Ship Construction

Gorean Ships

There are three main types of ships on Gor: the Merchant or Round ship, the Tarn or Ram, the serpent.

John Norman uses the following ships as the basis for Gorean ships:

Tarn or Ram ship – Grecian triremes, biremes, and remes

Round or Merchant ship – Phoenician Merchant ship

Serpent – Viking Longship

*The BCoK Council will not accept logs that describe the building of any other type of ship.

Wood Used for Gorean Ships:

“Tur wood is used for galley frames, and beams and clamps and posts, and for hull planking; Ka-la-na serves for capstans and mastheads; Tem-wood for rudders and oars; and the needle trees, the evergreens, for masts and spars, and cabin and deck planking.” – Raiders of Gor, page 141.

Tarn or Ram Ships

Tarns ships are also known as long ships, ram-ships, or war ships. There is a great variety of ram-ships varying in their dimensions, lines, rigging and rowing arrangements. Usually, war ships have a removable mast with its long yard. It most commonly sails only with a fair wind. The principal weapons of the ram ship are the ram and shearing blades. The ram in usually in the shape of a tarn's beak, shod with iron. It rides just above the waterline. The freeboard area, between the water line and deck, is five Gorean feet. Behind the ram is the spread crest of a tarn, a shield to prevent the ram from going too deeply into another ship. Most ships have a concave bow to facilitate the placing of the ram mount and ram. A ship is built so the combined strength of the keel, stempost and strut-frames centers at the ram. Shearing blades are huge quarter moons of steel, fixed forward of the oars, and anchored into the frame of the ship. During battle one ship slides along another and shears off its oars. Most maritime powers use shearing blades.

The deck width of a Tarn ship is twenty-one Gorean feet. The rowing deck is open to the air. The oars are set in groups of three and three men sit a single bench. The benches slant obliquely back toward the stern castle. The three oars are usually of varying lengths, the most inboard being the longest. The oars weigh about one stone a foot and their length varies from 27 to 30 Gorean feet. Unlike the round ships, a war ship is never rowed by slaves. Tarn ships come in many different varieties and may also be divided into light, medium and heavy class. Medium class is determined not by freight capacity but by keel length and width of beam. A medium class war ship will have a keel length of eighty to one hundred and twenty Gorean feet and a beam width of ten to fifteen Gorean feet. A heavy class would have a keel of 128 Gorean feet and a beam of sixteen Gorean feet.

Beneath the first hold of a ship is the lower hold. This is a tiny crawl space, about eighteen inches, between the deck of the first hold and the curved hull of the ship. It is divided by its keel. It is unlit, cold and damp. It commonly contains sand for ballast and the sump, or bilge. The foul and briny water accumulates there and the bilge is pumped once a day in calm weather, more often in bad weather. It may be used for the storage of perishables or to keep items cool. It may also be used to punish slaves.

Round or Merchant Ships

A round ship, also known as a merchant ship, has a deep hold for merchandise. It is an oared vessel with a heavy, permanent rigging. It is generally two-masted and the masts are not removable. It also has more sail than a war ship. The main mast is a bit forward of amidships and the foremast is some four or five yards abaft of the ship's yoke. Both are lateen sails and the yard of the foresail is about half the length of the yard of the mainsail. The rowing area is closed to the air and commonly carries from one to two hundred or more slaves in the rowing hold. Slaves commonly row in round ships though some cities have begun to experiment with using free men. A round ship is not actually round but has a much wider ratio of its beam to its length of keel, about one to six. A war ship will have a ratio of 1:8. Round ships are slower and less maneuverable than war ships but can still be used in a naval battle. They do not carry rams but their decks can hold numerous other ship weapons like springals and catapults. Round ships differ among themselves considerably. They can be broken down into three basic categories: light galley, medium class, and heavy class. A medium class ship can freight about 100 to 150 tons below its decks. A merchant ship is commonly identified with their name at three points on the ship, starboard bow, port bow, and stern.

Serpent or Torvaldsland Ships

The ships of Torvaldsland are different from most of the other Gorean ships that exist. Their ships are smaller craft, clinker built, with overlapping, bending planking. They are also known as serpent ships. They are more seaworthy than other Gorean ships. They must be baled frequently and are not well suited for cargo. They are better raiding vessels. Their sails are square and cannot sail as close to the wind as lateen sails. But, the square sail makes it possible to do with a single sail. You can take in and let out the canvas as needed. The ships have a prow on each end, making it easier to beach them. The steering oar, on the starboard side, is most effective in the normal "forward" direction. It is very hard to ram their ships because of their small size and ability to rapidly reverse direction. Torvaldsland ships are fast. With a fair wind, they can cover 200 to 250 pasangs in a day. On some light raiding galleys, the tarnhead at the prow is hinged. This helps to remove the weight from the prow's height and gives greater stability in high seas. It is always at the prow in harbor or when the ship enters an inlet or river so it can make its strike. A white shield hung on the mast is a sign of truce.

Sails

Ships carry different sails for different conditions. The yard itself, from the mast, must be lowered and hoisted so the sails can be removed or attached. There is no practical way to take in, or shorten, a sail as in square rigged craft. But, lateen sails permit sailing closer to the wind, great maneuverability and great efficiency in tacking. The triangular lateen sail, on its single sloping yard, is also beautiful and that means a lot to Goreans. There are three main types of sails and all lateen. They differ mainly by their size. The largest is the "fair weather" sail which is used with light winds. A smaller sail is the "tarn" sail used with strong winds astern. It takes its name from the tarn ships where they are commonly found. It is also called a "storm" sail as it is an escape sail to flee heavy storms. There is also a "tharlarion" sail, a smaller version of the tarn sail. It is more manageable and used most often in swift, brutal, shifting winds.

Eyes on ships

All ships have eyes painted on them, either in a head surmounting the prow as in tarn ships or on either side of the bow. It is the last thing done to a ship before it is first launched. It is done by the shipwright. The eyes reflect the belief that the ship is a living thing and needs to see its way.

Other Watercraft

There are a wide variety of other water craft used on the rivers, lakes, marshes and canals of Gor. Barges, coracles, skiffs, river galleys, punts and more exist. Barges are often used on rivers and are simply constructed of layered timbers of wood. They are commonly towed by teams of river tharlarion. Marsh barges are different from normal barges. They are narrow ships with high, curved prows. They are anchored at both stem and stern. The anchor hooks are curved and three-pronged, lighter than would be in other ships. They are oared vessels, rowed by slaves. They do not use a keleustes. Instead, the oar-master verbally counts for the rowers. Marsh barges are used mostly by those of Port Kar. Coracles are like leather tubs propelled by the thrusting of a pole. They are used by the poor in the canals of Port Kar. The rencers of the Vosk delta often use rush craft. They are formed of pliant, tubular, lengthy Vosk rushes and bound with marsh vine. They have a slightly curved stern and prow. They are small, light and narrow, barely large enough for one man. They are rowed by a triangular bladed tem-wood paddle. A punt is a small, square-ended, flat-bottomed boat. It is poled and commonly kept on larger vessels for small chores.

Ship Construction

Keel and Frames

The keel is the ship’s backbone and provides the most important longitudinal strength for the ship. The keel was built up from 12” x 12” lumber, or larger, and the long pieces were scarfed and bolted to provide a solid backbone. The stem piece, which defines the bow of the ship, and the sternpost, on which the rudder is hung, were scarfed and bolted to the keel.

The ship’s ribs, or frames, were made up of straight and curved timbers. Frames were made of a number of pieces called futtocks. Bottom futtocks are called floors. The shipbuilder made patterns from the design on the loft floor, which he used to choose the best-shaped timbers. Ship's carpenters cut the wood to shape, and dubbers refined the shape using adzes to chip off unneeded material. The futtocks were scarfed, bolted, and fastened with treenails, or trunnels.

Shipbuilders hoisted the finished frames into place one by one, atop the keel, forming the basic skeleton of the ship. To strengthen the skeleton, a second keel, called a keelson, was built over the keel, on top of the floor timbers of the frames.

Planking and Caulking

As additional structure was added to the ship, it became ready for planking. Long planks were bent length wise around the hull. Not only did they have to be cut correctly to fit the hull, they had to have their edges prepared for caulking. When all of the deck beams were in place, ship's carpenters laid the deck planking. Another type of planking is called the ceiling: an inner skin planked inside of the frames. Despite its name, the ceiling acts as a floor to the cargo hold, and it provides additional longitudinal strength for the hull.

Caulking makes the hull watertight. Oakum, a coarse, tar-impregnated yarn of manila or hemp strands from old ropes, is driven into seams between planking or decking. The caulker drove a few strands into the seam with a caulking iron and caulking mallet. The mallet made a knocking sound that told the caulker how far the oakum was in the seam. After the seam was fully caulked, it was payed, or covered with tar, completely sealing the seam.

The planking of Gorean Tarn ships (Grecian Triremes) were joined using a mortise and tenon joint method.

Finishing and Outfitting

Ship joiners became more active when much of the primary structure was finished. They built and finished the deck houses, the galley, the hatches, and other deck furnishings. They often finished the captain’s cabin in furniture woods like mahogany, walnut, or butternut, prefabricating it ashore. The woodwork in captains’ cabins on Down Easters was often very elaborate and required highly-skilled joinery work.

Painters applied coatings to protect the wood. After the ship was launched, the crew became painters, for painting never ended.

Sometimes a vessel had a figurehead, made by a ship carver who chiseled it out of a large built-up block of wood. The figurehead was mounted on the bow of the ship, underneath the bowsprit.

Rigging

While the hull was being built, spar makers fabricated masts, yards, bowsprit, and other spars. After squaring and tapering the timber, spar makers shaped the spar into an eight-sided timber and finished it round. Shipbuilders used shear legs to lift and place the masts onto the ship.

Riggers set up the ship’s standing rigging —the lines that hold up the masts. To protect it from rot, rigging was given a waterproof cover, a process called worming, parceling and serving. Running rigging, the lines that move through blocks, were cut to length and whipped, or were given eye splices if needed. Then the rigger set up all of the spars, preparing them to receive sails, attaching iron work and blocks, and running all of the rest of the lines.

Launching

A ship is constructed on large wooden blocks and posts called shores. Before launching, ship carpenters build a cradle under the ship’s hull and grease the ways: the rails that carried it into the water. Dozens of wedges make up the cradle and are driven just before launching to transfer the weight of the ship from the blocks to the cradle. After a ship’s sponsor breaks a wine bottle on the stem, a pin was pulled that allowed the ship to slide down the ways, stern first, into the water. When a ship leaves port, there is a common ritual to wish the ship safety and luck. The sailors will say “Ta-Sadar-Gor” followed by “Ta-Thassa” then pour wine, oil, and salt into the water.

The terms “port” and “starboard” do not exist on Gor. Sailors refer to the port side of a ship by its port of destination. The starboard side of the ship is referred to as the port of a ship by its port of registration. If both are the same, the left side is referred to as “harbor side.”

Most Gorean ports are managed by city magistrates appointed by the city council. Free islands, or exchange islands are managed by the Merchant caste. Exchange islands include: Teletus, Tabor, Farnacium, Hulneth, Asperiche, Anango, Ianda, Hunjer, Scagnar, and Skjern.