ancient+greek+navy

The Old Navy (of Greece) The ancient navy of Greece was the most powerful naval force of its time. It was the reason why I am so excited to be writing this paper. Greece already was way ahead of its time when it came to technology, but the navy showed just how far ahead they really were. The question is why were they so advanced? Ancient Greece was a civilization that was thriving of the wealth made by their great achievements in human history. They were literally “living the life”. Some of the richest men in the world were living in Greece. Though the Greeks had wealthy lifestyles, there was one good thing they were really good at, and that was war. War was one of the many things Greece was famous for. The tip of the spear for the Greek navy was the trireme, and it was an intimidating opponent. The trireme was a very well built ship which required a lot of money to build. The cruisers, frigates, and destroyers of today would annihilate a trireme if they were threatened by one, but at the same time the trireme represented the best that naval technology had to offer. The trireme was built for speed and mobility. At 120 feet long, the trireme was pretty small compared to ships of today. It was also powered by 170 rowers. The crew usually consisted of 203 men, obviously 170 were rowers. The rowers were mostly poor Greek citizens, or hired rowers. The actual soldiers consisted of fourteen spears men, four archers, and fifteen officers. The captain, for the most part was a political appointee (yeah I know, weird huh?) who knew very little about naval warfare. This meant that the command of the ship rested of the shoulders of the “kybernetes”. The kybernetes was a helmsman. Next in command came the “proreus” who was the lookout and the man in charge of the foredeck. Last but not least (well actually yeah) was the pentecontrarchos, he was the lowest ranked officer on the ship. His duty was to be in charge of the wages and administrative duties of sailing a ship of war. In addition to the thirty-three sailors that were on board, a carpenter was the on board due to the wood that the trireme was made out of. Since the trireme was specifically meant for battle, it left out important needs to be a ship that could travel on the open sea. The trireme, although very fast and agile, was not meant for traveling from coast to coast. This is why the carpenter was very much needed, during battle the boats hull would be damaged by spears, arrows, and even fire! The carpenter was able to easily fix the damage before the boat would take on water. In the age of being able to shoot missiles from thousands of miles away at someone, it makes you think how truly amazing the amount of effort that was used during combat. It used to take a man to kill a man, now it just takes the press of a button. I give much respect to the men who fought and died on the triremes of the ancient Greek navy.

work cited

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