John Morrison; Reconstructed Ancient Vessel

John Morrison, 87, a scholar who led reconstruction of the trireme, the remarkably fast oar-powered warship of classical Greece. Historians believe the first triremes were built by the Corinthians around 610 BC. The ships were used to defeat the larger Persian navy during a series of invasions between 490 and 479 BC, particularly in the crucial Battle of Salamis in 480 BC, when 360 Greek ships faced down 1,000 Persian vessels. Morrison, who became a Greek scholar and Cambridge University administrator, spent decades studying archeological evidence from ancient dockyards, written descriptions of ships and images from vase paintings, buildings and coins. He was certain that “trireme” referred to three decks of rowers, although most scholars believed the word meant that three men pulled on each oar. His research led first to his 1968 book, coauthored by R.T. Williams, “Greek Oared Ships,” and another in 1980, “Long Ships and Round Ships.” In 1982, Morrison formed the Trireme Trust with British naval architect John Coates and banker Frank Welsh. The goal was to build a full-size reconstruction of the trireme to test Morrison’s trilevel theory. Two years later, the Greek navy added more funding, and the Olympias was built in Athens in 1987. The 140-foot trireme, constructed of used Oregon pine and 25,000 bronze nails, was manned by three levels of 170 trained oarsmen. Morrison’s reconstruction proved classical writers were correct in calling the trireme the fastest man-powered vessel ever built. Extremely maneuverable, the reconstructed ship could reach speeds sufficient to tow a water-skier. Morrison taught at Durham University from 1945 to 1950 and was at Cambridge for 30 years, serving as first president of its Wolfson College from 1966 until his retirement in 1980. After one year of teaching at Reed College in Oregon, he devoted his remaining years to the trireme project. On Wednesday in London.