Posted: February 09, 1999 at 13:32:52: by Michael Martinez
: Elendil had 9 ships saved from the Akkalabeth ("Tall ships
: three times three"), and allowing for a greater packing in an
: emergency of 50%, the greatest possible number of Numenoreans
: would be around 13,500. Possibly less as Numenoreans would
: have been physically larger than 18th century seamen, though
: this could be compensated by the presence of women and children
: amongst the refugees.That's very interesting. Personally, I suspect each ship only carried a few hundred people. For one thing, at least one of those ships had to carry the Master Palantir, which was huge. But they also would have required a fair amount of food and water, since Numenor was a long way off from Lindon and Pelargir, the most likely havens Elendil would have fled for. In the event, the ships probably arrived sooner than expected since they were carried on the wings of storm, as it were. Of course, just looking at "Akallabeth", I see the great wind snapped the masts of the ships, so they were pretty much carried along only at the speed of the waves, slightly assisted by the winds of the gale.
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Parma Endorion: Essays on Middle-earth, Revised Edition
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