Re: Rightarm Islanders from donald_at_nhNKAUpXVTBBj4cjz197IYMVief_x2hCHwtkXWLgKdbwD2OZYpjesqAW2MpG_fMaJhOL8 on 2007-09-08 (World of Glorantha)

From: donald_at_nhNKAUpXVTBBj4cjz197IYMVief_x2hCHwtkXWLgKdbwD2OZYpjesqAW2MpG_fMaJhOL8
Date: Sat, 08 Sep 2007 02:17:01 GMT

In message <fbseva+e4uo_at_eGroups.com> "bryan_thx" writes:
>
>> Could be, but triremes also had sailors. A small number of people
>> who handled the sails and other boat handling tasks probably under
>> the authority of the helmsman. I think those are the positions the
>> RAI people would fill.
>
>Even there, a lot of it is muscle. For the America's Cup races, they
>recruited semi-professional athletes with no sailing experience for
>some boats as grinders (rope crankers basically).

I don't think that's comparable at all. The America's cup boats have a bigger crew than the sailing crew of a trireme and a merchantman of that period had even fewer. That's with all the modern technology which makes a modern boat easier to sail.

>Absolutely there are things that take years to learn, and I'm sure the
>RAI filled most of those rolls--but a lot of the people in the islands
>have those skills. The ones who can turn a bunch of turnips into
>rowers are probably harder to replace, along with the ones who
>specifically know about the sailing details of the galleys.

And the ones who have the skill to take soundings in tricky waters. Plus all sorts of other jobs which as a non-sailor I'm ignorant of. Sure there's lots of muscle work but it's only when long distance voyages away from port became common that crews got big enough to have a high proportion of unskilled sailors. Even then the biggest crews were warships where most of the crew were needed to man the guns.

-- 
Donald Oddy
http://www.grove.demon.co.uk/