Written in the form of a conversation between a Thracian vine-dresser on the shore of the Hellespont and a Phoenician merchant who derives his knowledge from the hero Protesilaus, Palamedes is exalted at the expense of Odysseus, and Homer's unfairness to him is attacked.
Hellespont Fairfax was the subject of an episode of The Discovery Channel's television show Superships, episode "Launching a Leviathan–Hellespont Fairfax".