Mounichia Harbour: Archaeologists documented the 10 x 10 meter square tower on the southern fortified mole using digital survey techniques. Bjorn Loven
Posted on 06/13/2016 11:01:06 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
After the Battle of Marathon ten years earlier, in 490 BCE, the Athenian statesman Themistocles outlined a military defensive program against the Persian invaders that was based entirely on sea power. As Plato put it, "Themistocles robbed his fellow-citizens of spear and shield, and degraded the people of Athens to the rowing-pad and the oar."
Construction work in Piraeus had already begun in 493 BCE (also on Themistocles advice). Now, recent underwater excavations conducted by ZHP Project, which combines land and underwater archaeology of the ancient Zea and Mounichia harbors in Piraeus, have uncovered naval bases and huge fortifications that testify to the might of the Athenian Navy that once ruled the waves.
“We have identified, for the first time, the 5th century BC naval bases of Piraeus – the ship-sheds, the slipways and the harbor fortifications," Bjørn Lovén, director of the Zea Harbor Project, told Haaretz.
(Excerpt) Read more at haaretz.com ...
Mounichia Harbour: Archaeologists documented the 10 x 10 meter square tower on the southern fortified mole using digital survey techniques. Bjorn Loven
More evidence of man made global warming causing a rise in sea level that has hidden these structures foe centuries.
Another author taking Christ out of the date (BCE = Before Common Era). I guess we will be seeing this a lot.
Yeah, and Britain was once an important naval power.
As was Spain.
As was Portugal.
As were quite a few others.
Meh...history is littered with the remains of “Once Great Naval Powers.”
It don’t mean nothin’.
The land-threat then was Persia. The later Battle of Thermopylae showed that a large army needed naval re-supply to move down the Greek coast. The 2-prong strategy was to delay the land army, while stripping away their naval support. Invader starves and is forced to retreat (eventually).
Exactly. It can't be that massive if it can't homeport a Nimitz-class carrier.
Or....
CE = Christian Era
BCE = Before Christian Era
That will get their panties in a twist.
Wow!
I'll take that challenge:
In addition to your aforementioned Britain, Spain & Portugal, names which come to mind include:
By sheer coincidence (I'm certain), the peak of each nation's relative naval power also happened to correspond to the peak of their economic & cultural dominance.
Indeed, when each lost one, as it happened, they also lost the others.
Minoans on Santorini, circa 1,700 BC:
Yeah, as we have, and the rest of the world has, for about 200 years.
What a massive public works project. Labor and wealth requirements are hard to conceive, given start of construction before the Persian onslaught.
Themistocles and Trump ...... Build a big beautiful walls!
Looks like the FNG was the designated prow catcher...errr, watcher.
I suspect most of the ships were beached when not in use, and/or tied onshore or close to shore to keep them from drifting off. The ships were build with some kind of truss system to lighten them, which one reason they achieved the velocity for effective ramming. Adding more rows of rowers turned into a bit of an arms race, with the final iteration being a vessel so large it never saw combat. According to Casson, it was a marvel of its age, and after the Romans conquered Greece, they were so taken they towed it to Rome as a trophy and tourist attraction.
The Carthaginians relied for the most part on mercenaries, and the classical period Greek city-states (which are basically coeval) used paid rowers after that initial period when they defeated Persia. Carthage also built a large navy and a harbor facility that served both their military and their commercial needs.
http://www.google.com/search?q=carthage+harbor&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&tbm=isch
That answered the need for beaching them in some fashion but why the roofs. Ah ha, thee hot summer sun promoting mold etc. Thus the cover, much like the ubiquitous blue tarps at modern marinas. Video mentions hull plank shrinkage at joints that most likely required required re-caulking, but that's always been SOP for wooden ships.
Optimum hull shape for speed IIRC, is light, long, slender, and shallow draft, like racing sculls and Viking like boats.
Always wondered about the triremes efficiency, where stroke timing must be precise. Came to the conclusion that the sudden burst of ramming speed and mass gave them the ship killing power.
The video also provides a full count of the boat sheds as distributed between the three protected harbors, illustrated by the drawings. Impressive concentrated and coordinated effort by the fractious Greeks. In addition to the warning, Beware of Greeks bearing gifts, the adversaries added, Beware of Greek ship bearings. ;>)
If they were all under roofs, there must have been a lot more roofs, the Athenian navy was huge. Of course, a good many of the structures may not have survived, or been scavanged for building materials after the fleet was scrapped after Athens was defeated by those Spartan pederasts.
They give the full count in the video. Keep in mind that some portion of the navy were always on sea duty, so rotation must have been in effect much as at Norfolk. But the total number of boat house given was staggering nonetheless.
You forgot the mighty Republic of Texas bro.
Well, bless your soul, FRiend, so I did, my sincerest apologies.
Who could ever forget the mighty Texas all-sails navy, which in 1843 fought three Mexican steamers to a strategic victory at the Battle of Campache?
Texas navy sloop Austin 20 guns:
Mexican steamer Guadalupe: 
I see ISIS has already been there...............................
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
