Were slave rowers ever chained to the ship?

It is hard to imagine that the Romans did not make use of slaves to row their ships, especially military galleys. Another thing that has not been mentioned is that slaves and condemned criminals rowing ships were usually completely naked for practical reasons. Clothes would be a hindrance for this arduous work, they could relieve themselves while still rowing without having to undo their clothing, clothes becoming filthy would also cause diseases and there was no use for modesty in such an environment. The rowers and floor were also frequently doused with water to keep them clean and healthy to avoid the spread of decease on the ship.

I once read an account which said that girls and women travelling on such ships would often go below deck to watch the naked men rowing. About the Ben Hur account, whether based on fact or not, the novel describes the rowers as being completely naked while the movie shows them wearing loin cloths for obvious reasons of censorship.

The paintings you are seeing are probably based on medieval or later galleys, such as those operated by Vencie, Genoa and Turkey which in some cases were manned by chained slaves. Chains would only be used in specific circumstances.

In ancient times it is unlikely rowers were chained for several reasons. Firstly, metal was much more valuable in ancient times. Even creating simple wrought iron fetters would have been an expensive proposition 2000 years ago.

The other reason is that when chains are worn for long periods of time normally sores will develop where the metal rubs against the flesh. Such sores can develop in as little as a few days. Not only would such sores be very painful, they will eventually become infected and kill the person if the sores go untreated.

As I understand it, rowing a huge ship efficiently required skill as well as strength and a ship engaged in battle could easily lose if the oarsmen did not cooperate. Slaves might see losing the battle as a possibility of freedom by defecting to the other side. So it seems reasonable to me that ships that were built for combat had to have been manned by skilled and motivated oarsmen while ships solely used for transporting goods might get by with slave labor.

RE. Were galley slaves chained?

There is a painting by Italian artist Alessandro Magnasco dated about 1710 titled "Manning the Galleys" which clearly shows galley slaves chained by the neck and having their heads shaved and being branded. The artist was an Italian court painter in Milan and Genoa. His paintings can be found on Google images. He did a number of paintings of the lower classes and underworld which are quite interesting. Based on this painting and written accounts, I would say that the Italian city states generally chained their galley slaves from the 16th century to the end of the 18th century.

Hope this helps.

Edit: The painting appears to actually be "The Embarkation of the Galley Slaves", 1730.

• Pieter Geerkens

For Athens wikipedia deals with the question in detail:

Contrary to popular perception, in the ancient navies, crews were composed not of galley slaves but of free men. In the Athenian case in particular, service in the ships was the integral part of the military service provided by the lower classes, the thētai, although metics and hired foreigners were also accepted.[36][37] Although it has been argued that slaves formed part of the rowing crew in the Sicilian Expedition,[38] a typical Athenian trireme crew during the Peloponnesian War consisted of 80 citizens, 60 metics and 60 foreign hands.[39] Indeed, in the few emergency cases where slaves were used to crew ships, these were deliberately set free, usually before being employed.[40] For instance, the tyrant Dionysius I of Syracuse once set all slaves of Syracuse free to man his galleys, employing thus freedmen, but otherwise relied on citizens and foreigners as oarsmen.[41]

Furthermore, this fact had as its corollary the great political power of the common folk in Athens. One is almost tempted to say that Athens was democratic because it had such a huge fleet, rowed by free citizens. (Of course, it's more complex than that, but there is a sizeable kernel of truth in this statement). An ancient author had already pointed it out (quoted from here):

My first point is that it is right that the poor and the ordinary people there should have more power than the noble and the rich, because it is the ordinary people who man the fleet and bring the city her power; they provide the helmsmen, the boatswains, the junior officers, the look-outs and the shipwrights; it is these people who make the city powerful much more than the hoplites and the noble and respectable citizens. This being so, it seems just that all should share in public office by lot and by election, and that any citizen who wishes should be able to speak in the Assembly. ("Xenophon," Constitution of the Athenians 1.1-2)

A modern historian elaborates this point further - see here.

Not all rowers were slaves, free men would be unlikely to be chained to their oars.
Galley slavery was the harshest form of slavery a man could face, apart from maybe some mines, and could thus have been a form of punishment for those guilty of serious crimes just short of warranting execution (though I'd guess many would wish they were executed after some time on the oars).

http://www.romanarmytalk.com/17-roman-military-history-a-archaeology/176707-ancient-galley-slaves-myth-and-reality.html is an old forum thread talking about the topic, and the idea that galley slaves were not the norm and why. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galley_slave confirms that, and lists sources.
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ch/1995/issue46/lifeasagalleyslave.html talks about a 16th (yes, that late) French galley rower, who apparently were chained to the oars pretty much all the time (unless needed for other duties). http://melita4historica.x90x.net/20011.html is another source for the French galleys. Not technically slaves, these were convicts usually sent for a set period of time (though French "justice" was often such that people were sentenced to penalties almost certain to kill them before their time was up even for minor crimes).
http://www.spainvia.com/Christianslaves.htm talks about the miserable fate of the be many counts millions of Europeans who ended up as slaves in to the muslims in north Africa (and as far away as Arabia, though that's not explicitly mentioned. It answers your questions, though this happened a thousand years after the Roman empire you're referring to.

Most of these public slaves spent the rest of their lives as galley slaves, and it is hard to imagine a more miserable existence. Men were chained three, four, or five to an oar, with their ankles chained together as well. Rowers never left their oars, and to the extent that they slept at all, they slept at their benches. Slaves could push past each other to relieve themselves at an opening in the hull, but they were often too exhausted or dispirited to move, and fouled themselves where they sat ... When the pirate fleet was in port, galley slaves lived in the bagno and did whatever filthy, dangerous, or exhausting work the pasha set them to. This was usually stone-cutting and hauling, harbor-dredging, or heavy construction. The slaves in the Turkish sultan’s fleet did not even have this variety. They were often at sea for months on end, and stayed chained to their oars even in port. Their ships were life-long prisons.

This went on for centuries, well past the end of slavery in Europe and the Americas.