car Hérodote lui-même fixe (4, 86) une ,journée de navigation ordinaire (dans la Méditerranée) à sept cents stades vingt-huit lieues).

The vessel is believed to have been a "long ship" known as a Liburnian, an oared vessel with seventeen sweeps on either side, each pulled by two oarsmen. Small and swift, Liburnians were employed for carrying messages and for scouting. All other known wrecks of the period have been of "round" cargo ships. The presence of this wreck at Marsala is historically significant, because it was near this port—then known as Lilybaeum—that Rome defeated Carthage in the Battle of the Aegates (Egadi) Islands

One of the most fascinating discoveries about Carthaginian shipbuilding was the high degree of literacy and organization associated with it. Careful examination of the Punic ship showed that the builders had written on the various members to mark their placement in relation to one another. Archaeologists and historians of shipbuilding concur that "the findings on the Punic ship show a degree of planning and organization that is without parallel until the Industrial Revolution."

Food remains show that the crew had an excellent diet that included deer, goat, horse, ox, pig, and sheep, as well as olives, nuts, and fruit. Most unexpected was the recovery of the stems of plant material, which botanical testing showed to be hops, nettles, or cannabis. Circumstances suggest the latter, and that possibly it was chewed during long-distance rowing or before going into battle, just as the Royal Navy later issued rum to its crews.