>As long as all the maritimers are floating around discussing such things -- is
>there a good gamer-party vessel for the era? Any ship worth its salt
>(probably as a cargo ship) that can be crewed by under 10 people? My classic
>party size was 5, but I know it varies.
>
>In other words - is there a ship that would let the PCs be the whole crew, no
>NPCs needed?
In Homer's time, the standard oared ship had a crew of 20. It was probably 15-20 metres long, 3 metres wide, ten oars on each side, open-decked with a cargo capacity of 40 or so cubic metres.
Larger warships (pentekonters) had a crew of 50 (25 oars per side) - this was before the invention of biremes and triremes.
There were also smaller oared ships called keletes (singular, keles) which had just 10 or even 4 oars. Records describe them as carrying foodstuffs between Greece and Egypt in the 3rd century BC.
Sailing ships were a relatively late development in the Mediterranean - the earliest known picture of one dates to around 515 BC. These would only need a very small crew, but would also be very restricted by the wind. Early sailing ships could only travel when the wind was blowing in exactly the right direction, so spent a lot of time in harbour waiting. (Having Orlanthi devotees on board may change this, of course)
There's even a story of a Greek trireme unshipping its mast and sail and leaving them behind when it needed to make a quick voyage (from Athens to Corfu), because the extra weight slowed the rowers down more than the benefit the sail would give!
Stephen
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