CONNECTIONS

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James Burke began a TV series in the seventies he called Connections. Via a series of intermediate, linked steps he would show how modern coffee makers depended upon the ability of prehistoric man to build Wendy houses, or suchlike. I loved the programme because it brought out so many amazing (to a young boy) juxtapositions and coincidences and used many recreations of ancient warriors.  Still available on YOUTUBE, of course maybe.

Anyway, it is still nice to hear tales of coincidence and serendipity. Despite my adult knowledge of statistics and the human brain's inate ability, or even persistent habit, of finding patterns where they may not even exist. Wow my new girlfriend loves so many of the same things I do ! (so did the last one...)

Classical galleys and trieres are not associated with the northern land where I live. OK there are early medieval galleys which arose froma different ship-building tradition - some call them 'viking ships'.
However, one was actually found just down the road from where I write this.

The grave of a Late Roman Iron Age man - called the Ishøj 'Prince' in the popular press was found in 2007. He had been badly cut up, hopefully by a group of revolting peasants shrugging off their aristocratic overclass. The fact that his grave is stuffed with luxury goods points to the peasants failure. Amongst the goods is a trireme.

 Well, not an actual trireme but the closest one is going to get to one in Denmark. The Danish/ Sjællandiske nobility loved Roman glass beakers - a number have been found - and in Ishøjfyrsten's grave were found two such. One has a lot of dolphins on it, the other ..wait for it.. two galleys.

 The ruling elite of Sjælland at this time had good relations with the Roman empire. They may have fought as auxiliary troops. They may have helped provide a buffer zone for the empire's borders against even more hairy barbarians from further out in the darkness. In any case they obtained and valued fine Roman goods including the beakers. I can think of no better gift for an ancient Sjællandsk warrior on Fathers' Day. A fine drinking vessel for fine mead and wine decorated with either the denizens of the sea- dolphins - or with a ship. The island-dwelling Danes have been of necessity a maritime people throughout history. The maritime themes would be instantly recognisable and appeal.

Barbarians could not make such glass beakers.  The item was transported over the limes somewhere and into the barbaricum. Later, it crossed the sea to Sjælland and was given to the 'prince'. He was felled in battle - seriously finished-off. The beaker ended in the chambered grave barrow with him.
Now Ellekilde lies almost  in the suburbs of Copenhagen. Building work means more and more of his tribe or even family have been disturbed in their eternal sleep.

The decoration of the beaker is not able to photographically record a galley, of course, but the ships shown is a nice small galley familiar if you have looked at Roman murals or at Trajans Column.

There are the familiar high prow and stern - with terminal volutes. There is a steersman in the stern with maybe his right hand on a steering oar not visible and outstretched left hand  struggling with the sail or rigging.

  The hull is low and topped with a lattice-work balustrade as we see on Trajan's Column. The oarbank appears from the lattice-work angled to the stern.

And I now sit some kilometres down the road from a place where a luxury glass beaker bearing the depiction of a Mediterranean galley was found. The beaker having been used by a wealthy man and ended in his grave after he was violently killed. The grave was then dug-up as Copenhagen's suburbs devour the countryside of Sjælland. Sitting in these northern wastes dreaming of torquoise seas and black ships it never occurred to me that someone had maybe done the same 1500 years ago..while sampling the local brew. These connections...who'd have thought ?

'Cheers, Jim !'

Antikythera Again

The famous Antikythera wreck has given up some more artefacts.

http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-29557384

SOUTH - BUT NOT SO PACIFIC

Rossano Brazzi defends Syracuse against the nasty northerners. Classic sword and sandals action.

Great models, great music. Pity the poor galley slaves,,as per usual.

 (Link fixed..)

SYRACUSE REBORN - plus ships!

Including some trieres and a view of Syracusia, this is a short example from Syracuse 3D Reborn - historical cinema.

Turning Circles again--update of old post

One of the most problematic areas for ancient ship games is manoeuvring. Turning is something which has to be cracked.
Simple rules such as Corvus can get away with giving an arbitrary angle for each type of ship beyond which it cannot turn in one move. Another way is have cut-out tracks which actually show allowed paths for ships to follow.

I wanted to try and use the data from Olympias rather than arbitrary values. This made things difficult.

One thing we do not have a lot of is space. It is fine to have turning tracks but I long ago discovered they take up to much space. Beyond a skirmish with a few ships they do not work.

At the same time I want to have models which look like ships and not blobs. I want enough space so I can have marines on deck not just markers dwarfing the ship they are alongside.

My compromise - hopefully my final version (touch wood) - is to assume the following...

The ship model occupies the space a ship would at sea including the safe zone of sea-space it needs to function. Ships did not sit shoulder-to-shoulder on the briney. To give space to face threats and to avoid fouling, triremes must have held 50 to 100m distance from each other. My models at 10 cm by 5cm with a scale of 1mm to the metre give such space. It is just a case of imagining the real ship as a 3 cm core in the paper model. Both ships will have their main mast at the same point, so that is our reference.

Olympias' data is our starting point so we have a maximum turn of 180 degrees in one minute. In such a turn the ship crosses about 62m - the 'tactical diameter' of the circle it follows is 62m.
At the same time it proceeds forwards before it turns back - it advances about half distance.

Larger, less manoeuverable ships will have larger tactical diametres and advance further.

We can change T and A by varying the speed the ships enters the turn and the way the rudder is used, but we will stick with basic stuff or we will go mad.

If we give a good 3 this 180 degree turn capability and have one better class to allow for a fast 3 - a tachynaut - we have already made two classes of ship manoeuveraility.

In the trials data the poorer performances of Olympias dropped the turning rate from 30 seconds per 90 degrees to 45 seconds - 50% worse. This could give us a handle on another turning class for a poorer 3 or a heavier ship in good form.

Avoiding tracks - to save space - I have made angular templates corresponding to these classes.
The ships turn by pivoting on the front corner - not accurate -but essential for ease of use on the table.

CLASS          Turn                            Advance               Template Diameter

      A              150 DEGREES          MINUS 70mm       40mm                      

Fast3, Fast2

      B               120                            MINUS 40mm       70mm                      

3,2, Pentekonter, Fast4

      C               90                              0                             80mm                     

4,Fast5,Slow3, Slow2

      D               60                              40mm                     137.5mm               

5 and Up, Slow4

Maybe wierd that the advances for sharp turns are negative , but this gives us a sharp distinction in models capability on the table. 3s can get out of a tight spot, 5s cannot.

The tactical diameter for B is close to 62 and measured mast-to-mast is 65.
If a game turn is 1 minute then the 120 degrees - 1/3 turn corresponds to a 360 turn of 3 minutes for the class B and 2 minutes for class A. Olympias' best was 128 seconds and worst 154 seconds - not too far out.

The best thing about the angular templates is that they save space and give an instantly visible effect which is sufficiently different between classes.

The side of each template is equal to one ship's length which is the unit of measurement in my rules.

Olympia's tactical diameter is about double her length - so too is it here.

Using the ideas above I have now eliminated templates except for requiring a form of protractor to ensure ships do not exceed their capabilities as they turn. This is due to introducing a way of marking the ship's course....... more to follow.

TURNING

I tried with 1/300 ships to accurately replicate how a galley moves for turns . This led to wonderful turning templates and tables etc. Simplification has led to them being ditched in favour of figure-game style wheels and penalties for increased angles of turn which function for 1/400.