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NEWS September 2023
September 2023. Hi Atlantipedes, At present I am in Sardinia for a short visit. Later we move to Sicily and Malta. The trip is purely vacational. Unfortunately, I am writing this in a dreadful apartment, sitting on a bed, with access to just one useable socket and a small Notebook. Consequently, I possibly will not […]Read More »
Joining The Dots
I have now published my new book, Joining The Dots, which offers a fresh look at the Atlantis mystery. I have addressed the critical questions of when, where and who, using Plato’s own words, tempered with some critical thinking and a modicum of common sense.Read More »
Atlantean navy
Triremes
Triremes were ancient warships ships that had three banks of oars with up to 180 rowers and were armed with a bronze-sheathed ram on the prow(f). Although we generally associate triremes with the ancient Greeks, they are thought by many to have been originally developed by the Phoenicians, and of interest to us, is the fact they are described by Plato as being part of the Atlantean Navy.
However, the existence of triremes is completely incompatible with a 9600 BC date for the destruction of Atlantis as triremes were only developed around 9,000 years later. Triremes were built of lightwoods and were designed for a day’s travel at a time (50-60 miles) as onboard facilities were quite limited and could be easily beached at night. However, claims that these 45/50-ton vessels could be carried by as few as 140 men(e) is difficult to accept.
>Controversy regarding several matters relating to triremes has erupted from time to time including a protracted exchange in The Times (of London) letters page in 1975(g). Even the size of the crew has been debated(h).<
Triremes were top-heavy and somewhat prone to toppling over in a violent storm and quite clearly were unsuitable for an ocean such as the Atlantic. Consequently, they were considered to be fair-weather vessels and were not generally used in winter(c).
It is likely that Plato used the term trireme to make the story more relevant to his Athenian audience, by simply describing what was the state-of-the-art warship of his day.
In 1987 a fullscale copy of a trireme, Olympias, was launched(a). The ship was due to visit New York in 2012(b). A book describing the construction and trialling of the Olympias is also available(d).
(a) https://purplemotes.net/2007/02/11/science-in-action-the-trireme-olympias/
(b) https://ferrebeekeeper.wordpress.com/2011/01/04/a-trireme-in-new-york-harbor/
(e) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trireme
(f) https://www.ancient.eu/trireme/
(g) The Times and The Sunday Times e-paper*
(h) https://www.persee.fr/doc/antiq_0770-2817_2000_num_69_1_2423*
Atlantean Navy *
The Atlantean Navy consisted of 1,200 ships, according to Plato. Such a fleet would be totally unnecessary unless your potential enemies had a similar force. It is worth noting that over 130 quotations from the Illiad and Odyssey have been identified in Plato’s writings, suggesting the possibility of him having adopted some of Homer’s nautical data. Homer records that the Achaean fleet consisted of 1,186 ships, a number that could be naturally rounded up to 1,200 – a coincidence?
Similarly, Herodotus records that the Persians had a fleet of 1,207 triremes at the Battle of Salamis (480 BC). It is a further remarkable coincidence that of all the military statistics recorded by Plato, the only number that is not an exact thousand, relates to the size of the Atlantean fleet. A number that is the rounded value of the Achaean fleet in the Trojan War and the Persian fleet which attacked Athens just 50 years before Plato was born. It is not improbable that 1,200 was used in this isolated instance as a representation of the ultimate in naval power at that time! A website that reviews the classical sources relating to the Persian fleet in greater detail is available(c).
Since conventional archaeology identifies the Bronze Age Greeks and the Phoenicians in the Eastern Mediterranean as possessors of the earliest navies, the possibility of a naval force of such a great size 9600 BC is considered improbable if not completely impossible. Recent discoveries in Cyprus have provided evidence of primitive seafaring in the region as early as 12,000 years ago. However, it appears that occasional travellers from Turkey and Syria who utilised crude stone tools arrived there in rather small boats. We are therefore forced to conclude that Plato’s reference to a powerful navy supporting an extensive merchant fleet is either a heavy embellishment of a real story regarding a prehistoric civilisation or an allusion to an actual Bronze Age thalassocracy.
An interesting series of illustrated articles(a) on ancient ships offers a useful background for the study of the Atlantean Navy.
Plato describes the Atlanteans as using triremes which is quite improbable as they were probably not developed until around the 7th century BC(b). It is more likely that Plato used the term trireme to make his narrative more relevant to his Greek audience.
(a) Ancient Ships: The Ships of Antiquity (archive.org) *
(b) https://darkside.hubpages.com/hub/trireme
(c) https://web.archive.org/web/20191206074458/http://www.metrum.org/perwars/perfleet.htm