Re: Rightarm Islanders (long)

From: donald_at_ur_SoBYPTR9dzI8Pz5Z0LE7DSDtJiONIzYh2nTFNDhXhyvKX2Alyg8-E59O-v-q4TyIsw
Date: Fri, 14 Sep 2007 20:10:57 GMT

In message <fcei1u+cq0b_at_eGroups.com> "andrew968859" writes:
>>
>> From my reading of the subject many years ago triremes were a step
>> in an arms race involving bigger and bigger galleys. They are best
>> known because the Greeks used triremes to defeat the Persian biremes
>> at Salamis. Subsequently quadriemes and quinquiremes were also used.
>
>And bigger numbers as well. 6ers and 7ers were common in the fleets
>of Alexander's successors.

I'm not sure they were common. They existed, Cleopatra had a Septireme, but they may have been for display rather fighting. I'm not aware of any battles where even Quad and Quinquiremes were used.

>It is unlikely that ships larger than triremes had extra banks of
>oars. The most convincing account I've seen said that a quadrireme
>had two banks of oars with two men per oar, a quinquereme one bank of
>two-man oars and one of three-man oars, and so on.

Has that debate been resolved yet? I remember it from 20 odd years ago. The issue is horribly confused because even in a trireme there are only two levels of rowing benches but each oarsman has a separate oar. The inner rowers oars from the top bench appearing as a separate bank between the others. Unfortunatly there aren't more than a few illustrations known of anything bigger than a trireme never mind any solid evidence.

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