Here's some more evidence from antiquity Kate. Thanks for posting on this fascinating subject!
Noah’s Ark: (137m (450 feet) long, 23m (75 feet) wide, and 14m (45 feet) high).
In the writings of Pliny the Elder (AD 23–79), I discovered the table (below) about ships of antiquity. This documents the rapid advances the ancients made in ship-building technology in just a few centuries. The time period in the table is from about the seventh century BC to the end of the third century BC.3
| Vessel | Inventor | Authority | Approx. Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Double-banked galley | The Erythraeans | Damastes | 7th C. BC |
| Trireme (three banks of oars) | Aminocles of Corinth | Thucydides | 6th C. BC |
| Quadrireme (four banks) | The Carthaginians | Aristotle | 5th C. BC |
| Quinquereme (five) | The Salaminians | Mnesigiton | 4th C. BC |
| Galleys with six banks of oars | The Syracusans | Xenagoras | 4th C. BC |
| Up to ten banks | Alexander the Great | Mnesigiton | 4th C. BC |
| Up to twelve banks | Ptolemy Soter | Philostephanus | 3rd C. BC |
| Up to fifteen banks | Demetrius, son of Antigonus | Philostephanus | 3rd C. BC |
| Up to thirty banks | Ptolemy Philadelphus | Philostephanus | 3rd C. BC |
| Up to forty banks | Ptolemy Philopator, surname Tryphon | Philostephanus | 3rd C. BC |
The biblical Ark was within the range of acceptable dimensions for a vessel in ancient times. Though it was huge, other wooden vessels from ancient times were just as large.
When we think of warships of antiquity, we think of the tiny ships that were shown in a movie like Ben Hur. They had about fifty or so men, and a single tier of oars. This was the best Hollywood could do on a limited budget. It may reflect our evolutionary thinking, that the ancients were primitive compared to us. While we may flatter ourselves with our supposed knowledge of ancient history, the actual facts that come down to us tell us another story. From this table in Pliny, we can see a rapid rise in technology over a few hundred years which culminated in a ship of forty tiers of oars (when we say forty tiers we mean forty levels of rowers!). Now the question is, do we have any descriptions of these ships so we can comprehend how large they really were? Fortunately, we have a good description of one of the early third-century ships and an excellent description of the largest ship Pliny lists.4
The Leontifera
There was a naval battle in the Aegean Sea in 280 BC. The following is Ussher’s description of what happened:
When Antigonus, surnamed Gonatas, the son of Demetrius Poliorcetes, heard how Seleucus was murdered, he made an expedition into Macedonia. He planned to get there before Ceraunus could, with his army and naval forces. However, Ceraunus had all Lysimachus’ fleet in readiness, and set out and met him in a good battle formation at sea. In his navy, ships were sent from Heraclea in Pontus, some of six, some of five tiers of oars. These kinds of ships were called “Aphracta”. The largest ship of all had eight tiers of oars and was called the Leontifera. She was admired by all for her large size and exquisite construction. In her were a hundred oars per tier, so that on each side there were eight hundred rowers which made 1600 in all. On the upper deck or hatches there were 1200 fighting men who were under two special commanders. When the battle began, Ceraunus won and Antigonus was forced to flee with all his navy. In this fight, the ships from Heraclea performed the best and among them the Leontifera did the best of all.5
We are not given the dimensions of this ship. However, the oarsmen on each tier would have to be at least three feet apart, the approximate distance between airline seats. (Has anyone ever complained of having too much space between airline seats?!) For 100 rowers per tier, allowing for a bow and a stern, this ship could easily have been 120–150 metres (400–500 feet) long.
Athenaeus gives us a detailed description of a very large warship, built by Ptolemy Philopator (c. 244–205 BC).7 It was 130m (420 feet) long, 18m (57 feet) wide, and 22m (72 feet) high to the top of her gunwale. From the top of its sternpost to the water line was 24 metres (79.5 feet). It had four steering oars 14m (45 feet) long. It had 40 tiers of oars. The oars on the uppermost tier were 18m (57 feet) long. The oars were counter-balanced with lead to make them easier to handle. It had a double bow and a double stern and carried seven rams, of which one was the leader and the others were of gradually reducing size. It had 12 under-girders 275m (900 feet) long. The ship was manned by 400 sailors to handle the rigging and the sails, 4,000 rowers and 2,850 men in arms for a total of 7,250 men. This ship was too large to be of much practical use.8
Some things of interest about this ship. First, there are no forests worth mentioning in Egypt. All the lumber had to be imported from elsewhere, likely Lebanon. This ship had a crew that was almost twice as large as that of the largest aircraft carrier we have ever built! The size of the ship approximated the size of Noah’s Ark. Like Noah’s Ark, it would have had to carry provisions for all on board.
Masters-level students at Leicester University’s Department of Physics and Astronomy in England examined the ark’s dimensions as described in Genesis 6:13-22 and came to a stunning conclusion.
“University of Leicester students show Noah’s ark would have been strong enough to carry pairs of each animal species,” proclaims a statement on the university’s website".
