Quote:
Originally Posted by Polydamas
The ancient Athenian and Rhodian navies made a specialty of ramming their enemies in the sides or rear, or shearing their oars, and leaving them to sink.
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The brutality of shearing oars cannot be overestimated. If a rower or rowers on the rammed ship doesn't lift his/their oar fast enough then they will be struck in the chest by their oar, with all the weight of the ramming ship on the other end of a well braced lever.
Nigel Tranter described the tactic quite graphically in his novel The Lord of The Isles.