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The Classis Britannica at Port Dubris (Dover) was the subject of Brian Philp's presentation. He and his team at the Kent Archaeological Rescue Unit have been excavating sites at Dover since the 1960s, and his talk took the form of a progress report and an overview of the finds. He stated that the original phase of building of a naval base (stores, barracks and fort c 117 AD) was never completed because of the speed with which the strategic situation in Britain moved. This coincided with naval action in the north of Britain but nonetheless an element of the fleet (perhaps a squadron of10 ships?) returned to Dover around130-40 AD. A garrison for 600 men was present during this time with evidence for another fort with 10 blockhouse barracks and 2 granaries being constructed. Brian Philp suggested that there were other naval bases around Britain yet to be discovered and that the total naval force in British waters totalled possibly 6,000-7,000 men, with a fleet strength of between 90-100 warships plus many transports. The navy abandoned the Dubris barracks in 208 AD, as the military requirements of Roman policy in Britain dictated that the fleet move its main bases permanently to the north.

Dr. Barbara Pferdehirt gave an account of the Classis Germanica. She outlined the fleet's sphere of activity, which included reaching the Elbe, circumnavigation of Denmark and sailing the Baltic. Dr. Pferdehirt then went on to look at the ships that achieved these feats. It appeared that considerably more evidence of the Rhine fleet has been unearthed by German archaeologists than that which is available to their British colleagues - with mass produced barges being one important subject of study. A twenty-oared light transport/patrol boat has also been reconstructed, which - although of a 3rd century AD design - clearly took its shape from typical 1st and 2nd century AD liburnae.

This was an intriguing and most interesting series of lectures with the promise of more to come and permanent electronic networking via Classis Britannica.

Auxillia - Classis Britannica