Ships (L)

Ships play little part in the Atlantis narrative except where Plato describes the time of the gods (Critias 113e) being “without ships or sailing”. Later (Critias 117d-e) he describes the bustling harbour of Atlantis having many triremes. That ships were used in the war with Athens can be inferred from the fact that Atlantis, or at least its capital, was on an island.

However, the history of ships and boats creates a problem for those who adhere to the early date of around 9600 BC for the Atlantean War. The latest proponent of this highly questionable claim being P.P. Flambas.

The oldest surviving boats are listed on Wikipedia^(a), the two oldest are just canoes and neither would have been suitable as

The Khufu Ship c.2500 BC

constituents of any invasion fleet. The next is the ‘Khufu ship’ dated to 2500 BC. What the supporters of the 9600 BC date cannot explain is how at that date the Atlanteans had seagoing vessels, but 7,000 years later boat building had apparently not advanced at all, if the Khufu ship is an example of the state-of-the-art in the 3rd millennium BC. However, within the next one thousand years the Phoenicians managed to develop magnificent trading vessels and warships. How could the previous seven millennia have not seen shipbuilding develop at all?