Penteconter

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Penteconter (Greek πεντηκοντήρ)

1. The leader of an ancient Greek infantry pentecostus, or platoon of approx. 50 men (one-half of a lochos, or company).
2. A type of Greek galley with fifty oars.

The development of the ram in about 800 BC changed the nature of naval warfare, which had until that point involved boarding and hand-to-hand fighting. Now a more manoeuvrable ship could render a slower ship useless by staving in its sides. Some doubt exists as to whether the winners in naval encounters usually sank defeated galleys. The Greek word for "sunk" can also mean "waterlogged", and reports survive of victorious galleys towing the defeated ship away after a battle. The paucity of archaeological remains of sunken ships, in comparison with the abundance of galleys according to the writings of contemporaries, provides further evidence that victors may not have commonly sunk defeated ships. The only part of any galley to survive in the sea, from antiquity, is the Athlit bronze ram. [1] Galleys were hauled out of the water at every opportunity to keep them dry,light and fast and free from worm, rot and seaweed. They were commonly (always?) overwintered in ship sheds which leave a distinctive archaeology. [2]

Building an efficient galley posed difficult technical problems. A ship travelling at high speed creates a bow-wave and has to expend considerable energy climbing this wave instead of increasing its speed. The longer the ship, the faster it can travel before this effect hampers it, but the available technology in the ancient Mediterranean made long ships difficult to construct. Through a process of trial and error, the monoreme — a galley with one row of oars on each side — reached the peak of its development in the penteconter, about 38 m long, with 25 oarsmen on each side. Historians believe that it could reach speeds of about 9 knots (18 km/h), only a knot or so slower than modern rowed racing-boats. To keep a ship of the penteconter's length light, required that its builders stretch tensioned cables between the bow and stern. This also kept the joints of the hull under compression - tighter, and more waterproof. The tension in the modern trireme replica anti-hogging cables was 300 kNewtons (Morrison p198)