If the lowest oar-ports
were 3 ft. above the water, and the topmost bank were worked on the
gunwale, we should require, to accommodate forty banks, a height of side
equal to 39 ft. x 1 ft. 3 in. + 3 ft. = 51 ft. 9 in. Now, if the
inboard portion of the 57 ft. oar were only one-fourth of the whole
length, or 14 ft. 3 in., this would leave 57 ft. - 14 ft. 3 in. = 42 ft.
9 in. for the outboard portion, and as the height of gunwale on which
this particular length of oar was worked must have been, as shown above,
51 ft. 9 in. above the water, it is evident that the outboard portion of
the oar could not be made to touch the water at all. Also, if we
consider the conditions of structural strength of the side of a ship
honeycombed with oar-ports, and standing to the enormous height of 51
ft. 9 in. above the water-line, it is evident that, in order to be
secure, it would require to be supported by numerous tiers of transverse
horizontal beams, similar to deck-beams, running from side to side. The
planes of these tiers would intersect the inboard portions of many of
the tiers of oars, and consequently prevent these latter from being
fitted at all.

If we look at the matter from another point of view we shall meet with
equally absurd results. The oars in the upper banks of Athenian triremes
are known to have been about 14 ft. in length. Underneath them, were, of
course, two other banks. If, now, we assume that the upper bank tholes
were 5 ft. 6 in.[10] above the water-line, and that one-quarter of the
length of the upper bank oars was inboard, and if we add thirty-seven
additional banks parallel to the first bank, so as to make forty in all,
simple proportion will show us that the outboard portion of the oars of
the uppermost bank must have been just under 99 ft. long and the total
length of each, if we assume, as before, that one quarter of it was
inboard, would be 132 ft., instead of the 57 ft. given by Callixenos.
Any variations in the above assumptions, consistent with possibilities,
would only have the effect of bringing the oars out still longer. We
are therefore driven to conclude, either that the account given by
Callixenos was grossly inaccurate, or else that the Greek word, [Greek:
tessarakonteres], which we translate by "forty-banked ship," did not
imply that there were forty horizontal _superimposed_ tiers of oars.

The exact arrangement of the oars in the larger classes of galleys has
always been a puzzle, and has f