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Ancient History - The Ship-sheds

The Naval Program of Themistokles The Second Persian War The Delian League The Peloponnesian War The Battle of Amorgos Sulla sacks the Piraeus

 
In the Classical period, warships were regularly hauled out of the water when not in use and kept in ship-shed to protect the hulls from shipworms and fungal rot, and from the damaging effects of sun and rain. The most distinctive feature in ancient naval harbours was the ship-shed, which took up most of the available space around the harbour basin. Ship-sheds were long narrow buildings constructed on a gradient angled to the sea.

A ship-shed is defined by two structural criteria:

The Superstructure: This includes the load-bearing elements, such as columns, pillars, masonry walls or rock-cut walls. The superstructure protects the stored warship against rain and sunlight.

The slipway: At Zea the slipway is made up of two basic elements. The ramp is the central structure on the slipway constructed to support the keel and the after cut-up of the warship during storage and slipping operations. The major section of the ramp is raised above the working areas of the hauling crew and is designed to lift the hull up in order to create more working space. On the lower part of the slipway the ramp and the areas for the hauling crew are approximately at the same level. The working areas of the hauling crew are defined as the two parallel areas between the ramp and the colonnades. The men who hauled the ships in and out of the sheds worked in these areas.

We know from several ancient literary sources that ship-sheds were constructed in the Piraeus during the 5th century BC, but we do not know in which of the three harbours of Kantharos, Zea or Mounychia. According to the Naval Inventories there were 196 ship-sheds in Zea in the third quarter of the 4th century BC.