especially for those
growing up on isolated farms or homesteads in outlying area where the household members had to know how to
do things like simple carpentry, metal and leather work.
(Image E – Left: An adze set aside after shaping the
boards, trough, and knob; Right: An Egyptian stone cutting showing a worker
using an adze on a boat being built
Other tools, such as bow drills, saws, hatchets, rubbers,
measuring rods, plum-lines, and set-squares were also used. The bow-drills were needed to produce the holes through
which the nails were hammered to fix the planking to the ribs, and a cold
chisel to hammer caulking between the planks to make them watertight. Tension
on the bow drill is maintained by the fingers of the hand holding the bow. The
sharpened bit on the drill is remarkably effective in the right hands, the bow
drill giving substantial control to the operator and allowing slow or relatively
fast speeds to be used when drilling; however, high speeds were avoided as they
tended to burn the wood.
In addition, Nephi’s
narrative tells us of an ordered departure from Bountiful on a completed ship
already in the water and sea worthy. This appears to confirm that he used the
age-old practice of building a ship above a protected harbor and launched it
from its dry-dock using ways (ramps) into calm water. This allowed the crew the
essential time in safe water to let the plank timbers expand to seal the hull
(the Hebrew word is tzaref) and then caulk any remaining leaks (see Ezekiel
27:9). This was the construction method used by both the Hebrews and the
Egyptians. Once the hull was verified as being watertight, the ship could be
loaded with ballast and put to sea for sea trials prior to loading and sailing.
This all required a harbor.
And
the harbor of Khor Rori is by far the best possible location all along the
southern Arabian coast.
As for the bellows Nephi built (1 Nephi 17:11), Jeremiah mentions
bellows in his own writings (Jeremiah 6:29) in a complete explanation of the
ore smelting process. In addition, Nephi lived at a time when iron and simple
steel had become commonplace in Jerusalem, and bronze was used for simple
purposes, like casting. Bronze, of course, was generally inferior to steel for
tool making, and producing it required a source for its components—copper and
tin. Only minor traces of copper minerals have been reported in Dhofar, and tin
is unknown there. Animal skins would have been available to make the skin
bellows, and numerous drawings show their use during Nephi’s time.
While workers blow the fire each with his own foot bellows (1 to 4 or even 6 people), the worker smelts and works the ore over a simple pit furnace
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