Navy and fleets

[Dan Diffendale]

Frequently rowers standing and facing forward indicates that they are paddling rather than rowing. Witness this much earlier Egyptian tomb model:
[url:1lyz7s0n]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v293/DannoUlpius/naves/aegypt03.jpg[/url]
Or the Thera fresco:
[url:1lyz7s0n]http://www2.rgzm.de/Navis2/Objects/GR/GRObj0019Img03F.jpg[/url]
Or these two fragments of Samian ware:
[url:1lyz7s0n]http://www2.rgzm.de/Navis2/Home/FullDetailImage.cfm?ID=1212026530&ShipDepictionCode=DE_00009001&ObjectName=TrierSigillataScherbe1[/url]
[url:1lyz7s0n]http://www2.rgzm.de/Navis2/Home/FullDetailImage.cfm?ID=1328207826&ShipDepictionCode=DE_00010001&ObjectName=TrierSigillataScherbe2[/url]

Now standing facing forward, or at least facing forward, and *rowing*:
[url:1lyz7s0n]http://www2.rgzm.de/Navis2/Home/FullDetailImage.cfm?ID=270&ShipDepictionCode=DE_00032001&ObjectName=RGZMAfricanSamianO41259[/url]

Not sure what to make of this one:
[url:1lyz7s0n]http://www2.rgzm.de/Navis2/Home/FullImage.cfm?ObjectCode=DE_00366&ObjectName=FreiburgerBronze[/url]

Alec Tilley in Seafaring on the Ancient Mediterranean: New Thoughts on Triremes and Other Ancient Ships (leaving aside his ideas on Phoenician colonization) suggests that depictions like these show a ship backing water -- that is, rowing backwards.
[url:1lyz7s0n]http://www2.rgzm.de/Navis2/Home/FullImage.cfm?ObjectCode=PO_0001&ObjectName=AmeixoalMosaic[/url]
Too bad this was destroyed in 1729, original ca. 400:
[url:1lyz7s0n]http://www2.rgzm.de/Navis2/Home/FullDetailImage.cfm?ID=-1518366374&ShipDepictionCode=TR_00005002&ObjectName=ArcadiusColumn[/url]

Cutwaters (tranche mer, called a rostrum in Latin just like the prow on a warship) are also very common on small (civilian) boats.

That should stir up the waters for a while...

This Navis II site ([url:1lyz7s0n]http://www2.rgzm.de/Navis2/Home/Frames.htm[/url]) is horribly useful. I don't know why I even bother with any of my projects anymore... it will just be done a thousand times better and quicker in Germany. Or maybe I should go to school in Germany.