I know they didn't, but the whole beach landing scene with the medieval landing craft and the cinematography straight out of Saving Private Ryan made my eyes role. I kinda hoped this would be an okay film, but it's basically just a borscht made out of stylistic and plot elements from other actions films -- barely got through it.
sharemy thoughts exactly! I had just read about Higgins boats a few months ago and how landing craft like that were so revolutionary at the time.
But apparently the French had it all figured out back in 1265...
I know! The Orcs in "Return of the King" had Higgins boats too!
shareExcept this story is not based on historical events or a certain historical era, unlike Robin Hood.
shareAnd in fact wide, flat-bottomed, square-ended boats like the ones in RotK, propelled by sail or oars, are perfectly practical for river transport and have been used in Europe for many centuries to transport horses, cattle, wagons and carts - see this reconstruction for example.
http://www.bateliers-du-cher.net/index.php/les-bateaux/la-belle-passante
So the orcs' boats on Anduin aren't at all unreasonable. But pre-modern boats of that kind would have been totally unfit for a crossing of the Channel.
Reading this thread got me thinking that if the idea of landing craft sounds ridiculous in 13th century Britain, then how did the Normans transport their horses across the channel 200 years earlier. This is a snippet of what I found under 'Horse Transports In The Middle Ages' on Wikipedia.
The Romans had developed efficient methods of sea transport for horses, which were improved by the Arabic nations in the Early Middle Ages; these transports became common in Europe from the tenth century. Horse transports could be powered by oars or, sometimes, by sail.
The oared tarida was able to be loaded and unloaded directly on a beach, using doors as loading ramps.In 1174 an Italo-Norman force attacked Alexandria with 1,500 horses transported on 36 tarides. Detailed specifications for thirteenth century tarides exist, showing they could carry 20-30 horses. In Angevin tarides, horses were stalled in threes, supported by canvas slings. Genoese tarides in 1246 carried 150 water butts containing 39,750 litres in total.
Sailing transports, known as usciere in Italian (French huissiers; Latin usserii), were also built. These had two decks and could carry up to 100 horses. The horses were loaded through openings in the hull, which were then sealed for the voyage. Venetian usciere built for Louis IX in 1268 were 25.76m long, had a beam of 6.1m, had two decks and two masts.
So fair enough no amphibious landing craft but something very similar had been in existence for a considerable time and they could get very close to the beach for unloading rapidly as shown in the film.
This means something, this is important.
Reading this thread got me thinking that if the idea of landing craft sounds ridiculous in 13th century Britain, then how did the Normans transport their horses across the channel 200 years earlier.
So fair enough no amphibious landing craft but something very similar had been in existence for a considerable time and they could get very close to the beach for unloading rapidly as shown in the film.