Types of sailing ships: Unireme
The next stage in ship building was the unireme. It had only one set of oars, secured on one or the other bank. Oars could be firmly secured to the deck, or just partially. This was the ship used in Homer's times. The ram carried by the unireme was smaller, and it was called "embolon".
Bireme
As early as the 8th c BC the so-called bireme was designed. It was modified from unireme, only it had oars on both sides of the banks, hence the name. It was between 25 and 30 m long. It had a single big mast and a square sail.
Trireme
It is an even more complicated boat - used by the 6th century before Christ. It had whole three banks of oars. The length had increased considerably - already 40 m. The distance between the beams was 6m, draft - one metre. The crew consisted of no less than 200 men - officers, 90 oarsmen per side, other seamen. The maximum speed of the trireme was seven knots. Yet it was not used for long naval operations, because it had very small place for food and water. It was used only for short tours from island to island.
Quadrireme
It was invented in the middle of 4th century before Christ; they had 4 banks of oars - two parallel. Shortly later, the quinqueremes (5 banks) started to be used, then multiple-banked ships. The competition in the Mediterranean was fierce - all the nations had strong traditions in sailing, and they all wanted to dominate.
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