The Merchantman was a trade vessel meant for voyages across open sea and it contained a small number of sailors and though it was equipped with oars, it primary relied on sails for transport (Haas 1985, 34). The other vessel was called the Ram and was more suitable for combat. It was oar-powered and was designed to pierce or damage an enemy ship. Athens would later blossom into a naval force that dominated the Aegean and Mediterranean during the Persian war as it created a larger fleet with more formidable vessels.
Around the seventh century B.C., the city-state Aegina became a naval power and around the sixth century B.C. Athens began to clash with Aegina. The two city-states went to war a few times over trade routes and ports, disputes over colonies, and plain jealousy of each other's success (Ring, Salkin, La Boda 1996, 3-4). Besides inter-city wars, the Greeks also faced the prospect of another Persian invasion even though they won the battle of Marathon in 490 B.C. Athens' regional rivalry with Aegina coupled with a looming Persian invasion paved the way for Athens to build its dominant fleet. Around this time a politician called Themistocles, who would later be considered one of the greatest military strategists in Greek history, came into a position of prominence in Athens. For some time, Themistocles had advocated for the necessity of a strong naval fleet in order to counter the Persian threat and threats posed by other city-states like Aegina. When the Athenians struck a silver laden mine in Laurion in 483 B.C., Themistocles found the perfect opportunity to advance his proposal, as he wanted to use the newly discovered treasure to build a fleet (Raaflaub, Ober, Wallace 2007, 99). Normally, this wealth would have been distributed amongst the people and this was the position of Aristides, a rival politician of Themistocles. However, Themistocles used his political shrewdness to win the debate of fleet construction over Aristides, who was eventually exiled.
