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<blockquote data-quote="Old One" data-source="post: 19415" data-attributes="member: 83">It depends...It really depends on if you are talking about wartime or peacetime.&nbsp; From the beginning of naval history, city-states and countries mainted small naval forces during peacetime, engaged in major construction programs during armed conflict, then &quot;mothballed&quot; (inactivated) much of their fleet after the war ended.&nbsp; The U.S. does the same thing now, there are literally hundreds of ships in ports around the country - mothballed - waiting for some future high-intensity conflict.&nbsp; But I digress<img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink&nbsp; &nbsp; ;)"&nbsp; data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />!One thing to remember about ancient authorities is that they were very prone to exaggeration (ie, they greatly inflated the number of enemy ships and downplayed the number on their own side to make victory seem that much more amazing).&nbsp; Reliable estimates of the numbers involved at the battle of Salamis (480 BC) which turned back the Persians at sea during the 2nd Persian invasion of Greece place the number of Greek ships at 260 - 300 and the number of Persian ships at 600 - 700.&nbsp; These numbers included not only the main warships (triremes for the Greeks), but older model ships and lighter scout craft.A good discussion on the Roman Navy (and the notorius inaccuracy of historical sources) can be found here:<a href="http://www.crystalinks.com/romenavy.html" target="_blank">The Roman Navy</a>Another thing to keep in mind is that 25-40% of a fleet will be unavailable at any given time due to routine maintainence, accidents and crew shortages.Have fun!Old One</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Old One, post: 19415, member: 83"] [b]It depends...[/b] It really depends on if you are talking about wartime or peacetime. From the beginning of naval history, city-states and countries mainted small naval forces during peacetime, engaged in major construction programs during armed conflict, then "mothballed" (inactivated) much of their fleet after the war ended. The U.S. does the same thing now, there are literally hundreds of ships in ports around the country - mothballed - waiting for some future high-intensity conflict. But I digress;)! One thing to remember about ancient authorities is that they were very prone to exaggeration (ie, they greatly inflated the number of enemy ships and downplayed the number on their own side to make victory seem that much more amazing). Reliable estimates of the numbers involved at the battle of Salamis (480 BC) which turned back the Persians at sea during the 2nd Persian invasion of Greece place the number of Greek ships at 260 - 300 and the number of Persian ships at 600 - 700. These numbers included not only the main warships (triremes for the Greeks), but older model ships and lighter scout craft. A good discussion on the Roman Navy (and the notorius inaccuracy of historical sources) can be found here: [url=http://www.crystalinks.com/romenavy.html]The Roman Navy[/url] Another thing to keep in mind is that 25-40% of a fleet will be unavailable at any given time due to routine maintainence, accidents and crew shortages. Have fun! Old One [/QUOTE]

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