The trireme
Three banks of oars turn a ship into a ram travelling at ten knots.
- When
- —
- Duration
- 200 years
- Known to
- ± 100 years
- Era
- Iron Age, Holocene
Developed in the eastern Mediterranean and refined by the Greeks and Phoenicians from around 700 BCE, the trireme carries around 170 rowers on three levels in a light hull with a bronze-sheathed ram at the bow. It is a weapon rather than a cargo ship — fast, fragile, unable to stay at sea long, and devastating against anything it can hit broadside. Naval power becomes possible for states that can afford the crews.