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Army and Seas
Infantry Cavalry Naval Organisation Naval Command Official Duties Warships Naval Battles Greek fire Financing Catapults City walls Army and Seas

Naval Tactics and devices

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Scouting ships were single-deck minor dromons. Galleys, likewise single-deck ships, took messages and executed various missions. The saktourai were similar ships to these. Ancillary boats included the sandalion, with five pairs of oars and a single mast. The main transport ships were the so-called kamatera karavia, used for siege machinery and anything needed at a specific instance. These were well equipped and usually sailed next to the dromons. These were the warships of the Byzantines, of which an important number took part in various battles.

Naval battle with Arabs

The battle

From the chronicle of Symeon Magister and the anonymous Continuer of Theophanes, we know that in 961 the fleet, which had gathered at Phygela to take part in the reconquest of Crete by Nikephoros Phokas, consisted of 1,000 dromons and 2,000 fire-throwing chelandia.

The battle began when the boats were still at a distance. Apart from the Greek fire, the ships catapulted each other with clay pots full of flammable material or snakes and scorpions. If the ships remained undamaged, they approached each other hurling arrows and spears.

Finally, they engaged in single combat, as we can see in the representation.

Naval battles, formations and sieges

The standard formation used by the warships in bat­tle was the semicircle.

circular battle formation (Ασπελαγόλημεν)

The flagship would sail in the centre while the strongest dromons were situated at the extremities. This type of sea warfare was known aspelagolimen.

Other types of attack involved the ships arranged lengthways with their prows pointed at the enemy, and the division of a naval unit into three parts with one attacking in the centre and the other to the side. Ruses were often used to defeat the enemy. Furthermore, the marines were well trained since they often took part in mock battles.

Before the departure of the fleet, the men and ships were blessed by priests and the officers read various orders of the day.

Sieges and special naval structures

Several times, it was neccessary to have stable tower that would be used from the seaside as a point of invasion on the sea port under siege. Two particulary interesing structures distinguished themselves from other similar ones.

One of them was constructed on the basis of two or more tied boats in pairs, with the wooden shooting tower at the top used as a bombarder - sometimes with catapults and armed marined ready to jump over enemy walls and capture the port.

Other structures were used to crack the walls or wooden gates of the port, so the "ram" was mounted on the basis of two tied boats. The crewmen consisted of two or more soldiers operated the device, and the other used to climb the walls. As You can notice at the picture above, special balast weight statues were put at each side of the structure to provide stability and mass needed for successfull attacks of this type.

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