Greek shipbuilders bring mythical Argo to life

Yahoo! ^ | Monday August 24 2006 | Deborah Kyvrikosaios

[SunkenCiv]

The Naudomos Institute, a group of shipbuilders and historians heading the project, is using ancient Greek tools and techniques to build the new Argo, and plans to retrace the mythical journey when the ship is ready. The team had to ignore everything they knew about modern boat-building and employ the same wood and iron tools used by Jason's warriors more than 3,000 years ago.

[SunkenCiv]

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks Pharmboy for posting this lush topic.

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[Dustbunny]

Guess it will be a while until the ship is finished. Would love to see some pics when it is.

[P H Lewis]

The article says that the crew will have to row for 10-15 hours a day. Oh really? Then what's that; an awning? *points at the mast and sail*

[wildbill]

When they say they are using whole trees, do you think they mean that a tree is trimmed into a log and then bent into shape using the whole log as a strake--or are they using planks made from a log?

I read it as the former, but that sounds strange.

[SunkenCiv]

The trunks only, but of fairly young trees. Not sure what they have in mind with this approach, as the oldest non-canoe wrecks are all planks, with some au naturale round trunks and limbs used for structure (not hulls).

[SunkenCiv]

Apostolos Kourtis, head of the Argo reconstruction project, examines a scale model of the legendary Greek vessel at a shipyard in Volos earlier this month. To ensure the authenticity of their creation, shipbuilders have used ancient tools. It has taken them 15 months to build just one-quarter of the 28-meter (92-foot) ship. [Reuters]