Holy Country Warships

From: danhalberd <dan_at_HkLtuUDsIX5lypH6H_K85PObVnVcyIz8FJl7rOvuiqYT847s96AlGcxsyv5e6c1iOhBcDD5P>
Date: Sun, 03 Jun 2007 15:21:02 -0000

Does anyone know what sort of warships the Holy Country uses? Men of the Sea says on p47 that the Esrolians use triremes. However on p43 in the section on War Galleys it says that two versions are in use 50- oared and 30-oared. On p44-45 the Kethelan war galley Courage of Belintar is described as one of the fastest ships in the fleet, having an extra bank of oars in the stern and has 50 rowers. The illustration with the ship seems to show a cataphracht (fuly enclosed deck) bireme (two banks of oars) with a top bank of oars in an outrigger and with maybe 14 oars in each bank per side for a total of perhaps 56 oars so reasonably in line with the number of rowers described?

Now a trireme is a ship with three banks of oars and 150-170 rowers. A ship with 30 oars(in 1 bank) is a triakonter, 50 oars (in one bank) is a pentekonter. There was a fairly obscure ship type with which may have been about the length of a pentekonter but with 1 1/2 banks of oars and around 75 rowers called a hemiola. The Courage of Belintar looks like it could have originally been a triakonter and then had half a bank of oars added but this would make it a very small ship - and it looks fairly substantial in the picture - with a fore and aft castle, enclosed deck and an outrigger more like a quinquereme but this would need more like 300 rowers.