About Ancient Roman Paddle Wheel Ships

The Roman navy was one of the most well-equipped navies in the world at the time. Ancient Rome added many technological and tactical innovations to their military, which, along with the power of the state, enabled Rome to create an empire through military conquest and trade. The paddle wheel, for instance, is commonly associated with steamboats. There is some evidence that the Romans had developed paddle wheel warships.

Identification

Ancient Roman paddle ships were known for their speed and maneuverability. Where other ships relied solely on sails or galley slaves to row across the water, this type of ship had a team of oxen strapped to a series of paddle wheels located on the sides, which added extra propulsion. An image of an oxen-powered paddle wheel ship can be seen in a 4th-century Roman military treatise titled "De Rebus Bellicus."

Significance

Whether ancient Roman paddle wheel ships were used often in battle is unknown. In De Rebus Bellicus, it's stated that the ships had a great deal of momentum as compared to standard sailing ships of the time. A common tactic in ancient naval warfare was for a ship to ram into the side of a smaller or weaker ship with its prow and shatter the wooden vessel when combat between soldiers on the opposite ships was proving to be ineffective.

Function

In battle, oxen-powered ancient Roman paddle ships were used as shock vessels. Shock vessels were the ships that spearheaded an assault on an enemy navy. The use of paddle wheel ships served to reduce the morale of enemy soldiers operating the ships as well as provide a force that could easily overpower most other ships on the sea due to speed and weight. Paddle wheels were also used in civilian and commercial ships to add speed in order to reach their destination sooner.

Features

Ancient Roman paddle wheel ships could have anywhere from one to three paddles per side, depending on the needs of the ship. For military ships, three were used to add as much extra speed--and therefore momentum--as possible. The mast was shorter than those of normal sailing ships to allow for less wind resistance, but paddle wheel ships did have sails that could be used in tandem with the wheel. Usually, the sail served as the main transportation on military ships, and the paddle wheels served as propulsion for attacking or moving through a battle.

Influences

Although ancient Rome was the first society to build paddle wheel ships for use in their commercial and military vessels, other societies followed them. For example, the Song dynasty of China in the 8th century used paddle wheel ships to subdue pirates off the coast. In the 16th century, a Barcelonan engineer in Spain made a design for such a ship propelled by 40 men per wheel on a side. The most well-known paddle wheel ships are the steamboats used in the 19th century to carry goods up and down rivers.