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November 1st, 2024 
Awake Goy The Early Successors of Alexander gave a boost in the use and the development of the polyeres-type warships (multimeremes), using them widely in their wars (321 BC – early 3rd century BC).
The Successors have built fleets comprised of numerous large warships, reaching the building of colossal vessels such as the ‘eikoseres’ (20reme, with twenty oarsmen on each vertical group of oars) and the enormous ‘tessarakonteres’ (40reme, with forty oarsmen on each vertical group of oars).
These warships resembled to floating fortresses, very similar in size to the modern large battleships and aircraft carriers. The tessarakonteres had a crew of 6.000 men (officers, oarsmen, sailors, marines and others), as many as a modern aircraft carrier.
The Hellenistic Giant Galley ‘Tessarakonteres’ – one of the largest human-powered vessels in history.
Tessarakonteres (40reme, with forty oarsmen on each vertical group of oars) (in Greek – “forty-rowed”), or simply “forty” – was a very large catamaran galley reportedly built in the Hellenistic period by Ptolemy IV Philopator of Egypt… who was Greek.
the greek ‘tessarakonteres’ one of the largest human powered vessels in history.
The name “forty” refers not to the number of oars, but to the number of rowers on each column of oars that propelled it, and at the size described it would have been the largest ship constructed in antiquity, and probably the largest human-powered vessel ever built.
These warships resembled to floating fortresses, very similar in size to the modern large battleships and aircraft carriers.
Taking into account the crew needed for the tessarakonteres’ navigation, its officers, its military guards and the rest of the staff, and of course the 4,000 oarsmen, the total personnel of the vessel would be around 6,000 men, the same number with that of a modern carrier’s crew. The sole advantages of the tessarakonteres were its size and its deck. This kind of vessel, enormous even for the modern standards, was appropriate to demonstrate the power of the Ptolemaic Kingdom to enemies and allies. Additionally, if it was used in military operations its deck could carry catapults of colossal size, and/or large numbers of troops.
According to these descriptions, supported by modern research by Lionel Casson, the enormous size of the vessel made it impractical and it was built only as a prestige vessel, rather than an effective warship.
The use of these enormous polyeres-warships was gradually abandoned by the Hellenistic fleets, due to the high maintenance costs and the difficulty of their navigation.
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To all ‘naysayers’ and to people who are interested to know more – https://military-history.fandom.com/wik … rakonteres.
If you Google – there are more articles available.
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