Phoenician ship sails around Africa

[ParthianBow]

I've mentioned this on the Roman ship thread, but this is the best place for it, no doubt.
After 2 years of sailing (on and off), a reconstructed Phoenician ship has circumnavigated Africa for the first time since 600 BC. Way cool! 8)
http://www.phoenicia.org.uk

[Robert Vermaat]

Wow. Indeed, way cool!
http://live.adventuretracking.com/phoenicia They completed the journey and now we first hear about it?

[M. Demetrius]

Next trip, Gibraltar to Newfoundland! Or Brazil?
Just kidding. As mentioned in the other thread, this trip was probably no easy task, especially with a square-rigged sail. Good weather would be a help. High seas and unfavorable wind might make the crew start looking for the sleeping Jonah in the hold, eh?

[ParthianBow]

They completed the journey and now we first hear about it?

I've known about it for a few months, but forgot to post about it before now :oops:
However, it is odd that nobody else picked up on this before now. They didn't do enough publicity methinks...

[Robert Vermaat]

Did you seee how close they got to the Americas??? hock:

This claim is a bit weird though:
"Phoenicia successfully recreated the first circumnavigation of Africa, accomplished by Phoenician mariners in circa 600BC".
Re-created? Since there was no Suez canal in 600BC, how exactly would those Phoenician mariners have circumnavigated Africa back then? :oops:

[Jona Lendering]

I've been following this trip over the past few months. The circumnavigation is an old point of interest of mine; this is one of my oldest web pages. However, I felt increasingly disappointed. That they decided to sail way east of the Somalian coast was something I could understand: there are pirates over there. But they never followed the coasts, as they ought to have done if they wanted to investigate the ancient expedition. They consistently sailed over the great Ocean. I understand that they were avoiding the counter currents, but have they proved? Only that an expedition like this was possible (which we already knew); we have learned exactly nothing about the troubles the Phoenicians experienced.

[Astiryu1]

Did you seee how close they got to the Americas??? hock:
Since there was no Suez canal in 600BC, how exactly would those Phoenician mariners have circumnavigated Africa back then? :oops:

I thought Darius (the second???) had completed a canal wide enough for two triremes to sail abreast through the northeast of Africa or Saudi Arabia. I think I read it in Herodotus. It's around the time frame I think and the Phoenicians were the engineers if I am not mistaken. Unfortunately my copy of "The Histories" has gone AWOL since I last cleaned my place.

[Jona Lendering]

I thought Darius (the second???) had completed a canal wide enough for two triremes to sail abreast through the northeast of Africa or Saudi Arabia. I think I read it in Herodotus.

Yup, Herodotus mentions it; and it's Darius I. His own, not very interesting, report is here.

[Astiryu1]

Thanks Jona! I thought I might be wrong in who it was but knew it was there.

[Robert Vermaat]

Which still leaves me in doubt as to the claim of the replica being 'the fist since 600BC', because it's still wrong - Darius either dug or repaired a canal, which then was in use for some time I guess. The claim is therefore at least a century off, or more even.

[Ron Andrea]

This may be slightly off-topic, but L. Sprague deCamp mentions (in Ancient Engineers, 1963, pp77-78) a canal Xerxes had dug across the Athos peninsula in 480 BC, including a lengthy quote from Herodotus as documentation. (Herodotus credits the Phoenicians with superior engineering skills, though deCamp notes the lack of an explanation how they learned about canal digging.)

Other than irrigation works, he mentions no other monumental canals dug by the Persians.

[Astiryu1]

Ron Andrea wrote:This may be slightly off-topic, but L. Sprague deCamp mentions (in Ancient Engineers, 1963, pp77-78) a canal Xerxes had dug across the Athos peninsula in 480 BC, including a lengthy quote from Herodotus as documentation. (Herodotus credits the Phoenicians with superior engineering skills, though deCamp notes the lack of an explanation how they learned about canal digging.)

Other than irrigation works, he mentions no other monumental canals dug by the Persians.

Cyrus diverting a river for some purpose or another. I will quote the paragraph when I get home.

EDIT

The Gyndes River was diverted into 360 channels by Cyrus' army during the march to Babylon.
Herodotus,b.I,p.189-190

(Hope I referenced it right or at least coherently)

[Jona Lendering]

Which still leaves me in doubt as to the claim of the replica being 'the fist since 600BC', because it's still wrong - Darius either dug or repaired a canal, which then was in use for some time I guess. The claim is therefore at least a century off, or more even.

The ships were pharaoh Necho's. He also started the canal, and it has been thought that both projects belong together: opening trade opportunities and so on, but also creating the possibility to sail from the Mediterranean to the Persian Gulf, and attach the new Babylonian Empire on an unexpected place. This was also a risk (Egypt might be attacked in the same way) and Necho abandoned the canal. Darius, who owned both the shores of the Persian Gulf and Egypt, returned to the project and finished it.