Roman Quinquereme and Archimedes’ Claw SIB by Glen McGuire - 1/500

This project was inspired by a fantastic build log on MSW – Ian Grant’s version of a working quadrireme.  My build is a ship-in-bottle diorama of sorts depicting the Roman Siege of Syracuse during the second Punic war, circa 212 BC.  The ship is a single-masted Roman quinquereme equipped with 180 oars, 6 scorpio artillery weapons, a corvus and an archer’s tower.  The main sail is emblazoned with the inscription, “Senatus Populusque Romanus” (translated The Senate and People of Rome).  The quinquereme rows thru choppy seas inside an empty bottle of Texas Pot Bourbon from a local distillery here in central Texas. 

The bottle is snagged by a mechanism invented by the Greek mathematician, Archimedes.  During the 2nd Punic war, King Hiero tasked Archimedes with devising a defense for the seawalls of Syracuse. The king’s concern was an amphibious assault from Roman quinqueremes.  Archimedes’ solution was to build a mechanical contraption which became known as the Claw of Archimedes.  

The claw hooked the prow of incoming Roman quinqueremes, lifted the front of the ship out of the water, then suddenly released it causing the ship to crash violently back into the sea.  The Greek historian Polybius described the result as such, “Many of the vessels heeled over and fell on their sides: some completely capsized; while the greater number, by their prows coming down suddenly from a height, dipped low in the sea, shipped a great quantity of water, and became a scene of the utmost confusion."