Bronze warship ram

[SolomonW]

Analysis of a bronze battering ram from a 2000 year-old warship sheds light
on how such an object would have been made

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1095-9270.12001/full

[Eric Stevens]

An interesting article.

Not withstanding that the proembolion is called a ram, it is unlikely
that this was its primary function. The proembolion was fixed at the
bows, at the stem post, at the junction of the large timbers known as
wales. The wales are substantial timbers and in an undecked vessel
serve to hold the sides of the ship in shape at the top. Of course
they are greatly helped in this by the cross-beams of any deck
construction.

The main ram of a ship is at the waterline. The impact of ramming is
taken immediately by the stem, which transfers the forces to the keel
and to the wales. The wales are not straight and the compressive
forces of the ramming impact cause them to buckle i.e. to bow out. If
the ramming is sufficiently forceful the bowing of the wales may be
sufficient to overcome the strength of the conventional boat building
means by which the wales are held together at their point of
intersection in the bows. Such a failure may prove as fatal to the
ramming vessel as the ram is to the rammed.

In my opinion the primary function of the proembolion was to hold the
front ends of the two wales together, to prevent a catastrophic
failure of the connection of the wales to both the stem post and to
each other. In other words it fulfilled the function of a substantial
bronze strap around the stem, from wale to wale, to hold the assembly
together at the point.

Some surprise in expressed in the article to the high lead content.
Bronzes containing a high lead content are often known as 'plastic
bronzes' and are often used for bearings. If the addition of the lead
was not accidental in this case, it may be that it was incorporated to
assist the proembolion to deform with the wales as their angle of 'V'
opened and closed under the brief forces of a ramming impact.
--

Regards,

Eric Stevens

[SolomonW]

On Sun, 07 Apr 2013 17:51:31 +1200, Eric Stevens wrote:

Thanks for comments.

> Some surprise in expressed in the article to the high lead content.
> Bronzes containing a high lead content are often known as 'plastic
> bronzes' and are often used for bearings. If the addition of the lead
> was not accidental in this case, it may be that it was incorporated to
> assist the proembolion to deform with the wales as their angle of 'V'
> opened and closed under the brief forces of a ramming impact.

I found this part specially interesting