Boyd’s Bible Dictionary:
Ships of Scripture dependent on oars and sails for propulsion
Hebrews not sailors. The ships of Acts 21:1-6; 27:6-44; 28:11-13, were capable of carrying many people and much freight. Primitive ships were generally coasters. They were mounted with figure-heads and had figures painted on the sides of the bow. These composed the ship’s “sign” (Acts 28:11). Among their furnishings were under-girders, anchors shaped like those of modern times, but without flukes, sounding-lines, rudder-bands (Acts 27:40). Ancient ships, being wholly or in part propelled by oars, were properly called galleys.
Concise Bible Dictionary:
The Israelites were not a maritime people. Solomon had a “navy of ships” at Ezion Geber, the eastern branch of the Red Sea; but Hiram sent his shipmen “that had knowledge of the sea” with the servants of Solomon. Ships of Tharshish are also mentioned both in connection with Solomon and Jehoshaphat (1 Kings 9:26-27; 1 Kings 10:11,22; 1 Kings 22:48-49; 2 Chron. 20:36-37; Psa. 48:7). The ships so often mentioned on the Sea of Galilee in the Gospels were what are now called fishing boats, and were used as such. The ships in which Paul sailed on the Mediterranean were of course larger; those in which he was taken to Rome are well described by Luke in the Acts of the Apostles: the ship wrecked at Malta was evidently an Alexandrian wheat-ship. The nautical terms employed by Luke show that he was well acquainted with maritime subjects (Acts 27). The word for GALLEY in Isaiah 33:21 is the same as that translated “navy” in the Kings.
Modern Reconstruction of a Roman Warship
Modern Reconstruction of a Roman Cargo Ship
Strong’s Dictionary of Greek Words:
Meaning:
from 4126; a sailer, i.e. vessel