Yes

You hope that the crew won’t mind if you explore the lower deck a little bit. It’s not like the engraving or any other sign says ‘Crew Only’, so logically they couldn’t get too miffed at you exploration, right? You decide it’s worth the risk and push open the doors a little bit to get a peek. Nothing? Just a wood wall? Oh. Duh. It’s a staircase that hooks back, so you’ll really have to commit to doing this. You push open the doors and begin to walk down the steps. The weight of your footfalls burdens each step greatly, nearly each one creaking or groaning as you descend.

You emerge from the staircase to find something very off. You see all of the slaves, and they have the benches and the oars too, but all of the slaves are women. That’s weird. You can admit that you aren’t the most knowledgeable on this topic, but certainly the Ancient Greeks wouldn’t have used female slaves to do manual labor. As you ponder, you begin to walk along the deck, the eyes of the women locking on you as you pass.

“May I help you, miss?”

A deep, booming voice stupefies you. Completely nonplussed, you instantly look up to see a man with a large, stocky build standing in front of you. Your composure and mien beginning to return, you inquire about whether or not the man in question is a part of the crew.

“Yes I am. Have been since the ol’ Mistress here opened commercially. I’m the head of the lower deck operations here, but you can just call me the Foreman. That’s what everyone calls me.”

Seeming like a pleasant enough guy, you prompt him if he would be able and willing to answer some of your questions.

“Fire ‘em off!” He responds jovially.

Your first inquiry seems to be one he was expecting as you ask “Why women? It surely cannot be historically accurate. Male slaves could certainly sustain longer row time and row with greater speed and efficiency.”

He gives a small laugh. “You seem to be quite knowledgeable. Maybe I should be asking you the questions! Truth be told, historical galley slaves were in fact men, and as you can very plainly see, the slaves here aren’t actually men. We use women because we believe that women offer other uses and services that outweigh the partial sacrifice on rowing.”

You take in his answer. I guess it does make some sense. Women could probably clean the ship and cook food better. Not always a stereotype you know.

“Any others?” He inquires.

You look around at all the slaves, and realize just that. Slaves. Slavery is illegal, is it not? You bring up this point to the Foreman.

“Well, technically, there are many blurred lanes on slavery and about 100,000 Hellenes are actually in slavery. On this ship however, we do pay all of the slaves. Slaves being the term used to try to stay closer to the historical setting and to continue the story of being on an old Greek galley ship.”

Ok… that helped put your mind at ease. At first you were worried that they actually were buying or forcing slaves to work down here. So long as they all get a paycheck, it’s alright you suppose. As you look around, you notice that a lot of the women have tattoos, specifically letters on the back of their neck. You bring up this fact to the Foreman in pursuit of an answer.

“Quite the catechism you’re giving me today, huh? Well, the reason you see tattoos, and the piercings as well, is to help play the role of belittling the slaves. It helps mark the difference between a free human being and a lowlife ****. The letters you see on the back of their necks indicates almost a grade, for the physical potential they serve.”

“Could you please elaborate on physical potential? I’m not too sure what you mean by that.” You probe.

“Well, let’s see. How about I show you the process? Let you see how it’s factored out. The only problem is that I don’t really have anyone I would need to grade. Hmmmm. Well, I guess I could do a **** grade for you, but you probably don’t want that.”