on QUINQUIREMES

intro and why
    The big oared warship was popularized in the ancient world by Dionysius of Syracuse around 399 BC.  Dionysius' designs for tetreres and penteres set off an arms race in the Mediterranean that mainly consisted of building larger and larger ships.  (Illsley 2)  Most fighting in Greek and Roman times was done on land, and the bigger the ship, the more men and equipment could be efficiently shipped in (chiefly to sieges).  (Illsley 4)
    Ptolemy's gargantuan "forty" ship, built in 240 BC, represented the peak in ship size; the race then tapered off until the battle of Actium in 31 BC, after which it stopped because the Romans were basically in control of everything.
    The largest ships were truly huge, probably slow and hard to manoever.  The quinquireme described here would have been a larger-than-average vessel, likely a troop transport; it would have been manoeverable, however, and defensible, and capable of attacking other ships.
 

ship: hull, keel and deck
    The design for most Roman warships came from the famous reverse-engineering of a captured Carthaginian quadrireme.  In turn, the Carthaginians may have been inspired by Phoenician designs.  It's possible the Egyptians were also involved in the warship's evolution since they assembled ships' hulls out of mortised and tenoned boards long before the Greeks and Romans.  (Oleson 10.63)  A quinquireme's hull would have been made of horizontal lengths of board carved with mortises and with protruding tenons; the joints would be reinforced with wooden dowels hammered through the tenons and adjoining planks.  In the same way that walls were strengthened by laying bricks over the joints of previous courses, hull planks were offset to reduce the number of places at which the ends lined up.  This made it less likely that the hull would split open under stress.  Mortise and tenon joints would occur no more than about 10" apart.  The mortise and tenon design was especially favourable because it could be constructed with shorter planks, and trees in the Mediterranean tended to be short.  As well, it was light; a quinquireme was built to be light and fast, like a racing scull.
    It is commonly held that the hulls of ancient Greek and Roman ships were mostly constructed before assembly of the ribs.  Construction of a quinquireme would start with laying down a keel; the first course of boards would be joined directly to the keel with mortises and tenons.  All boards would be smoothed and shaped for an exact fit.  The ribs would be added once there were enough hull planks to nail them to.  Caulking was usually unnecessary, as any swelling in the wood would improve the seal.  The outside of the hull would be pitched or thinly sheathed in lead to protect from rot and from barnacles and wood-boring sea life.  Like most long, fast ships of the day, a quinquireme would probably have had reinforcing cables running from stem to stern, inside the hull or along the outside.  (Oleson 10.67)  The cables would be tightened to reduce stress on the hull, possibly during beaching or launching or in bad weather.
    Covered housings for rowers protruded along each side of a quinquireme.  These served to expand the protected interior of the ship to permit more rowers on the upper oars.  (Illsley 6)  It is usual in Greek and Roman ship design for more people to be seated at the upper oars and fewer at the lower oars.  (Upper oars were necessarily longer, which made them heavier.)
    Depending on where and how it would be used, the wood that went into building a quinquireme would be carefully chosen with regard to flexibility, strength and resistance to rotting.  In his Enquiry into Plants, Theophrastus mentions a preference for silver fir, pine or cedar in the construction of long ships.  (Oleson 10.62)  Keels of warships were almost always made of oak for strength in battle and during beaching.  Cypress wood was also popular.  Pliny mentions fir masts; fir trees are light and grow tall.  (Oleson 9.13)  Nails and almost all metal fittings on a quinquireme would have been made of bronze.  Bronze is a more expensive material than iron, but its longevity and resistance to rust makes it more cost-effective in the long run.
    Like most polyremes, the quinquireme was designed to have a minimum of safe freeboard.  This kept rowers close to the water, and therefore, oars short; but it also made the ship unsuitable for high seas and somewhat vulnerable to ramming amidships.  (Illsley 6)  Because the quinquireme had a relatively shallow draft, however, it was probably difficult to hole below the waterline.
    Decorative painting could be applied to the ship using special wax paints that wouldn't wear off in ocean conditions.  (Oleson 10.67)

    Most Greek and Roman warships tended to be built with the keel curling upwards at the stern.  An ornamental extension might be added to the aft curl to form an overhang.  On a Roman quinquireme this overhang would support the ship's banner or other insignia.
    In most cases, a straight or curved beam would be jointed vertically to the other end of the keel to form the bow.  There would be a bronze-sheathed prong at the bottom of the bow, possibly a continuation of the keel, and a bronze ram fixed higher up.  Ships with a bow prong or ram would have to be beached stern first, and this may explain the popularity of the upward-curving stern design.

    Like most polyremes, the quinquireme would be decked over to protect the rowers and to simplify hand-to-hand combat.  A house or awning would usually be erected at the stern for the vessel's commander.
    A quinquireme might have a tower between its mainmast and stern, built with an arched base to keep weight low and decks wide.  Temporary platforms could be added on the bow and stern of a quinquireme to give archers the advantage of height in attacking the crew of other ships.  (Illsley 7)  Ship towers would likely be crenelated to accommodate archers.  Rows of shields fixed to the railings on the upper deck would help protect troops and other personnel on deck.
    Because of the Greek and Roman emphasis on boarding and using land-style fighting, it is very likely that a quinquireme might have been equipped with larger weapons such as ballistae.  The ship's tower may well have been intended as an artillery platform.
    A quinquireme's anchors would have been stored on deck towards the bow.
 

oars: rowing and steering
    It's not definitely known what the "quinquireme" designation means.  Certainly, having five banks of oars would be clunky and impractical: so much height would be needed to accommodate the rowers that the ship would be critically unstable across the beam.  As well, the oars on the top layer would either have been impracticably long, or would easily have tangled with those of lower banks.  Instability would result, too, from having five men on each oar.  (Illsley 2)  Rather it is commonly held that "quinquireme" referred to a ship with two banks of oars, three men on each top oar and two on each bottom oar.  The top oars would have been necessarily longer and heavier, and would have required more force to be effective.

    A quinquireme would have been steered by two big oars on each side of the ship, just before the stern.  Such oars were turned easily by a tiller.  They were mechanically more effective, but also more vulnerable than the rudder invented in medieval times.  (Oleson 10.70)
 

sails and oars vs. sails
    A quinquireme would have a large mast for a square sail set amidships; the mast would extend right down to the keel.  Heavy equipment could be moved around or in and out of the ship by rigging the main yardarm as a crane.  Usually there was a small mast on the bow or between bow and mainmast for a similarly rigged square sail.  There is some evidence for use of topsails, rigged between the yardarm and the tip of the mast, to harness the highest and fastest winds accessible.  It is possible that the Greeks and Romans used triangular or lateen sails, or converted square sails to lateens using vertical cords called brails.  (Oleson 10.86)  Sailors could have changed the shape of a sail by loosening or tightening the brails, and then tilted the yardarm to produce a working lateen, but there is much controversy surrounding this theory.  Lateen sails can be used for sailing towards the wind, but square sails are best for power.
    Sail power was added by raising sails and subtracted by lowering or reefing them.  Air moves faster the higher up it is because it encounters less friction with the ground or water.  The Greeks appreciated this effect, but thought that it was caused by a levering action along the length of the mast.  (Oleson 10.70)
    Ropes on a quinquireme would have been made of hide or hemp; sails would be linen, made from flax.  In Natural History, Pliny the Elder comments amusedly that flax, a kind of grass, is vital for sea travel, despite its being grown on land.  (Oleson 10.71)

    Oars and sails seem to have been used in concert.  The rowers would take over when the wind dropped or became too strong for safe use of sails; oar power was also used to manoeuvre quickly in battle and gain speed for ramming.  Oars might also have been used at the same time as sails when time was of the essence.  A quinquireme would have had around 300 rowers.
 

launching and beaching
    Ships were usually launched from beaches with the aid of log rollers; shipyards used greased slipways which required fewer people.  Generally, a full crew of rowers and other personnel would be able to launch or beach their ship.  (Oleson 10.67)  In some cases blocks and cables might be used in addition to brute force.
    A quinquireme would be beached for repairs, but also whenever it was not to be used for awhile (overnight or in bad weather, for example).  Having the ship out of water from time to time prevented waterlogging of the hull and thus loss of speed.
 

corvus, boarding and ramming
    Ancient sea tactics treated ships much like movable pieces of land battlefield.  When ships got close, marine soldiers would board an enemy ship and subdue its crew hand-to-hand.  A typical 3rd century quinquireme would carry around 120 marines.
    The Romans came up with a particularly ingenious device for boarding called a corvus.  It consisted of a railinged wooden gangway four feet wide and 36 feet in length.  One end was joined with a hinge to a swivel set into the bow decking of a ship.  The result was a kind of drawbridge that could be dropped on either side of the ship or across the prow.  The free end of the gangway had an iron horn that would punch through an enemy ship's deck when it hit.  The horn would hold the ship alongside while soldiers boarded and attacked.  (Illsley 7; also Oleson 12.17)  Until it was to be used, the gangway was held up with lines running from the outward end to a pulley on a mast at the centre of the swivel; the gangway could also be raised by way of the same lines.  When one line was used on either side, a spacer was added to keep them apart so they wouldn't obstruct the gangway.  If marines could board directly onto the enemy ship, they wouldn't bother walking across the corvus, in which case it could be used as a simple graplin to hold the ships together.
    The housings built along either side of a quinquireme to protect the rowers were also decked to provide a jumping-off point for marines.  (Illsley 6)

    Because of the emphasis on ramming, speed and manoeuvrability were prized in the design of ships.  Ramming broke oars and confused or interrupted rowing, broke hull planking and sometimes did frame damage to a ship.  The trim of a ship could sometimes be deliberately altered to lower the bow (and the ram) and damage enemy ships below the water line where they could not be repaired without beaching.  (Oleson 10.90)
    A simple device called a "fire bucket" might also have been used to set enemy ships alight automatically on ramming them.  An open bucket of burning pitch or some other flammable material would be hung out over the bow of a ship in such a way that the impact of ramming would cause it to drop onto the other ship.
    On ramming an enemy ship, a quinquireme would have to back off quickly so as not to give the enemy a stationary target or allow them to board.
 

beginning and end
    A Roman quinquireme would be inspected before it began active service.  Barring acts of nature or misfortune in combat, a well-constructed and properly maintained quinquireme might have a working lifespan of several decades.
 

Bibliography / References

Illsley, J.S.  "History and Archaeology of the Ship: The Hellenistic Age 323-31BC." http://cma.soton.ac.uk/HistShip/shlect27.htm  1999; last accessed 3 / 29 / 2002.  Unit 27 in a series of lecture notes.  Notation (Illsley #) refers to paragraph number.

Mullini, Salvatore.  "L'Isola Virtuale" http://www.isolavirtuale.it/immagini00.html  last accessed 1 / 1 / 2005.  In Italian.  Includes CG reconstructions of a quinquireme, useful in understanding bow and stern details, as well as all other major aspects of exterior.

Oleson, John P. et al.  Greek and Roman Technology: A Sourcebook.  New York: Routledge, 1998.  Notation (Oleson #.#) refers to chapter and section.

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