Corsair Triremes

The far more practical and common in the Ancient World were triremes. I suspect that the “great ships” were this class. There were also smaller penteconter class ships as well that might be used as well. Both needed to be taken ashore each night and during the winter. Triremes got their names from the fact they had three tiers of oars on each side.   Herodotus, VI.15.2   Now, one of the major limitations of the triremes was their need to come to land every day. Food had to be taken from the land each night. There were no places to sleep on the ships either. It also meant that the ability to loot an area was quite limited. The worst part of this was the fact that it gave land powers greater ability to defeat the trireme. Lets say a ship finds itself in an area controlled by the enemy. It will literally be unable to rest its crew or get enough food and water for them. Just as dangerous was an enemy army on the shore. In the Second Battle of Syracuse, Athenian ships were forced ashore, were naturally the sailors were no match for land based infantry. In the Battle of Aegospotami, the Athenian fleet returned to camp, they began looking for food. The enemy fleet arrived and captured the unprepared Athenians on the beach.   Lets review here. The ship the Corsairs are using have at most an average range of 62 miles. There was virtually no cargo space, even for food for the crew. Yet their main missions were looting and slave raids. This means that the main operating procedures of the Corsairs would probably have to change a good bit.   One possibility is maximizing the soldiers sent in the ships. Troop transport models of triremes were built. These had 60 rowers and the space normally used for the rest were taken by hoplites. However, I would suspect that the 40 number would not be increased in this case. Slaves would probably be the occupants for the rest of the space. Should looting be the primary goal, one could expect the full space be used for soldiers. In this model, the trireme would transport raiders and escort cargo ships. Once ashore, they would grab everything they can carry away, throw it in the cargo ships and kill all resistance. Traditional triremes might go along as escorts.   Hanson (2006), p. 261   All of this together means that I think the triremes as the center point of the Corsair fleet would be scrapped entirely and replaced with a Viking model. The Great Ships the Corsairs use are probably going to be kept back in reserve in case extra firepower is needed in serious battles. So for Minas Tirith, they would still be the center point of their activities and would be used as I described above. Should ships or close locations be targeted – the triremes could still be useful. But some better ships and tactics would be needed for normal operations.