Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Gubernaculum

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Rich, Anthony (1849). The illustrated companion to the Latin dictionary, and Greek lexicon. p. vi. OCLC 894670115. https://archive.org/details/illustratedcompa00rich. 

GUBERNAC'ULUM (πηδάλιον). A rudder; which originally was nothing more than a large oar, with a very broad blade, as in the right-hand figure (Gubernaculum/1.1), from the column of Trajan, either fastened by braces (funes, Veg. Mil. iv. 46. ζεύγλαι, Eur. Hel. 1556.) outside the quarters of a vessel, or passed through an aperture in the bulwarks; but in its more improved form it was furnished with a cross-bar inboard, which served as a tiller, like the left-hand figure, from a Pompeian painting; and its different parts were distinguished by the following names: ansa, the handle, A; clavus, the tiller, B; pinna, the blade, C. The word is frequently used in the plural; because the ancient vessels were commonly furnished with two rudders, one on each quarter (wood-cut p. 247), each of which had its own helmsman, if the vessel was a large one (Scheffer, Mil. Nav. p. 301.); but were both managed by a single steersman when it was small enough, as in the following example.

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  Gubernaculum/1.1