Giant Hellenistic Warships

Michael Lahanas. The super-galleys of the Hellenistic Age. Today ships are still very important for the military. Giant US airplane carriers are like small cities. Often they are compared with the small triremes showing the advance in technology. Of course the fire power has increased dramatic the last 2300 years. The small 200 crew triremes cannot be compared to the biggest US warships. But if we consider the Hellenistic period we have to consider the larger warships which are not so well known today as maybe the triremes. In the Hellenistic period the Greeks produced ships of incredible dimensions for that time. In some cases the crew was larger than that of modern US warships (crew size but not the ship dimension) ! It is not clear how such ships could be produced using wood and not steel and special metallic alloys.