Marsala Ship Marsala Ship The Marsala Ship is the earliest warship known from archeological evidence. It is a wreck discovered in 1969 in an area called "Punta Scario" in the harbor of Marsala in western Sicily, Italy, near the Aegadian Islands. The Marsala Ship's "nationality" was painted on the sides with letters by its Punic builders from Carthage. Its architecture and contents show that it was not a merchant cargo ship. A merchant cargo ship made regular journeys and required large containers for storing water. It also needed grinders and mortars for dried food. It would normally carry large pots for communal
Aging of wine producers to package and store wine in a virtually air-tight environment. The second was the growing popularity of fortified wines such as Port, Madeira and Sherries. The added alcohol was found to act as a preservative, allowing wines to survive long sea voyages to England, The Americas and the East Indies. The English, in particular, were growing in their appreciation of aged wines like Port and Claret from Bordeaux. Demand for matured wines had a pronounced effect on the wine trade. For producers, the cost and space of storing barrels or bottles of wine was prohibitive so a merchant class