…in the World
"In the second century BC, Cato the Elder showed the Roman Senate a fig that had been picked in Carthage, in North Africa, just three days earlier. He used the fruit to make a military point, but he could equally well have been demonstrating the efficiency of the Roman mercantile marine.
The Eternal City was kept well fed and provisioned with the bounty from her Mediterranean vassals, through a fleet of wooden ships, plying from all points at speeds which would be impressive to sailors today.
It's instructive, and perhaps a little humbling, to note that even in 2014 the biggest cargo ship currently in service, the Mary Maersk, at 50 meters wide and 396 meters long, crosses the oceans at a speed of 17.8 knots (kn), which is only two or three times faster than Roman merchantmen could achieve…."
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Amicalement
Armand
paints brigs for the British fleet.
