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Abstract
The practice of beaching seafaring ships in the ancient Mediterranean is a widely accepted phenomenon. This paper examines the evidence for beaching and outlines the various methods, tools and technology employed. While habitual beaching for seafaring vessels is testified for the Geometric Period Aegean, for later periods the evidence is primarily negative. With the increasing robustness of the structure and weight of ships, the addition of the ram for naval vessels, and developing economic circumstances leading to the necessity of round merchant vessels, habitual beaching became impractical also in this region. In the Mediterranean, where the low tidal range practically precludes the technique of tide beaching, both galleys and merchantmen were largely restricted to anchoring and mooring.
Notes
1 Harrison employs the term ‘running up on the beach’, this term is too similar to the act of a group literally lifting or pulling a craft up a beach, which implies the technique of ‘hauling out’. Harrison’s second option ‘run aground’ is also problematic since it implies accidental grounding. Harrison, ‘Triremes at Rest’, 170; Steinmayer and Turfa, ‘Effects of Shipworm’, 108–9.
2 There is modest evidence for the principle of the dry dock in the ancient world (Rankov, ‘Slipping and Launching’, 104; Blackman ‘Ancient Harbours’, 207). However, while its objective is comparable to that of hauling out, the use of dry docks should not be conflated with beaching.
3 Parker, ‘The Evidence Provided by Shipwrecks’, 320; e.g. Acts 27.39–44.
4 Cf. Tzamtzis, ‘Ships, Ports and Sailors’
5 Harrison uses the term ‘overnight beaching’ which matches her studies’ focus on triremes, allowing the rowers to rest for the evenings on land, but less so the behaviour of merchant vessels. Harrison, ‘Triremes at Rest’.
6 Rankov, ‘Slipping and Launching’, 102.
7 Wilson, ‘Developments in Mediterranean Shipping’, 46 and 49; Wilson, ‘The Economic Influence’, 224.
8 Houston, ‘Ports in Perspective’, 560–2. Casson and Blackman have also made positive statements toward habitual beaching in the ancient world of ships ‘at least 130 tons’, based largely on the Thasos inscription. Casson, Ships and Seamanship, 171 n. 23; Blackman ‘Some Problems’, 76–9; cf. ‘Triremes and shipsheds’, 45.
9 Rickman, ‘Towards a Study of Roman Ports’, 108.
10 Odyssey, 9.136–9.
11 Odyssey, 9.146–51.
12 Odyssey, 13.113–15.
13 Odyssey, 9.546, 10.511 and 11.21.
14 Chamoux, ‘L’école de la grand amphore du Dipylon’, 87; Kirk, ‘Ships on geometric vases’, 151.
15 Mark, ‘The Earliest Naval Ram’, 257.
16 Chamoux, ‘L’école de la grand amphore du Dipylon’, 87.
17 Iliad, 15. 716–22.
18 Odyssey, 12.312–19.
19 Iliad, 1.484–6, 14.30–6 and 14.75–9; Odyssey, 6.264–5 and 11.20–1.
20 Iliad, 1.308; 9.358; 14.76 and 14.79; Odyssey, 4.574–6, 4.778–86, 5.261, 10.400–5, 10.423–4, and 11.1–4.
21 Iliad, 1.484–6, see also 2.154.
22 Odyssey, 6.264-265.
23 Rankov, ‘Slipping and Launching’, 102–5.
24 Iliad, 2.151–4.
25 Coates, ‘Long Ships’, 113–14.
26 A plural form, Iliad, 2.557–8.
27 Rankov, ‘Slipping and Launching’, 102.
28 A plural form, On Architecture, 10.2.10.
29 νηίου ἐκ κοτίνοιο ϕάλαγξ, a beam of an olive tree from a ship; 2.843.
30 Rankov, ‘Slipping and Launching’, 104.
31 ϕάλαγγας; 1.388–90.
32 Rankov, ‘Slipping and Launching’, 104.
33 Iliad, 1.486, Odyssey, 4.426 and 9.546.
34 Mark, Homeric Seafaring, 159.
35 Iliad, 14.32–6.
36 Odyssey,4.354–60 and 4.575.
37 Odyssey, 10.403-404 and 10.423–4.
38 Works and Days, 628–36.
39 Odes 1.4.1-2.
40 Works and Days, 630; Odyssey, 4.359.
41 Odyssey, 5.260–1.
42 Casson, Ships and Seamanship, 44–5.
43 Ibid., 10, and n. 27; Mark, ‘Odyssey 5.234–53 and Homeric Ship Construction: A reappraisal’ and ‘Odyssey 5.234–53 and Homeric Ship Construction: A clarification’; Kahanov and Pomey, ‘The Greek Sewn Shipbuilding’; Pomey et al., ‘Transition from Shell to Skeleton’, 292.
44 Inscriptiones Graecae XII Suppl. 348; Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum XVII: 417.
45 Either 2,000 or 3,000 (not certain owing to poor preservation), and 5,000 talents; with the Euboean standard of 1 talent equating to 25.16 kilogrammes. Launey, ‘Inscriptions de Thasos’, 394–410; Casson, Ships and Seamanship, 171 n. 23 and 183; Blackman, ‘Some problems’, 76–9; Pouilloux and Dunant, Recherches, 394 n. 5.
46 Houston, ‘Ports in Perspective’, 559.
47 Launey ‘Inscriptions de Thasos’, 400.
48 Simossi, ‘Les neoria’.
49 Empereur and Simossi, ‘Thasos’.
50 Blackman suggests that light timber structures existed to accommodate the beached ships, but simply supporting them from heeling with ship-specific props and scaffolding may have been sufficient. Hesiod describes building a stone structure around ships hauled out for wintering (Works and Days, 624), although this may merely be a foundation layer to help stabilize and hold the ship above the ground. Blackman, ‘Triremes and Shipsheds’, 45; Mark, Homeric Seafaring, 160.
51 On Architecture, 5.12.7
52 Enquiry into Plants, 5.7.2.
53 The key difficult word is δρυΐνην (druïnēn, of oak), a singular feminine adjective without a noun; grammatically it harks back to the word τρόπιν (tropin, keel). However, it cannot be referring to the keel itself, which is a structural part of the ship. The conjunction έπάν (epan, whenever) demonstrates that this oak feature is only placed when beaching occurs. The same complication exists if one chose to interpret a ‘false keel’ here. Furthermore, Blackman has made a compelling argument that the translation for the word chelusma (literally ‘protective sheathing’) in the subsequent clause, informing its presence on small boats, is to be ‘false keel’. Blackman ‘Triremes and Shipsheds’, 45. This is, therefore, further argument that druinēn should be interpreted as something other than a ‘false keel’. However, Blackman’s proposals that druinēn be translated perhaps as, ‘an (obscure) reference to a cradle? or simply to a timber runner laid on the slip, possibly in a “keel slot”’, are problematic because these are both untestified features for Mediterranean merchant ships, and their permanent nature, be they shore architecture, again conflict with the significance of epan. Rather, the most suitable meaning is ‘oak [sleeper groundway]’ since there is robust evidence for the use of wooden sleeper-beams for this purpose (e.g. Vitruvius’s tigna, On Architecture, 10.2.10). That the adjective is a singular form indicates that Theophastus is, reasonably, referring to the temporary (likely ship-specific) groundway itself, rather than a single sleeper beam. It is upon this oak groundway that the pine keel would slide, hence the association of the two. Cf. Rankov, ‘Slipping and Launching’, 116–17.
54 Lipke, ‘Triremes and Shipworm’, 205 and citations there.
55 Ibid.
56 Harrison, ‘A Note’, 82–3. Casson, ‘More Evidence’, identifies the commonality of ship iconography which displays the upper portion of the hull in a light hue and the lower dark. Heavy and fragile lead sheathing on merchant ships, albeit less common, is also incompatible with beaching.
57 Harrison, ‘Triremes at rest’ and ‘A Note’; Whitehead, ‘Mooring’, 95.
58 Coates, ‘Long ships’, 107–9. Rankov, suggests heaves perhaps up to 70 kilogrammes would be required. Rankov, ‘Slipping and Launching’, 117–18.
59 History of the Peloponnesian War, 4.11–12.
60 The verb for the action employed is ὀκέλλειν (okellein), which employs the same root as Homer for momentum beaching.
61 This is also the orientation of Homeric ships when they would anchor offshore. Mark, Homeric Seafaring, 154. For a similar Roman illustration, see Morrison and Coates, Greek and Roman Oared Warships, fig. 40.
62 Harrison, ‘Triremes at Rest’, 170–1.
63 Mark, ‘The Earliest Naval Ram’.
64 Lewis and Runyan, European Naval and Maritime History, 30–31 and 76–7; Pryor and Jefferys, The Age of the ΔΡΟΜΩΝ, 307.
65 Leo VI, Tactica 20.196; Wheeler, ‘Notes on a Stratagem’, 157–60. Polyaenus (Stratagems 3.9.38) had made a comparable statement.
66 Harrison, ‘Triremes at Rest’, 171.
67 For example, Athenaeus (Deipnosophistae, 15.12); Apollonius of Rhodes (Argonautica, 1.912– 13); Euripides (Iphigeneia in Tauris, 1352); Homer (Odyssey 9.137, 12.32, 15.286 and 15.498); Ovid (Metamorphoses 14.547); Polyaenus (Strategems, 4.6.8); Definitions by Joannes Zonaras (Extracts of History, 1.436.12) and Hesychius (Lexicon, 5.4691) also incidentally have them in the plural. Polybius (Histories, 33.9.6) uses the term ἐπίγυα (epigya, lit. to the land) and Hesychius and Joannes Zonaras specifically equate ἐπίγυα with πρυμνησία.
68 Suppliants, 764–6.
69 Aeneid, 3.277.
70 Medus, 231. Close examination of the vessels moored near the shore in demonstrates the common use of mooring stakes in later medieval practice.
71 Breviarium, 538.28.
72 Bouquet, No Gallant Ship, 117–24 and figs 1, 2, and 21; Greenhill and Giffard, The Merchant Sailing Ships, 78, 81–2 and nos 53, 89, 91; McGrail, Ancient Boats, 267–9 and fig. 22.
73 McGrail, ‘Medieval boats’, 23; McGrail, Boats of the World, 170; McGrail, Ancient Boats, 259. Caesar, Gallic War 3.13, reports that the ships of the Veneti of north-western France were designed for tide beaching, but the invading Roman ships were not.
74 United Kingdom Hydrographic Office, Mediterranean Pilot, vol. 1, 25; vol. 2, 16; vol. 3, 17; vol. 4, 13; vol. 5, 21.
75 McGrail, Boats of the World, 170.
76 Mark, Homeric Seafaring, 155, has made a similar mistake in which an ethnographic report of a 100-foot-long merchant ship in the Indian Ocean is cited as being beached through kedging and pulling on ropes around stable objects on shore. What Mark omits is that the report clarifies that such procedure only occurs ‘where there is a big rise and fall of the tide’, i.e. tide beaching. Villiers, Sons of Sinbad, 215.
77 Houston, ‘Ports in Perspective’, fig. 2 and 561. Wilson, ‘Developments in Mediterraenan Shipping’, fig. 2.23 and 49.
78 Spathari and Karageorghis, Sailing Through Time, fig. 213.
79 A third-century ad stone relief from Salerno, Italy (Casson, ‘Harbour and river boats’ pl. 5 no. 1); fourth-century ad bronze bowl decoration at the Musée de Louvre (Spathari and Karageorghis, Sailing Through Time. fig. 171); secondto third-century ad mosaic from Kos (ibid., fig. 204). It is unlikely that a ladder could actually reach dry land. Although these representations are not entirely accurate, they do nevertheless display moored ships floating. If that of fig. 204 is a ship’s boat, as it appears, that is more feasible.
80 A third-century ad relief from Portus (Casson, Ships and Seamanship. fig. 174); a secondcentury ad relief from Narbonne (Gianfrotta and Pomey, La Navigation, pg 127 upper); the Torlonia relief, about ad 200 (ibid., 82).
81 Tzamtzis, ‘Ships, Ports and Sailors’, 58 and 103.
82 The other two are scenes at Acre (Akko), dated 23 Apr. 1839, and Sidon, dated 28 Apr. 1839.
83 See also Pashut et al., ‘The Akko 2 Shipwreck’, 135. Adjacent to the two ships highlighted is a small boat and a pile of objects. These were presumably removed to lighten the ship as much as possible prior to the storm-surge beaching.
84 Roberts, The Holy Land, 242.
85 For several references to Byzantine beaching in response to storm see McCormick, Origins of the European Economy, ch. 13, notes 133, 136 and 139.
86 Pomey et al., ‘Transition from Shell to Skeleton’, 304 and 308; Pomey et al., ‘On the transition’.
87 DeVries, ‘Greek, Etruscan and Phoenician Ships and Shipping ’, 47; Throckmorton, ‘Romans on the Sea’, 68.
88 Parker, ‘Cargoes, Containers and Stowage’, 25. See also Caesar, Gallic War 3.13, for tide beaching.
89 Blackman ‘Ancient Harbours’, 199. For an argument for significant beaching and river mouth navigation in the Byzantine Period see McCormick, Origins of the European Economy, 419–21.
90 Its reconstructed dimensions are: 13.8 metres length, 4.27 metres beam, 2.65 metres hull depth amidships. Winters and Kahanov, ‘Hull-lines, Seaworthiness, and Burden’, 131.
91 Kahanov and Linder, ‘Conclusions’.
92 Collins (Makassar Sailing, 11–13 and 20–7) describes the hauling out of Indonesian seafaring ships, roughly the size of the Ma’agan Mikhael, for the off-season. Even though the haulers numbered in the hundreds, with hands on the hull but also employing attached poles and ropes, it was nevertheless accomplished with difficulty.
93 Rodríguez Santamaría, Diccionario de Artes de Pesca, 346.
94 Casson, Ships and Seamanship, 50. That undecked ships were considerably lighter than decked ones may be supported by a passage in Polybius (Histories, 5.101) in which a fleet of undecked ships was hauled across the isthmus while the decked ships were ordered to sail around the Cape of Malea.
95 Coates, ‘Pentekontors and Triereis’, table 2; Coates, ‘Long Ships’, 111.
96 Garland, The Piraeus 18–19; Goiran et al., ‘Piraeus’, 531–4.
97 Vitruvius, πολύσπαστον (polyspaston), De architectura, 10.2.10; Horace, machinae; Odes 1.4.2.
98 Aeschylus, Suppliants, 441
99 Athenaeus, Deipnosophistae, 5.207b. That only the lower portion could be launched with difficulty suggests that the ship itself could not be hauled out. Therefore other techniques may have been used for maintenance such as careening.
100 De architectura, 10.2.10.
101 Plutarch, Marcellus, 14.8; Casson, Ships and Seamanship, 195 n. 29.
102 For Spain: Rodríguez Santamaría, Diccionario de artes de pesca, 342–47, 351, 355 and 360; for Greece: Tzamtzis, ‘Ships, Ports and Sailors’, pl. 32. Incidentally, these include the use of a sliding cradle, a tool untestified for the pre-modern world; Rankov, ‘Slipping and Launching’, 113–15; Tzamtzis, ‘Ships, Ports and Sailors’, 98-9.
103 Aristotle, Mechanika, 18; Coulton, ‘Lifting in Early Greek Architecture’.
104 Rodríguez Santamaría, Diccionario de Artes de Pesca, 342–6; Rubin de Cervin, ‘The Thera Ships’, 151.
105 Johnstone and Tilley, ‘An Unusual Portuguese Fishing Boat’, 15.
106 Qaisar, The Indian Response, 33.
107 Marlier, ‘Architecture et espace’, n. 132.
108 Blackman, ‘Some Problems’, 74 and n. 7. Following Vian, Les Argonautiques Orphiques, 94 n. 271, allows emendation of the text of the Orphic Argonautica (270–1) that places a cable in use for launching the Argo. However, Rankov (‘Slipping and Launching’, 104) interprets the passage to describe rather the sleeper beams laid in a straight line.
109 Rubin de Cervin, ‘The Thera Ships.’
110 Pulak, Ingram and Jones, ‘Eight Byzantine Shipwrecks’, 52, 3 and 9; Kocabaş, ‘The Yenikapı Byzantine-era shipwrecks’, 15 and 20.
111 Inscriptiones Graecae 13 153.6-9; Rankov, ‘Slipping and Launching’, 117–18.
112 Rodríguez Santamaría, Diccionario de Artes de Pesca, 348.
113 Ibid., 345–6.
114 Wachsmann, Seagoing Ships, 9, 10, 18–28, 41; Marcus, ‘Amenemhet II and the Sea’, 154–7.
115 Wachsmann, Seagoing Ships, 206, 216–17; Bass, ‘The Hull’.
116 Shaw, Bronze Age, figs, 18 and 19.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Gregory F. Votruba
Gregory F. Votruba received his doctorate from the University of Oxford after investigating iron anchors and mooring in the ancient world. He has excavated ancient harbour sites at Caesarea Maritima, Israel, and Liman Tepe/Klazomenai, Turkey. He is currently a Fellow at Koç University’s Research Center for Anatolian Civilizations (ANAMED) in Istanbul.