Ships

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

“496. Papyrus Boats” From Manners and Customs of the Bible:

Isaiah 18:2. That sendeth embassadors by the sea, even in vessels of bulrushes upon the waters.
The papyrus was used on the Nile for making boats. Sometimes bundles of the plant were rudely bound together in the form of a raft or boat; at other times the leaves were plaited, basket-fashion, and coated with bitumen and tar. See note on Exodus 2:3 (#103). Similar boats are used on the Euphrates and Tigris. They are circular in shape, and are sometimes covered with leather instead of bitumen.
Another style of vessel is also used on the Nile. The leaves of the papyrus or the palm are placed as a floor upon rafts made of earthen jars which are tied together by the handles. These jars are made in Upper Egypt, and are thus floated down stream by the potters, who sell their ware and walk back to their homes.
On the Euphrates and Tigris the floats are made of inflated skins covered with a flooring of leaves and branches made into wicker work, and having a raised bulwark of the same. These singular vessels are called kelleks, and are of various sizes, from the little family boat resting on three or four skins, to the great raft, forty feet or more in length, and of proportionate width. The latter sort float on several hundred skins, and bear an assorted cargo of merchandise besides passengers. When the cargo has reached its destination the woodwork is sold for fuel, and the skins are taken back by land to be reformed into another vessel. Boats of this description have been used from early historic times, and are referred to by Herodotus and other ancient authors.

“859. Ships Named” From Manners and Customs of the Bible:

Acts 28:11. A ship of Alexandria, which had wintered in the isle, whose sign was Castor and Pollux.
Ancient ships had the name on each side of the bow, as with us, and represented by a sculptured figure. The vessel in which Paul now sailed was the “Castor and Pollux,” named after twin deities who were regarded as the special patrons of sailors.

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