The keel
Only a small part at the back of the long block depicting the front of the keel actually rests on the base, yet it remains stable and even bears the weight of the upper blocks. It is this technical feat that gives the ship’s keel the natural appearance and dynamic forward thrust of a real wooden ship.
The oar boxes
The oar boxes jutting from the ship’s sides are particularly well preserved. On the outer side, we can even make out the oval openings used as oar slots, arranged in two unaligned rows positioned one above the other.
The oar slots
The oval openings used as oar slots are still visible on the outer side of the oar boxes. They are arranged in two unaligned rows positioned one above the other.
The prow ornament
The prow ornament, placed at the extremity of the stem at the front of the ship, is likewise missing from the Victory of Samothrace, but coins and low-relief carvings from the period suggest what it might have looked like.
Tetradrachm (four-drachma coin) showing Antigonus Doson:
Apollo and ship’s prow
After 227 BC,
Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris
The rams
Both the ship’s rams are missing. The most important weapon on a Greek battleship was its great ram, attached to the prow at the waterline, along with a smaller ram higher on the stem. We can imagine what terrible weapons of destruction they were.
