The Syracusia It was the largest ship built in ancient times and one of equal dimensions was not built until the 19th century. The design was the work of Archimedes and for its construction the tyrant Hiero II of Syracuse (306-215 BC) turned to Archias of Corinth. She was 55 meters long, although some sources speak of 110 meters, and 14 meters wide, a colossal size that required the work of 300 craftsmen and a full year of work.
Its load capacity was amazing:between 1,600 and 1,800 tons, which could accommodate up to 1,940 passengers, including crew and soldiers, and about 20 horses with their stables. She even had 142 cabins for first-class passengers.
Among the materials used for its construction, firs, pines and oaks from Mount Etna, esparto ropes from the Cartagena area in Hispania, hemp and tar from the Rhône in Gaul stand out. In total, it is estimated that with all this, about 60 war triremes would have been launched.
But this huge ship was a kind of cruise ship from ancient times. It is surprising that it had a gym, library, drawing room, baths, sundial-shaped reading room, dining room, a temple that was dedicated to Aphrodite Pontia and whose floor was made of agate, in addition to several gardens. Her luxury reached such heights that her decoration included noble woods, precious gems, mosaics with the story of the Iliad, statues, paintings and coffered ceilings.
The magnitude of the Siracusia, a ship with three decks, meant that no port in Sicily could accommodate it, so Hieron II gave it to Ptolemy III Euergetes , king of Egypt. He sent it loaded with 10,000 amphorae of pickled fish, 20,000 talents, between half a million and 600 thousand kilograms. of wool, 60,000 measures of grain, and 20,000 talents of various merchandise. In addition, she housed an 80-ton container of drinking water.
It is then that the Siracusia changed her name to Alexandris . On that trip to Alexandria, Archimedes, who had not only designed the ship but had helped in its construction and in the, a priori, controversial launching process.
However, the Siracusia, which had eight defensive towers with four men and two archers in each, and a gigantic catapult, seems to have only made one trip, from Sicily to Alexandria. It is said that she sank in Cretan waters and no historical source would ever mention it again.