[PnP] Ship Project - Ship Types, Classes, Purposes
Scott Adams
longshot at darktech.org
Sat Aug 26 06:09:42 CEST 2006
* Ship Types, Classes and Purposes
The world of ships and boats is wide and diverse enough that
there are countless number of ship types and sizes. But here is a
brief overview of the most common ship types and their descriptions.
The information is in no particular order of importance or history.
1. Logboat - A thick log, often oak, hollowed out creating a long
narrow canoe. These were often thin-walled, crude, rough and
heavy. These craft become less of a value when planked boats
were used. Often also called dugouts or monoxylon. These are
man powered boats. Usually these craft are used within sight
of land.
Material - Wood/Single Log Usually
People - 1 person usually some large ones can do 1-2 more
Length - 4-10 feet depending on log cut
Width - 2-3 feet wide
Type - Boat
2. Barge - Barges are flat-bottomed boats that are mainly used in
rivers for cargo transport of heavy goods. Most barges have to
be pushed by towboats or pulled by tugboats from place to place.
There are several types of barges used. Barrack barges have
living quarters on them. Dry bulk cargo barges haul rock, grain,
etc. Liquid cargo barges for liquids like water or oil. Royal
barge for ceremonial purposes. Another type is commonly called
a lighter, as such those who move barges are known as lightermen.
Generally barges are slow, basically a platform and built to
hold a lot of tonnage. Animal barges carry animals (like
cattle, horses or elephants in war) where they are placed in
a fenced/boxed in area. The Battle Barge was made for combat
and not to carry cargo. it would carry men and/or animals.
Some of these battle barges may have been made with shipboard
weapons.
A earth example is that of the Egyptian barge - which were
made to carry large stones. These were 200 x 30 feet in size
and took 30 oared tugships to move the barge.
Material - Wood
Length - 100-200 feet
Width - 10-30 feet
Type - Boat
3. Canoe - Boat typically pointed on both ends with a hollowed
out area where a person sits. Construction materials would
include a simple hollow log, wood or canvas construction. It
is powered by paddles. The number of paddles depend on the
number of people. The person would use the paddles kneeling,
seated or on supports on the hull. They face the direction
they are going in (unlike rowing). The paddles can be single
or double bladed paddles.
Material - Wood, Canvas, Birch bark, tar and/or tree sap
People - Usually just 1 sometimes 2
Length - Varies, 6-8 feet usually
Width - 3-4 feet typically
Type - Boat
4. Catamaran - This craft consists of two hulls joined by a frame.
They can be man or sail powered. Catamaran name means "logs
bound together". Many can be ocean going ships allowing them
to sail great distances. This craft is known to have problems
turning against the wind (tack) due to its design. They tend
to have a higher average speed than monohulls. They are faster
due to no keel counterweight. They are good for coastal
cruising and as a long distance boat. These typically weigh
around 165 pounds.
Material - Wood
Length - 10-25 feet
Width - 15-20 feet typically
Type - Boat or Ship
5. Coracle - This is a light boat, oval in shape and formed of
canvas stretched on a framework of split and interwoven rods,
and well coated with tar and pitch to render it water tight.
The framework was typically covered with horse or bullock hide
(corium). These ships are so light and portable it can be
carried from place to place.
Material - Wood/Hides
Length - 3-5 feet
Width - 3-5 feet
Type - Boat
6. Cutter - These are any sailing vessel with two or more head
sails and a mast which is set further aft than that of a sloop.
Material - Wood
Length - 12-18 feet
Width - 4-9 feet
Type - Boat
7. Dhow - Sailing vessel with one or more triangular sails
(lateens). There are several types of dhows typically used.
Shanjah a large vessel with a carved stem and a sloping,
ornately carved transom. Baghlah is the traditional deep
sea dhow. Battii featured long stems topped by large,
club-shaped stem heads. Badan were smaller requiring a
shallow draught.
Material - Wood
People - 12-30 Crew
Length - 6-50 feet
Width - 6-15 feet
Type - Boat
8. Dinghy - This is a small utility boat used to tend a larger boat.
While they serve specific purposes they can also be used as
leisure craft. Larger forms of dinghies are lifeboats which
can carry a full family and a month's worth of supplies if needed.
Material - Wood
Length - 6-18 feet
Width - 4-12 feet
Type - Boat
9. Dory - This is a shallow draft boat which are lightweight and
versatile. These are typically used in the open sea for
commercial fishing operations. The hullform is characterized
by flat sides angled close to 30 degrees from the vertical, and
a bottom that is transverely flat and arced fore-and-aft.
These were typically carried by larger fishing boats then
deployed to lay down longlines or fishing nets.
Material - Wood
People - Typically 2-4 including the oarsman
Length - 15-22 feet
Width - 5-7 feet
Type - Boat
10. Ferry - These are boats or ships that carry passengers and
sometimes their vehicles in short-distance, regular scheduled
services.
Material - Wood
Length - Varies, no standard size
Width - Varies, no standard size
Type - Boat or ship
11. Junk - Classic Chinese sailing vessel. High-sterned, with
projecting bow, the junk carries up to five masts on which are
set square sails consisting of panels of linen or matting
flattened by bamboo strips. Each sail can be spread or closed at
a pull, like a venetian blind. Junks are efficient and sturdy
ships that can travel the oceans The hull had water tight
compartments accessed by separate hatches and ladders. The
purpose of the junk usually determined the size of the ship.
Treasure Ships - (9 masts), 400 feet long, 160 feet wide
Horse Ships - (8 masts), 339 feet long, 139 feet wide
Supply Ships- (7 masts), 257 feet long, 115 feet wide
Troop Ships - (6 masts), 220 feet long, 83 feet wide
Patrol ships- (8 masts), 120 feet long
Water tanker junks could carry 1 month of fresh water for
re-supply of other ships or forces.
Material - Wood and teak (tropical hardwood trees)
Length - 100-450 feet
Width - 50-160 feet
Type - Boat or ship
12. Kayak - A small human powered boat. The person uses a double
ended paddle. The person sits in the middle with feet forward.
The top has a covered deck.
Material - Wood
Length - 5-7.5 feet
Width - 2-3 feet
Type - Boat
13. Ketch - This is a sailing craft with 2 masts. The main mast
and a mizzen mast abaft the main mast. Both are rigged mainly
fore and aft.
Material - Wood
Length - Varies
Width - Varies
Type - Boat
14. Lifeboat - A boat carried on board a ship and designed to allow
passengers to escape, or a boat kept on land to rescue people
in trouble at sea.
Material - Wood
Length - Varies, 3-15 feet
Width - Varies, 3-12 feet
Type - Boat
15. Rafts - This is a special type of boat, distinguished by the
absence of a hull. They are kept afloat by naturally buoyant
materials like such as wood, or by inflated containers. Rafts
were the earliest known water craft. From logs to Keleks.
A kelek was a floating raft of bladders & leather. A typical
Kelek was 50 feet wide with up to 1,000 bladders. The Kelek was
a wooden platform of planks or logs that had air bladders (skin
or animal parts) made usually of leather materials all tied
together. Hanibal used a Kelek for war elephants which was
100x50 feet in size. Another common raft was that of the Pot
Raft. These were rafts that used hardened ceramic pots for
ballast or to float when filled with air instead of bladders.
Material - Wood, Bladders/Pots
Length - Varies, 5-100 feet
Width - Varies, 5-100 feet
Type - Boat
16. Tugs - Tugs are typically ships powered by rowers. But some
could be used with sails depending on the number of tugs and
the load to pull. These ships are used to pull or push a ship
from place to place. The port/harbor tug are smaller and tend
to help navigate other ships into ports to avoid reefs and
heavy traffic areas.
Material - Wood
Length - Varies
Width - Varies
Type - Boat or Ship
17. Merchants - Merchant class ships are as wide and diverse as
civilian craft. There have been thousands of various types
and sizes of these ships. Merchant ships are the backbone to
most economies for national income. They help to promote trade
and growth. They carry cargo, animals or people from place to
place.
Roman merchants had masts that carried square sails. Steered
by two side rudders connected to each other. The largest known
roman ship was 95 meters long.
Caravels were classic Spanish and Portuguese merchant ships.
Cogs were sturdy one-masted merchant ships with a flat bottom.
The Etruscan merchant ship was 20 meters long.
Merchants are also commonly called freighters, traders, haulers,
transports and cargo transports. How much a merchant could
carry would depend on the ship but on the average it was 450
tons of cargo. In one ship wreck a keel of a merchant was known
to be 17 meters long.
The smallest cargo ships were only 70-80 tons while 350-500
tons was large ships. The largest grain freighter on record
was 1700-1900 tons they estimate of a ancient merchant. Some
large merchants could carry up to 600 passengers. A typical
large freighter in ancient times, a 1,300 tonnage cargo ship
was 180x45x43.5' in size.
Merchant cargo ships could typically sail at 5 knots. But
waited for a good wind. If not they would have to sail in
a zigzag pattern, to get the wind, which took them twice as long.
Merchants typically had 1 or 2 masts.
The Corrack was also a name of a type of merchant ship.
Material - Wood
Length - Varies, 60-100 feet on average
Width - Varies, 25-35 feet on average
Tonnage - Varies, 50-500 on average
Type - Ship
18. Skin Boat - The Skin boat was one of the earliest type of craft.
It had a skin tied around a wooden frame.
Material - Wood, Skins
Length - Varies
Width - Varies
Type - Boat
19. Galley - These were warships that were rowed or sailed by
triangular lanteen sails to the battlefield. Homer tells
of the classic galley being low and open. The superstructure
complex with "horns", sleek & fast, rowers and the sail can
be lowered or raised. Typically a galley cost 10,000 gold to
build one that was 50 feet long. Whereas a Galleon cost 210-
250x that of a War Galley. The typical galley had 20 rowers
for quick dispatch.
Material - Wood
Length - Varies, usually 60-90 feet long
Width - Varies
Type - Boat
20. Brig - This is a 2 masted sailing ship where both masts are square
rigged. The rear mast carries a gaff sail as well.
Material - Wood
Length - Varies
Width - Varies
Type - Boat or Ship
21. Penteconter - This ship was more durable than the standard trireme
and less expensive. It had more room for supplies and less crew.
It was good for war and trading. This ship had 50 rowing places.
Material - Wood
Length - Varies
Width - Varies
Type - Boat or Ship
22. Quadreme - Another type of warship. this ship was typically
found with 2 men for a catapult, 6 archers and 19 marines.
It had 4 oarsmen per oar which only needed 2 of them to be
skilled in rowing.
Material - Wood
Length - Varies
Width - Varies
Type - Boat or Ship
23. Longboat/Longship - These ships were long as their name implies.
They served many purposes from war to transport. They had 15
foot masts. The ship weighed about 20,540 but empty about 5,300
pounds. It had 24 oarsmen. We know it had 115 square feet of
sail cloth for its sails. It was rather advanced since it had
Bilge pumps. It only had a crew of 16. It could handle 15
square feet of cargo space with a typical load of 3,950 pounds.
It had a volume of 205.3 cubic feet of space. It could reach
a speed of 7 mph.
Material - Wood
Length - Varies
Width - Varies
Type - Boat or Ship
24. Trireme - The Trireme was the standard warship in the ancient
world. It was a very quick narrow war galley. It used sails
for transportation but oars for battle. As the name implies
it had 3 rows of rowers on each side. It was a upgraded version
of the bireme. They could attain speeds slightly over 10 knots.
They could chase and then sink a ship with its ram. The hull
was made from light pine tree wood. In good weather they could
even get up to 14 knots. These had one tier of rowers, 1 person
per oar, with 25 on each side.
In the battle of Salamis 300 Greek ships (half triremes)
defeated 600 Persian ships. The entire Salamis Campaign saw
action with over 3,000 ships with an average ship of 4 tons.
On average the ships had 50 oarsmen and 90 others as crew.
A Trireme could disable or sink a ship. This was done through
a tactical maneuver called diekplous, or in English "break
through and ram." They would line up in a square formation.
Some would quickly turn and ram into opposing ships. The ram
or beak of the ship was covered in heavy bronze beaks.
One major drawback was that the Trireme was light and often
blown off course when high winds arose. Because of this
quinqueremes were developed. These had 3-4 tiers of oars with
2 men to an oar. This made it more heavy and less prone to
being flown off course. 0
The Trireme was steered by a pair of heavy, broad-bladed oars.
They were used by one man each. The sail was lowered and raised
according to the rain. When the wind was light the sail was
fully extended. When the wind became gusty and strong the sail
would be lowered. In severe wind and storms the sails would be
lowered completely for fear that the ship might be blown over.
First anchors were a single large stone. Later they were made
into 2 armed wood and lead anchors like we use today.
A trireme only carried enough supplies for 2 days. They were
expensive to build, man, supply and function in high seas. The
ship would beach at night since it was more fragile for water
anchoring at night. These ships would typically only last 20
years.
There were several types of Triremes. the Fast Trireme was
made for speed. Troop Triremes could carry 40 men not just
the standard 10 the standard trireme carried as marines.
There were 1st, 2nd and 3rd generation Triremes depending
on wood, hull design and age of the ship. Horse carriers were
modified to carry 30 horses and only had 60 oarsmen. The food
for the crew only lasted 1-2 days and was porridge and a handful
of figs for each person.
The Trireme had many rowers in 3 banks. Each bank was at
sea level, below the water and at the rear outrigger. Each
bank was on top of the one below it. The name of the banks -
Thranite, Zygite, Thalanit Rowers (top to bottom). There were 27
in each bank slightly ajar with 4 aft making 170 oarsmen total.
Material - Wood (Fir, Cedar, pine (bottom minor lead lined))
Crew - 200 (including sailors and oarsmen) + 10 or 40 marines
Rowers - 170 in 3 banks [part of the 200 crew]
Length - 115-120 feet
Beam - 17 feet 9 inches
Breadth - 16 (plus outrigger)
Waterline- 105 feet 8 inches by 12 feet
Width - 10 (bottom), 12 (gunwale to gunwale)
Freeboard- 4.5 feet
Height - 8.5 feet over waterline
Type - Boat or Ship
Lifetime - 20 years
* Ship Notes
The following are facts and notes on ship types or classes
that could not be formmated into the above sections. Some are
facts while others are comments that don't fit in other files.
1. Bireme - This ship only had 2 banks per side with 25-30 rowers.
2. Triaconter - 30 oarsmen
3. Babylon ship - 11 oarsman and 20 tons was largest size typical
for the Babylonians.
4. Solider ships - Ships could carry 85 men in troop capacity
typically for Trireme size ships.
5. Plyremes - [Tetreris, penteris, polyeris] -
Largest was a "forty" of ancient world with :
Length 420 feet, Beam 57 feet.
Height from water line from tip of stern 79.5 feet.
Height from waterline to tip of prow 72 feet.
Draft (empty) 6 feet. Steering oars (4) 45 feet long.
Thranite Oars (longest) were 57 feet long.
Crew - Oarsman - 4,000 Marines 2,850
OFficers, Deckhands 400.
6. Small craft - Lemboi - 16-50 rowers in 1-2 levels, some had rams
but most for speed and maneuverability.
7. Hemilia - Favorite ship of pirates. allowed sail and oars both
to chase enemy. Then sail could be lowered into aft hole by
2nd bank of rowers in seconds. Giving deck free for boarding.
The Triemolia ship was the son of the Hemilia design.
8. Other names of Small Craft - Skiff, gig and rowboat.
10. Climan Pirate - Crew: 80+ Priestess, character class captain +
(other slaves).
11. Trelen (like Trireme) - Ship could make 8 knots top speed and
4 cruising giving an overall range of 6-12. It has a crew of
170 rowers (31 to a side in the uppermost position, 27 in each
of the other 2 bank levels. They would have roughly 12-16 marines.
They had 5 officers including those listed in #12 below.
12. Crew positions: Captain was usually a political appointee,
Helmsman, Timbermaster, pentekontarchos (paymaster, purchasing &
recruiting officer), Bow Officer (foredeck lookout), Flutist,
Deckhands to manage the sails, Ship's carpenter, Quartermaster
(did steering sometimes) and sometimes a ship's doctor.
13. Rowers were typically paid a drachma a day.
14. Other Classes of ships to consider for design:
A. Yachts. These are pleasure craft that tend to be long and
luxurious though expensive to build. Most are river but
some are sea-worthy. Many are designed with elaborate
cabins for passengers.
B. Fishing Boats: Fishing boats are short range ships that
are built for the purpose of fishing. They have large
holds to hold their captures. They have elaborate nets and
fishing line setups.
C. Couriers: These ships of any type tend to be made for nothing
but speed. They are messenger ships that have no passengers
than what is vital. They are made usually for long range
and fast speed.
D. Exploration: Exploration ships depend on the nation that needs
to explore. These tend to be slow but built for long range
trips to map out entire areas of the ocean.
E. Medical Ships: Though not common in ancient times it is possible
that a nation has a medical ship for its battle fleets. These
ships have healers (with possible healing magics) to help
take care of wounded men. This is a non-combant ship.
F. Surveillance/Recon: Many ships had fast moving ships that were
made to recon an area or spy on enemy ships and fleets. These
were built for speed not combat. They tended to have skilled
crews specially selected for recon duties.
G. Escorts: Many non-combat ships had escort ships. Typically
Escorts were combat oriented ships from simple barges to
full Triremes to guard convoys like merchant ships.
H. Frigates: Frigates were typically designed to carry troops
for ship-boarding operations. In ancient times though
Frigates weren't a popular concept.
I. Patrol Craft: There are typically two types of patrol craft.
River and Ocean patrol boats. These patrolled the areas for
enemy ships or trouble for the nation they worked for. These
were typically armed with ship board weapons rather than ram
weapons.
J. Passenger Liner: When a ship design needs to be determined
the captain should decide if it will carry passengers or not.
Ancient times had no big passenger liners like in modern times
but ships should consider passenger cabins and space.
K. Raiders: Raiders were fast moving ships like pirate boats.
They were made for hit and run tactics. They would attack
ships or towns on the coast with lightning speed and tactics.
L. Scout: Battle fleets had many scout ships. These were like
recon ships. Scouts typically led forces early into battle
to test the enemy strength or determine if the enemy had
weak spots to take advantage of.
M. Tenders: An advanced term but repair ships could be considered
as well. These ships could contain everything needed to fix
ships away from ports. They could carry spare wood and other
supplies to patch hulls. They could carry skilled craftsmen
to repair other aspect of ship damages.
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