Rumour has it that Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, is selling his agreeable little yacht Koru because it will not fit into places like Monaco and Venice and costs far too much to run. Poor old Jeff! Had he studied Classics, he would have known this was not a wise project.
In 240 BC, we are told, Archimedes designed for Hiero II, tyrant of Syracuse, the cargo boat Syracusia, protected by fearsome armaments, carrying 400 tons of grain and 500 tons each of pickled fish, wool and other cargo. It had interior panelling of cypress, ivory and aromatic cedar. Multi-coloured mosaics re-telling the Iliad covered the three floor-levels. There was a temple to Aphrodite, the ship’s guardian deity, and statues and artworks were liberally scattered about.
It contained a gymnasium and a bath with three copper tubs and a 50-gallon basin. It had 20 stables, a sealed water-tank in the bows (20,000 gallons) and a sealed fish-tank, packed with fish. The captain’s cabin next to the kitchens was of ‘15-bed’ size, with three ‘three-bed’ rooms off. Archimedes had to invent the screw-windlass to launch it.
But no harbour could take it. So Hiero, knowing his old friend Ptolemy of Egypt had a large harbour and a grain shortage, renamed it Alexandris, filled it with grain and gave it to him. That, Jeff, is class.
What can Bezos do now? Hardly, like most travellers in the ancient world, hang around in the docks for a ship going in his direction, waiting for winds and omens to come good, taking his own bedding, slaves, pots, pans, food and wine to use in the ship’s galley, and sleeping on the deck.
That is how St Paul travelled from Palestine to Rome, first catching a boat to southern Turkey and then picking up a grain-ship on its long haul back to Rome from Egypt. A dignitary would wait for a boat where he could get a small cabin.
By contrast, top-ranking Roman officials travelled in a flotilla of oar-driven galleys. This was slow but announced that someone of real importance was on the way. What a fabulous sight that would make, Jeff, coming into harbour! Far better than any ten-a-penny superyacht.
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