Issue 113 - November 1998

Trireme Q&A

The Trireme Trust held a well-attended international conference in September at the River and Rowing Museum to review the experience of building and rowing the Olympias, launched in 1987, and to discuss modifications to the next trireme. Boris Rankov, chairman of the Trust and its rowing master, said that Greek literature indicates that Athenian triremes were capable of seven to eight knots cruising speed but that crews of Olympias had achieved only six knots. Tim Shaw, the original helmsman of Olympias, said that the Olympias is not fast enough because the crew is too cramped, oars kept hitting the crossbeams and it was impossible to stretch the handle past the rower seated in front. He said that a typical Greek oarsman was 168 cms tall, weighed 67 kg and could sustain an output of 10 kilowatts all day. But high acceleration was necessary in battle conditions and oarsmen understood the necessity of a long stroke, as demonstrated by Cornish pilot gigs in which the fixed seats are canted. Shaw recommended that a longer cubit measurement should be adopted and that seats should be canted by 18 degrees.

This theme was taken up by John Coates, designer of the Olympias, who ran through the evidence from which the design of Olympias had been gleaned and the elements which affect speed such as the shape, weight, stiffness and strength of the ship - concluding that timber held together by modern glues was the best form of construction. He plumped for raising the beams slightly, adding 10 per cent to a rower's stateroom and turning seats 18 degrees outwards. He also proclaimed that sliding in a trireme was not possible beyond the normal body movement of fixed seat rowing.

The champion of sliding theory, Dr John Hale of the University of Louisville, contributed an entertaining and challenging address with an eloquent delivery rich in quotations which would have been as welcome in the Forum as his physical presence would have been at the oar. Among others who contributed were Ian Whitehead on sailing the trireme, Ford Weiskittel, rowing master of Olympias and chairman of the Trireme Trust USA, Antony Dove with a fascinating account of long distances covered at speed by Cornish pilot gigs, Professor Hermann Wallinga of Amsterdam and Utrecht universities on admiral Xenophon and the speed of triremes, and Harry Rossiter on the physiology of long distance rowers.

The conference was also able to enjoy the trireme exhibit at the museum which features the design of Olympias and how her mysteries were unearthed, including a full-size segment demonstrating seating arrangements for Mark II. Leading players spent their second day in Oxford to pull together the conclusions of the papers and discussion.

If the opportunity to build Olympias II should arise, the Trust will be prepared. The current plans are to raise sponsorship at £15,000 per seat in an international basis.

© Copyright Christopher Dodd, 1998.