Roman Warship

Pavlvs wrote:

The real stone was there to protect the archers from fire and flaming arrows. If a flaming arrow stuck into a wooden wall which was painted, the fire would spread due to the paint being flammable even when dry. The decks were easier to extinguish but the if the castle was framed in wood, it was cladded in stone much like the houses today built of wood and covered with brick veneer.

That's the first time that I've ever heard of that, and I have read many articles and books on Roman military history and archaeology over the past two plus decades.

Regardless, the Romans would have had several alternatives to oil paint, and several alternatives to stone for fire-resistant coverings. For example, they covered siege towers, sheds and galleries with untreated animal hides, with or without layers of wet seaweed under the hides. If that was good enough on land, it ought to have been just as good, if not better, at sea.

Besides siege equipment, another obvious ancient parallel would be elephant howdahs (towers), some of which are also depicted in contemporary art as looking stone-built. Obviously, they would not have used real stone for elephant howdahs, and the consensus is that they used wood with hide coverings. 

 

 

The real stone was there to protect the archers from fire and flaming arrows. If a flaming arrow stuck into a wooden wall which was painted, the fire would spread due to the paint being flammable even when dry. The decks were easier to extinguish but the if the castle was framed in wood, it was cladded in stone much like the houses today built of wood and covered with brick veneer.

Actually, I understand that the conventional view from a military history standpoint is that the castles were built of wood and other such light materials, and painted to resemble stone ...

falschimjager wrote:

That looks great! any idea on the kind of warship it is.

It is called a monoreme. It was a small warship that had only one bank of oars. The ship that was in the famous scenes in the movie Ben Hur was a Trireme. It had three sets of oars. That is why there were three men to a bench. The monoreme which had one man to a bench would be equivalent to a frigate or destroyer whereas the trireme would be the Roman equivalent to a battleship. The castle was actually built of stone and was where the archers would have fired from in close combat after the ship had rammed its opponent with the bow ram. Naval battle back then was like siege warfare at sea. They came alongside and fought like two mobile fortresses. The tactic of simply staying at a distance and sinking your enemy with cannon fire (or catapults as the Roman biremes and triremes were equipped with) did not appear until Elizabethan England. The mighty Spanish Armada then still used the siege warfare doctrine which was completely ineffective unless you grapple with your enemy. The British stayed away from the bigger Spanish Galleons and sank them with long range cannon fire. From then, Britannia ruled the waves.

Getting back to Rome, the monoremes were used for shore patrols and escort duties protecting the Roman merchant ships from pirates and the like. They were built for speed and agility rather than brute force and they were not equipped for long voyages like the "Scourge of Poseidon" as the Romans called their main fleet.

p.s., Beautiful building job!

Rod,

On the anchor, I can see rope that is wraped/tied around points on it.  It does not look like it's holding it down but simply use to dress it off, why is that?  And before you answer, I know you would not have put that there had it not been correct.  I just don't know why.

Jake

A very nice build Rod, I remember building this one when I was still at high school. You have done the model justice and I will definately be trying the indian ink method on rigging on a future build.

cheers,

Julian

That looks great! any idea on the kind of warship it is.