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Roman Ship?
#31
anybody interested in recreating the voyage to see if it is possible?
Quintis Antonius Felix-AKA-Kurt Stevens
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#32
Sure.........lets get the ship built first though.. :mrgreen: Quinquereme!!!
Full armaments, and rowers....I'll be acting admiral! :twisted:
Visne partem mei capere? Comminus agamus! * Me semper rogo, Quid faceret Iulius Caesar? * Confidence is a good thing! Overconfidence is too much of a good thing.
[b]Legio XIIII GMV. (Q. Magivs)RMRS Remember Atuatuca! Vengence will be ours!
Titus Flavius Germanus
Batavian Coh I
Byron Angel
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#33
serious, or joking?
Quintis Antonius Felix-AKA-Kurt Stevens
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#34
Quote:serious, or joking?
It would be so expensive it would require a very rich patron or a Government earmark. I wonder if any Congress members are reenactors? (of any era).
John Kaler MSG, USA Retired
Member Legio V (Tenn, USA)
Staff Member Ludus Militus https://www.facebook.com/groups/671041919589478/
Owner Vicus and Village: https://www.facebook.com/groups/361968853851510/
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#35
Quote:serious, or joking?

As John says, it is out of my pocket range, but a pipe dream from childhood. :roll: I have yet to see the reconstructed trireme the Olympius.... Sad
Visne partem mei capere? Comminus agamus! * Me semper rogo, Quid faceret Iulius Caesar? * Confidence is a good thing! Overconfidence is too much of a good thing.
[b]Legio XIIII GMV. (Q. Magivs)RMRS Remember Atuatuca! Vengence will be ours!
Titus Flavius Germanus
Batavian Coh I
Byron Angel
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#36
I feel a bit uneasy about your enthusiasm conquering the Americas with a rowed war galley.. :wink:

any wave higher than circa 3' will end the jolly enterprise ...

just look at the cross-section of these ships
http://img507.imageshack.us/img507/3453 ... ideco5.gif

nonetheless i wish you luck Big Grin
[size=85:2j3qgc52]- Carsten -[/size]
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#37
Quote:I feel a bit uneasy about your enthusiasm conquering the Americas with a rowed war galley.. :wink:

any wave higher than circa 3' will end the jolly enterprise ...

just look at the cross-section of these ships
http://img507.imageshack.us/img507/3453 ... ideco5.gif

nonetheless i wish you luck Big Grin

Hey, they had sails too, and plenty of rowers to bail!! :mrgreen:
Visne partem mei capere? Comminus agamus! * Me semper rogo, Quid faceret Iulius Caesar? * Confidence is a good thing! Overconfidence is too much of a good thing.
[b]Legio XIIII GMV. (Q. Magivs)RMRS Remember Atuatuca! Vengence will be ours!
Titus Flavius Germanus
Batavian Coh I
Byron Angel
Reply
#38
Quote:Hey, they had sails too, and plenty of rowers to bail!! :mrgreen:
I really see it ... the last sail torn away and the whole unhappy bucket brigade steadily bailing, kept going only by the will of the admiral. Tongue

Anyhow

Where do I sign. Big Grin 8)
[size=85:2j3qgc52]- Carsten -[/size]
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#39
A Roman ship crossing the Atlantic really isn't out of the question. We know ancient mariners were able to circumnavigate Africa (although they admittedly stayed close to the land), but perhaps more telling is the Roman trade with India across the Indian Ocean, entering via the Gulf of Aden. Now it's possible that they simply hugged the shore all the way around Arabia, etc., but it is a lot more likely that 'Roman ships' traveled straight across the open sea between Somalia and India, given that they were recorded as using the monsoon winds (in Strabo I believe...). So if they could go from the tip of Arabia to India, it doesn't take a huge leap to see them being able to go from Africa to Brazil...

That being said, i don't think they actually did it! At least not on purpose. The Romans were never much on the exploration front, and unless they knew for sure of some sort of trade potential in Brazil I don't think they would have set out to find it.
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#40
A Roman ship maybe, but if so, only a merchant and no war galley. The latter can't be rowed because of the rough sea, while sailing would make a galley - as we know them - top-heavy and almost immediately capsize, because of the small draft and the lack of a keel, fit for the high sea.
Roman merchants might have a slim chance, but I'd sooner take my chances with one of Thor Heyerdals' Egyptian papyrus boats:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thor_Heyer ... _and_Ra_II
[size=85:2j3qgc52]- Carsten -[/size]
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#41
Well, you could alway construct a dual hull assembly, aka the seige tower floater fame type...solve the stability problem, and free up a whole crew of rowers for bailing! Tongue

Remember, the medeterainean is not always a millpond....actually has shorter frequency, so an Atlantic crossing would be less rough in that sense, just bigger waves! :wink: Smile
Visne partem mei capere? Comminus agamus! * Me semper rogo, Quid faceret Iulius Caesar? * Confidence is a good thing! Overconfidence is too much of a good thing.
[b]Legio XIIII GMV. (Q. Magivs)RMRS Remember Atuatuca! Vengence will be ours!
Titus Flavius Germanus
Batavian Coh I
Byron Angel
Reply
#42
It could be possible, perhaps it would be interesting to find out and a good learning expierience.
Quintis Antonius Felix-AKA-Kurt Stevens
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#43
I stumbled across something interesting last night.

Quote:Britain is the largest island known to Romans: as regards its extent and situation it faces Germany on the east, Spain on the west(1)...

(1) The error of conceiving Spain as west of Britain, in spite of the testimony of the explorer Pytheas (c. 325 BC) accepted by Eratosthenes (c. 250 BC), lasted until the second century after Christ.

Tacitus, Agricola, 10, Note by Hutton and / or Ogilvie in Loeb Classic Library Tacitus I

This is wild speculation, but if they thought Spain was west of Britain could it be possible that some enterprising merchant thought of taking British tin to Spain and sailed due west around Ireland?
David J. Cord
www.davidcord.com
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#44
Quote:and sailed due west around Ireland?
For such a venture, a compass would be eminently useful. But those weren't invented until the high Middle Ages.
Greets!

Jasper Oorthuys
Webmaster & Editor, Ancient Warfare magazine
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#45
According to Strabo some people tried to cross the Atlantic ocean, but returned when they ran out of supplies. I wonder if really nobody succeeded. Perhaps they simply didn't sail in the right direction to find favorable winds/currents or nobody made it back to Europe.

http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/R ... *.html#1.8
Quote:It is unlikely that the Atlantic Ocean is divided into two seas, thus being separated by isthmuses so narrow and that prevent the circumnavigation; it is more likely that it is one confluent and continuous sea. For those who undertook circumnavigation, and turned back without having achieved their purpose, say that the they were made to turn back, not because of any continent that stood in their way and hindered their further advance, inasmuch as the sea still continued open as before, but because of their destitution and loneliness.
Michael
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