Mycenaean War Galley by Woodrat - 1:48 - Shell first Plank on Frame

[mtaylor]

Dick, the photos didn't come through.   Try re-loading them.

[woodrat]

4 hours ago, mtaylor said:

Dick, the photos didn't come through.   Try re-loading them.

Thanks, Mark. Here are the missing pics. The mast is seen lying on its crutch. The upper bank of rowing benches is now added

Cheers

Dick

[Louie da fly]

Beautiful work as usual, Dick. She's really starting to take shape.

 

Steven

[woodrat]

Much to my surprise I seem to have built a forecastle! Once the upper bank of rowers was inserted, the central walkway (or galumphing platfrorm for warriors) was planked. The lines of pilons lining the walkway will be used for the housing of shields. In the after part of the walkway a large compainioway is seen which will give access to the underdeck and to the stern. I need to give some consideration to where water would be stored. Weapons and food could be stored under the central walkway/deck. Would water be carried in amphorae or skins??

As these vessels were not ocean crossing, large amounts of water and food would not have been carried. They would travel along the coast from beach to beach and live off the sea and land, presumably extorting provisions from locals as they went.

 

When not in use it is likely that the mast and yard were lowered onto the crutch and derigged. The mast and yard would have been lashed along the central walkway until next needed..

Next job is the ox-hide weather-and arrow-shield for the upper bank of rowers

 

Cheers

Dick

[woodrat]

The accommodation for the steersman at the stern is installed. At the forward end, a partial platform behind the stempost allows the head warrior to brutalise the natives but allows him to duck behind a pavise should the natives get too uppity. Note the bird shaped figurehead roughed out. This has been seen on several pottery depictions of these vessels.

Dick

[Louie da fly]

Very nice. I think you've captured the shape of the figurehead (as shown on the far left fragment of the the first picture) very well.

 

Steven

[Ian_Grant]

Nice model!  I'm interested in the mast step; I'm making a Roman galley and I'm not sure how to depict this. I am sure it didn't drop down through a hole in the deck or they'd never be able to pull it vertically out by hand. It seems your crew hoists the mast to vertical, and lashes it to the sturdy upright? Would that sort of thing be applicable to my galley, does anyone know?  I have several books on galleys but this detail is not covered as far as I have found.

[Louie da fly]

10 hours ago, Ian_Grant said:

I'm interested in the mast step; I'm making a Roman galley and I'm not sure how to depict this.

Ian, I've posted some information for you on your quadrireme build log.

 

Steven

[woodrat]

There is ample evidence from art of the Old Kingdom of Egypt onwards for hogging trusses. Hogging is the tendency for a boat, when on the crest of a wave with its stern and stem unsupported, to bend in its mid-section. This risks the boat breaking up. In order to prevent this the egyptians looped heavy rope around the stern of the boat, ran the rope over crutches along the centreline of the boat and looped around the stem of the boat. The rope was tensioned with a Spanish windlass. This relieved much stress from the joints of the boat and made it more seaworthy.

As the mycenaean war galley would also have a tendency to hog, it is reasonable to suppose that some form of hogging truss would have been employed on these seagoing vessels. As no art or shipwrecks from the Bronze Age have survived which show a hogging truss, it is a matter of speculation as to how this would have been done. So, let’s try.

In the trieres (trireme) of the Mediterranean of several hundred years later there are references to what were called the hupozomata (hupozoma singular). This term means an undergirding and was meant to longitudinally strengthen the trireme to do much the same job as a hogging truss. There has been much argument in the learned literature as to whether the strengthening rope passed under the keel, around the outside of the hull or along the centreline of hull. Without belabouring you with the arguments, the first option is not likely as the rope would prevent launching.

The present consensus is that hupozomata (and in a trireme there were likely several of these) passed along the centre line of the hull under the main beams and was connected with a bridle of plaited rope (koruphaia) passing around  the stern of the vessel. The other end of the hupozoma was  attached at the stem somehow or encircled it. Also there was a mechanism (tonoi or entonoi) which allowed tensioning of the hupozomata. We don’t know what this mechanism was but Plato mentions a “spindle” of some kind. As rope changes its length depending on whether it is wet dry, such a mechanism would have to permit adjustment while the vessel is at sea.

To demonstrate how important the hupozomata were, the greeks only applied them to those triremes which were in active service and removed them from inactive triremes. In other words, the triremes were not allowed to go to sea without them installed and tensioned.

To return to our war galley, clearly a much shorter vessel than a trireme, structural integrity was just as important in the Bronze Age but they may used simpler methods. So, I postulate a mechanism intermediate between the simple hogging truss of the egyptians  and the complicated hupozomata (for, after all, they were just another way to do a hogging truss) of the age of the trireme.

 

And I have a cunning plan which cannot fail

Dick

Edited May 16, 2023 by woodrat

[Roger Pellett]

Also, the Greek’s use of tenons between adjacent strakes of planking would have resisted shear stresses and hogging. 

 

Roger

[woodrat]

I felt the need for some colour so I have painted the Angry Duck. I hope its not too cartoon like. The knobs along  the neck and head are seen on several pottery images and may represent att achment points for feather or hair crest. The second crutch for the mast and yard is installed.

Next is the installation of "hogging truss"

Cheerio

Dick

[Louie da fly]

1. Yes, it's cartoon-like.

2. It might be possible to use shading to make it more naturalistic, as was done in the Middle Ages

Funeral effigy of Robert Curthose, Duke of Normandy (died 1134)

 

3. Given the Mediterranean love of bright plain colours, your version is probably historically correct.

 

 

Steven

[woodrat]

1 hour ago, Louie da fly said:

1. Yes, it's cartoon-like.

2. It might be possible to use shading to make it more naturalistic, as was done in the Middle Ages

 

1 hour ago, Louie da fly said:

3. Given the Mediterranean love of bright plain colours, your version is probably historically correc

Yes, I agree with your first and third option. It is likely that bright primary colours were used (the greeks loved painting up their sculptures) and addition of geometric patterns such as zigzag lines and spirals will help break up the cartoon like appearance. Also the knobs on the head will need to be extended along the beak

I also plan some oculi even though they are not seen on the pottery images. But I cant imagine any mediterranean sailor going to sea without them! The eyes on the duck are not enough.

Dick

[Louie da fly]

I'd agree about the oculi. It's interesting how small they are on the Maltese luzzu in the photo above. Unless the eye on the duck performs that function.

 

Steven

[woodrat]

3 hours ago, Louie da fly said:

Unless the eye on the duck performs that function

I opine that the eyes on the Duck are the eyes of the god. The oculi on the bow are the eyes of the boat. How else could it see where to go? You wouldn't trust a duck!

Dick

[Louie da fly]

18 hours ago, woodrat said:

You wouldn't trust a duck!

Them's fightin' words!

 

  

 

Steven

[woodrat]

The cunning plan has succeeded! Two tarred cables joined at the bow pass into either side of the bow and along beneath the main beams back to the stern platform where they emerge and are attached to a primitive "pulley". the other side of the pulley is attached to a "bridle" or koruphaia  looped around the stern. The "pulley" is tightened by a drum windlass. This then tightens the hogging truss.

 

Gad! How do I DO it?

Dick

 

Edited May 22, 2023 by woodrat

[Louie da fly]

A cunning plan indeed, my lord. But does it involve a turnip?

Edited May 22, 2023 by Louie da fly

[botra288]

Dick,  Your project is very interesting and a significant challenge! The research you are doing with the help of friends is simply fascinating! I will continue to follow with great curiosity and learn from you

[woodrat]

Well.... it isn't a turnip but it's turnipish. It's actually an acanthus seed. The acanthus seed was regarded as a martial symbol by the greeks as its seed is catapulted out of its pod (look it up, it's fascinating). One image of a a bronze age galley from Tragana shows a stern ornament like an acanthus seed.

I have made the oars and tentatively fitted two of them

Dick

[Louie da fly]

Fascinating, Dick. With each new detail she becomes more and more interesting. Are all the oars the same size? (i.e. are those in the lower bank the same length as those in the upper?)

 

Steven

[woodrat]

4 hours ago, Louie da fly said:

Are all the oars the same size? (i.e. are those in the lower bank the same length as those in the upper?)

No, I was forced to shorten the lower bank oars a little. The lower bank oars were probably stored separate to the upper bank when not in use. Maybe they were colour-coded?

Dick

[Louie da fly]

The reason I asked is that I came across a report of a (trireme?) galley built for (I think) Napoleon III) in the middle of the 19th century which had widely differing oar-lengths and they had terrible trouble because of the pendulum effect - different lengths of pendulum have different natural swing rates (thank you Galileo) and the different banks of oars would therefore get out of sync with each other and cause mayhem.* But I should think if they weren't too different it shouldn't be a problem.

 

A guy I'm occasionally in contact with who sails a Viking ship replica told me that they don't worry too much about oar lengths (given that you'd think the ones at the ends would have to be longer due to the taper of the ship) - they seemed to be able to mix and match different lengths without causing any difficulty in rowing.

 

Prof Pryor's (theoretical)  reconstruction had different oar-lengths for the different banks, but of course it was never built so the effect was never tried out. But as I understand it, the Olympias had them the same length for all three banks, I think due to the Napoleon III factor. But it meant the angle from the horizontal of the top bank of oars was fairly extreme.

 

Fascinating subject.

 

Steven

 

* He also had a gigantic trebuchet (catapult) built,

apparently seriously intending to use it for siege warfare (remember, this is the mid 19th century). Its first shot went straight up and came straight down, demolishing the trebuchet.

[mtaylor]

13 hours ago, Louie da fly said:

* He also had a gigantic trebuchet (catapult) built,

apparently seriously intending to use it for siege warfare (remember, this is the mid 19th century). Its first shot went straight up and came straight down, demolishing the trebuchet.

Seems Murphy hit that one pretty hard.

[Ferrus Manus]

That actually happened during the Siege of Tenochtitlan in 1521. They built a trebuchet without combat engineers, and it did exactly that. Last time the weapon was ever used in combat. Both the Spanish and Aztec versions of the story recall, in detail, the trebuchet incident. Look it up. 

Edited June 29, 2023 by Ferrus Manus

[woodrat]

The beast nears completion. It is not a pretty thing.

Dick

Edited July 5, 2023 by woodrat

[Louie da fly]

Amazing. Odysseus would have felt at home on board this vessel.

[GrandpaPhil]

Very cool!

[Boccherini]

Kudos on the completion of an interesting project Dick.

Before setting foot on a vessel like that, I'd learn to swim, then secure a cast iron contract guaranteeing they would they venture no further than 100 metres offshore, at any time (including trips up and down rivers).

 

Grant.

[woodrat]

2 hours ago, Boccherini said:

Before setting foot on a vessel like that, I'd learn to swim, then secure a cast iron contract guaranteeing they would they venture no further than 100 metres offshore, at any time (including trips up and down rivers).

Exactly, Grant. They would hug the coast, beach it at night and snug down in inclement weather. They also would have many stone anchors for ballast. But still not a very stable vessel although the oars would help stability a bit

Dick