Last weekend, Kim and I visited the marina area near us. In addition to all the yachts, they have a small marine museum with a variety of historic ships. The "newest" of these is the Greek Trireme because it was completed in 1987, but it is an exact replica (as close as they can figure out of the ancient triremes around the 7th Century BC. I posted a picture from the other side of the fence a couple of months ago, but this time we were able to get up close (although no one can actually go on it). Don't you love the eye painted on it?

What made the ship unique was the fact that there were three sets of oarsmen. If they wanted to move fast, all 170 oarsmen rowed and the ship moved about 10 mph. If they were traveling long distance, the ship could travel half speed with oarsmen taking turns. You can see that the oars are at different levels. The benches inside were cramped but efficient. In the above picture you can see the battering ram that was used as a major weapon (no cannons then). In addition, the ship carried a number of spearmen and archers


Yesterday Kim and I walked a little along the beach boardwalk. It was the May Day holiday, and the weather was fairly nice (temps in the 70s), so there were tons of people out. It was funny that there were people on the beach in bathing suits, some even in the water, while others walking the boardwalk were wearing coats - and they had them buttoned up.

I had a filling fall out on a tooth today. I don;t know if I'll be able to wait a whole month to get it taken care of. Today is exactly the three-quarter point. Left 90 days ago, go home in 30 days.

We were too late to go on board, but this is the Battleship G. Averoff. This huge warship was built way back in 1911 (no kidding - I didn't know they had battleships back then). During wartime, the ship would have 1200 crew members on board! You can see the twin 234 mm guns. The smaller machine guns and the torpedo tubes have been removed. It served in the Balkan Wars in 1912-3, WWI in 1918, and in WWII was used as protecting ships in the Indian Ocean. It became a museum in 1983 (look at the old smoke stacks).

We were able to visit this ship, the smaller and newer HS Velos, a destroyer. This young man isn't a "real" seaman. He is doing his year of obligatory military service. Every Greek male must do a year in the armed service, and this guy was working the naval museum. He put on his hat so we could take his picture.

I was astonished to find out that this ship started its life in 1942 as the USS Charrette. The ship was transferred to the Hellenic Navy with 3 others in 1959. It continued in service until 1991.
In 1994 it, too, became a museum, but it wasn't until 2002 that it came to its current location.


Of course the big guns on a destroyer aren't quite the size of the big guns on the battleship, and it doesn't carry a crew as large, but it was a faster ship and had more torpedo tubes, as well as depth charges.

Think about being at sea for months at a time, living in such close quarters. It's not just about fighting battles - the ship has to do everything.
Kim was very excited to find this mixer that

makes her Kitchen Aid look like a toy. I understand guys on board need to eat, but did they really need to have their pants pressed? Sorry I didn't take a picture, but we passed a small room (maybe 6 feet square) that had a big steam presser in it. Imagine all the logistical issues involved in taking care of hundreds of guys for weeks at a time: the food, the cleaning supplies, clothing, even entertainment. Wow, it's really a lot to imagine.


Of course the logistics aren't what people notice -

it's the size of the guns. If you saw one of these
things pointed at you, I think it would immediately get your attention.


So the last picture of the day will be related, but from miles away. The sculpture below is outside the Athens War Museum. The soldiers are enveloped in a Greek flag.

As the time winds down, things start getting a little busier. This happened on my 1995 Fulbright to Slovenia, too. This coming week I have a conference here in Athens that will take 3 days. The following week I'm doing a guest lecture at the law college. The week of the 18th I am doing a workshop for Fulbright on blogging and also appearing on a panel on social networking and governance. I've been here three months and last week was the first time I visited any class other than my own. Now the invitations start coming more frequently. This is in addition to the regular classes I'm teaching and the research projects I'm working on with Stelios. Thank goodness for him - he's really been my connection to the university. I'd love to get him to come to Ball State, but I doubt it.