I was listening to In Our Time, the episode titled "The Phoenicians", and one of the guests who specializes in the subject said that the some Phoenician cities would roll the hull of newly built ships over slaves as a form of human sacrifice. Valerius Maximus is cited at the source but I have never found anything by Valerius on the Phoenicians.

Anyone know if this is true and/or any sources on it?

The podcast episode can be found here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03szw8l

The statement about the form of human sacrifice is at 25:49-26:27