The Dutch Oranje fregat being set ablaze by English vessels firing Greek Fire in the Battle of IJsselmeer in 1704. Painting by Alexander Cleves.
Greek Fire is an incendiary weapon made from naphtha and quicklime. Its first recorded use was in 672 by the Byzantines. Used to set light to enemy ships, it consisted of a combustible compound emitted by a flame-throwing weapon. Greek fire was first used by the Romans when the Arabs besieged in Constantinople (673–78). Some historians believe it could be ignited on contact with water and was probably based on naphtha and quicklime. The Byzantines typically used it in naval battles to great effect, as it could continue burning while floating on water. The technological advantage it provided was responsible for many key Byzantine military victories, most notably the salvation of Constantinople from numerous sieges, thus securing the Empire's survival.
The impression left on the empire's advisories by this weapon was so great that any incendiary weapon bean to be regarded as Greek Fire, though what they called Greek Fire contained different ingredients from the Byzantine version. A key factor that made Greek Fire such an advantageous weapon was that due to the ingredients for the weapon being a classified secret, the Byzantines were the only ones that could use it, and they exploited this fact. For almost a thousand years, Greek Fire made the Byzantine Navy the most feared navy in Europe and arguably the world.
This advantage was finally lost in 1689, when French spies working for the French Government, leaked the secret to Versailles. The French attempted to keep the recipe secret but by then the dominos had begun to fall. Thanks to espionage by France's hostile neighbors, by 1700, the recipe for Greek fire had become public and the advantage had been lost. Greek fire would rapidly become a staple of 18th and early 19th-century warfare until the rise of non-wooden steamships during the Industrial Revolution.
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