The Fire Galley is an auxiliary combat ship that can launch small attacks at very high speeds at close range. The first fire galley recorded was used by Alexander III in 332 BC to neutralize the Achaemenid navy of the Persian Empire during the Siege of Tyre, and it is said that fire galleys were also used by Vikings during their attack on Paris in 886 AD. The fire galleys at that time were small boats that were loaded with a lot of flammable materials, set on fire, and then released near the enemy ship, while the sailors quickly jumped into the water and escaped as far as possible.
And after gunpowder weapons became popular, their power increased even more with the use of bombs, and since these ships had to quickly approach enemy ships and blow themselves up, it is said that slow large ships were impossible and fast small ships were used. To put it simply, the Demolition Raft can be seen as the first fire ship, and in the case of the Dromon equipped with Greek fire used by the Eastern Roman Empire, it seems better to see it as a derivative or similar product of the Demolition Raft.
- The photo depicts a fire ship (fire ship) drawn in the Chinese military book, Inmu Jing Zhongyao.
- A painting depicting another Chinese fire ship, the “Hwalong Ship”.
By the way, it is easy to think that the strategy of ramming ships is an old-fashioned method, but surprisingly, cannons were simply objects that fired iron balls until the early 19th century, before the incendiary shells we know as explosive shells were created. The cannons of that time had low hit rates and were slow to fire, so the naval battles where ironclad ships trade shells as we commonly imagine them began to appear in earnest around World War I, and until then, fire ships were often used.
In the Battle of Calais, which brought about the downfall of the Invincible Armada, which symbolized the golden age of Spain in the 16th century, it is recorded that, although it did not cause decisive damage, it effectively caused greater damage than cannons.
- A painting depicting the fire ship Yeonhwanju from the Ming Dynasty in China.
Since the Ming Dynasty, China had also been able to mass-produce gunpowder and manufacture bombs, which allowed them to use bombs on fire ships. These fire ships had a unique double-barreled structure, seen on some Chinese river ships, so the front and back of the hull were not connected as one piece, but rather connected with detachable joints.
Because it took advantage of the characteristic of the hull bending even in a greatly curved waterway, it could operate better than a monolithic ship, and instead of ramming the entire ship, it could separate only the middle connecting section and float only the front part of the hull loaded with bombs toward the enemy ship, or it could sneak up on the enemy lines, light the bombs, and separate the hull so that the crew could escape safely. In the case of Joseon, a neighboring country, there is a record of using a fire ship to sink the SS General Sherman.
Even now, the ingredients of Greek fire have not been scientifically identified. However, it is said that when water was poured to put out the fire, the fire did not go out but spread over the water and continued to burn. Therefore, it is presumed that it was a primitive flamethrower or incendiary weapon system made by mixing naturally erupted bitumen, sulfur, tree resin, bones, lime, and urine, and heating calcium phosphide, sulfur, and naturally erupted petroleum compounds. Of course, now that the related technology itself has become lost technology, the manufacturing method has been lost, so only they know the true nature of the technology.
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P.S. How should Petard be buffed to become a viable unit?