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- From: Dave Rickel <drickel@bounce.mentorg.com>
- Subject: Re: triremes
- Message-ID: <C1H2u4.F12@law7.DaytonOH.NCR.COM>
- Sender: military@law7.DaytonOH.NCR.COM (Sci.Military Login)
- Organization: Mentor Graphics
- References: <C15y9w.K6L@law7.DaytonOH.NCR.COM> <C17vrF.EvH@law7.DaytonOH.NCR.COM> <C19ny0.3Gs@law7.DaytonOH.NCR.COM>
- Date: Tue, 26 Jan 1993 17:49:15 GMT
- Approved: military@law7.daytonoh.ncr.com
- Lines: 47
-
-
- From Dave Rickel <drickel@bounce.mentorg.com>
-
-
- In article <C19ny0.3Gs@law7.DaytonOH.NCR.COM>, "patterson,george r" <patter@dasher.cc.bellcore.com> writes:
- |> The Roman ships of this period were typically sailed (or rowed) only
- |> within sight of land. It was common practice to anchor, or even haul out
- |> (though you're not going to beach a trireme) to sleep every night. This
- |> was also true of the earlier Greeks.
-
- Let's see. Scientific American a while back had an article on triremes.
- I don't remember the issue, you should be able to find it in an index. There
- is also a book, ENGINEERING IN THE ANCIENT WORLD, by Landels or something
- similar, that has a chapter on ships.
-
- >From what i recall, triremes were sailed mainly within sight of land--no
- compass, no chronometer. The mediterranean was only navigable for about eight
- months of the year (give or take, depending on how desperate you were). I'm
- not sure about the comment about not beaching triremes--i remember something
- about them getting waterlogged if they weren't. The Landels book guessed that
- the merchants could probably sail a point or two into the wind (i think that
- was the terminology--so that the angle from the direction your craft is
- pointing to the direction the wind comes from is about 70 to 80 degrees).
- That's another reason for sailing close to shore--that way the winds should be
- somewhat favorable at least twice a day.
-
- There was a comment about Ben Hur not being very factual on it's maritime
- portion. Quite right--galley slaves didn't come into being until later.
-
- The Romans were much less nautical than the Greeks, for what it's worth.
-
- |> Towards the end of this period, the lateen was becoming popular in the
- |> middle east, and that's a different story, but the galleys generally
- |> stayed close to shore for as long as they stayed in use. Some nations
- |> still used them into the 19th century, and they weren't completely
- |> outclassed until steam power became commonplace.
-
- Umm. These galleys were different from the biremes and triremes, and did
- use galley slaves. They tended to be good for sprints and for maneuvering
- in the confused winds close to shore (i'm not really contradicting the bit
- on winds above), and tended to be used for piracy.
-
-
- david rickel
- drickel@sjc.mentorg.com
-
-
-