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These five ships were discovered during
excavation for a new hotel in the 1980’s. They were fourth-century ships
all buried together consisting of nine major hull fragments from the
five different vessels. They were originally part of a Roman flotilla
situated at the fortress of Mogontiacum (Mainz), the capital of the
Roman province of Germania Superior on the Rhine River, about halfway
between the North Sea and modern Basel, Switzerland.
It is evident that all five ships, because of their shape, could not
have been cargo vessels, but belonged in a military context. There
appeared to be two distinct types of ships, four of which were
troop-transports and one of which was considered a patrol-vessel. The
reconstructed vessel shown in the photographs was reconstructed from
wrecks of Mainz 1 and Mainz 5, the two together giving enough
information to be able to put together the complete ship.
It appears that the site where the ships remains were found was actually
a breaker’s yard, and the ships seemed to have been stripped of useful
fittings. Construction details of the lightly built hulls are similar.
The oak stakes are less than 1 inch thick, excluding mortise-and-tenon
joinery. The hulls were apparently built in two stages. First, the thin
stakes were fastened by wooden pegs to the a type of construction frame
of a temporary skeleton, thus forming a shell into which permanent
frames could be inserted in the conventional Mediterranean “shell-first”
fashion. The construction frame was then removed, and the strakes were
fastened to the permanent frames by iron nails clenched on the frame’s
inner surfaces.
The troop-transport type of MAINZ ship was approximately 21 meters long,
2.5 meters wide and 1 meter deep (69 feet X 8 feet X 3 feet.) Some
sources imply that they were used for ramming German dugouts, supplying
outposts along the river, and amphibious operations. They had a single
mast but were normally propelled by 30 oarsman at a top speed of about
10 knots. The ship was steered by a pair of oars mounted about 2.1
meters forward of the sternpost and held in place by a transverse beam.
The patrol-vessel or inspection boat was shorter and wider (16 meters by
3 meters) and was provided with a small cabin probably intended for
visiting officials. Although this vessel probably had a mast, it’s exact
method of locomotion is not known. One conjecture is that there were
outriggers of a sort, and that it was rowed by standing oarsmen, but no
proof is available. There is only one sample of this type of vessel
found.
The reconstructed MAINZ ship was built completely from oak, as was the
original. The remains of the ships along with the reconstruction
pictured are now displayed at the Museum fur Antike Seefahrt (Museum of
Ancient Shipping) in Mainz.
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