certainty, what the ancient Greek galleys were like. In the year 1834
A.D. it was discovered that a drain at the Piraeus had been constructed
with a number of slabs bearing inscriptions, which, on examination,
turned out to be the inventories of the ancient dockyard of the Piraeus.
From these inscriptions an account of the Attic triremes has been
derived by the German writers Boeckh and Graser. The galleys all appear
to have been constructed on much the same model, with interchangeable
parts. The dates of the slabs range from 373 to 323 B.C., and the
following description must be taken as applying only to galleys built
within this period.

The length, exclusive of the beak, or ram, must have been at least 126
ft., the ram having an additional length of 10 ft. The length was, of
course, dictated by the maximum number of oars in any one tier, by the
space which it was found necessary to leave between each oar, and by the
free spaces between the foremost oar and the stem, and the aftermost oar
and the stern of the ship. Now, as it appears further on, the maximum
number of oars in any tier in a trireme was 62 in the top bank, which
gives 31 a side. If we allow only 3 ft. between the oars we must allot
at least 90 ft. to the portion of the vessel occupied by the rowers. The
free spaces at stem and stern were, according to the representations of
those vessels which have come down to us, about 7/24th of the whole;
and, if we accept this proportion, the length of a trireme,
independently of its beak, would be about 126 ft. 6 in. If the space
allotted to each rower be increased, as it may very reasonably be, the
total length of the ship would also have to be increased
proportionately. Hence it is not surprising that some authorities put
the length at over 140 ft. It may be mentioned in corroboration, that
the ruins of the Athenian docks at Zea show that they were originally at
least 150 ft. long. They were also 19 ft. 5 in. wide. The breadth of a
trireme at the water-line, amidships, was about 14 ft., perhaps
increasing somewhat higher up, the sides tumbled home above the greatest
width. These figures give the width of the hull proper, exclusive of an
outrigged gangway, or deck, which, as subsequently explained, was
constructed along the sides as a passage for the soldiers and seamen.
The draught was from 7 to 8 ft.

Such a vessel carried a crew of from 200 to 225, of whom 174 were
rowers, 20 seamen to work the sails, anchors,