NEWS and details in from Osprey Publishing, of this springs releases for us shipwrights! This month, the focus is on the nautical days of yore, of oars, wind, and sails!
Read on...

Ancient Greek Warship
500–322 BC
(New Vanguard 132)

Author: Nic Fields
Illustrator: Peter Bull

US Price: $15.95
UK Price: £9.50
Canadian Price: $ 22.95
Paperback
Release date: March 2007
48 pages
ISBN: 9781846030741


Details

"Formidable and sophisticated, triremes were the deadliest battleships of the ancient world and at the height of their success the Athenians were the dominant exponents of their devastating power. Primarily galleys designed to fight under oar power, their main weapon was a bronze-plated ram situated at the prow. This book offers a complete analysis of the most potent battleship of its time; the weapon by which Athens achieved, maintained and ultimately lost its power and prosperity."


Contents

Introduction - Origins - Design - Construction - Crew - In Action - Ruling the Waves - The Athenian Navy - Olympias - Bibliography - Colour Plate Commentary- Index


Sample extract:

Ancient Greek Warship
500–322 BC
(New Vanguard 132)

"During the classical period triremes (Greek trieres, Latin triremes) were the most formidable and sophisticated warships in the Mediterranean. They were galleys designed to fight under oar power, although two square sails were provided for cruising — a main sail supplied the lift, while a &lsquoboat&rsquo sail was used for steering. As no triremes survive, many aspects of their construction and operation are hotly disputed, especially the arrangement of the oars. However, they were long enough to allow files of about 30 rowers to row efficiently, which requires a length of about 35m 鲳ft), and this measurement corresponds well with the lengths of ancient ship sheds excavated at Peiraieus, the port of Athens. The ram is generally considered to have been their main armament, although boarding an enemy vessel with a view to deciding the issue by hand–to–hand combat was also an important tactic.

The Greek naval victory over the Persians at Salamis 鸠 BC) allowed the Athenians to develop a naval arm that would be used to &lsquoliberate&rsquo the Greeks from Persian rule and create a maritime empire. While this maritime empire was based mainly around the Aegean and the Propontis (Sea of Marmara), an area Athens was to dominate for the greater part of the 5th century BC, its navy also enabled it to strike as far as Cyprus and Egypt, the last some 1,400km 鼴 nautical miles) away by sea. Triremes were to play an important role throughout the next great conflict in the eastern Mediterranean, the Peloponnesian War 鷯�� BC). This was the grand struggle between Athens and its allies on the one hand, and Sparta and its allies on the other. The trireme was the weapon by which Athens achieved and maintained power, but when the Athenians finally lost the contest in the Great Harbour at Syracuse, Sicily in 413 BC, it was partly because the trireme had lost the power to overawe its enemies.

Hipponax of Ephesos (fl. 550 BC) is the first Greek to mention the trireme. He urges the painter Mimnes &lsquonot to go on painting a snake on the many–benched side of a trieres, so that it seems to be running away from the ram towards the helmsman&rsquo (fr. 45 Diehl). The Athenian historian
Thucydides says Ƒ.13.2) that the Corinthians were the first of the Greeks to build triremes, sometime around 700 BC.

According to Clement of Alexander (Stromateis 1.16.76), the invention of the trireme (or trikrotos naus in his Byzantine Greek), should be attributed to the seafaring Phoenicians, the foremost mariners of antiquity and recorded as such in the Bible Ƒ Kings 9: 27, Ezekiel 27: 4). A Nineveh bas–relief from the palace of Sennacherib reinforces this conclusion. The sculptor of this piece of Assyrian artwork, which illustrates the evacuations of Tyre and Sidon by King Luli in 701 BC, credits the Phoenicians with a type of galley remarkably similar to a trireme.

The main piece of visual evidence for the Athenian trireme is the Lenormant relief from the Acropolis. Dating from the end of the 5th century BC, this fragmentary relief shows the mid–section of the starboard side of a trireme under oar, with the lowest oars emerging from oar–ports through leather sleeves (askomata), the next level of oars emerging from under the outrigger, and the uppermost oars working through parallel timbers of the outrigger."


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Scourge of the Seas
Buccaneers, Pirates & Privateers
(General Military)

Author: Angus Konstam
US Price: $24.95
UK Price: £20.00
Canadian Price: $32.95
Hardback
Release Date: March 2007
240 pages
ISBN: 9781846032110


Book Details

"In their heyday, the sight of a pirate ship on the horizon would strike terror into the hearts of their intended victims. The colourful yet fearsome reputation of the pirate still resonates today and the sight of the skull and crossbones retains its thrilling power. The lives of the most famous of their brethren have been immortalised, initially in the pamphlets of the time, now in films and books. Telling the full story of piracy from the 'buccaneering era' of 17th century to the last great piratical wave of the early 19th century, this book explores the generally short and bloody life of the pirate, detailing his ship, weaponry and codes of behaviour, as well as his most famous exploits. It is the gripping tale of the violent and deadly brigands who roamed the high seas in search of plunder."

Contents

Introduction - Buccaneers - Pirates in the Golden Age - Privateers - Conclusion


Sample extract:

Scourge of the Seas
Buccaneers, Pirates & Privateers
(General Military)

"The Battle of Panama

Morgan began his final advance, ‘red and green banners clearly visible to the Spaniards’, and he deployed into a three-deep line, his force split into three divisions. The left flank was commanded by the Dutch buccaneer Laurens Prins, who advanced in a wide sweep around the Spanish right flank and occupied a hill overlooking the Spanish line. This stung the Spaniards into committing to an attack, but it also disrupted their secret weapon. The Spanish commander Juan Pérez de Guzmán had collected a herd of cattle and kept them behind his infantry line. His intention was to let them pass through his lines and stampede them into the buccaneers, disrupting them just before the Spanish foot advanced into contact. The advance by Prins scared the cattle drovers, who fled, leaving the cattle to wander through the Spanish lines. A simultaneous advance on Morgan’s men and on the hill held by Prins ended in disaster. Concentrated volley fire from the buccaneers felled the Spanish, who lost over 100 militiamen in the first volley alone. Stampeding cattle and a withering fire were enough to break the Spaniards, who fled the field, leaving between 400 and 500 dead and wounded. As Pérez de Guzmán stated, ‘hardly did our men see some fall dead and others wounded but they turned their backs and fled’. This was not completely fair, as even veteran infantry, particularly those who suffered 40 per cent casualties in a few minutes, would be inclined to break. As in numerous other actions, superior buccaneer firepower and tactical initiative proved more than a match for the Spanish militiamen who opposed them."


Be sure to check out these and many other fantastic publications at the official Osprey website, and remember, when contacting vendors, tell 'em that you saw their products on the pages of Model Shipwrights Scale Modeling magazine!