Looking for information on boat stowage aboard Roman 1st-century sailing vessel

[S. J. Knight]

I'm a historical fiction writer presently dealing with an incident described in Acts 27:16,17, where during cyclonic conditions,  an Alexandrian grain ship has to haul its towed (semi-swamped) longboat up onto the deck - described by the writer as being  'very difficult'. I have very little nautical knowledge, and am struggling to visualise how this might have been done in the absence of davits and, how and where it could have been secured on deck. Later in the record the sailors attempted to relaunched it to save themselves but the Centurion in charge cut the ropes and it 'dropped into the sea'.  So that indicates to me that hauling a boat on deck, and re-launching it from , was not unusual. But how on earth did they manage it? 
I have trawled the internet to find any helpful ideas, and your model ship world is the only place I've found which even mentions it.
If anyone can suggest answers,  from their own knowledge/experience, I would be so grateful.  Thank you.
 

[Keith Black]

 SJ, welcome to MSW. I don't have the answer to your question but I'm sure someone will have one for you shortly. Glad to have you aboard.

[allanyed]

Prior to the  17th century the largest boats were nearly always towed, at least on English boats, using two ropes, the boat rope and gust rope. This started to change during the 17th century for the English ships.  Smaller boats were carried on the ship midships.  Later, even larger boats could be carried on board.

 

Before davits were introduced about 1790 the boats were raised and lowered from the ship by tackle suspended from the main and fore yardarms.   They were stowed midships, on deck, or in larger ships on beams over the waist area.  Brian Lavery goes into some good detail on how this was done on page 233 of The Arming and Fitting of English Ships of War.  The following is his description of hoisting boats.

 

Because the largest boats were stowed between the mainmast and foremast, in the longest open space on the ship, a complicated tackle was needed for hoisting them in and out.  Draughts of boats often show ringbolts fitted inside the hull, which were used to attach the ropes used in hoisting.  The first stage was to raise the boat from its position amidships.  Two pendants hung from the masts, one from under the the top of the mainmast, the other from under the top of foremast.  When in use these were joined together by another rope known as the triatic stay, which was the same length as the boat.  A tackle was hung from the lower end of the pendants, one to lift each end of the boats.  Once the boat had been lifted, it had to be swung outboard.  The mainyard and foreyard were angled inward towards one another, and a tackle was extended from each yardarm to one end of the boat.  If the boat was heavy, the yards had to be supported with extra ropes in addition to the normal lifts.

 

There is more, but this is the gist of it.

 

Pics below may help.

 

Allan

[druxey]

The problem is that the rig of a New Testament era Alexandrian grain ship was very different from an 18th century man of war! A semi-swamped boat, even a small one, would have considerable weight. How this was wrestled aboard (in a storm, yet!) would be hard to imagine. An attempt lower it, once bailed, can be imagined with a pair of lines, presumably with some kind of block and tackle that were then cut away. 

[Seahawk1313]

Strong men and brut force.  I once recovered a 8 ft dingy in rough water by myself, getting up on deck 3 ft above the water.  Not easy but it can be done.  What is not said is the size of the boat nor the size of the crew. (?) -Hal

[Cristiano]

Since it is a "minor detail" regarding the daily life of a Roman sailor, it is hard to find informations.

In anycase generally I agree with allanyed: the service boats were towed.

regarding the possibility to use a mast like a crane, it was documented as a way to unload goods from the big Roman merchant ships, using the foremast. Vitruvius wrote of this.

In the Roman paintings and mosaics the service boat has always been shown towed (or not shown at all).

 

(The famous Nave Europa from Pompei)

 

 

 

 

Edited December 15, 2023 by Cristiano

[Keith Black]

 I can see a ship's boat being towed in favorable weather as a matter of course but in rough seas, with the possibility of being swamped or separated from,  I suspect the the ship's boat was brought aboard and lashed down. 

[Cristiano]

1 hour ago, Keith Black said:

 I can see a ship's boat being towed in favorable weather as a matter of course but in rough seas, with the possibility of being swamped or separated from,  I suspect the the ship's boat was brought aboard and lashed down. 

Of course, probably is correct, but it is not easy to find some additional and sound informations.

I saw that in many Italian archeological articles related to roman wreckage found in the sea, there are often reconstructions of the merchant ships like the one below, but I never dig further on the argument (the below one is related to the discovery of the "Nave di Marausa")

[S. J. Knight]

Thank you for these comments, sorry for the slow response. It's taken me all this time to figure out how to find my original question on this site and I was about to give up. I'm also unsure how to reply to particular answers separately. The fact of  the boat usually being towed,   is a given, but How it was hauled up during a dangerous storm  to save it from sinking,  and Where was it stowed was my problem.. 
Particular thanks to Cristiano, for that excellent picture, which is very helpful indeed, especially as it matches my own imagining of where the boat might have been stowed.!
Since posting, I have found on line a very old book quoting a fragment of translated text of a work written ?? years BC  which spoke of sliding down ropes, 'trusting to Fortune' and past the steering rudder to get into a towed boat. This was absolute gold, supporting my assumption that  bailing would be vital to reduce weight and that sliding down to it was not an implausible figment of my imagination.

As has been noted, there is very little info about the 'how' of hauling it up. Since a Roman grain ship (Corbita class, I think) had only one main mast there's only the one yard arm for a block and tackle hoist, which means figuring out how to drag it up from only the one point. I'm thinking that since I have sailors already bailing below, they might have ropes thrown down to them to attach either to tethering rings along one side  (sorry I'm a dunce at correct terms) or possibly passed under the thwarts. The boat can then, when emptied, and the men pulled up (we hope!) by hauled up by one side, using the block and tackle. Either using all the ropes tied together, or pulling up the  central rope by the mechanical means and the other side ropes using sheer manpower.   This would accord with the Acts 27 record (about which I am writing) states that getting the ship's boat up on deck was ' much work' /very difficult. 

I'm also wondering whether  the deep roll of the mother ship's hull (in the heavy swell) might even serve as a support to some extent as it tilts towards the other side and they drag the smaller boat over it in time with the swell to get the best advantage of the leverage.

So now I get to how on earth did they safely get it over the edge of the deck without wrecking something. My only solution to this is guessing that they used spare spars stored against the bulwarks, as rollers. A perilous undertaking in a heavy swell, oh dear. Men might have been stationed to ensure they didn't roll out of control or overboard?   

Next: Pulling the boat up by the bow would mean a long stretch of clear deck needed to swing  it around and store longditudinally in the waist as per Cristiano's picture. To me that seems the logical place to store a boat or it would be a constant hindrance if chocked transversely.  So  it would have to require removing enough bulwark to take the boat's length. I think they had removable bulwarks rather like barred gates in the waist of the ship for loading purposes - just going on some of the old pictures, mosaics, etc. 

If I have not exhausted your patience, please let me know your thoughts? Thank you so much, and I hope I can find how to get back to this page again this time. I'll bookmark i just in case.
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