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
Marsala renamed "Marsa ʿAlī" "ʿAlī's harbour" or maybe, "Marsa ʿāliyy", "Big harbour", for the width of the ancient harbour, placed near Punta d'Alga. Another possible derivation is "Marsa Allāh", "God's harbour". Another theory is that "Marsala" comes from "mare salis", "salt pans by the sea" from the presence of salt pans along the whole northern coast, although mention of this theory cannot be found in contemporary references and the installation of the bigger salt ponds on the group of islands composing the contemporary single island "Isola Lunga" was made just during the 19th century. Since the end of the 11th century,