How many Numenoreans were in the Grand Armanent?

[Glorthelion]

I was wondering about estimates for the army of Numenoreans that sailed into Valinor to wrest immortality from the elves. When Ar-Pharazon sailed to middle earth with his army to challenge Sauron, The dark lord was intimidated by the might of the army. Assuming that the force that sailed into Valinor was much greater, what number could be given?

"and they were like an archipelago of a thousand isles'.....

Glorthelion

[Morthoron]

Originally Posted by Glorthelion

I was wondering about estimates for the army of Numenoreans that sailed into Valinor to wrest immortality from the elves. When Ar-Pharazon sailed to middle earth with his army to challenge Sauron, The dark lord was intimidated by the might of the army. Assuming that the force that sailed into Valinor was much greater, what number could be given?

"and they were like an archipelago of a thousand isles'.....

Glorthelion

The Tolkien quote is an obvious allusion to Homer in the 2nd book of the Iliad regarding the Greek invasion force sailing to Troy, and the famous line by Christopher Marlowe:

"Was this the face that launch'd a thousand ships, / And burnt the topless towers of Ilium?"

Like it's predecessors, Tolkien's quote is meant to give the reader the impression of a staggering number of invaders. How many there were precisely is up for conjecture. It was said the Alcarondas (Castle of the Sea), Ar-Pharazon's ship leading the armada, was manned by many slaves who oared the ship; therefore, it is a galley-type ship, and I suppose you could look at ancient models to deduce numbers. But again, the allusion to a thousand ships is most likely meant to mean simply an uncountable number, not a specific amount of ships.