Archimedes and his “Eureka” are common knowledge, but few people know that he designed an enormous cruise ship, the Syracusia.
Athenaeus gives us a very
detailed description of the Syracusia
and its cargo. She could carry 1940 passengers, soldiers, and crew, and boasted
plush stables for twenty horses, each with its own stall. Next was a storage
room for the horses’ fodder and the quarters reserved for the riders and their
slaves.
Figures from antiquity are not always reliable, but it is generally accepted that the Syracusia had a length of 110 meters, which is more than twice the largest merchant ship in those days.
Wood from the Etna was implemented, and the doors were made of cypress and citrus wood. Hemp had been imported from Iberia to make the cables, whereas pitch and more hemp came from the Rhone Valley. As soon as one deck of the ship was completed, it was covered with slabs of lead.
The upper deck was supported by three-meter-high Atlantes or Telamones, replacing regular columns (see: The Valley of Temples at Akragas). The very top of the ship was a promenade reserved for the guests who could wander through gardens filled with different species of trees and flowers. These were watered through well-hidden lead pipes. Individual sections of this deck were made more comfortable with shaded roofs or tents covered with branches of ivy and vine. The layout inevitably led the guests to the Temple of Aphrodite paved with agate. It was furnished with statues, and its walls were covered with frescoes. The entire ship was further adorned with statues and vases, painted walls, and fancy earthenware. Ivory and precious marble were lavishly used.
An onboard kitchen was a must, and Athenaeus confirmed that there were ovens and mills. Freshwater was stored near the head of the ship in a cistern that could hold as much as 78,000 liters. This water tank was caulked with pitch and covered with tarpaulins. Another cistern contained seawater to store the cook’s fish supply. This one, in turn, was coated with lead. Nothing is said about the service on board, the people responsible for the maintenance and the cleaning.
The Syracusia also had its own army on board, which, according to the sources, varied between 200 and 400 men. They were housed on a special deck in front of the ship where a giant catapult was mounted. This machine could shoot a stone weighing ninety kilograms to a distance of 200 meters. Eight towers, each manned with two archers and four men in full armor further assured the defense of this unique vessel against any possible attack. The ship was additionally equipped with four wooden defense towers. The crew to steer this oversized ship probably was handpicked. It is said there were twenty banks of rowers. The entire ship was protected by a surrounding palisade making enemy boarding impossible.
All the components of the Syracusia were beyond normal proportions as Archimedes clearly thought out of the box! Besides, this is one example where his famous screw was successfully implemented to pump out the bilge water.
The number of provisions on board was equally huge. Athenaeus once again provides the facts and figures: 90,000 bushels of grain, 10,000 amphorae of Sicilian salt fish (is this the famous garum?), some 500-600 tons of wool (for what purpose?), and 20,000 talents were spent on “other cargo”. All these goods were stored in the lowest deck.
In the end, all King Hieron could do, it seems, was to present the Syracusia as a gift to Ptolemy III Euergetes. It was eventually renamed Alexandreia. Otherwise, nobody knows what happened to this proud colossal ship afterward.
[The picture of the mosaic representing the Death of Archimedes is from NYU Mathematics]
