Michael Baizerman Author

  I'm not ready yet to unveil the outline of my current project titled " The Fright and Thrill of Navigation:  Seafaring in the Medieval and Renaissance Mediterranean,"  but I will disclose a few details. The first part will be "The Age of the Galley." It consists of the intro, A Tale of the Two Watercraft Brands, and two chapters, Early War Galleys and Late War Galleys.  The introduction is ready, at least as a magazine version, and I even uploaded it on the Academia site, not as one but as three articles: https://www.academia.edu/104456432/War_galleys_in_the_Medieval_Mediterranean https://www.academia.edu/107397680/Sailing_Ships_in_the_Medieval_Mediterranean https://www.academia.edu/109918628/Galleys_vs_Sailing_Ships_Comparison_and_Contrast I am currently editing Chapter 1: Early War Galleys, which I divided into portions for possible magazine publication.  I am also assessing the material collected for a new chapter based on the Battle of   Los Form...

  A restored section of the Theodosian Walls of Constantinople   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Constantinople_(717%E2%80%93718)   I have completed a draft of the first section of a new chapter about the Second Siege of Constantinople, a joint land and naval operation supervised by  Maslama al-Malik, the caliph's brother and an adept general.    Emperor Leo Isaurian did not have a robust fleet to prevent the Arab navy from plying through the Turkish Straits as far as the walls of Constantinople. However, Byzantine engineers equipped their  dromons  with the Greek Fire, the secret weapon whose emotional impact rose over its destructive force. Its initial use pressured the Arab ship to take distance from the walls.   It is unfair to ascribe Byzantine success only to this powerful weapon. The Greeks demonstrated  better tactics and managed to combine their limited means to wade off the aggressor.  It became clear that...

  Venetian War Galley, late sixteenth century https://www.pinterest.com/pin/511721576383894517/ Genoese Merchant Vessel https://www.pinterest.com/pin/313915036504583191/ The first chapter of a new unit compares and contrasts galleys and sailing ships negotiating maritime routes in the medieval Mediterranean. It discusses shipbuilding approaches and the diet of seafarers. The paper is based on my previous version penned about seven years ago but sustained major corrections. Due to personal reasons, I will keep the draft intact but I cannot help uploading the first page for you.  A curious landlubber gazing at the sea could discern with ease two broad types of watercraft hugging the coast: oared vessels (galleys) and sailing ships. These breeds epitomized the unabated contest between seaworthiness and speed. Oared vessels were born for speed and doomed to fight; not for nothing tags like "dromon" (Greek: "racer") in Byzantium and "sagitta" (Latin: "ar...