It was, therefore, because they [the Romans] saw that the war was dragging on that they first applied themselves to building ships – 100 quinqueremes and twenty triremes. They faced great difficulties because their shipwrights were completely inexperienced in the building of a quinquereme, since these vessels had never before been employed in Italy. Yet it is this fact which illustrates better than any other the extraordinary spirit and audacity of the Romans’ decision. It was not a question of having adequate resources for the enterprise, for they had in fact none whatsoever, nor had they ever given a thought to the sea before this. But once they had conceived the idea, they embarked on it so boldly that without waiting to gain any experience in naval warfare they immediately engaged the Carthaginians, who had for generations enjoyed an unchallenged supremacy at sea.
One piece of evidence of their extraordinary daring and of the truth of my account, is this. When they first ventured to transport their forces to Messana, not only had they no decked ships, but no warships at all, not so much as a single galley. They merely borrowed penteconters and triremes from the Tarentines, the Locrians and the people of Elea and Neapolis, and ferried the troops across at great risk. It was on this occasion that the Carthaginians sailed out to attack them as they were crossing the straits, and one of their decked ships, in their eagerness to overtake the transports, ventured too near the shore, ran aground, and fell into the hands of the Romans. It was this ship which they proceeded to use as a model, and they built their whole fleet according to its specifications; from which it is clear that but for this accident they would have been prevented from carrying out their programme for sheer lack of the necessary knowledge.
As it was, those who had been given the task of ship-building occupied themselves with the construction work, while others collected the crews and began to teach them to row on shore in the following way. They placed the men along the rowers’ benches on dry land, seating them in the same order as if they were on those of an actual vessel, and then stationing the keleustes [crewman who called the time, regulating the pace and rhythm of the rowing] in the middle, they trained them to swing back their bodies in unison bringing their hands up to them, then to move forwards again thrusting their hands in front of them, and to begin and end these movements at the keleustes’ word of command. When the crews had learned this drill, the ships were launched as soon as they were finished.
Source:
Polybius, et al. “The First Punic War.” The Rise of the Roman Empire. Penguin, 2003. 62-3. Print.
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