Note 424 — Chapter XIII

As I have been frequently asked when the “rudder” was invented, I may here state that I really do not know, and I should be disposed to question the accuracy of any writer who fixed any epoch or any age for its invention. Before me I see, at this moment, a swan in pursuit of other swans which have evidently been poaching upon its manor on that portion of the River Thames where, on its banks, I now revise the proof sheets of this volume. It is in full chase, with its wings so arranged as best to gain advantage from the breeze; its feet are paddling it onward with great vigour, but to turn the corner opposite to where I sit, I see that the swan sweeps itself round by the operation of one of its feet, which has been brought close to the surface, and is performing exactly the same part, only in a more rapid and perfect manner, which the rudder, attached to a boat, performs, when sweeping round the same bend of the river. Perfect rudders may, therefore, be said to have existed from the creation, for nothing could be more complete in the shape of a rudder, than this action of the swan’s foot in the water. A similar action may be seen in the fins and tails of fish.

Turning to mechanical contrivances which had this object in view, it will be found that, during the earliest historic ages, the paddle of the canoe was used, not merely to propel, as in the case of the gondola of the middle ages as well as in the gondola of to-day, but also to guide, and was, in itself, one of the most powerful mechanical rudders which have yet been produced. The oar over the quarter followed, and if my readers will refer to the sculptured illustration of a vessel on the leaning Tower of Pisa (see ante, vol. i. p. 521) erected A.D. 1178, they will find, that that was the only description of a rudder represented at that comparatively recent period. At a later period, by referring to the contracts still extant which Louis IX., King of France, entered into, A.D. 1268, with the Venetians and Genoese for the construction of various ships (ante, vol. i. p. 510), “two rudders” for each vessel (one on each side) “nine palms long” are required to be provided, showing that this mode of steering, which is no advance upon what may be found on the ancient sculptures of Egypt, was, then, the only one known, or at least in use, among the most celebrated navigators of the middle ages; and from their dimensions, the vessels which Louis IX. ordered to be built were large ships, not boats, which the one represented on the Tower of Pisa may have been.

In the drawings of some vessels of a subsequent period, a hole is shown in the stern above the stern post, through which an oar, sweep or “rudder” was passed for guiding the course of the vessel, its lower extremity being probably worked by tackles from each quarter; from this appliance the hanging rudder now in use no doubt originated, being improved on by slow degrees, and gradually assuming a more and more perpendicular position; thence, the transition to hanging it by a second ligature was easy and natural; thence, the gudgeons and pintals, by which the rudder now swings from the stern post; and, hence, the tiller and, subsequently, the wheel to move the tiller, the blade of the rudder itself being increased in size according to the force required to turn the vessel. Thus, the foot of aquatic birds first gave the idea of the paddle, and this, in time, was displaced by the oar, from which the rudder evidently sprung. The Dutch and German word for oar is now and always has been “Ruder.”