Phoenician Ships and Shipbuilding: Hulls, Materials, and Maritime Equipment

Phoenician shipbuilders assembled wooden hulls from joined planks and reinforced them with frames. A mast and square sail supplied wind propulsion, while oars assisted movement and steering. Merchant hulls accommodated cargo; galleys carried larger rowing crews for warfare. Seventh-century BCE wrecks at Mazarrón preserve specific combinations of joinery, stitching and sealing.

Wrecks supply timber and fittings, while contemporary images show rigs and vessel profiles. The Mazarrón remains document small coastal craft in Iberia. Later and larger vessels had different capacities and equipment.

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Different hulls for cargo and coastal work

Commercial ships are generally represented as broad, rounded vessels. Greek descriptions used the term gauloi for this type of full-bodied merchant hull. Its width created room for cargo and gave the vessel useful stability, although it was less suited than a narrow galley to rapid manoeuvres. A single mast carried a rectangular or square sail, while oars provided additional control and propulsion when wind conditions were unsuitable or when the ship needed to manoeuvre close to land.

The few surviving Iron Age wrecks do not define one standard merchant-ship size. The Mazarrón vessels, dated to the seventh century BCE, were small coastal craft around eight metres long. Other wrecks, including the larger late eighth-century BCE transports discovered off Ashkelon, show different capacities. The small Mazarrón craft used shallow water and local coastal routes. Mazarrón I has been reconstructed as carrying around four tonnes. The late eighth-century BCE wrecks found offshore from Ashkelon have been estimated at around fourteen metres long, with about eleven tonnes of wine cargo.

Small coastal craft were important because cargoes could be moved between nearby anchorages and larger ports in stages. A merchant ship did not need to carry every consignment from the Levant to the far western Mediterranean. Smaller vessels could move goods along local stretches of coast, while larger ships handled longer passages.

Building the hull from planks outward

Mazarrón’s builders shaped the hull as a wooden shell. Joined planks, or strakes, formed its outer skin; internal frames supported and stiffened it. This shell-first assembly placed plank shaping and edge fastening before completion of the internal structure.

Mazarrón I preserves a nearly complete keel, nine incomplete planking strakes, and four incomplete frames. The keel was the longitudinal backbone at the bottom of the hull. Its surviving section measured about 3.98 metres and was made from Mediterranean cypress, not cedar. At its forward end, the keel has a T-shaped joining surface with two perpendicular tenons, the upper one horizontal and the lower one vertical. Its upper edge was cut at an oblique angle of about 70 degrees, interpreted as helping secure the keel–stem connection against vertical stress. The stem itself has not survived, so the matching sockets are reconstructed rather than preserved.

The strakes of Mazarrón I were about 130 to 140 millimetres wide, apart from one notably wider plank that may have been reused from an earlier hull. Reuse shows that shipbuilding could incorporate available material rather than requiring every component to be newly prepared. The planks were connected by more than one method. Pegged mortise-and-tenon joints held adjoining pieces together, while longitudinal stitching also ran along some seams.

A mortise is a prepared socket cut into one piece of wood; a tenon is a projecting wooden element fitted into it. At Mazarrón I, the mortises were approximately 30 to 36 millimetres across, 9 to 10 millimetres thick, and 60 to 80 millimetres deep. Cylindrical pegs about 7 to 10 millimetres in diameter secured the tightly fitted tenons. These measurements show a joinery system designed to prevent planks from separating under the movement and pressure imposed by the sea.

Mazarrón I combines pegged mortise-and-tenon joints with sewn seams. Esparto-grass ropes ran in grooves along planks and through holes in the timber, closing and reinforcing seams. Its construction combines techniques found within eastern Mediterranean and local Iberian traditions.

Frames, caulking, and protection against water

Internal frames gave the planked shell greater rigidity. At Mazarrón, fig wood supplied frames attached to the hull with plant fibres, while pine was used for much of the planking. Builders selected different materials for different structural roles.

Mazarrón II had pine planking fastened with a system of wooden dowels, while plant fibres were used to caulk the seams. Caulking means filling the gaps between planks so that water cannot pass through the joints. Mazarrón I used esparto stitching as part of the seam treatment, and the entire hull was coated internally and externally with pine tar. Tar helped seal the wood and protect it from water.

Builders prepared the keel and stem, shaped lower planks and raised the shell through successive strakes. Frames reinforced the emerging hull, and caulking and tar sealed it. The exact sequence of every operation remains uncertain.

Maintenance and the working life of wooden vessels

A ship built from joined planks required continuing care. Seams had to remain closed, tarred surfaces had to resist water, and damaged timbers could need replacement. The wider plank in Mazarrón I may have been reused from an earlier hull, demonstrating that repair and adaptation were compatible with ship construction. Ramps beside rocky beaches could be used to bring boats out of the water, probably for construction or repairs, although such shore facilities belong to the wider history of harbours rather than to the ship’s equipment itself.

Light coastal hulls remained vulnerable to storms and grounding. The Mazarrón vessels were rapidly covered by sand after sinking, preserving timber and other organic materials.

Sails, oars, and steering gear

The principal sailing rig of the commercial ships represented in the evidence was a single mast with a rectangular or square sail. A sail converted wind into forward motion and allowed a merchant crew to carry a substantial load without relying continuously on human muscle. Oars remained useful for leaving an anchorage, approaching a shore, correcting the ship’s position, or moving when the wind was weak or unfavourable. Mazarrón I has accordingly been interpreted as a vessel that used both a mast and square sail and a set of oars.

Steering used a large oar, or paired steering oars, near the stern. Changing the blade’s angle altered the vessel’s direction. Representations show variations in arrangement.

For route-finding and the use of this equipment at sea, see navigation and seafaring.

Anchors and the problem of holding position

A vessel needed an anchor to remain in place when wind, current, or waves would otherwise move it. Mazarrón II preserved an anchor made from wood and lead. Anchoring arrangements varied with vessel size and local conditions. Small boats could use sheltered shallow anchorages, while larger vessels might anchor offshore where a harbour basin was unavailable. The maritime landscape around Phoenician cities included natural moorings, reefs, and artificial harbour works, but the ship’s anchor remained the immediate equipment that connected the vessel to the seabed.

Merchant ships and oared war vessels

Merchant ships and war vessels shared some basic technologies, including wooden hulls, sails, oars, and steering gear, but their priorities were different. A merchant hull emphasized cargo volume, stability, and economical movement. A war galley emphasized rowing power, speed, and close manoeuvring. The rounded commercial vessel could be adapted for military service, and Assyrian representations from the late eighth and early seventh centuries BCE show both galleys and round merchant ships used in military contexts.

War galleys carried larger numbers of rowers and could rely on oars when sails were lowered or stowed. During combat, removing the mast and sail reduced obstacles and made close manoeuvring easier. Their prows carried bronze rams intended to strike and damage opposing ships. From the Persian period, if not earlier, Phoenician warships included triremes, whose rowers were arranged in three levels or banks. Later vessels included quadriremes. Punic quinqueremes belong to a later western development and are a comparison rather than direct evidence for first-millennium BCE Phoenician construction in the Levant.