Roman Britain And The Roman Navy

Another review has been completed for our Roman Books section, thanks to community member Pertinax.

This is a work that addresses a neglected niche in the consideration of the Roman Navies role in the invasion and military campaigns and policing in and around Britain. There are several very basic truths that must be borne in mind when analyzing the use of historical seaborne forces, firstly the fact that the archaeological record tends to be scarce due to 1. The ephemeral nature of wooden vessels that needed intensive maintenance work and were imbued with positive buoyancy 2. The erosion or inundation, reconstruction and masking of harbor works as ports waxed and waned and sea levels and river patterns evolved.(this is very pertinent to Britain)...

...read the full review of Roman Britain and the Roman Navy by David.J.P.Mason

I'd be interested in reading it. However, as Pertinax suggests, I may be one of those that wouldn't aquire much new info except for maybe a cataloge of wreck sites.

I chuckled a bit at the "landlubber" comment in regards to the ship sheds.

I don't know of the specific latin word for them as in Greek they were called neosoikos. Seems that for the Romans it was generally understood that they were a part of the greater navalis or dockyard but weren't often called out specifically.

Other than allowing for maintenance during the off season, their key importance was to keep the hulls dry and light instead of waterlogged & heavy. Two reasons for this: 1. the obvious one was to keep them nimble for a sea fight 2. was to keep them light enough to be beachable for overnight encampment. The way I understand it, a trireme, pentekonter or the like wasn't just beached enough to not float away (mostly the bow), they were totally beached!

Even with 200 men, that takes a lot of muscle. If the timbers were completely waterlogged... forget about it.

Hull life expectancy seems to be modest at best, plus everyone ( legion or Navy) seems to have been able to knock out a liburnian if needs be for a campaign.