Comment my 2 cents ... which turned into a $1.50 (Score 1) 361
First off all the folks out there ranting about sail cloth...
As the story goes I'm assuming it was used from the shoreline against anchored Roman ships. To that effect you wouldn't have sails deployed on an anchored ship so you have one hell of a hard target to hit. Secondly we aren't talking about burning the QE2 here you have one hell of a small target bobbing up and down in a harbor to hit with that focused beam of light from as someone mentioned before a 300 sq ft. mirror that you have to keep focused on a point.
Basically my point is that this may be plausible, and may have been tried, its battle effectivness was probably nil.
Now as far as effectiveness on water in naval vs. naval combat.
Not many sails on a Quinquereme (or Trireme) would be deployed in combat because the main source of power would be the 300 (less on a trireme) or so oarsmen (at least as Polybius's numbers go).
Secondly the Greek tactic of the day would be to RAM the opponents ship bellow the waterline and pull back and let it sink.
Not much time on the MOVING vessel on the POSSIBLEY calm water (not to mention the disruption to the waters surface by 200+ ships each with a large number of oars) to focus 300sq ft. or so (as someone said earlier) of mirror on a sail an effective distance away. Let alone the fact you are trying to dodge other ships trying to ram you.
Finally this brings me to my last point of it probably wasn't to effective as a combat tool against Roman naval tactics which basically were as described by Polybius to come in close to the enemy ship with intent of boarding it and locking it in with the Roman ship to turn the great naval battle into one large land battle on a man made island. The advantage of Roman prowess in close quarters land battles, and the fact they were facing Greek naval men unskilled in hand to hand combat led them to victory against the Greek navy on a rare occasion. The whole point of the device to set fire tot he enemy ship would be little deterrent to someone who's entire tactics were to get off of his ship to begin with and on to yours.
Not to leave the Greeks out they were still the better seamen and the romans would be hard pressed to catch them in their more maneuverable ships. More likely the scenario was 1. roman ship moving sluggishly toward smaller swift Greek ship. 2. Greek ship speeds up and goes to ram Roman ship. 3. Greek ship rams roman ship and before they can pull away Romans board the Greek ship through a bunch of different methods and then a land like battle ensues between Greek oarsmen and a contingent of battle hardened well trained (sea sick) Roman Legionaries.
Anyways to fully test this you would need two Triremes or Quinqueremes or one of each manned by oarsmen, and then you would need them on relatively calm and probably warm waters with both or one approaching the other with intent on ramming/boarding.
Before all that though you would have to get in Mr. Peabody's way back machine to find out how to build a friggen Quinquereme or Trireme to Greek or Roman Standards.
Then you can mount your 300sq ft. mirror to it and try aiming it on water in a relatively small boat by todays standards moving with the power of a bunch of oars. Also, don't forget that you are scared to death of the big Roman ship loaded with pissed off legionaries who haven't been home in 5+ year or more to see their wives children and farms, and who probably haven't eaten very well or been paid in weeks. Not to mention the arrows, ballista bolts, and general long distance mayhem of the time period all trained on that big glowing this thats making the pissed off legionaries boat hot.
-special shout out to Prof. Dixon who forced me to read Polybius
-and I guess to those other bastard prof.s who bailed and left me stuck in ancient history courses this semester.
-Oh and of course my mom
-oh and that Kari (Keri?) chick is uber hot
- and never forget OSCAR!
As the story goes I'm assuming it was used from the shoreline against anchored Roman ships. To that effect you wouldn't have sails deployed on an anchored ship so you have one hell of a hard target to hit. Secondly we aren't talking about burning the QE2 here you have one hell of a small target bobbing up and down in a harbor to hit with that focused beam of light from as someone mentioned before a 300 sq ft. mirror that you have to keep focused on a point.
Basically my point is that this may be plausible, and may have been tried, its battle effectivness was probably nil.
Now as far as effectiveness on water in naval vs. naval combat.
Not many sails on a Quinquereme (or Trireme) would be deployed in combat because the main source of power would be the 300 (less on a trireme) or so oarsmen (at least as Polybius's numbers go).
Secondly the Greek tactic of the day would be to RAM the opponents ship bellow the waterline and pull back and let it sink.
Not much time on the MOVING vessel on the POSSIBLEY calm water (not to mention the disruption to the waters surface by 200+ ships each with a large number of oars) to focus 300sq ft. or so (as someone said earlier) of mirror on a sail an effective distance away. Let alone the fact you are trying to dodge other ships trying to ram you.
Finally this brings me to my last point of it probably wasn't to effective as a combat tool against Roman naval tactics which basically were as described by Polybius to come in close to the enemy ship with intent of boarding it and locking it in with the Roman ship to turn the great naval battle into one large land battle on a man made island. The advantage of Roman prowess in close quarters land battles, and the fact they were facing Greek naval men unskilled in hand to hand combat led them to victory against the Greek navy on a rare occasion. The whole point of the device to set fire tot he enemy ship would be little deterrent to someone who's entire tactics were to get off of his ship to begin with and on to yours.
Not to leave the Greeks out they were still the better seamen and the romans would be hard pressed to catch them in their more maneuverable ships. More likely the scenario was 1. roman ship moving sluggishly toward smaller swift Greek ship. 2. Greek ship speeds up and goes to ram Roman ship. 3. Greek ship rams roman ship and before they can pull away Romans board the Greek ship through a bunch of different methods and then a land like battle ensues between Greek oarsmen and a contingent of battle hardened well trained (sea sick) Roman Legionaries.
Anyways to fully test this you would need two Triremes or Quinqueremes or one of each manned by oarsmen, and then you would need them on relatively calm and probably warm waters with both or one approaching the other with intent on ramming/boarding.
Before all that though you would have to get in Mr. Peabody's way back machine to find out how to build a friggen Quinquereme or Trireme to Greek or Roman Standards.
Then you can mount your 300sq ft. mirror to it and try aiming it on water in a relatively small boat by todays standards moving with the power of a bunch of oars. Also, don't forget that you are scared to death of the big Roman ship loaded with pissed off legionaries who haven't been home in 5+ year or more to see their wives children and farms, and who probably haven't eaten very well or been paid in weeks. Not to mention the arrows, ballista bolts, and general long distance mayhem of the time period all trained on that big glowing this thats making the pissed off legionaries boat hot.
-special shout out to Prof. Dixon who forced me to read Polybius
-and I guess to those other bastard prof.s who bailed and left me stuck in ancient history courses this semester.
-Oh and of course my mom
-oh and that Kari (Keri?) chick is uber hot
- and never forget OSCAR!
