Ancient greek bireme Hyperborea - finished & UPDATED!

[Lýsandros]

Greetings,

One year ago, my group made an important decision to start more activities in the times of the ancient Greece and this is the right time to introduce our current project also outside of the obligatory Greek Military History and & Archeology forum. We are in the process of building a fully functional ancient greek bireme, which will be capable of river and off-shore travel. You can find some pictures of the progress in the thread over here:

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And a close-up of the ship design:

http://img231.imageshack.us/img231/2659/scanlodeb.jpg

The construction was progressing well last two weeks and we have now reached almost 75% according to the plans and schedule (I am sorry, I dont have recent photos at the moment), which created the following questions and problems:

We believe it is a good time to start speculation about the name of the ship and that is one of the reasons why I am turning to you. We are looking for a name suitable for a warship and it must be a Greek word/name, no science fiction please We have several potential candidates, but I am sure you are a smart bunch of guys who can come up with a lot of other interesting suggestions to consider.

Another problem is far more worrysome and essential to the construction and I am going to humbly ask you for help with its solution. The completion of the ship is severely endagered by the recent decision of the culture committee of my town, who have decided to postpone our support by one year. This sudden change, of course, created significant obstacles.

We are committed to finish the ship and start project activities this summer and thus we have decided to carry on with our own resources, even though they were very limited. It turned out they are insufficient and that leaves us completely dependent on donations. I would like to use this opportunity to kindly ask anyone with interest in the Ancient Greece and its bringing back to the modern life - if you know someone willing to support this unique and interesting project, or if you are in a position to support it, please contact me (by PM or by email: j_skupy AT yahoo DOT com) and I can send you the project proposal and all other relevant information. Every cent will be spent well and I can guarantee transparency, I will keep you all posted on the progress and you will be informed what exactly was purchased for the money you personally donate.

I want to thank you in advance for your support to the project and I hope to see you in some of the events that we plan to organise in the near future.

Kind regards,

Juraj "Lysandros" Skupy
Trierarchos

[Dan from Britannia]

Wow... hats off to this project!

Well done!

Good luck, can't wait to see images of it afloat, and working!


RAMMING SPEED!!!!! :wink:

[Titvs Statilivs Castvs]

When you sail past Belgium, be sure to give me a sign, hehe. lol:

Very nice work! Were in heaven's name did you get the money to build something like that?! hock:

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

Oarsome...(a slight variation on an overused word!)

This will have 38 oars or am I reading the plans wrong?

[Lýsandros]

Good question!

There will be 24 oars in the end. Full crew will be around 30 men. We can easily get and equip our rowers (they are supposed to be naked, but you know ) ), there will be one more hoplite and two peltasts.

Currently we have no more people willing/capable of equipping themselves. We have started with ancient greece only a year ago, most of our group is pursuing our traditional first third of the 15th century era.

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

Where are you in Greece? I never managed to see Olympia(?) last time I was there, and would be more than willing to donate a small amount, to see this in the wood! I have been getting the yearning to return again, andthis would be a bonus to a trip.

[Lýsandros]

Actually, our group is based in Slovakia, Central Europe The ship is being built in a small town called Prerov, on the border between Slovakia and Czech republic. There is a family clan of skilled shipwrights living in that town, who are helping us with the construction.

The initial project goal is to finish the ship and use it locally to educate tourists / children / students about the ancient greece and its interaction with the population in our area during bronze age (Halstadt). This will be done with river travel certification that is easy to achieve. We are aiming to get off-shore certification as soon as we can, so that we can start making trips to more popular locations and to visit thematically close events around Europe . We would like to follow then ancient amber road down to the Black Sea... and from there, into the mediterranean - to Italy and Greece.

I have recieved some more photos documenting recent progress, I will add them here when I manage to sort them out a bit and choose a representative sample.

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

Ahhh ok. Well excellent to see this and looking forward to following you progress!

[Lýsandros]

I am surprised that nobody has proposed a name yet )

[Dan from Britannia]

Well this surprised us all... so why not Odysseus in honour of the fabled inventor of the Trojan horse trick?

Another suggestion... It's a giant compared to our two little curraghs the Pegasus and Triton (pictured) so why not Talos? :lol:

Anyone else?

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

I was thinking Athena Nike? A female name, goddess of victory?

[M. Demetrius]

Argos?

[Epictetus]

Or what about Penelope, named after the wife of Odysseus? She is associated with fidelity and trustworthiness, which would be good attributes to have in a boat. :wink: And of course her husband was one of the greatest wandering mariners of Homeric lore, which adds another element to the name.

I know female names for boats are popular nowadays, but I don't know how far back the tradition goes.

[Lýsandros]

Very good suggestions, keep them coming

I have seen the construction thread of your boats, Dan, its a worthy and interesting project! Size doesnt matter... if you have a frontal ram on your ship :twisted: :twisted:

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

If I recall the names of greek war ships were female? this is a long standing tradition but then again, I could be totaly off course, and someone will have the evidence to prove it! :roll: :lol: