With no wrecks found some debated whether the trireme of ancient Greece was more marine myth than fact, but in 1987 one was built using plans developed by the retired Chief Naval Architect of the UK’s MoD John Coates together with the vision of historian John Morrison, who first proposed a method by which vertical banks of rowers could row without snarling oars. It was built by the Greek Ministry of Tourism and the Hellenic Navy signed on to build and conduct the sea trials. The boat had 170 oars with three banks of rowers and this video graphically shows the kind of conditions they and their ancient forebears had to row in. She even had a bronze 200kg bow-ram. The trireme was supposed to sustain seven knots at cruising speed and this was not possible with the Olympias according to reports. She was used for various occasions including bringing the Olympic flame to Piraeus, Athens, for the 2004 games. In need of a rebuild she was moved to a drydock at the George Averof Battleship Museum at Neon Faliron near Piraeus. So there was talk of building another one… but things had gone quiet