Wooden Ships Of Antiquity Larger Than Noah's Ark
| Skeptics of the Bible, and in particular, Noah's ark, often state that the account of Noah and the Flood couldn't be true because no ship could be built of wood the size of the ark. It would fall apart, they say. Besides, allegedly no one ever attempted to build a wooden ship that size. These skeptics say this not because the've studied history and verified their claims to be true, but because the don't want to believe Genesis. So, they make unresearched, outrageous claims and insist that you disprove them. |
A portrayal of Noah building the ark
However, as is usually the case, the facts and history refute them. Let's examine two examples. Biship Ussher (1581-1656) described a huge Greek ship from a battle in 280 B.C. called "Leontifera": "When Antigonus, surnamed Gonatas, the son of Demetrius Poliorcetes, heard how Seleucus was murdered, he made an expedition into Macedonia. He planned to get there before Ceraunus could, with his army and naval forces. However, Ceraunus had all Lysimachus’ fleet in readiness, and set out and met him in a good battle formation at sea. In his navy, ships were sent from Heraclea in Pontus, some of six, some of five tiers of oars. These kinds of ships were called 'Aphracta.' The largest ship of all had eight tiers of oars and was called the Leontifera. She was admired by all for her large size and exquisite construction. In her were a hundred oars per tier, so that on each side there were eight hundred rowers which made 1600 in all. On the upper deck or hatches there were 1200 fighting men who were under two special commanders. When the battle began, Ceraunus won and Antigonus was forced to flee with all his navy. In this fight, the ships from Heraclea performed the best and among them the Leontifera did the best of all." |
| The oarsmen in that day sat three feet apart. So one can do some calculations with five tiers of oars, a hundred oars per tier, and 1600 rowers total for the ship to see that this was one massive vessel. Based on the descriptions, it was between 400-ft and 500-ft long. |
Example of huge, ancient ship |
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The second example is a ship described by 3rd century Greek scholar Athenaeus called Tessarakonteres. This ship was builty by Ptolemy in the 2nd century B.C. It was said to be over 420-ft. long, 57-ft. wide, and almost 80-ft. high. It was also said to have 40 tiers of oars. Moreover, it had a double bow and a double stern, as well as twelve "under-girders" 900-ft. long. And if that doesn't boggle the mind, the number of those on board, including sailors, rowers, and men-in-arms, was 7,250 men. The largest aircraft carrier ever built, the U.S.S. Gerald Ford, has only has 4,179 men, so this ancient ship exceeded its manpower by over 3,000 men. Additionally, how much food, water, weapons, etc, would have also been needed on board? |
| Yes, Noah's ark was definitely a huge ship. But it clearly wasn't the *biggest* ship of antiquity. It's past time for ignorant skeptics to educate themselves. |
