Fire stroke is not a term I've come across

The oars come in two positions, the one above is about to begin the stroke

The other is at the end of the stroke with the oars 'pointing' aft

Which brings me to a question I have always wanted an answer to, but never seen one. Which way did oarsmen in ancient galleys face, forwards or backwards?

Propably backward to get extra leverage.

Quote from: Duke Speedy of Leighton on 18 June 2025, 08:21:10 AMAre the oars the wrong way round, or is it a fore stroke?

Fire stroke,bloody autocorrect

Great, they've arrived 

As for ship orientation...."Sharp end at the front, blunt end at the back" 

Triremes, quadremes, quinremes.....Είναι όλα ελληνικά για μένα 

QuoteAre the oars the wrong way round, or is it a fore stroke?

The oars are at the beginning of the stroke (towards the bow), the models also come with oars at the end of the stroke (towards the stern)

Quote from: mollinary on 18 June 2025, 01:40:28 PMWhich brings me to a question I have always wanted an answer to, but never seen one. Which way did oarsmen in ancient galleys face, forwards or backwards?

The limited contemporary or near contemporary artwork that shows galley crews has them facing the stern (back)

e.g. Trajan's Column


The designers of the Olympias replica also have the rowers facing the stern

QuoteThe oars are at the beginning of the stroke (towards the bow), the models also come with oars at the end of the stroke (towards the stern)
The limited contemporary or near contemporary artwork that shows galley crews has them facing the stern (back)

e.g. Trajan's Column


The designers of the Olympias replica also have the rowers facing the stern

Many thanks for that! I suspected as much, but was not sure.

Rowing backwards is much more efficient, and almost universal.

I can think of three exceptions:

Venetian gondoliers.
They row, it isn't a punt, but using a figure of eight motion with a rowlock at the rear of the boat.

Venetian Galleasses - 
Venice again eh!! This one's a bit of a cheat. 
As oars became bigger, with more rowers per oar,  the rowers didn't grip around the oar. They used handles, or hollows in the oar.
At galleass scale, the rowers are standing, some behind the oar facing forward and some before, facing back.
Some rowers are facing forward.

This modern gadget, which converts direction of movement.
    https://smallboatsmonthly.com/article/forward-facing-rowing-system/
I wouldn't like to rely on this using ancient materials on an open seaway.


There are other boat scale solutions, canoes, dragon boats, pacific island canoes.
But we refer to that mode as paddling, not rowing.
The significant difference is the lack of mechanical advantage levering through a rowlock.

And the Coracle.
https://youtu.be/ZR3WD34wlL8?si=GjESZOE5iZqPXIBB

And War Canoes of various cultures.

I've started on the first six units.

Unusually for me I'm assembling and painting these on the unit bases. It makes sense to glue the parts of the galley to the base at the same time I glue them together. This worked well for the test galley and I'm pretty sure the galleys are widely enough spread on the bases that painting won't be a problem.

I've painted the test galley in four different colours/styles to see how they look. The plan is to have some galleys plain wood, others will have primary and/or secondary areas painted in various colours. The primary areas are the prow and bow as well as the stern post the stern. The secondary area is gunwale (upper edge of the side of the galley).


This side aft is plain wood with a blue gunwale, forward is plain wood, with eye


This side forward is a red prow and bow, with eye, aft is a blue stern post and green gunwale

The sea is some spare blue paint I had. I will match the main blue of my sea mat that will be on its way from Europe soon.

I'm interested in feedback on the painting.

I'm planning to use the following colours; ivory, blue, yellow, brown, green, red, black grey.

I wonder if I need stronger colours particularly for the blue and green. They work well on the crew's tunics but are perhaps too muted on the galleys given the small areas painted.

"I wonder if I need stronger colours particularly for the blue and green. They work well on the crew's tunics but are perhaps too muted on the galleys given the small areas painted."

Have you considered posting a few pics (hint hint) and perhaps a poll so we can help you with your quandary?
 

The two pictures above feature the blue and green in question both on tunics and ships

I've assembled the first 6 units (18 galleys) and painted the first coat on the hulls  
I'm using two thin coats on the plywood ships
I've very pleased with the look of the galleys on the bases, the spacing has worked out as planned    

Second batch of 6 units have the hulls based and the required parts cut out, some need a bit of sanding to improve them
They will get done tomorrow as I have a game this evening

One paper I read (while researching something else) said that if you collected all the ship colours from Mediterranean mosaics, then a Roman fleet would have been as technicolour as a tarts boudoir...