The Classical Era's Trade Boats: What Were They Like?

The classical era, which began around 500 BC, saw the use of various types of boats for trade and warfare. The most common type of vessel was the trireme, a three-tiered warship with one man per oar, which was used by the ancient maritime civilizations of the Mediterranean Sea, especially the Phoenicians, ancient Greeks, and Romans. Triremes were agile and fast, with a maximum speed of 8 knots, and played a vital role in the Persian Wars, the creation of the Athenian maritime empire, and its downfall during the Peloponnesian War.

Other types of boats used during the classical era include biremes, with two banks of oars, and penteconters, with a single row of 25 oars on each side. The Phoenicians, who were the first Mediterranean commercial empire, also used galleys and freighters, while the Greeks and Romans employed biremes and triremes for warfare.

In terms of trade, the classical era saw the development of various types of merchant ships, such as the argosy, a large trading vessel built in the Ragusea regions of Dalmatia and Venice, and the bireme, a wooden-hulled vessel used for both commercial shipping and naval warfare. The caravel, a small, highly maneuverable ship, was also used for trade and exploration during this period.

Overall, the classical era witnessed a diverse range of boats, from agile warships like the trireme to sturdy merchant vessels like the argosy, each designed to meet the specific needs of their respective civilizations.

The first true ocean-going boats were invented by the Austronesians

Austronesians were skilled navigators, using a variety of natural signs and a distinctive astronomy technique called "star path navigation" to determine the position of their ships relative to the islands. This allowed them to colonize a large part of the Indo-Pacific region, with their expansion starting around 3000-1500 BC and ending with the colonization of Easter Island and New Zealand in the 10th to 13th centuries AD.

The simplest form of ancestral Austronesian boats had five parts. The bottom was made from a single hollowed-out log, with two planks on the sides and two horseshoe-shaped wooden pieces forming the prow and stern. These parts were sewn together with dowels and lashings, and the boat was steered using an oar on one side, rather than a central rudder. Austronesians also independently developed various sail types during the Neolithic, with the crab claw sail appearing around 1500 BCE and the tanja sail following later.

The Austronesians' sailing technologies and vessels, including catamarans, outrigger ships, and single-outrigger boats, were adopted by other cultures through trade and colonization. This included the people of Sri Lanka, southern India, the Maldives, and the Laccadive Islands, who acquired the catamaran and outrigger boat technology. The Chinese also encountered large Austronesian ships during the Han dynasty (220 BC–200 AD), which influenced the development of their own maritime technologies.

The Austronesians' vast maritime trading networks laid the groundwork for the Maritime Silk Road, which became a major trade route connecting East and Southeast Asia with Europe and eastern Africa. They were the most widespread ethnolinguistic group prior to the 16th-century Colonial Era, spanning half the planet from Easter Island to Madagascar.

The first warships of Ancient Egypt were constructed during the early Middle Kingdom

The construction of ships in Ancient Egypt dates back to the Neolithic period, with the use of papyrus rafts on the Nile. The Papyrus boat, or "Cibora", gradually evolved into a basket-like shape and was commonly used until around 4000-3500 BC. These boats were made from papyrus, the most common herbaceous plant found in the Nile Delta wetlands, which had moderate buoyancy, good flexibility, and could be braided into different forms.

By the time of the New Kingdom, the Egyptian navy had become a crucial part of maintaining Egyptian power and influence abroad. The ships were used for transportation, as a platform for archers, and to destroy enemy ships. The Egyptians also used their ships for communication and supply purposes, with Thutmose III constructing a famous dockyard near Memphis to support his campaigning army.

While the early ships used for sailing the Nile were made from reeds, the ocean-going vessels were built with cedar wood. The use of cedar wood for shipbuilding can be traced back to the Predynastic Period, with boats commonly depicted on the pottery of the Naqada II Period. The reliefs from the 5th Dynasty mortuary temple of King Sahure at Abusir also show a sea-borne fleet, indicating that ocean-going vessels were used for military purposes as early as 2500 BCE.

The ancient Egyptians also had knowledge of sail construction, with bas-reliefs from the time of King Sahure depicting ships with sails. The use of sails, along with oars, allowed these ships to voyage as far as the east coast of Africa and India.

The ancient Egyptian warships were described as having a length of seventy-five cubits (41m), a breadth of sixteen cubits, and a speed of about three-quarters of iteru per hour (approximately 6.5 knots). They were equipped with archers and heavy crossbows, and had a crew of about 108 rowers, with additional soldiers on board. The ships also had partitions (bulkheads) to prevent them from sinking if they were rammed by the enemy.

Overall, the construction of warships during the early Middle Kingdom marked a significant development in Ancient Egypt's military capabilities and played a crucial role in maintaining their power and influence in the region.

Papyrus rafts were the first vessels of the Nile

The Cibora, or Papyrus boat, gradually evolved into the shape of a basket or a shell, perhaps as early as 6000-7000 BC. These boats were equipped with a manoeuvre bench, a portico for a paddle used as a drift, and a bipod mast with a lattice sail. Thor Heyerdahl, a Norwegian ethnographer and adventurer, experimented with papyrus boats in the 1960s, proving that raising the stern was essential to prevent the papyrus from becoming too waterlogged.

Papyrus boats had their limitations, with reduced buoyancy beyond a certain size and a length limited to 10 meters. Eventually, they gave way to wooden vessels. However, the use of papyrus rafts as the first vessels of the Nile demonstrates the ingenuity and resourcefulness of ancient civilizations in utilizing the materials available to them for transportation and trade.

The first galleys with a level of oars were built around the 13th century BCE

The first galleys were optimised for propulsion by oars and were used for warfare, trade, and piracy in the seas surrounding Europe. Galleys were the primary warships used by the ancient Mediterranean naval powers, including the Phoenicians, Greeks, and Romans. The galley remained the dominant type of vessel used for war and piracy in the Mediterranean Sea until the start of the early modern period.

The first galleys were generally undecked boats with a small foredeck and aft, and a small hold. They were built with a basic structure with a keel and pairs, with a plating made of wooden plates (the vats), assembled and held in place by mortises sunk into vertical notches and secured by tenons driven into the mallet. Galleys were equipped with various weapons, including rams and occasionally catapults until late antiquity, Greek fire during the Early Middle Ages, and cannons from the 15th century.

The first galleys had 15–30 pairs of oars, from monoremes with a single line of oars to triremes with three lines of oars in a tiered arrangement. Galleys were also equipped with sails, using basic square sails until the Early Middle Ages and later lateen sails.

The trireme was a type of galley used by the ancient maritime civilizations of the Mediterranean Sea

The trireme was fast and agile and was the dominant warship in the Mediterranean from the 7th to the 4th centuries BC. It played a vital role in the Persian Wars, the creation of the Athenian maritime empire, and its downfall during the Peloponnesian War. The Athenian trireme had two great cables called hypozomata, and carried two spares. These cables were considered important and secret, and their export from Athens was a capital offense. The Athenian trireme was about 120 feet long and 18 feet wide, with a shallow draught of about 1 metre. It displaced about 40 tons and was crewed by about 200 people, including 170 oarsmen, the deck crew, and a marine detachment.

The trireme was constructed to maximize speed, with a lightweight hull made of fir, pine, and cedar. The three rows of oarsmen were arranged in a staggered formation, with each man outboard of, and overlapping, the one below. This allowed the oar holes, or tholes, to be placed close to the ship's walls, keeping the centre of gravity low and maximising stability. The trireme was highly decorated, with statues, nameplates, and painted figureheads.

The trireme was succeeded by larger warships in dominant navies during the Hellenistic period, especially the pentere/quinquereme. However, triremes continued to be the mainstay of smaller navies, and were used by the Diadochi Empires, Syracuse, Corfu, Corinth, and Carthage. With the rise of Rome, the quinquereme ruled the Mediterranean, but during the civil wars after Caesar's death, a new warfare with light liburnas developed. By Imperial times, Rome controlled the Mediterranean, and the need for a powerful navy was minimal. In the Mediterranean, they remained in use until the very end of the 18th century.

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