Roman ships were built differently to how we build our ships now.

We now build ships

using engineering science, but Romans had to use inherited techniques and personal experience.

Romans learned how to build ships from the Carthaginians, the Greeks, and the Egyptians.

Surviving written documents tell historians that Roman shipbuilders built the outer hull first,

then proceeded with the frame and the rest of the ship. Planks that were used to build the outer

hull was initially sewn together.

Before the First Punic War there was very few Roman warships. In 311 BC a committee

was set up to create a Roman navy. At the time Rome only had twenty warships. Rome initially

began to build more ships in response to the threat of pirates in the Tyrrhenian Sea. Eventually,

Rome's navy became the largest and most powerful in the Mediterranean.

Warships were built so that they would be fast, lightweight, and very maneuverable. Built

for speed, most warships were lightweight, cramped, and without room for storage or even a

large body of troops. Warships wouldn’t sink when damaged and after naval battles the damaged

ships would lay crippled on the surface. Warships didn’t have ballasts so that they could sail near

the coast. They had a ram which would be used to pierce the hulls or break the oars of enemy

ships. Warships used oarsmen and the wind for power, so they were traditionally very fast. Ships

could also be fitted for a corvus which was an eleven-meter-long platform that marines could

lower onto enemy ships so that they could easily board enemy ships.

The trireme was the dominant warship from the 7th to 4th century. These ships had three

rows with rowers in the top, middle and lower rows, there was about fifty rowers in every row.

Rowers were Roman citizens who were enrolled into the military. Triremes were later replaced

by quadriremes and quinqueremes. The quadrireme had four rows of oarsmen and the

quinquereme had five rows. These ships were much larger than triremes. According to Polybius,
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a Greek and Roman historian, the Roman quinquereme had a total of 300 rowers and there were

90 oars on each side. These ships were around forty-five meters long and five meters wide. It

was faster and performed better in bad weather than triremes.

Merchant ships were built to be able to transport lots of cargo over long distances and at a

reasonable cost. This meant that maneuverability and speed wasn’t a priority. Merchant ships

had V-shaped hulls which meant that they were unable to sail close to the coast. These ships

usually only had two large steering oars. The normal capacity for cargo on a Roman merchant

ship was between 100 to 150 tons. Cargo that could be found on merchant ships includes,

agricultural goods (grain, wine, oil, etc), raw materials (copper, marble, lead, etc), and more.

Merchant ships also had oarsmen. Roman cargo ships weren’t built until the 16th century. Both

merchant ships and warships used wind sails and rowers. In order to keep rowers in time and

coordinated an instrument would be played. A wind instrument was most commonly used.

Seamen relied on handed-on experience, local knowledge, and the observation of nature

to navigate. They would also sail by recognizing any remarkable landmarks. By 50 CE, there

were written directions for routes from Atlantic Europe to the city of Massilia, around the horn

of Africa, the Persian Gulf to India, and routes along the coast of north-west Africa. If the

weather conditions weren’t good this made sailing harder because they would be unable to see

land. When conditions weren’t good Roman mariners were forced to estimate directions from the

pole star, from the sun at noon, or from the wind. The Romans learned their navigational skills

from the Phoenicians. The Phoenicians were the first to apply astronomical learning to

navigation at sea.

The Romans knew that have a large naval presence was a crucial factor in the success of

any land campaign. Naval warfare had a lot of dangers. Adverse weather was the biggest threat
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and because of this, naval campaigns were limited to between April and November. Naval fleets

were commanded by a prefect. This position required someone who had great leadership

qualities. The captain held centurion rank. Crews were normally recruited locally and drawn

from poorer communities, but crews could also be made up of recruits from allied states,

prisoners of war, and slaves.

During naval battles there were few techniques that were used. Crews would normally

ram enemy ships with a bronze ram that would pierce the hulls or break the oars of enemy ships.

If the ram punched a hole in the hulls of enemy ships, then the ships would fill up with water and

sink. If the ram broke off oars, then the ships would be rendered useless and disable the ship. As

an alternative to ramming ships crews could also throw pots of burning pitch in order to burn

enemy ships. They could also use a corvus so that they could board enemy ships and fight

enemies as they would during a land battle.

An example of one of the naval battles they fought was the Battle of Salamis. The Battle

of Salamis is a battle that took place in 480 BC as a part of the Persian War. This battle took

place between the island of Salamis and the Athenian port-city of Piraeus. The Greek

commander, Themistocles, was able to lure the Persian fleet into the narrow waters of the strait

at Salamis by having a slave feed Xerxes, the Persian king, false information. This gave the

Greeks the upper hand because the Persians had difficulty maneuvering in the narrow waters.

After the Persians were lured into the straights they were surprised by a fleet of about 370 Greek

triremes. The Greeks used their methods of ramming and boarding the ships to gain their victory

over the Persians. The Greeks were able to sink about 300 Persian vessels and lost only about 40

of their own. As a result, to this lost Xerxes was forced to postpone his planned land offensives

for a year. This delay then gave the Greek city-states time to unite against him. Xerxes was never
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able to establish a firm foothold in Greece again. The Battle of Salamis is the first recorded naval

battle and is credited with being the battle that saved Hellenic culture. This victory caused the

Greek forces to win a freedom which would allow an artistic and cultural endeavor which

formed the foundations of Western culture.

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Work Cited:

http://www.history.com/news/history-lists/6-ancient-naval-battles

https://www.britannica.com/event/Battle-of-Salamis

https://www.ancient.eu/article/1028/roman-shipbuilding--navigation/

https://www.ancient.eu/Roman_Naval_Warfare/

https://www.ancient.eu/salamis/