BBC Documentaries

The Trireme Quest (1987x5)

Uitzenddatum: Dec 05, 1987

Fifty years ago Professor John Morrison dreamed of rediscovering the secrets of the Greek Trireme. The design of this legendary warship - powered by 170 oarsmen and with a deadly battering ram - had long been forgotten. But the triremes had once given the Greeks supremacy in the eastern Mediterranean and allowed their culture to flourish. This year, after a lifetime of detective work among the art and literature of the ancient world, this gentle Cambridge scholar saw his dream come true. A replica, based on his findings, was built - and a trireme put to sea in the Aegean again for the first time in 2,000 years.