The quinquereme of Carthage

The full index of our ship stamp archive
Post Reply
Anatol
Posts: 1037
Joined: Sun Apr 12, 2009 2:13 pm

The quinquereme of Carthage

Post by Anatol » Fri Mar 09, 2018 6:04 pm

The Carthaginians were famed in antiquity for their seafaring skills and innovation in ship design. The empire their navy protected stretched from Sicily to the Atlantic coast of Africa. Able to match the tyrants of Sicily and the Hellenistic kingdoms Carthage’s dominance of the seas would be challenged and ultimately replaced by the Romans, who were able to create a navy that became just as successful as their land army. Inheriting the skills passed on to them by the mother country Phoenicia the Carthaginians were admired across the ancient Mediterranean not only for their seamanship but also the quality of their ships. Such were the requirements of Carthage’s large navy that ships were constructed using mass-produced pieces marked with numbers for ease of assembly. The wood used for ships was oak, fir, and pine. The size of the fleet changed depending on the period, but according to the ancient historian Polybius, Carthage had a fleet of 350 ships in 256 BCE. During the Punic Wars with Rome between 264 BCE and 146 BCE the fleet had to be constantly renewed to recover from losses in battles and storms. The naval fleet of Carthage was composed of large warships propelled by sail and oars which were used to ram enemy vessels using a bronze ram mounted on the prow below the waterline. Direction was controlled by two steering-oars fixed to either side of the stern. Each oar was fitted with a horizontal bar for the helmsmen to handle. The Phoenicians had invented the trireme with three banks of rowers, but after using these in their early history the Carthaginians would later progress in the 4th century BCE to the bigger and faster ships with its arrangement of four and five rowers per vertical line men per oar, the quadrireme and quinquereme. Quinquirem (Latin quinquiremis, from quinque - five and remus - paddle) or pentera is a combat rowing boat with five rows of oars arranged one above the other or in staggered order. Each oar was driven by one rower, the number of oars in one row reached 25. Displacement is over 200 tons, length is 45 meters, width is 6 meters, draft is 2.5 meters, crew is about 250 people. The rowers of the third and fourth upper rows were located in a closed crinoline - a paradox, and the lower ones - one above the other in the hull of the ship.For the coordination of the rowing, the rope connection of the oars of one row and the stops limiting the size of the stroke were used. The nose and stern of the panthers were decorated with acrostole (continuation of the stems). The aft part of the ship was surrounded by a hanging gallery with a balustrade, under which the boat was usually suspended. The penthers had two masts with battle mars. The sailing armament consisted of large straight sails, which were used only on transitions when passing winds. Unlike the more primitive trireme, the quinckverme could penetrate through the enemy ship at high speed.The construction of the quinquel was started in Rome during the First Punic War after the storm threw a similar Carthaginian ship on the coast of Italy, as birems and triremes were unable to cope with the multi-tiered heavy ships of Carthage, whose side, protected by a whole forest of oars, was unavailable to the ramming blow comparatively easy Roman bireme.
The main aim in a naval battle was to ram and hole an enemy vessel or break its bank of oars. Polybius describes the skills and tactics of the Carthaginian navy in battle thus: “They much surpassed the Romans in speed, owing to the superior build of their ships and the better training of the rowers, as they had freely developed their line [formation] in the open sea. For if any ships found themselves hard pressed by the enemy it was easy for them, owing to their speed, to retreat safely to open water and from thence, fetching round on the ships that pursued…them, they either got in their rear or attacked them in the flank. As the enemy then had to turn round they found themselves in difficulty owing to the weight of the hulls and the poor oarsmanship of the crews, [so the Carthaginians] rammed them repeatedly and sunk many”.
Gabonaise 2017;1150f. Source:https://www.ancient.eu/Carthaginian_Naval_Warfare/. http://sea-transport.ru/galeri/1257-kvinkvirema.html
Attachments
img15813.jpg

Post Reply