John Sinclair Morrison

Who was John Sinclair Morrison?

John Sinclair Morrison, who wrote under the name of J. S. Morrison, was an English classicist whose work led to the reconstruction of an Athenian Trireme, an ancient oared warship.

Born in 1913, Morrison was professor of Greek and head of the classics department at the University of Durham from 1945 to 1950. He was a Tutor at Trinity College, Cambridge, from 1950 to 1960, then vice-master of Churchill College, from 1960 to 1965.when he became the first President of University College, later renamed Wolfson College.

He was considered an expert on the Greek trireme, the oared warship of the Athenian classical golden age, and is best known as one of the founders in 1982, with Charles Willink, another classics teacher, John Coates, a naval architect, and Frank Welsh, a banker, the Trireme Trust, to test his theories about the Athenian trireme by building a full-size reconstruction. In 1984, the Greek Government promised funding, and in 1987 the Olympias was commissioned.

With R. T. Williams, Morrison wrote Greek Oared Ships: 900–322 BC; Long Ships and Round Ships; with John Coates, The Athenian Trireme: the History and Reconstruction of an Ancient Greek Warship; with J. F. Coates, Greek and Roman Oared Warships; and other works.