Syracusia (Hiero II's giant ship with screw bilge pump)
Syracusia (gran nave de Hierón II con achique por tornillo)
- Date
- c. 240 BCE · confidence medium
- Place
- Syracuse, Sicily, Italy
- Credited to
- Hiero II of Syracuse, with Archimedes and the builder Archias of Corinth
- Field
- Movement
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
A luxury and cargo ship, among the largest of antiquity, described by Athenaeus; it carried a screw to lift bilge water from the hull with few men. It was sent to Alexandria carrying grain as a gift.
The main source is a passage of Athenaeus (Deipnosophistae V) drawing on Moschion; its dimensions and Archimedes' personal role are debated, and the ship has not been found.
What it led to
- mechanical bilge pumping in large hulls
- large Hellenistic merchant ships
- the tradition of the Archimedean screw used on ships