Talk:Oared vessel tactics

WPMILHIST Assessment
A fine start, but a bit short. The introduction also needs some work; rather than identifying the article ("this is about naval tactics in the period...") it should provide an introduction to the subject ("During such-and-such period, designated the Age of Galleys by such-and-such historian, naval tactics were dominated by X concepts....") LordAmeth 21:47, 19 December 2006 (UTC)

Questionable definition of a historical period
I've been working on galley for quite a while, which has led to a lot of reading about galley tactics. I've become quite skeptical to the notion of a cohesive "Age of Galleys" (especially when capitalized). We're talking about over 2,000 years of history here. Though there was in a sense less tactical and technological development during this time compared to the early modern period, but it doesn't seem reasonable to bunch it all together.

The article seems to be based on the 1911 edition of Encyclopedia Britannica, but military history has evolved quite a bit since then. Are there any recent sources that actually support the idea of a 2,000-year-long period of the history of naval tactics?

Peter Isotalo 19:49, 31 August 2011 (UTC)

Point of View?
This page seems to focus pretty extensively on Mediterranean tactics to the exclusion of Chinese, North Sea, Malay, etc. battles and tactics. Either more information about these other areas should be included, or the article should explicitly state that it only intends to describe the Mediterranean conditions. — Preceding unsigned comment added by ThisMakesNoSenseToUs (talk • contribs) 16:11, 21 February 2012 (UTC)


 * "Age of Galleys" as a term is pretty much specific. The oared warships used by the Chinese and others were not galleys. The very beginning of the article on galley states: "A galley is a type of ship propelled by rowers that originated in the Mediterranean region". Constantine  ✍  16:31, 21 February 2012 (UTC)


 * I agree with Constantine that galleys are Mediterranean vessel used in a limited extent in the Atlantic, Baltic and on very few occasions by colonial powers in the Caribbean and Southeast Asia. A galley is more narrowly defined than simply "ship propelled mostly oars".
 * However, an "age of galleys", as I have already pointed out above, doesn't appear to actually be in use today. It's questionable whether it was ever used by academic historians and if this article should keep this title, some sources other than the 1911 EB should be put forth. Otherwise history of galley tactics is probably a much more meaningful title.
 * Peter Isotalo 22:30, 21 February 2012 (UTC)

Parallel Articles
Article Military tactics in Ancient Greece, despite its title, is mostly about naval tactics; perhaps those paragraphs belong here. The article Ancient Greek warfare is mostly about land warfare. There is also an Athenian navy section floating around. Perhaps the contents of these articles could be coordinated and maybe they should see also each other. When we talk about "Greek naval tactics" to what degree are we really talking about the Athenian navy? Vagabond nanoda (talk) 19:11, 5 August 2022 (UTC)