The history of the warships of ancient Greece

The earliest description of Greek warships is mentioned by Homer in the Iliad and the Odyssey. His work relates to the events around 1100, which he wrote about in 800. His description, then, is probably more in line with what was going on at his time. Homer described these ships as swift, which would fit in well with the representations of low, sleek hulls seen in contemporary ninth-century artwork. They were undecked and described as hollow, with benches where the rowers could work and where the crew could rest. There was a forward and aft deck, allowing for a lookout and the captain’s quarter and command area.

There were several different types and sizes of the galley with the smallest having twenty oarsmen, presumably ten on each side; the fifty oars or penteconter, with a single bank of twenty-five on each side, probably was the main troop transport and warship. There was a 100-oar ship as well, which was a large transport ship, and although Homer does not mention it, in the ninth and eighth centuries, there was a triaconter, or thirty-oar ship. A penteconter would run about 125 feet in length, with a beam about 13 feet. A triaconter would be about 75 feet long, while twenty-oar ships were some 50 feet long.

Greek trireme. (The Metropolitan Museum of Art/Joseph Pulitzer Bequest, 1942)

The ships would beach at night so that the sailors could rest, and Homer said that they were vulnerable to attack by the Trojans, meaning that during his age, this was a common mode of defense and attack. The hulls were low so that individuals could stand, nearly reaching the top of the gunwale. The hull was black, either from being painted or smeared with pitch. Homer in his Iliad says the profile of the warship looked like “straight horns,” like cattle in the field. These ships had a keel with both a stem and stern posts, gunwales, and beams, which may have served as the rowers’ benches.

The most common types of wood used were oak, poplar, pine, and fir, with the latter also making up the masts and oars. There seems to have been only a single steering oar, which may in fact have been the Mycenaean type, since by the eighth century, ships already had double steering oars, which became the standard. There was a single sail midship, which could be raised and lowered on a mast. The eighth-century representations show a ram, which Homer does not mention.

It appears, then, that Homer was expressing that the warships were really troop transports. The ram probably occurred after the fall of the Mycenaean age and arose during the chaotic time of the great migrations. Its introduction revolutionized naval warfare, turning ships from troop transport vehicles into actual warships. This meant that the new ships had to be able to withstand the shock of a ram. In particular, the bow had to be reinforced since this would be where many of the initial blows would take place.

The bow is now a large mass, unlike in the earlier ships, which had the bow and stern being similar. Some ships without these superstructures were still used, but they were probably reserved for reconnaissance and dispatches. The representations of those with superstructures occur within the framework of combat. The superstructure was a deck perhaps two feet above the rowers, and from some representations, warriors appeared on this deck and rowers were not represented. It ran the whole length, but not side to side, so an opening existed in the middle. There was a high, short platform on both bow and stem; the forward had protective shielding and was used for sighting and fighting.

The next major development was the creation of the two-banked galley. This would allow a ship to take full advantage of the ram and the raised deck, as it would give the ship more speed and force to attack an enemy ship. To add more oars, one could widen the hull and put more rowers on a single oar or put more rowers on the same bench, each with his own oar. Both required the hull to be enlarged, which potentially reduced speed and agility. Another method, the one that the Greeks adopted, was to put the rowers superimposed or stacked lines. It allowed for a narrow and fast hull, while the rowers remained seated. Its chief disadvantage, though, was that it required a well-trained crew and that it was somewhat high above the water, which decreased its stability. The oars would work in unison and allow the ship to move quicker.

The addition of another layer of rowers resulted in the addition of a second deck. As such, a fifty-oar, two-banked galley would only be half as long as its single-banked sister ship, only 65 feet compared to 125 feet. The ship would be more robust and seaworthy. The superstructure still existed, and it became a fighting platform since there was no seating. The evidence for this development came first from the east, from the Assyrians, and it was probably imported and adopted by the Greeks.

The next major development, and the one that would make the Greek world the center of naval warfare and technology, was the trireme, coming from the Greek word trieres which means “three-fitted” but has produced a broad discussion concerning what the trireme design looked like. The names of the earlier ships, triac- onter and penteconter, are easy enough to understand since they related to the number of rowers (thirty and fifty, respectively).

The trieres, however, does not reflect the total number of rowers. Later ships continued this idea, with tetreres meaning “four-fitted” and penteres meaning “five-fitted.” The main theory was that a trieres had three banks of rowers, while a tetreres had four banks, and so forth. A rival theory then arose in the sixteenth century, proposing three rowers, each with his own oar, but sitting on a common bench, three abreast. This became the predominant theory at that time. Finally, in the twentieth century, the original theory prevailed through examination of representations and modern reconstructions.

The new design was adopted gradually since it required more training and structures. The Corinthians were given credit for the creation of the new ship. By 600, the fleets outside the Greek world, such as in Egypt and Phoenicia, had already used the trireme. The penteconter still continued to be the main Greek ship of the line. By the end of the sixth century, however, the new ship began to prevail in Greece. The oars were each the same length, about thirteen-and-a-half feet. The ship’s length was about 120 feet, while its width at the top was about 16 feet, from gunwale to gunwale 12 feet, and, at the bottom 10 feet. The ratio of the width of the hull (gunwale) to length was about 10:1.

The lowest line of rowers, the thalamites, rowed their oars through ports lined with a leather bag (ascoma) since they were only about a foot and half above the waterline and the leather prevented water from gushing in. This line had 27 rowers on each side. The next line or middle row, the zygites, also had 27 rowers per side. They were above and slightly ahead of the thalamites. Their oars were just below the gunwale. The final group, the thranites, was above and ahead of the zygite and sat on special benches above the gunwale. The oars were set in the hull about two feet from the side of the ship and were the most difficult to row since they had a sharper angle than the other two rows of oars. There were 31 rowers in this bank. Since the hull curved aft, the extra rowers were probably located here since they could not be accommodated in the lower two banks. There was, then, a total of 170 rowers.

The Athenians used fewer marines on their triremes and relied mainly on their ships’ ability to maneuver and ram to win a battle. The Corinthians and Syracusans would ram prow to prow and then board the enemy ship, so they required more marines. In the fourth century, there was a distinction between the old and new trireme. This probably pointed to the new types and methods of construction. Some were called fast triremes, which probably meant that they were in the best shape and could sail fast due to no need for repair, not that they were specifically built for speed.

The increase in the number of naval ships meant that there was a change in tactics. Originally, the ships ferried the troops to a landing site, where they would attack on land, as described by Homer. With the advent of the ram, the ships could attack an enemy at sea and force the battle to take place there. The creation of the deck allowed these ships to fight at sea as both a ramming torpedo or as a staging ground for a land fight aboard a ship. The creation of two banked galleys allowed more speed, while the ultimate creation of the trireme afforded speed, agility, and power. The tactics then required the ships to change from a mere source of transportation to an actual fighting fleet.