Quote:In the first century CE, Caligula built two massive pleasure boats of massive size, shallow ,but very broad of beam.(the Nemi ships)
Very true, and they were called the "Nemi ships" because they were built to sail (only) on Lake Nemi, not the open ocean.
Italian archaeologists in the 1930's did recover the ships, deliberately sunk after Caligula's assassination, from the bottom of Lake Nemi.
Quote:Prima nave
The first ship recovered was 70 meters (230 ft) long with a beam (width) of 20 meters (66 ft).
The hull was divided into three "active" or main sections. The general shape of the hull appears wider at the stern and thinner at the bow, in fact, the main section is not amidships but is displaced towards the stern. The superstructures appear to have been made of two main blocks of two buildings each, connected by stairs and corridors, built on raised parts of the deck at either end. This distribution gives the ship a discontinuous look and has no similarity to any other ancient construction.[1]
[edit] Seconda nave
The second ship recovered was the larger at 73 meters (240 ft) in length and with a beam of 24 meters (79 ft).
We don't know how high they were and the specualtion is that the first "ship" was more a barge meant to be towed by the second which had oars. We do not know how high they were but again, they were on a small lake not the Med.
