Men of the Sea - Ships

From: Andrew Barton <AndrewBarton_at_...>
Date: Sun, 19 Dec 2004 15:11:01 -0500

There's an editing glitch in the example of 'Ships as Followers' on p. 11. Celakos's ship is described as a trireme but the reference to page 43 only leads to descriptions of 30 and 50 oar galleys, triremes are described on p. 22. The 'Sail Fast' skill for his ship is lower than the standard values for either type.

A trireme is only a good choice in a military campaign. Trireme are pure warships, historically they were the 'capital ship' for centuries. The need to pay a crew of nearly 200 makes them totally uneconomic for trading and the need to feed that crew makes them a poor choice for most exploring missions.

I recommend two historical novels by 'H.N. Turteltaub', (a pen name for Harry Turtledove, a trained historian turned fantasy author) - 'Over the Wine-Dark Sea' and 'The Gryphon's Skull'. They describe voyages by a pair of brothers from Rhodes in their fast merchant ship, in the interesting times just after Alexander's death. The stories have almost no magical elements but they give such a good picture of their period that they still have the feel of taking place in a very different world from our own.

Andrew