Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Scapha

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. 

SCAPH'A (σκάφη). A skiff, cutter, long-boat, or jolly-boat, carried on board larger vessels, to be lowered and used as occasion required. (Caes. B. C. iii. 24. Cic. Inv. ii. 79. Pet. Sat. 101. 7.) The modern name of skiff, which appears to retain the elements of the ancient term, and designates a form of boat precisely similar to the one exhibited by the annexed wood-cut (Scapha/1.1), from a Pompeian painting  — that is, with a broadish body, sharpish head, and small flat stern,  — favours the conjecture that it affords a genuine specimen of the model designated by the term scapha; but even if that be doubtful, the example is in every respect worthy of attention, as one of the very few remaining illustrations of ancient ship or boat building, which affords a practical model, with correctness of form and detail, instead of the usual imperfect and conventional style of representation, so generally adopted by the ancient artists when treating marine subjects.

2. A smaller boat, constructed upon the same model as the preceding, but rowed only by a pair of oars (Hor. Od. iii. 29. 62. biremis scapha), and employed for river and coasting occupations, such as fishing (Justin. ii. 13. piscatoria scapha), &c.

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  Scapha/1.1