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June 17, 2004 The below is a reply I made to a "one book expert" who recently criticized an article of mine on ancient sailing craft. He took the position that as a replica of a Greek galley, the Olympia, had been built which would only row well with a single man at each oar all galley oars at the time were manned by a single man. I countered saying that how a ship sails or rows depends upon the shape of the hull. I went on to dispute the scholarly way of acquiring knowledge in effect stating that one must approach a subject from an interdisciplinary point of view. Seaman no matter the place or time have had a way since time immemorial of classifying ships .Each ship has a subtly different function not discernable by the lands man. For instance one may take a ferry ride around the harbor and look about one at the assembled naval vessels for all intents and purposes all looking the same. If you are with a navy man he will point out the destroyer, the destroyer escort, the frigate and the minelayer. Now if you could transport yourself back in time you could view the same harbor now filled with sailing vessels. Again they all look alike to you. However your navy friend could ,if he were there, point out the man of war, the first rater having 120 guns made up of 30, 32 pounders and 34, 24 pounders and maybe 12, 16 pounders, the other 24 made up of carronades. Next there would be second raters and third raters, their distinctive gun types ranged on the lower decks in the case of the 32 ponders and in the ends in the case of the carronades. There would be no guessing as sometimes the type of ship is a matter of life and death. Funnily enough the same is true for the 5thCentury BC. There are Biremes (2 banked galley), Dekeres (a ten), Dodekeres (a twelve) and the Escoseres (a twenty) over there not to be confused with the Eikosoros (twenty oared galley, also merchant ship) unloading on to the quay, and there is the Olympia, a Hexeres (6) one of the smaller ships unless you count the dikrotus (two banked).Two methods of identification are in use here, the numbering of the rowers to a section of oar, and the number of oars to a side, the latter where the number is small. Galleys have three decks in the case of triremes and as noted for the others. They may be on the small side like the Olympia, a Hexeres (6) where a single man handles a single oar or larger where several men are assigned to an oar. This is apparent when one reads such histories as those of Polybius where when describing a navel action he always identifies the size, 16, 7, 8, etc. How can he tell in the heat of battle which is which .Why easily, he counts down from the gunwale to number of oars and that gives his basic six. If the oar is slightly larger it is handled by two men and if larger still by three men. It is a simple matter to add three oars and then double the number. If you think about it is the only way one could discern the ship size after all they did not paint the numbers upon the prow. Oars men where known as Kopeus and the inner oarsmen as Kopodetes or oar thong man. These were unskilled and took their cue from the Kopeus. ------------ About the author Mike Haran: I write articles for military and hobby publications. I Hope to eventually combine some of them into a book. Email: 4258529II@canada.com Tell a friend about this site! ------------ |
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