Tom Williams, age 15, of Austin, Texas, for his question:
WHAT KIND OF A SHIP IS A GALLEY?
A galley is a seagoing vessel propelled mainly by oars and sometimes pushed with the aid of sails. In the 18th and 19th centuries the name was applied also to certain classes of sailing rowing warships and merchant ships, and to some types of small boats as well.
The warships of Phoenicia, Greece and other ancient maritime nations were galleys fitted with rams and were in use as early as 850 B.C. the earliest galleys probably were long, narrow, open boats of shallow draft, with short decks at the bow and sometimes at the stern, and with a narrow gangway extending down the center of the hull over the thwarts of rowers.
In these ancient galleys the oars pivoted on the gunwales or through oar ports cut in the topsides of the hull. A row of oarsmen sat on each side, protected from enemy missiles, at least to shoulder height, by a light open rail on which were hung their shields or, in some instances, hides or heavy woven material.
Greek vase paintings show that these single level or one banked vessels had as many as 20 oars on a side and were about 80 feet long.
The maximum number of oars on a side in a single banked galley appears to have been 25. Such a galley would have been somewhat more than 100 feet in length.
In ancient times, people lacked the technology to build long hulls, and as a result they began to employ two banks of rowers on a side. This innovation led to a marked increase in freeboard. Freeboard is the distance between the uppermost deck considered fully watertight and the official load line.
The earliest two banked galleys, or biremes, apparently had two decks, with oarsmen on each. Later, to reduce freeboard, galleys were built with the upper bank seated inboard of and between the rowers of the lower bank. Thus, the seats of the upper bank did not have to be above the heads of the lower bank. The two banked galley was rowed with one man to the oar.
As early as the time of the Assyrian Empire (1700 to 600 B.C.),
two banked galleys were built with a complete fighting deck above the upper bank of oarsmen. Single banked galleys with such decks also are shown in early Greek vase paintings.
The desire to increase the speed and ramming power of the galley led to the introduction, sometimes before 500 B.C., of three bank galleys. This type was employed by ancient Greece, Rome and other Mediterranean maritime nations.
A three banked galley had 54 oarsmen in the lowest bank, 54 in the second bank and 62 in the uppermost bank. Such a galley would have a length of about 128 feet and a beam of perhaps 15 feet at the waterline. It would draw about four feet of water.
About 325 B.C. four and five banked galleys appeared. The galley continued into the Middle Ages. But the Battle of Lepanto in 1571 was the last of the great galley battles. Thereafter the naval importance of this type of ship steadily declined. By the last half of the 18th century the naval galley was no more than a small gunboat employed in inland waters and in coastal defense.