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Re: Numénorean ships

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  Posted by Jim Gregors on March 16, 2000 at 15:36:09
In Reply to: Re: Numénorean ships posted by Martin Read on March 16, 2000 at 03:58:16:



: We did this some time back, should be in the archives. The largest wooden ships ever built were the 120+ gun "First Rate" warships of the Nineteenth Century. They had crews of around 1,000 men though in an emergency more could be squeezed in. The size was around the practical limits for producing sea-worthy craft using wood as a building material (long wooden ships droop at the ends "hogging" due to the lack of bouyancy at the pointy bits). Given emergency packing of people I would reckon that the upper limit for the numbers of Elendil's refugees would have been around 20,000, but probably less.

I find it unlikely that Ar-Pharazon would have permitted Elendil (an acknowledged Elf-friend) to command the equivalent of 9 "First Rate" ships of war. I have no idea of the size of Ar-Pharazon's Armada, but in the British Navy of the Nineteenth Century, 9 first rate ships-of-the-line would have represented a significant portion of its naval strength.

I would imagine that Elendil would have been forced to use whatever ships were available at the time. The number of passengers and crew may have amounted to less than 1000 (total).



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