Return to the main pageWarships have ignited the imagination of countless ages and innumerable authors. Few actually know the history of the warship, though. Purpose built warships originated in ancient Greece and Rome, two great Mediterranean powers. They both had invariably different navies, though. The construction of their warships were of different materials and had different needs and qualifications. They both had different methods to get their ships on the move. Finally, their ships performed quite differently in battle. The Roman navy�s quinqueremes were far superior ships in many aspects than Greek, mainly Athenian, triremes.
The construction and requirements of a Greek trireme differed from that of a Roman quinquereme. The materials used by both ancient cultures to build their ships were different. Roman ships were built out of cedar, a durable, red-coloured wood. Greek ships were constructed from lightweight, soft fir trees. The two navies also had their own ideas for ship weight, as well. Roman ships were heavy and could not be blown off course easily, should the ship be presented with unfavourable weather . Greek ships were, as Kenny McMahon put it; "� rather light and [was] blown off course when high winds arose."(Ancient Greek Methods of Boating and Sailing, Internet source) The requirements of a Roman quinquereme were somewhat different compared to the expectations of a trireme, too. Romans were not at all seafarers, and would have been devastated by the Carthaginian Empire�s navy in the First Punic War, had they not made use of their land battle experience at sea. Carthaginian captains preferred to ram enemy ships, a standard naval tactic until the event of naval artillery, so Rome countered their seafaring advantage with the �corvus�, a gangplank that effectively turned a sea battle into a land battle with a boarding party of soldiers. A Greek trireme was created solely to be a "..floating battering ram[s]"(Kentley, 20). This also has much to do with the trireme design. Stephan Schulz stated that "[Then,] around 800 BC, the ram (a bronze tipped projection from the bow (front) of the ship) was developed as a ship-to-ship weapon. Suddenly, speed and maneuverability became prime concerns." (Ancient Galleys, Internet source) Although heavier, Roman ships were constructed with far better protective wood than Greek ships, and they would suffer less of a navigational crisis in the unfortunate event of a storm due tom their weight. Roman ships were also designed to make use of soldiers, but could also ram enemy ships, like the expert seafarers of the Greek navy.
Although the construction and the requirements of Roman and Greek ships differed, one thing was similar: both quinqueremes and triremes were propelled by oars. Both navies had different ideas on how the use of the ships oars should be orchestrated, though. The Greeks decided that the best way to get a ship on the move was with three rows of highly trained men sitting on three tiers of different levels, hence �trireme� or in Latin, �trieres�, for the three tiers. The advantage to this was the high speeds that could be achieved. The disadvantage was that every man had to be highly trained, which required money to train and then pay for the oarsmen, and if one rower got out of synchronization with the others, the oars would become fouled upon each other and it would take minutes to untangle. The Roman approach to ship movement was: "just give me a ship good enough to do the job." (Parts of a Roman Warship, Internet source) The Romans had many banks of oars, each oar propelled by five men, most likely slaves, "�encouraged no doubt by the whip."(Woodman, 20) This eliminated the cost of training and paying oarsmen, and made the efforts of one man much less important. Unfortunately, "� the bigger the ship was, the greater the effort needed to move it." (Pearsall, 10) Propelling Greek and Roman warships was a somewhat similar task, even if they had different ways of arranging the oars, although the Roman quinquereme had a more cost effective and efficient oar arrangement.
Construction and speed were important, but Romans and Greeks used different battle tactics, and their ships revolved around these ideals. The Greeks were formidable seafarers, and they had successfully achieved many victories, such as the infamous battle of Salamis in 480 BC. This was against and invading Persian force, which was one of three attempts of invasion thwarted by the Greeks. The Greeks took advantage of their seafaring skills to use the ram. It would punch a hole in an enemy ship below the waterline and sink it. This tactic was known as �diekplous� (break formation and ram!) So effective was the trireme at this that Stephan Schulz stated: "The trireme was probably the most formidable ship ever designed for fighting with a ram."(Ancient Galleys, Internet source) Romans, on the other hand, were poor seafarers but expert soldiers. They took advantage of this by adapting the Carthaginian navy�s design of the quinquereme, a large, broad-beamed ship, and cramming it with soldiers. The idea was to use the soldiers to swarm aboard the enemy ship and massacre its crew. To get the soldiers across, the corvus, or �raven� was developed. It was basically a large gangplank with an iron spike at the end which dug into the enemy ship�s deck and allowed safe crossing, without the enemy ship escaping. Both Roman and Greek tactics were effective, but Greek tactics were mainly ship oriented, as their ships only carried about 15 hoplites, while Roman ships carried a boarding party of about 120 soldiers.
The Roman navy�s quinqueremes were much more superior warships than the Greek, mainly Athenian, navy�s trireme. The construction of Roman ships was of better material than Greek ships. The arrangement of the oars on Roman ships were much more cost effective and efficient. In battle, Romans achieved victory with much more efficiency than Greeks, preserving the enemy ship as a prize. In the end, though, a ship is still a ship. As John Ruskin once said: "Take it all in all, a ship is the most honourable thing a man has ever produced." (Woodman, 4)