Medieval Shipping

Medieval Shipping
A Wikipedia Compilation
by
Michael A. Linton
Contents
1 Caravel 1
1.1 History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.2 Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.3 See also . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
1.4 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
1.5 External links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
2 Carrack 6
2.1 Origins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
2.2 Carracks in Asia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
2.3 Famous carracks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
2.4 See also . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
2.5 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
2.6 Further reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
2.7 External links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
3 Cog (ship) 13
3.1 Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
3.2 History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
3.3 Gallery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
3.4 See also . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
3.5 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
3.5.1 Footnotes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
3.5.2 Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
3.6 External links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
4 Fire ship 16
4.1 History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
4.1.1 Ancient era, first uses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
4.1.2 Age of fighting sail, refinement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
4.1.3 Use in the Greek War of Independence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
4.1.4 19th and 20th centuries, obsolescence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
4.2 Notable uses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
i
ii CONTENTS
4.3 See also . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

4.4 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
4.5 External links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
5 Hellburners 24
5.1 History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
5.1.1 First use against Antwerp ship bridge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
5.1.2 Influence on the Battle of Gravelines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
5.2 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
5.3 External links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
6 Galleon 27
6.1 Etymology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
6.2 History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
6.3 Construction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
6.4 Distinguishing features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
6.5 The oldest English drawings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
6.6 Notable galleons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
6.7 In Literature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
6.8 See also . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
6.9 Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
6.10 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
6.11 External links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
7 Galley 34
7.1 Definition and terminology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
7.2 History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
7.2.1 The first warships . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
7.2.2 Hellenistic era and rise of the Republic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
7.2.3 Roman Imperial era . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
7.2.4 Eastern Mediterranean . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
7.2.5 Western Mediterranean . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
7.2.6 Development of the true galley . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
7.2.7 Transition to sailing ships . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
7.2.8 Introduction of guns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
7.2.9 Mediterranean decline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
7.2.10 Use in northern Europe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
7.3 Construction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
7.3.1 The trireme . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
7.3.2 Roman era . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
7.3.3 Middle Ages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
7.3.4 Standardization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
CONTENTS iii
7.4 Propulsion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
7.4.1 Rowing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
7.4.2 Galley slaves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
7.4.3 Sails . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
7.5 Armament and tactics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
7.5.1 Introduction of the ram . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
7.5.2 Boarding prevails . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
7.5.3 Gun galleys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
7.6 Royal prestige and power symbolism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
7.7 Surviving examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
7.7.1 Original vessels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
7.7.2 Reconstructions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
7.7.3 Archaeological finds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
7.8 Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
7.9 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
7.10 External links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
8 Junk (ship) 72
8.1 Etymology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
8.2 Building . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
8.2.1 Sail plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
8.2.2 Hull design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
8.3 History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
8.3.1 2nd century junks (Han Dynasty) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
8.3.2 10–13th century junks (Song Dynasty) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
8.3.3 14th century junks (Yuan Dynasty) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
8.3.4 15–17th century junks (Ming Dynasty) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
8.3.5 Accounts of medieval travellers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
8.3.6 19th century junks (Qing Dynasty) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
8.3.7 20th century junks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
8.4 See also . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
8.5 Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
8.6 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
8.7 External links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
9 Longship 90
9.1 Types of longships . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
9.1.1 Karvi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
9.1.2 Snekkja . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
9.1.3 Skeid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
9.1.4 Drekkar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
9.1.5 Transport . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
iv CONTENTS
9.2 Construction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
9.2.1 Keel, stems and hull . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
9.2.2 Timber . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
9.2.3 Sail and mast . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
9.2.4 Rudder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
9.2.5 Anchors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
9.2.6 Ship builders toolkit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
9.2.7 Replica longships . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
9.3 Navigation and propulsion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
9.3.1 Navigation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
9.3.2 Propulsion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
9.4 Legacy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
9.5 Notable longships . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
9.6 See also . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
9.7 Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
9.8 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
9.9 External links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
10 Louchuan 103
10.1 Description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
10.2 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
10.3 See also . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
10.4 Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
10.4.1 Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
10.4.2 Images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
10.4.3 Content license . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
Chapter 1
Caravel
Not to be confused with Carvel (boat building).

A caravel (Portuguese: caravela, IPA: [kɐɾɐˈvɛlɐ]) is a small, highly maneuverable sailing ship developed in the 15th
century by the Portuguese to explore along the West African coast and into the Atlantic Ocean. The lateen sails gave
her speed and the capacity for sailing to windward (beating). Caravels were used by the Portuguese for the oceanic
exploration voyages during the 15th and 16th centuries in the age of discovery.
1.1 History
Until the 15th century, Europeans were limited to coastal cabotage navigation using the barge (barca) or the balinger
(barinel), ancient Mediterranean cargo vessels of around 50 to 200 tons. These boats were fragile, with only one mast
with a fixed square sails that could not overcome the navigational difficulties of Southward oceanic exploration, as the
strong winds, shoals and strong ocean currents easily overwhelmed their abilities.
The caravel was developed in about 1451, based on existing fishing boats under the sponsorship of Prince Henry the
Navigator of Portugal, and soon became the preferred vessel for Portuguese explorers like Bartholomeu Dias, Vasco
Da Gama or Ferdinand Magellan (Fernão de Magalhães). Its name may derive from an ancient boat type known as
carabus in Latin and καραβος in Greek, later Arabized to qārib', indicating some continuity of its carvel build through
the ages.[2] They were agile and easier to navigate, with a tonnage of 50 to 160 tons and 1 to 3 masts, with lateen
triangular sails allowing beating.
Being smaller and having a shallow keel, the caravel could sail upriver in shallow coastal waters. With the lateen sails
attached, it was highly maneuverable and could sail much nearer the wind, while with the square Atlantic-type sails
attached, it was very fast. Its economy, speed, agility, and power made it esteemed as the best sailing vessel of its
time. The limited capacity for cargo and crew were their main drawbacks, but did not hinder its success.
The exploration done with caravels made possible the spice trade of the Portuguese and the Spanish. However, for
the trade itself, the caravel was later replaced by the larger nau which was more profitable for trading. The caravel
was one of the pinnacle ships in Iberian Ship Development from 1400-1600.
1.2 Design
Due to its lighter weight and thus greater speed, the caravel was a boon to sailors. Early caravels generally carried two
or three masts with lateen sails, while later types had four masts. Early caravels such as the caravela tilhada of the
15th century had an average length of between 12 and 18 m (40 to 60 feet), an average capacity of 40 to 50 tons,[3]
a high length-to-beam ratio of around 3.5 to 1, and narrow ellipsoidal frame (unlike the circular frame of the nau),
making them very fast and maneuverable but with somewhat low capacity. Towards the end of the 15th century, the
caravel was occasionally modified by giving it the same rig as a carrack with a foresail, square mainsail and lateen
mizzen, but not the carrack’s high forecastle or much of a sternpalace, which would make it unweatherly. In this
form it was sometimes known as caravela redonda (a bulging square sail is said to be round, redonda, in the Iberian
tradition). It was in such ships that Christopher Columbus set out on his expedition in 1492; Santa Maria was a ~100
ton carrack (same as: nau) which served as the flagship, and Pinta and Niña were smaller caravels of around 15–20
1
2 CHAPTER 1. CARAVEL
m with a beam of 6 m and displacing around 60-75 tons.

In the transition to the 16th century, the Portuguese created a specialized fighting ship also called caravela redonda
or square rigged caravel (also caravela de armada), to act as an escort in Brazil and in the East Indies route. It had
a foremast with square sails and three other masts with a lateen each, for a total of 4 masts. The hull was galleon-
shaped, and it is considered a forerunner of the fighting galleon. The Portuguese Man o' War was named after this
curious type of fighting ship which was in use until the 17th century.
1.3 See also

• Iberian ship development, 1400–1600
• Notorious - a replica caravel in Australia
1.4 References
[1] Notice in the Musée de la Marine.
[2] Sleeswyk, André W. (1998). “Carvel-planking and Carvel Ships in the North οf Europe”. Archaeonautica 14: 223–228
(224f.).
[3] Russell, Peter E. (2000). Prince Henry 'the Navigator': A Life. Yale University Press. p. 229. ISBN 0-300-09130-3.
1.5 External links

• Museu da Marinha (Portuguese)
• Museu da Marinha, fac-similes, (Portuguese)
• Instituto Camões. Caravela
• Durchbruch am Kap des Schreckens dir. Axel Engstfeld, Germany 2002, 52m. ZDF (German)
1.5. EXTERNAL LINKS 3
Portuguese caravel. This was the standard model used by the Portuguese in their voyages of exploration. The lateen rigged caravel
was able to sail close to the wind, closer than square rigged vessels.. It could accommodate about 20 sailors.[1]
4 CHAPTER 1. CARAVEL
A lateen-rigged caravel, Caravela Latina
A replica of the caravel Boa Esperança in the city of Lagos, Portugal

A typical round caravel or caravela de armada (of 1501-1502), with origin in the Portuguese model of caravela redonda or square-
rigged caravel (Livro das Armadas). There were also some other European and Mediterranean types of ships, also called round
caravels, during the turn of the century and in the 16th century
Lisbon and the Tagus (1572). Galleon in the center (one type of Portuguese galleon), carracks, galley, round caravels, and
caravels (lateen), among other vessels
Chapter 2
Carrack
For the rocks off the Cornish coast, see The Carracks.

A carrack or nau was a three- or four-masted sailing ship developed in the 15th century by the Genoese for use in
The first portrayed carrack in a Sienese painting from 1300 by A.Lorenzetti .
commerce. They were widely used by Europe’s 15th-century maritime powers, from the Mediterranean to northwest
Europe, although each region had models of slightly different design. The Portuguese and the Spanish utilized them
for oceanic travel and to explore the world. They were usually square-rigged on the foremast and mainmast and
lateen-rigged on the mizzenmast. They had a high rounded stern with large aftcastle, forecastle and bowsprit at the
stem.
Carracks were ocean-going ships: large enough to be stable in heavy seas, and roomy enough to carry provisions for
long voyages. In Genoese the ship was called caracca or nao (ship), in Portuguese nau, while in Spanish carraca or
nao. In French it was called a caraque or nef. The name carrack probably derives from the Arab Harraqa, a type
of ship that first appeared along the shores of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers around the 9th century.
As the forerunner of the great ships of the age of sail, the carrack was one of the most influential ship designs in
6
2.1. ORIGINS 7
A Portuguese Carrack, as depicted in a map made in 1565.
history; while ships became more specialized, the basic design remained unchanged throughout this time period.[1]
8 CHAPTER 2. CARRACK
Famous nau Frol de la Mar (launched in 1501 or 1502), in the 16th-century “Roteiro de Malaca”
2.1 Origins
By the Late Middle Ages the cog, and cog-like square-rigged vessels, were widely used along the coasts of Europe, in
the Baltic, and also in the Mediterranean. Given the conditions of the Mediterranean, but not exclusively restricted to
it, galley type vessels were extensively used there, as were various two masted vessels, including the caravels with their
lateen sails. These and similar ship types were familiar to Portuguese navigators and shipwrights. As the Portuguese
gradually extended their explorations and trade ever further south along Africa’s Atlantic coast during the 15th century
they needed a larger and more advanced ship for their long oceanic adventures. Gradually, they developed their own
2.1. ORIGINS 9
Nao Victoria, one of the most famous carracks, a replica of Magellan’s ship
models of oceanic carracks, generalizing their use in the end of the century for inter-oceanic travel. In addition to the
average tonnage naus, were also built some large naus (carracks) in the reign of John II, but being only widespread
after the turn of the century. The Portuguese carracks were usually very large ships for their time (often over 1000
tons), and having the future large naus of the India run and of the China and Japan trade, also other new types of
design.
The origin of the word carrack is usually traced back through the medieval European languages to the Arabic, and
from thence to the Greek κέρκουρος (kerkouros) meaning approximately "lighter (barge)" (literally, “shorn tail”,
a possible reference to the ship’s flat stern). Its attestation in Greek literature is distributed in two closely related
lobes. The first distribution lobe, or area, associates it with certain light and fast merchantmen found near Cyprus
and Corfu. The second is an extensive attestation in the Oxyrhynchus corpus, where it seems most frequently to
describe the Nile barges of the Ptolemaic pharaohs. Both of these usages may lead back through the Phoenician to
the Akkadian kalakku, which denotes a type of river barge. The Akkadian term is assumed to be derived from a
Sumerian antecedent. Sumerian antecedent A modern reflex of the word is found in Arabic and Turkish kelek “raft;
riverboat”.[2] from a fusion and modification of aspects of the ship types they knew operating in both the Atlantic and
Mediterranean and a new, more advanced form of sail rigging that allowed much improved sailing characteristics in
the heavy winds and waves of the Atlantic ocean.
A typical three-masted carrack such as the São Gabriel had six sails: bowsprit, foresail, mizzen, spritsail, and two
topsails.
2.2 Carracks in Asia

From around 1515, Portugal had trade exchanges with Goa in Portuguese India, consisting of 3 to 4 carracks leaving
Lisbon with silver to purchase cotton and spices in India. Out of these, only one carrack went on to Ming China in
order to purchase silk, also in exchange for Portuguese silver.
From the time of the acquisition of Macau in 1557, and their formal recognition as trade partners by the Chinese, the
Portuguese Crown started to regulate trade to Japan, by selling to the highest bidder the annual “Captaincy” to Japan,
in effect conferring exclusive trading rights for a single carrack bound for Japan every year. That trade continued with
few interruptions until 1638, when it was prohibited on the grounds that the ships were smuggling priests into Japan.
In the middle of the 16th century the first galleons were developed from the carrack. The galleon design came to
replace that of the carrack although carracks were still in use as late as the early 17th century.
2.3 Famous carracks
Columbus’ Ships (G.A. Closs, 1892): The Santa Maria and Pinta are shown as carracks; the Niña (left), as a caravel.
2.3. FAMOUS CARRACKS 11
Model of the carrack Madre de Deus, in the Maritime Museum, Lisbon. Built based on another design, later in Portugal (1589), she
was the largest ship in the world in its time. She had seven decks
• Santa María, in which Christopher Columbus made his first voyage to America in 1492.
• São Gabriel, flagship of Vasco da Gama, in the 1497 Portuguese expedition from Europe to India by circum-
navigating Africa.
• Flor do Mar or Flor de la Mar, served over nine years in the Indian Ocean, sinking in 1512 with Afonso de
Albuquerque after the conquest of Malacca with a huge booty, making it one of the mythical lost treasures.
• Victoria, the first ship in history to circumnavigate the globe (1519 to 1522), and the only survivor of the
Spanish expedition.
• La Dauphine, Verrazzano's ship to explore the Atlantic coast of North America in 1524.
• Grande Hermine, in which Jacques Cartier first navigated the Saint Lawrence River in 1535. The first European
ship to sail on this river past the Gulf.
• Santo António, or St. Anthony, the personal property of King John III of Portugal, wrecked off Gunwalloe Bay
in 1527, the salvage of whose cargo almost led to a war between England and Portugal.
• Great Michael, a Scottish ship, at one time the largest in Europe.
• Mary Rose, Henri Grâce à Dieu and Peter Pomegranate, built during the reign of Henry VIII — English military
carracks like these were often called great ships.
• Grace Dieu, commissioned by Henry V
• Santa Catarina do Monte Sinai, a war ship built in India by the Portuguese
• Santa Anna, a particularly modern design commissioned by the Knights Hospitaller in 1522 and sometimes
hailed as the first armoured ship.
• Madre de Deus, which was seized by the Royal Navy off Flores Island. Built in Lisbon during 1589, it was
the world`s largest ship. It was stolen by the English in 1592 with an enormously valuable cargo that is still
considered as the second-largest treasure ever found.
• Santa Catarina, Portuguese carrack which was seized by the Dutch East India Company off Singapore in 1603.
• Nossa Senhora da Graça, Portuguese carrack sunk in a Japanese attack near Nagasaki in 1610
• Peter von Danzig, ship of the Hanseatic League in 1460s-1470s.
2.4 See also

• Medieval ships
• Portuguese India Armadas
2.5 References
[1] Konstam, A. (2002). The History of Shipwrecks. New York: Lyons Press. pp. 77–79. ISBN 1-58574-620-7.
[2] Gong, Y (1990). “kalakku: Überlegungen zur Mannigfaltigkeit der Darstellungsweisen desselben Begriffs in der Keilschrift
anhand des Beispiels kalakku”. Journal of Ancient Civilizations 5: 9–24. ISSN 1004-9371.
2.6 Further reading

• Kirsch, Peter (1990). The Galleon. Conway Maritime Press. ISBN 0-85177-546-2.
• Nair, V. Sankaran (2008). Kerala Coast: A Byway in History. (Carrack: Word Lore). Trivandrum: Folio.
ISBN 978-81-906028-1-5.
2.7 External links

• The Development of the Square-Rigged Ship: from the carrack to the full-rigger
• Computer modeling of a Portuguese carrack

Chapter 3
Cog (ship)
Relatively proportioned cog in the Seal of Stralsund
A cog (or cog-built vessels) is a type of ship that first appeared in the 10th century, and was widely used from
around the 12th century on. Cogs were generally built of oak, which was an abundant timber in the Baltic region of
Prussia. This vessel was fitted with a single mast and a square-rigged single sail. These vessels were mostly associated
with seagoing trade in medieval Europe, especially the Hanseatic League, particularly in the Baltic Sea region. They
ranged from about 15 meters to 25 meters in length (49 ft to 82 ft) with a beam of 5 to 8 meters (16 ft to 26 ft), and
the largest cog ships could carry up to about 200 tons.[1]
13
14 CHAPTER 3. COG (SHIP)
3.1 Design
Cogs were characterized by a flush-laid flat bottom at midships but gradually shifted to overlapped strakes near the
posts. They had full lapstrake planking covering the sides, generally starting from the bilge strakes, and double-
clenched iron nails for plank fastenings. The keel, or keelplank, was only slightly thicker than the adjacent garboards
and had no rabbet. Both stem and stern posts were straight and rather long, and connected to the keelplank through
intermediate pieces called hooks. The lower plank hoods terminated in rabbets in the hooks and posts, but upper
hoods were nailed to the exterior faces of the posts. Caulking was generally tarred moss that was inserted into curved
grooves, covered with wooden laths, and secured by metal staples called sintels. Finally, the cog-built structure could
not be completed without a stern-mounted hanging central rudder, which was a unique northern development.[2] Cogs
used to have open hulls and could be rowed short distances. In the 13th century they received decks.
The most famous cog still in existence today is the Bremen cog from the 1380s.
3.2 History
Cogs are first mentioned in 948 AD, in Muiden near Amsterdam. These early cogs were influenced by the Norse
Knarr, which was the main trade vessel in northern Europe at the time, and probably used a steering oar, as there is
nothing to suggest a stern rudder in northern Europe until about 1240.[3]
Reconstructed excavated cog from 1380 at Deutsches Schiffahrtsmuseum
Current archaeological evidence points to the Frisian coast, Western Jutland, as the possible birthplace of this type
of vessel. The transformation of the cog into a true seagoing trader came not only during the time of the intense
trade between West and East, but also as a direct answer to the closure of the western entrance to the Limfjord. For
centuries, Limfjord in northern Jutland offered fairly protected passage between the North Sea and the Baltic. Due to
unusual geographical conditions and strong currents, the passage was constantly filling with sand and was completely
blocked by the 12th century. This change produced new challenges. Bigger ships that could not be pulled across
the sand bars had to sail around the Jutland peninsula and circumnavigate the dangerous Cape Skagen to get to the
Baltic. This resulted in major modifications to old ship structures, which can be observed by analyzing evolution of
the earliest cog finds of Kollerup, Skagen, and Kolding.
The need for spacious and relatively inexpensive ships led to the development of the first workhorse of the Hanseatic
3.3. GALLERY 15
League, the cog. The new and improved cog was no longer a simple Frisian coaster but a sturdy seagoing trader, which
could cross even the most dangerous passages. Fore and stern castles would be added for defense against pirates, or
to enable use of these vessels as warships, such as used at the Battle of Sluys.
Eventually, around the 14th century, the cog reached its structural limits, resulting in the desperate need for a quick
replacement. The replacement, the hulk, already existed but awaited reconditioning. Although there is no evidence
that hulks descended from the cogs, it is clear that a lot of technological ideas were adapted from one to the other
and vice versa.[4] The transition from cogs to hulks was not linear. According to some interpretations, both vessels
coexisted for many centuries but followed diverse lines of evolution.[5]
3.3 Gallery
• Model of a cog
• Reconstruction of the cog “Roland von Bremen”
• Cross-section of hull
3.4 See also

• Medieval ships
• Knarr
3.5 References
3.5.1 Footnotes
[1] “Hamburg Museum - Medieval Hamburg (4) - The Cog - A Cargo-carrying Vessel of the Middle Ages”. Retrieved April
5, 2013.
[2] Hocker, 1991; Crumlin-Pedersen, 2000
[3] Description and pictures of cogs
[4] Crumlin-Pedersen, 2000
[5] Gardiner & Unger, 1994
3.5.2 Bibliography
• Bass, George F. 1972. A History of Seafaring: Based on Underwater Archaeology. Thames and Hudson Ltd,
ISBN 0-500-01077-3
• Crumling-Pedersen, O. 2000. “To be or not to be a cog: the Bremen Cog in Perspective”. IJNA 29.2: 230–246
• Hocker, F. 1991. “Cogge en Coggeschip: Late Trends in Cog Development”. Proceedings of 5th Glavimans
Symposium on Ship Archaeology. Groningen.
• Gardiner, R. & Unger, R. 1994. Cogs, caravels and galleons: the sailing ship, 1000–1650. Annapolis.
3.6 External links

• Description and pictures of cogs
• The sailing properties of the Hanse cog in comparison with other cargo sailships
• Pictures of the Kampen cog replica High resolution photos
Chapter 4
Fire ship
This article is about a ship deliberately set on fire. For the firefighting vessel, see Fireboat.
A fire ship, used in the days of wooden rowed or sailing ships, was a ship filled with combustibles, deliberately set
Dutch fire ship attack on the English flagship Royal James at the Battle of Solebay (1672). Painting by Willem van de Velde the
Younger
on fire and steered (or, where possible, allowed to drift) into an enemy fleet, in order to destroy ships, or to create
panic and make the enemy break formation.[1] Ships used as fire ships were usually old and worn out or purpose-built
inexpensive vessels. An explosion ship or hellburner was a variation on the fire ship, intended to cause damage by
blowing up in proximity to enemy ships. Fireships were famously used to great effect by the English against the
Spanish Armada during the Battle of Gravelines.[2]
4.1 History
16
4.1. HISTORY 17
4.1.1 Ancient era, first uses

See also: Early thermal weapons
Possibly the oldest account of the military use of a fire ship is recorded by the Greek historian Thucydides on the
occasion of the failed Athenian Sicilian Expedition (415–413 BC).[3] In the episode, the Athenian expeditionary force
successfully repels an attack by the Syracusans:
The rest [of the Athenian force] the enemy tried to burn by means of an old merchantman which
they filled with faggots and pine-wood, set on fire and let drift down the wind which blew full on the
Athenians. The Athenians, however, alarmed for their ships, contrived means for stopping it and putting
it out, and checking the flames and the nearer approach of the merchantman, thus escaped the danger.
A fire ship was used in the Battle of Red Cliffs (208) on the Yangtze River when Huang Gai assaulted the enemy
naval force with a fire ship filled with bundles of kindling, dry reeds, and fatty oil.
Fire ships were decisively employed by the Vandals against the armada sent by the Eastern Roman Empire, in the
Battle of Cap Bon (468).
The invention of Greek fire in 673 increased the use of fire ships, at first by the Greeks and afterward by other nations
as they came into possession of the secret of manufacturing this substance. In 951 and again in 953 Russian fleets
narrowly escaped destruction by fire ships.
4.1.2 Age of fighting sail, refinement

While fire ships were used in the Medieval period, notably during the crusades, these were typically ships that were
set up with combustibles on an adhoc basis. The career of the modern fire ship, as a naval vessel type designed for
this particular function and made a permanent addition to a fleet, roughly parallels the era of cannon-armed sailing
ships, beginning with the defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588 and lasting until the English victory over the Turks
at the Battle of Navarino in 1827. The first modern fireships were put to use in early 17th century Dutch and Spanish
fleet actions during the Thirty Years War. Their use increased throughout that century, with purpose-built fireships a
permanent part of many naval fleets, ready to be deployed whenever necessary. While only used sparingly during the
Napoleonic Wars, fire ships as a distinct class were part of the British Royal Navy until 1808, at which point the use
of permanently designated fire ships attached to British squadrons disappeared.[4] Fire ships continued to be used,
sometimes to great effect such as by the U.S. Navy at the Battle of Tripoli Harbor in 1804 and by the British Navy’s
Thomas Cochrane at the Battle of the Basque Roads in 1809, but for the most part they were considered an obsolete
weapon by the early 19th century.
Warships of the age of sail were highly vulnerable to fire. Made of wood, with seams caulked with tar, ropes greased
with fat, and stores of gunpowder, there was little that would not burn. Accidental fires destroyed many ships, so fire
ships presented a terrifying threat. With the wind in exactly the right direction a fire ship could be cast loose and
allowed to drift onto its target, but in most battles fire ships were equipped with skeleton crews to steer the ship to
the target (the crew were expected to abandon ship at the last moment and escape in the ship’s boat). Fire ships were
most devastating against fleets which were at anchor or otherwise restricted in movement. At sea, a well-handled ship
could evade a fire ship and disable it with cannon fire. Other tactics were to fire at the ship’s boats and other vessels
in the vicinity, so that the crew could not escape and therefore might decide not to ignite the ship, or to wait until the
fire ship had been abandoned and then tow it aside with small maneuverable vessels such as galleys.
The role of incendiary vessels changed throughout the age of the modern fire ship. The systematic use of fire ships as
part of naval actions peaked around the Third Anglo-Dutch War. Whereas just twenty years before a naval fleet might
have six to seven fire ships, by the Battle of Solebay in 1672 both the Dutch and English fleets employed typically
between 20 and 30 fire ships, and sometimes more.[5] By this time, however, admirals and captains had become very
experienced with the limitations of fire ship attacks and had learned how to avoid them during battle. Great numbers
of fire ships were expended during the Third Dutch War without destroying enemy men-of-war, and fire ships had
become a way to harass and annoy the enemy, rather than destroy him.[6] The successful use of fire ships at the Battle
of La Hogue and Cherbourg in 1692 marked both the greatest achievement of a fire ship attack since the Spanish
Armada, and also the last significant success for fire ships. Though fire ships as a specified class sailed with the British
Royal Navy for another century, they would never have a significant impact on a naval victory. Once the most feared
weapons in naval arsenals, fire ships had declined in both importance and numbers, so that by the mid-18th century
18 CHAPTER 4. FIRE SHIP
only five to six British fire ships would be at sea at a time, and the Royal Navy attempted only four attacks using
modern fire ships between 1697 and 1800.[7] Hastily outfitted ad hoc fire ships continued to be used in naval warfare;
for example, a large number of fire rafts were used in mostly ineffective attacks on the British fleet by American
forces during the American Revolution at Philadelphia, on the Hudson River, and elsewhere. The end of the modern
fire ship came in the early 19th century, when the British began to use hastily outfitted fire ships at engagements such
as Boulogne and Dunkirk despite the presence of purpose-built fire ships in the fleet. The last modern fire ship in
the British Royal Navy was Thais, the only designated fire ship out of the entire navy of 638 warships when she was
converted to a ship sloop in 1808.[8]
4.1.3 Use in the Greek War of Independence
In the Greek War of Independence, 1821-1832, the extensive use of fire ships by the Greeks allowed them to coun-
terbalance the Turkish naval superiority in terms of ship size and artillery power.[9] As the small fire ships were much
more maneuverable than enemy ships of the line, especially in the coasts of the Aegean Sea where the islands, islets,
reefs, gulfs and straits restrained big ships from being easily moved, they were a serious danger for the ships of the
Turkish fleet. Many naval battles of the Greek war of independence were won by the use of fire ships. The success-
ful use of fireships required the use of the element of surprise (a visible similarity with modern day naval special
operations). It is considered an important landmark in Greek naval tradition.
4.1.4 19th and 20th centuries, obsolescence
From the beginning of the 19th century, steam propulsion and the use of iron, rather than wood, in shipbuilding
gradually came into use, making fire ships less of a threat. During World War II in September 1940, there was a
British sortie codenamed Operation Lucid to send old oil tankers into French ports to destroy barges intended for
the planned invasion of Britain; it was abandoned when both tankers broke down.[10] Ships or boats packed with
explosives could still be effective. Such a case was Operation Chariot of 1942, in which the old destroyer HMS
Campbeltown was packed with explosives and rammed into the dry dock at Saint-Nazaire, France, to deny its use to
the battleship Tirpitz, which could not drydock anywhere else on the French west coast. In the Mediterranean, the
Italian Navy made good use of high-speed boats filled with explosives, mostly against moored targets. Each boat,
called by the Italians MTM (Motoscafo da Turismo Modificato), carried 300 kilograms (660 lb) of explosive charge
inside its bow. Their best-known action was the 1941 assault on Souda Bay, which resulted in the destruction of
cruiser HMS York and the Norwegian tanker Pericles, of 8,300 tons.[11][12]
In 1946, as part of Operation Crossroads, the American landing ship LSM-60 demonstrated the potential of explosives
ships containing nuclear weapons. Eight vessels were sunk in the test in addition to LSM-60, including the aircraft
carrier Saratoga.[13] The successful attack by Yemeni insurgents in a speedboat packed with explosives on the guided
missile destroyer USS Cole in 2000 is another extension of the idea. Another explosive ship attack took place in April
2004, during the Iraq War, when three motor craft laden with explosives attempted the bombing of Khawr Al Amaya
Oil Terminal in the Persian Gulf. In an apparent suicide bombing, one blew up and sank a rigid inflatable boat from
USS Firebolt as it pulled up alongside, killing two US Navy personnel and one member of the US Coast Guard.[14]
4.2 Notable uses

Notable fire ship attacks include:
• Alexander the Great’s Siege of Tyre in 332 BC. The Tyrians used the fire ship in attempt to destroy Alexander’s
mole.[15]
• Syracuse in their battle with the Athenian fleet
• Huang Gai's attack on Cao Cao at the Battle of Red Cliffs, 208.
• Battle of San Juan de Ulúa in 1568. John Hawkins' flagship Jesus of Lúbeck was attacked by a fire ship before
being stormed by Spanish seamen
• Siege of Antwerp in 1585. Both fire ships and exploding vessels were employed together for the first time.
4.3. SEE ALSO 19
• Francis Drake's attack on the Spanish Armada moored at Gravelines in 1588. The fire ships did no damage,
but the Spanish scattered in panic and were easy prey for English ships.[2]
• Maarten Tromp's attack on the Spanish fleet moored off the Kent coast in the Battle of the Downs in 1639.
The Spanish fleet was destroyed.
• Michiel de Ruyter's attack on the anchored English fleet at the battle of Solebay in 1672 in which HMS Royal
James was burned, killing Vice-Admiral Edward Montagu, 1st Earl of Sandwich, and wounding Royal James
's captain, Richard Haddock.[16]
• The destruction of 15 French ships of the line, including Soleil Royal, Admirable and Triomphant, in 1692,
after the Battle of La Hougue.[17]
• US attack on Tripoli during the First Barbary War in 1804 by USS Intrepid.
• The Russian attack on the Turkish fleet at the Battle of Chesma, 1770.
• Thomas Cochrane's attack on the French in the Battle of the Basque Roads, 1809.
• Multiple successful Greek attacks on large Turkish ships of the line during the Greek War of Independence,
1821-1832.
• Chinese attacks on British ships during the First Opium War, 1839-1842.
4.3 See also

• Hellburners
• MT explosive motor boat
• Shinyo (suicide boat)
• List of fireships of the Royal Navy
• Operation Lucid
4.4 References
[1] The Fireship and its Role in the Royal Navy by James Coggeshall. Master’s Thesis, Texas A&M University, 1997
[2] The Fireship and its Role in the Royal Navy by James Coggeshall. Master’s Thesis, Texas A&M University, 1997, pp. 7-11
[3] Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War, 7.53.4
[4] The Fireship and its Role in the Royal Navy by James Coggeshall. Master’s Thesis, Texas A&M University, 1997, p. 2
[7] The Fireship and its Role in the Royal Navy by James Coggeshall. Master’s Thesis, Texas A&M University, 1997, p. 17-18
[8] The Fireship and its Role in the Royal Navy by James Coggeshall. Master’s Thesis, Texas A&M University, 1997, p. 18-19
[9] Brewer, David (2003). The Greek War of Independence: The Struggle for Freedom from Ottoman Oppression and the
Birth of the Modern Greek Nation. Overlook Press. p 93
[10] “Battle of Britain, September 1940”. naval-history.net.
[11] Greene, Jack & Massignani, Alessandro: The Naval War in the Mediterranean, 1940-1943. Chatam Publishing, London,
1998, page 141. ISBN 1-86176-057-4
[12] Sadkovich, James: The Italian Navy in World War II. Greenwood Press, Westport, 1994, page 25. ISBN 0-313-28797-X
[13] Daly, Thomas M.: Crossroads at Bikini. United States Naval Institute Proceedings July 1986, pp.64-73.
[14] Suicide bombing attack claims first Coast Guardsman since Vietnam War by Kendra Helmer. Stars and Stripes, 27 April
2004
[15] Alexander’s mole
[16] The Fireship and its Role in the Royal Navy by James Coggeshall. Master’s Thesis, Texas A&M University, 1997, pp.
14-16
[17] The Fireship and its Role in the Royal Navy by James Coggeshall. Master’s Thesis, Texas A&M University, 1997, pp.
16-18
4.5 External links

Media related to Fire ships at Wikimedia Commons
Chinese fire ships of the Song dynasty (960-1279)

French fireship at anchorage. The full-resolution image shows details specific to fireships, notably the exit door between the two
aftmost gunports; the chain securing an escape boat; an aperture below exit door to light a fuse; and grappling hooks on the yardarms.
The attack on the Turkish frigate in the Gulf of Eressos at the Greek island of Lesvos by a fire ship commanded by Dimitrios
Papanikolis during the Greek War of Independence - Painting by Konstantinos Volanakis
Operation Crossroads (Event Baker), conducted at Bikini Atoll (1946).

Chapter 5
Hellburners
“Hellburner” redirects here. For the science fiction novel, see Devil to the Belt.
Hellburners (Dutch: hellebranders; brander is Dutch for “burner”) were specialised fireships used in the Siege
Hellburners at Antwerp by Famiani Strada
of Antwerp (1584-1585) during the Eighty Years’ War between the Dutch rebels and the Habsburgs. They were
floating bombs, also called “Antwerp Fire”, and did immense damage to the Spanish besiegers.[1] Hellburners have
been described as an early form of weapons of mass destruction [2]
5.1 History
24
5.1. HISTORY 25
5.1.1 First use against Antwerp ship bridge

The hellburners were constructed by the Italian engineer Federigo Giambelli, who had been hired and subsidised
by Elizabeth I of England, unofficially supporting the rebels, to assist the city. In the winter of 1585 Antwerp was
besieged by the army of Alexander Farnese, the commander of the Habsburg forces in the Spanish Netherlands,
who had constructed an eight hundred metres long ship bridge over the River Scheldt near Kalloo between Antwerp
and the sea, to starve the population by blockade; it had been completed on 25 February. To supply the city it was
imperative to destroy the ship bridge.
Giambelli first proposed to use three medium-sized merchantmen, the Oranje, Post and Gulden Leeuw, but this was
refused, only two smaller vessels being made available: the Fortuyn (“Fortune”) and Hoop (“Hope”) of about seventy
tons. The innovative part of the project consisted in the Hoop employing a fuse consisting of a combined clockwork
and flintlock mechanism provided by an Antwerp watchmaker, Bory; the Fortuyn used a delayed fuse mechanism.
To ensure destruction, very large charges were used. To intensify and channel the explosion an oblong “fire chamber”
was constructed on each ship, a metre in diameter. The bay was fitted with a brick floor, a foot thick and five metres
wide; the walls of the chamber were five feet thick; the roof consisted of old tombstones, stacked vertically and
sealed with lead. The chambers with a length of twelve metres were each filled with a charge of about 7000 pounds
of high quality corned gunpowder. On top of the chambers a mixture of rocks and iron shards and other objects was
placed, again covered in slabs; the spaces next to the chambers were likewise filled. The whole was covered with a
conventional wooden deck.
The two fireships were successfully used in the night of 4–5 April 1585.[3] Giambelli had prepared 32 normal fireships
to be first launched in several waves to deceive the Spaniards. In fact the commander supervising the operation, Vice-
Admiral Jacob Jacobsen, set all ships on their course in quick succession, from fort Boerenschans, the hellburners
last. The current and ebb tide carried the ships towards the bridge. As their decks were piled with wood and small
charges with slow fuses were apparent, all made the impression of being conventional fireships, causing the Spanish
troops to try to extinguish the fire.
The Fortuyn ran ashore on the west river bank some distance from the bridge and its, probably only partial, explosion
did little damage to the Spanish forces, but the Hoop drifted along the same bank between the river shore and a
protective row of anchored ships forming a raft in front of the main bridge and touched the latter near the junction
of the fixed wooden shore structure and the attached ships. When the time bomb aboard the Hoop exploded, about
eight hundred troops were killed, the sconce Santa Maria was devastated and the ship bridge was ripped apart over
a distance of sixty metres; the blast was heard in a fifty mile radius. Farnese himself was wounded. However, the
damage to the bridge was quickly repaired and a rebel relief fleet failed to exploit the opportunity to break through,
because it was at first mistakenly thought the attempt at the bridge had been unsuccessful.
Last of all came the two infernal ships, swaying unsteadily with the current; the pilots of course,
as they neared the bridge, having noiselessly effected their escape in the skiffs. The slight fire upon the
deck scarcely illuminated the dark phantom-like hulls. Both were carried by the current clear of the raft,
which, by a great error of judgment, as it now appeared, on the part of the builders, had only been made
to protect the floating portion of the bridge. The 'Fortune' came first, staggering inside the raft, and then
lurching clumsily against the dyke, and grounding near Kalloo, without touching the bridge. There was
a moment’s pause of expectation. At last the slow match upon the deck burned out, and there was a faint
and partial explosion, by which little or no damage was produced...
The troops of Parma, crowding on the palisade, and looking over the parapets, now began to greet
the exhibition with peals of derisive laughter. It was but child’s play, they thought, to threaten a Spanish
army, and a general like Alexander Farnese, with such paltry fire-works as these. Nevertheless all eyes
were anxiously fixed upon the remaining fire-ship, or “hell-burner,” the 'Hope,' which had now drifted
very near the place of its destination. Tearing her way between the raft and the shore, she struck heavily
against the bridge on the Kalloo side, close to the block-house at the commencement of the floating
portion of the bridge. A thin wreath of smoke was seen curling over a slight and smouldering fire upon
her deck...
The clockwork had been better adjusted than the slow match in the 'Fortune.' Scarcely had Alexander
reached the entrance of Saint Mary’s Fort, at the end of the bridge, when a horrible explosion was heard.
The 'Hope' disappeared, together with the men who had boarded her, and the block-house, against which
she had struck, with all its garrison, while a large portion of the bridge, with all the troops stationed upon
it, had vanished into air. It was the work of a single instant. The Scheldt yawned to its lowest depth,
and then cast its waters across the dykes, deep into the forts, and far over the land. The earth shook as
with the throb of a volcano. A wild glare lighted up the scene for one moment, and was then succeeded
26 CHAPTER 5. HELLBURNERS
by pitchy darkness. Houses were toppled down miles away, and not a living thing, even in remote
places, could keep its feet. The air was filled with a rain of plough-shares, grave-stones, and marble
balls, intermixed with the heads, limbs, and bodies, of what had been human beings. Slabs of granite,
vomited by the flaming ship, were found afterwards at a league’s distance, and buried deep in the earth.
A thousand soldiers were destroyed in a second of time; many of them being torn to shreds, beyond even
the semblance of humanity.
Richebourg disappeared, and was not found until several days later, when his body was discovered;
doubled around an iron chain, which hung from one of the bridge-boats in the centre of the river. The
veteran Robles, Seigneur de Billy, a Portuguese officer of eminent service and high military rank, was
also destroyed. Months afterwards, his body was discovered adhering to the timber-work of the bridge,
upon the ultimate removal of that structure, and was only recognized by a peculiar gold chain which he
habitually wore. Parma himself was thrown to the ground, stunned by a blow on the shoulder from a
flying stake. The page, who was behind him, carrying his helmet, fell dead without a wound, killed by
the concussion of the air.[4]
5.1.2 Influence on the Battle of Gravelines

The events in Antwerp gave the hellburners an immediate notoriety; the concept generated enormous interest with
military experts all over Europe. The fireships sent against the Spanish Armada on 7 August 1588 in the night before
the Battle of Gravelines were taken to be 'hellburners’, because Giambelli was known to be employed by Elizabeth
in England at that date and eight regular warships, much larger than typical fireships of the time, had been sacrificed
for the attack. They were actually nowhere near as deadly, the English at that moment even lacking the gunpowder
to resupply their ships for regular use, but were successful in breaking the fleet’s formation, their mistaken identity
contributing to the panic. Giambelli was in fact working on constructing a mined ship beam from masts, costing
₤2000, to block the Thames against an invasion.[5]
5.2 References
[1] Swanger, Wm. Jherek, Military science in the 16th century (PDF), p. 37. Class handout.
[2] O'Connell, Robert L (1990), Of Arms and Men: A History of War, Weapons, and Aggression, Oxford University Press,
ISBN 978-0195053609 (p. 199)
[3] Neil Hanson, The Confident Hope of a Miracle, p. 306, New York 2005
[4] Motley, John Lothrop, History of the United Netherlands
[5] Folio society review of The Defeat of the Spanish Armada
5.3 External links

• The Hellburners of Antwerp (picture)
Chapter 6
Galleon
For other uses, see Galleon (disambiguation).

A galleon was a large, multi-decked sailing ship used primarily by European states from the 16th to 18th centuries.
A Spanish galleon (left) firing its cannons at a Dutch warship (right). Cornelis Verbeeck, ca. 1618/1620
6.1 Etymology
The term "Galleon" large ship, comes from Old French 'Galion' “little ship” (13c.), from Spanish 'Galeón' “armed
merchant ship”, from Portuguese 'Galeão' “war ship”, from Byzantine Greek 'Galea' “galley” (see galley) + augmen-
tative suffix -on.[2] Another possible origin is the Old French word galie meaning galley.[3] The term was originally
given to certain types of war galleys in the Middle Ages. The Annali Genovesi mentions galleons of 80, 64 and 60
oars, used for battle and on missions of exploration, in the 12th and 13th centuries. It is very likely that the galleons
and galliots mentioned in the accounts of the crusades were the same vessels. Later, when the term started to be
applied to sail only vessels, it meant, like the English term “man of war”, a warship that was otherwise no different
from the other sailing ships of the time.
6.2 History
Documentary sources point to a new type of sailing ship built in early 16th century Venice. It was called Gallioni
and used by the Venetians against pirates. By the second half of the century, Galleons were already seen along the
Mediterranean.[4] A lowering of the forecastle and elongation of the hull gave galleons an unprecedented level of
stability in the water, and reduced wind resistance at the front, leading to a faster, more maneuverable vessel. The
galleon differed from the older types primarily by being longer, lower and narrower, with a square tuck stern instead
of a round tuck, and by having a snout or head projecting forward from the bows below the level of the forecastle.
In Portugal at least, carracks were usually very large ships for their time (often over 1000 tons), while galleons were
27
28 CHAPTER 6. GALLEON
A Spanish galleon
mostly under 500 tons, although the Manila galleons were to reach up to 2000 tons. With the introduction of the
galleon in Portuguese India Armadas during the first quarter of the 16th century,[5][6] carracks gradually began to be
less armed and became almost exclusively cargo ships (which is why the Portuguese Carracks were pushed to such
large sizes), leaving any fighting to be done to the galleons. One of the largest and most famous of Portuguese galleons
was the São João Baptista (nicknamed Botafogo, 'spitfire'), a 1,000-ton galleon built in 1534, said to have carried
6.2. HISTORY 29
Carracks, galleon (center/right), square rigged caravel (below), galley and fusta (galliot) depicted by D. João de Castro on the “Suez
Expedition” (part of the Portuguese Armada of 72 ships sent against the Ottoman fleet anchored in Suez, Egypt, in response to its
entry in the Indian Ocean and the siege of Diu in 1538) - Tábuas da India in the João de Castro`s Roteiro do Mar Roxo (Routemap
of the Red Sea) of 1540-1541. - Despite this kind of ship (or only a close model of art) was already depicted in the heraldry of the
Foral of Lisbon (of D. Manuel I) in 1502, it is in 1510 (as also in some of the following years after 1510) the appearance of the
Portuguese oceanic galleon in the records. It is however from 1519 that their number increases substantially, but gradually. It was
an evolution and a gradual improvement in the design made during the first quarter of the century - technical improvement which
continued until the second half of the century. The Portuguese galleon evolved from the square rigged caravel and was a compromise
between the great carrack or nau and the aforementioned square rigged caravel or war caravel (also called caravela de armada or
Portuguese man of war) that evolved into a new design of ship, but keeping its hull design similar to the galley.[1] It was also more
maneuverable, more robust and heavily armed.
366 guns. Carracks also tended to be lightly armed and used for transporting cargo in all the fleets of other Western
European states, while galleons were purpose-built warships, and were stronger, more heavily armed, and also cheaper
to build (5 galleons could cost around the same as 3 carracks) and were therefore a much better investment for use
as warships or transports. There are disputes about its origins and development but each Atlantic sea power built
types suited to its needs, while constantly learning from their rivals. It was the captains of the Spanish navy, Pedro
Menéndez de Avilés and Álvaro de Bazán, who designed the definitive long and relatively narrow hulled galleon in
the 1550s.[7][8]
The galleon was powered entirely by wind, using sails carried on three or four masts, with a lateen sail continuing
to be used on the last (usually third and fourth) masts. They were used in both military and trade applications, most
famously in the Spanish treasure fleet, and the Manila Galleons. While carracks played the leading role in early global
explorations, galleons also played a part in the 16th and 17th centuries. In fact, galleons were so versatile that a single
vessel may have been refitted for wartime and peacetime roles several times during its lifespan. The galleon was the
prototype of all square rigged ships with three or more masts for over two and a half centuries, including the later
full rigged ship.
The principal warships of the opposing English and Spanish fleets in the 1588 confrontation of the Spanish Armada
were galleons, with the modified English "race built" galleons developed by John Hawkins proving decisive, while the
capacious Spanish galleons, designed primarily as transports, showed great endurance in the battles and in the great
storms on the voyage home; most survived the ordeal.
6.3 Construction
Galleons were constructed from oak (for the keel), pine (for the masts) and various hardwoods for hull and decking.
Hulls were usually carvel-built. The expenses involved in galleon construction were enormous. Hundreds of expert
tradesmen (including carpenters, pitch-melters, blacksmiths, coopers, shipwrights, etc.) worked day and night for
months before a galleon was seaworthy. To cover the expense, galleons were often funded by groups of wealthy
businessmen who pooled resources for a new ship. Therefore, most galleons were originally consigned for trade,
although those captured by rival states were usually put into military service.
The most common gun used aboard a galleon was the demi-culverin, although gun sizes up to demi-cannon were
possible.
Because of the long periods often spent at sea and poor conditions on board, many of the crew often perished during
the voyage; therefore advanced rigging systems were developed so that the vessel could be sailed home by an active
sailing crew a fraction of the size aboard at departure.
6.4 Distinguishing features

The most distinguishing features of the galleon include the long beak, the lateen-rigged mizzenmasts, and the square
gallery at the stern off the captain’s cabin. In larger galleons, a fourth mast was added, usually a lateen-rigged mizzen,
called the bonaventure mizzen.
The galleon continued to be used into the 18th century, by which time purpose-built vessels such as the fluyt, the
brig and the full rigged ship, both as a trading vessel and ship of the line, rendered it obsolete for trade and warfare
respectively.
6.5 The oldest English drawings

The oldest known scale drawings in England are in a manuscript called “Fragments of Ancient Shipwrightry” made
in about 1586 by Mathew Baker, a master-shipwright. This manuscript, held at the Pepysian Library, Magdalene
College, Cambridge, provides an authentic reference for the size and shape of typical English galleons built during
this period. Based on these plans, the Science Museum, London has built a 1:48 scale model ship that is an exemplar
of galleons of this era.[9]
6.6 Notable galleons

• São João Baptista nicknamed Botafogo, the most powerful warship when launched (1534) by the Portuguese;
became famous during the Conquest of Tunis (1535), where it was commanded by Infante Luís, Duke of Beja.
• Adler von Lübeck the largest ship of its day when launched in 1566.
• The Manila galleons, Spanish trading ships that sailed once or twice per year across the Pacific Ocean between
Manila in the Philippines and Acapulco in New Spain (now Mexico); (1565 - 1815).
• San Salvador, flagship vessel in the João Rodrigues Cabrilho's 1542 exploration of present day California in
the United States.
6.6. NOTABLE GALLEONS 31
Model of English galleon sporting a bonaventure mizzen mast
• San Pelayo, the large 906-ton galleon which served as the flagship of Pedro Menéndez de Avilés during his
expedition to establish St. Augustine, Florida in 1565. Ironically, the vessel was so large it could not enter St.
Augustine’s harbor, so Menendez ordered it offloaded and sent it back to Hispaniola. At a later date her crew
mutinied and sailed to Europe where the ship wrecked off the coast of Denmark.
• Golden Hind, the ship in which Sir Francis Drake circumnavigated the globe 1577 −1580
• Ark Raleigh, the ship was designed and built by Sir Walter Raleigh. It was later chosen by Lord Howard,
admiral of the fleet to be the flagship of the English fleet in the fight against the Spanish Armada in 1588 and
was summarily renamed the Ark Royal.
• Revenge, a galleon built in 1577, the flagship of Sir Francis Drake in the Battle of the Spanish Armada in 1588,
was captured by a Spanish fleet off Flores in the Azores in 1591 and sank while being sailed back to Spain.
• São Martinho, the Portuguese galleon, the flagship of Duke of Medina Sidonia, commander-in-chief of the
Spanish Armada.
• Triumph, the largest Elizabethan galleon; flagship of Sir Martin Frobisher in the Battle of the Spanish Armada
• San Juan Bautista (originally called Date Maru,  in Japanese). She crossed the Pacific Ocean from Japan
to New Spain in 1614. She was of the Spanish galleon type, known in Japan as Nanban-Sen ().
• Nuestra Señora de la Concepción, a Spanish Galleon, known to its crew as Cacafuego for its strong cannon.[10]
It was captured by Sir Francis Drake in 1578 and all its treasures were brought to England. It was holding
treasures mined in one year by the Spanish in the Americas.
• Padre Eterno, a Portuguese galleon launched in 1663. It was considered to be the biggest ship of its time,
carrying 144 pieces of artillery and able to carry up to 2.000t of cargo.
• Vasa, the only original galleon to be preserved. It sank in 1628 and was raised in 1961 for preservation as a
museum ship.
6.7 In Literature
The Galleon or Gold-Galleon (G) is also used as a currency in the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling
6.8 See also

• Spanish treasure fleet
• Manila galleons
• Fluyt
• Portuguese India Armadas
• Square Rigged Caravel
6.9 Notes
[1] Galeão - Navegações Portuguesas by Francisco Contente Domingues (Portuguese)
[2] http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=galleon
[3] “Collins Concise English Dictionary”. Retrieved 21 Feb 2014.
[4] Archaeology and the Social History of Ships. books.google.com. Retrieved 8 August 2014.
[5] Os Navios e as Técnicas Náuticas Atlânticas nos Séculos XV e XVI: Os Pilares da Estratégia 3C - Rear Admiral Antonio
Silva Ribeiro - Revista Militar (Portuguese)
[6] Galeão - Navegações Portuguesas by Francisco Contente Domingues (Portuguese)
[7] “The galleon evolved in response to Spain’s need for an ocean-crossing cargo ship that could beat off corsairs. Pedro de
Menéndez, along with Álvaro de Bazán (hero of Lepanto), is credited with developing the protypes which had the long
hull - and sometimes the oars - of a galley married to the poop and prow of a nao or merchantman. Galeones were classed
as 1-, 2- or 3-deckers, and stepped two or more masts rigged with square sails and topsails (except for a lateen sail on the
mizzenmast). Capacity ranged up to 900 tons or more. Menéndez' San Pelayo of 1565 was a 900 ton galleon which was
also called a nao and galeaza. She carried 77 crewmen, 18 gunners, transported 317 soldiers and 26 families, as well as
provisions and cargo. Her armament was iron."p.100 Menéndez: Pedro Menéndez de Avilés, Captain General of the Ocean
Sea Albert C. Manucy, published 1992 by Pineapple Press, Inc
[8] Walton, Timothy R. (2002).The Spanish Treasure Fleets. Pineapple Press Inc, p. 57. ISBN 1-56164-261-4
[9] Fragments of Ancient English Shipwrightry
[10] Little, Benerson (2010). “Spanish Galleons and Portuguese Carracks”. Pirate Hunting: The Fight Against Pirates, Privateers,
and Sea Raiders from Antiquity to the Present. Washington, DC: Potomac. p. 145. ISBN 978-1-59797-291-8. Called by
her crew Cacafuego... fire shitter
6.10 References
• Alertz, U. (1991) Vom Schiffbauhandwerk zur Schiffbautechnik : die Entwicklung neuer Entwurfs- und Kon-
struktionsmethoden im italienischen Galeerenbau (1400-1700), Hamburg : Kovač, ISBN 3-925630-56-2
• Humble, R. and Bergin, M. (1993) A 16th century galleon, Inside story series, Hemel Hempstead : Simon &
Schuster, ISBN 0-7500-1339-7
• Kirsch, P. (1990) The Galleon: the great ships of the Armada era, London : Conway Maritime, ISBN 0-85177-
546-2
• Rutland, J. (1988) A galleon, 2nd rev. ed., Connaty, M. (ed.), London : Kingfisher, ISBN 0-86272-327-2
• Serrano Mangas, F. (1992) Función y evolución del galeón en la carrera de Indias, Colección Mar y América
9, Madrid : Editorial MAPFRE, ISBN 84-7100-285-X
6.11 External links

• The Development of the Full-Rigged Ship From the Carrack to the Full-Rigger
Chapter 7
Galley
For other uses, see Galley (disambiguation).

A galley is a type of ship that is propelled mainly by rowing. The galley is characterized by its long, slender hull,
A model of a Maltese design typical of the 16th century, the last great era of the war galley
shallow draft and low clearance between sea and railing. Virtually all types of galleys had sails that could be used
in favorable winds, but human strength was always the primary method of propulsion. This allowed galleys freedom
to move independently of winds and currents, and with great precision. The galley originated among the seafaring
civilizations around the Mediterranean Sea in the early first millennium BC and remained in use in various forms
until the early 19th century in warfare, trade and piracy.
Galleys were the warships used by the early Mediterranean naval powers, including the Greeks, Phoenicians and
Romans. They remained the dominant types of vessels used for war and piracy in the Mediterranean Sea until the last
decades of the 16th century. As warships, galleys carried various types of weapons throughout their long existence,
including ram, catapults and cannons, but also relied on their large crews to overpower enemy vessels in boarding
actions. They were the first ships to effectively use heavy cannons as anti-ship weapons. As highly efficient gun
34
7.1. DEFINITION AND TERMINOLOGY 35
platforms they forced changes in the design of medieval seaside fortresses as well as refinement of sailing warships.
The zenith of galley usage in warfare came in the late 16th century with battles like that at Lepanto in 1571, one
of the largest naval battles ever fought. By the 17th century, however, sailing ships and hybrid ships like the xebec
displaced galleys in naval warfare. They were the most common warships in the Atlantic Ocean during the Middle
Ages, and later saw limited use in the Caribbean, the Philippines and the Indian Ocean in the early modern period,
mostly as patrol craft to combat pirates. From the mid-16th century galleys were in intermittent use in the Baltic Sea,
with its short distances and extensive archipelagoes. There was a minor revival of galley warfare in the 18th century
in the wars between Russia, Sweden and Denmark.
7.1 Definition and terminology

The term “galley” derives from the medieval Greek galea, a smaller version of the dromon, the prime warship of
the Byzantine navy.[1] The origin of the Greek word is unclear but could possibly be related to galeos, “dog-fish;
small shark”.[2] The word “galley” has been attested in English from c. 1300[3] and has been used in most European
languages from around 1500 both as a general term for oared warships, and from the Middle Ages and onwards more
specifically for the Mediterranean-style vessel.[4] It was only from the 16th century that a unified galley concept came
in use. Before that, particularly in antiquity, there was a wide variety of terms used for different types of galleys. In
modern historical literature, “galley” is occasionally used as a general term for various types of oared vessels larger
than boats, though the “true” galley is defined as the ships belonging to the Mediterranean tradition.[5]
The English-built Charles Galley, a “galley frigate” built in the 1670s. It was not a “true” galley, but the term still became part of its
name due to its oars.
Ancient galleys were named according to the number of oars, the number of banks of oars or lines of rowers. The
terms are based on contemporary language use combined with more recent compounds of Greek and Latin words.
The earliest Greek single-banked galleys are called triaconters (from triakontoroi, “thirty-oars”) and penteconters
(pentēkontoroi, “fifty-oars”).[6] For later galleys with more than one row of oars, the terminology is based on Latin
numerals with the suffix -reme from rēmus, “oar”. A monoreme has one bank of oars, a bireme two and a trireme
36 CHAPTER 7. GALLEY
three. Since the maximum banks of oars was three, any expansion above that did not refer to additional banks of
oars, but of additional rowers for every oar. Quinquereme (quintus + rēmus) was literally a “five-oar”, but actually
meant that there were several rowers to certain banks of oars which made up five lines of oar handlers. For simplicity,
they have by many modern scholars been referred to as “fives”, “sixes”, “eights”, “elevens”, etc. Anything above six
or seven rows of rowers was not common, though even a very exceptional "forty" is attested in contemporary source.
Any galley with more than three or four lines of rowers is often referred to as a “polyreme”.[7]
Archaeologist Lionel Casson has used the term “galley” to describe all North European shipping in the early and
high Middle Ages, including Viking merchants and even their famous longships, though this is rare.[8] Oared military
vessels built on the British Isles in the 11th to 13th centuries were based on Scandinavian designs, but were nevertheless
referred to as “galleys”. Many of them were similar to birlinns, close relatives of longship types like the snekkja. By
the 14th century, they were replaced with balingers in southern Britain while longship-type "Irish galleys" remained
in use throughout the Middle Ages in northern Britain.[9]
Watercolor of United States ships at the battle of Valcour Island, depicting several "row galleys"; similar function, but based on very
different designs than Mediterranean galleys.
Medieval and early modern galleys used a different terminology than their ancient predecessors. Names were based
on the changing designs that evolved after the ancient rowing schemes were forgotten. Among the most important is
the Byzantine dromon, the predecessor to the Italian galea sottila. This was the first step toward the final form of the
Mediterranean war galley. As galleys became an integral part of an advanced, early modern system of warfare and
state administration, they were divided into a number of ranked grades based on the size of the vessel and the number
of its crew. The most basic types were the following: large commander “lantern galleys”, half-galleys, galiots, fustas,
brigantines and fregatas. Naval historian Jan Glete has described as a sort of predecessor of the later rating system
of the Royal Navy and other sailing fleets in Northern Europe.[10]
The French navy and the British Royal Navy built a series of “galley frigates” from c. 1670–1690 that were small
two-decked sailing cruisers with a set of oarports on the lower deck. The three British galley frigates also had
distinctive names - James Galley, Charles Galley and Mary Galley.[11] In the late 18th century, the term “galley” was
in some contexts used to describe minor oared gun-armed vessels which did not fit into the category of the classic
Mediterranean type. During the American Revolutionary War, and other wars with France and Britain, the early US
Navy and other navies built vessels that were called “galleys” or "row galleys", though they were actually brigantines
or Baltic gunboats.[12] This type of description was more a characterization of their military role, and was in part due
to technicalities in administration and naval financing.[13]
7.2 History
Among the earliest known watercraft were canoes made from hollowed-out logs, the earliest ancestors of galleys.
Their narrow hulls required them to be paddled in a fixed sitting position facing forwards, a less efficient form of
propulsion than rowing with proper oars, facing backwards. Seagoing paddled craft have been attested by finds
of terracotta sculptures and lead models in the region of the Aegean Sea from the 3rd millennium BC. However,
archaeologists believe that the Stone Age colonization of islands in the Mediterranean around 8,000 BC required
fairly large, seaworthy vessels that were paddled and possibly even equipped with sails.[14] The first evidence of more
complex craft that are considered to prototypes for later galleys comes from Ancient Egypt during the Old Kingdom
(c. 2700–2200 BC). Under the rule of pharaoh Pepi I (2332–2283 BC) these vessels were used to transport troops
to raid settlements along the Levantine coast and to ship back slaves and timber.[15] During the reign of Hatshepsut
7.2. HISTORY 37
(c. 1479–57 BC), Egyptian galleys traded in luxuries on the Red Sea with the enigmatic Land of Punt, as recorded
on wall paintings at the Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut at Deir el-Bahari.[16]
Assyrian warship, a bireme with pointed bow. 700 BC
Shipbuilders, probably Phoenician, a seafaring people who lived on the southern and eastern coasts of the Mediter-
ranean, were the first to create the two-level galley that would be widely known under its Greek name, diērēs, or
bireme.[17] Even though the Phoenicians were among the most important naval civilizations in early Antiquity, little
detailed evidence have been found concerning the types of ships they used. The best depictions found so far have
been small, highly stylized images on seals which depict crescent-shape vessels equipped with one mast and banks of
oars. Colorful frescoes on the Minoan settlement on Santorini (c. 1600 BC) show more detailed pictures of vessels
with ceremonial tents on deck in a procession. Some of these are rowed, but others are paddled with men laboriously
bent over the railings. This has been interpreted as a possible ritual reenactment of more ancient types of vessels,
alluding to a time before rowing was invented, but little is otherwise known about the use and design of Minoan
ships.[18]
In the earliest days of the galley, there was no clear distinction between ships of trade and war other than their actual
usage. River boats plied the waterways of ancient Egypt during the Old Kingdom (2700–2200 BC) and seagoing
galley-like vessels were recorded bringing back luxuries from across the Red Sea in the reign of pharaoh Hatshepsu.
Fitting rams to the bows of vessels sometime around the 8th century BC resulted in a distinct split in the design of
warships, and set trade vessels apart, at least when it came to use in naval warfare. The Phoenicians used galleys for
transports that were less elongated, carried fewer oars and relied more on sails. Carthaginian galley wrecks found
off Sicily that date to the 3rd or 2nd century BC had a length to breadth ratio of 6:1, proportions that fell between
the 4:1 of sailing merchant ships and the 8:1 or 10:1 of war galleys. Merchant galleys in the ancient Mediterranean
were intended as carriers of valuable cargo or perishable goods that needed to be moved as safely and quickly as
possible.[19]
The first Greek galleys appeared around the second half of the 2nd millennium BC. In the epic poem, the Iliad, set in
the 12th century BC, galleys with a single row of oarsmen were used primarily to transport soldiers to and from various
land battles.[20] The first recorded naval battle, the battle of the Delta between Egyptian forces under Ramesses III
and the enigmatic alliance known as the Sea Peoples, occurred as early as 1175 BC. It is the first known engagement
between organized armed forces, using sea vessels as weapons of war, though primarily as fighting platforms. It was
distinguished by being fought against an anchored fleet close to shore with land-based archer support.[21]
The first true Mediterranean galleys usually had between 15 and 25 pairs of oars and were called triaconters or
penteconters, literally “thirty-" and “fifty-oared”, respectively. Not long after they appeared, a third row of oars was
added by the addition to a bireme of an outrigger, a projecting construction that gave more room for the projecting
oars. These new galleys were called triērēs (“three-fitted”) in Greek. The Romans later called this design the triremis,
trireme, the name it is today best known under. It has been hypothesized that early types of triremes existed as
early as 700 BC, but the earliest conclusive literary reference dates to 542 BC.[22] With the development of triremes,
penteconters disappeared altogether. Triaconters were still used, but only for scouting and express dispatches.[23]
7.2.1 The first warships
A reconstruction of an ancient Greek galley squadron based on images of modern replica Olympias
The earliest use for galleys in warfare was to ferry fighters from one place to another, and until the middle of the 2nd
millennium BC had no real distinction from merchant freighters. Around the 14th century BC, the first dedicated
fighting ships were developed, sleeker and with cleaner lines than the bulkier merchants. They were used for raiding,
capturing merchants and for dispatches.[24] During this early period, raiding became the most important form of
organized violence in the Mediterranean region. Maritime classicist historian Lionel Casson used the example of
Homer's works to show that seaborne raiding was considered a common and legitimate occupation among ancient
maritime peoples. The later Athenian historian Thucydides described it as having been “without stigma” before his
time.[25]
The development of the ram sometime before the 8th century BC changed the nature of naval warfare, which had
until then been a matter of boarding and hand-to-hand fighting. With a heavy projection at the foot of the bow,
sheathed with metal, usually bronze, a ship could incapacitate an enemy ship by punching a hole in its planking. The
relative speed and nimbleness of ships became important, since a slower ship could be outmaneuvered and disabled
by a faster one. The earliest designs had only one row of rowers that sat in undecked hulls, rowing against tholes,
or oarports, that were placed directly along the railings. The practical upper limit for wooden constructions fast and
maneuverable enough for warfare was around 25-30 oars per side. By adding another level of oars, a development
7.2. HISTORY 39
that occurred no later than c. 750 BC, the galley could be made shorter with as many rowers, while making them
strong enough to be effective ramming weapons.[26]
The emergence of more advanced states and intensified competition between them spurred on the development of
advanced galleys with multiple banks of rowers. During the middle of the first millennium BC, the Mediterranean
powers developed successively larger and more complex vessels, the most advanced being the classical trireme with
up to 170 rowers. Triremes fought several important engagements in the naval battles of the Greco-Persian Wars
(502–449 BC) and the Peloponnesian War (431-404 BC), including the battle of Aegospotami in 405 BC, which
sealed the defeat of the Athens by Sparta and its allies. The trireme was an advanced ship that was expensive to build
and to maintain due its large crew. By the 5th century, advanced war galleys had been developed that required sizable
states with an advanced economy to build and maintain. It was associated with the latest in warship technology around
the 4th century BC and could only be employed by an advanced state with an advanced economy and administration.
They required considerable skill to row and oarsmen were mostly free citizens who had years of experience at the
oar.[27]
7.2.2 Hellenistic era and rise of the Republic

Main article: Hellenistic-era warships
As civilizations around the Mediterranean grew in size and complexity, both their navies and the galleys that made
up their numbers became successively larger. The basic design of two or three rows of oars remained the same, but
more rowers were added to each oar. The exact reasons are not known, but are believed to have been caused by
addition of more troops and the use of more advanced ranged weapons on ships, such as catapults. The size of the
new naval forces also made it difficult to find enough skilled rowers for the one-man-per-oar system of the earliest
triremes. With more than one man per oar, a single rower could set the pace for the others to follow, meaning that
more unskilled rowers could be employed.[28]
The successor states of Alexander the Great's empire built galleys that were like triremes or biremes in oar layout,
but manned with additional rowers for each oar. The ruler Dionysius I of Syracuse (ca. 432–367 BC) is credited
with pioneering the “five” and “six”, meaning five or six rows of rowers plying two or three rows of oars. Ptolemy
II (283-46 BC) is known to have built a large fleet of very large galleys with several experimental designs rowed by
everything from 12 up to 40 rows of rowers, though most of these are considered to have been quite impractical. Fleets
with large galleys were put in action in conflicts such as the Punic Wars (246-146) between the Roman republic and
Carthage, which included massive naval battles with hundreds of vessels and tens of thousands of soldiers, seamen
and rowers.[29]
Most of the surviving documentary evidence comes from Greek and Roman shipping, though it is likely that merchant
galleys all over the Mediterranean were highly similar. In Greek they were referred to as histiokopos (“sail-oar-er”)
to reflect that they relied on both types of propulsion. In Latin they were called actuaria (navis) (“ship that moves”)
in Latin, stressing that they were capable of making progress regardless of weather conditions. As an example of the
speed and reliability, during an instance of the famous "Carthago delenda est"-speech, Cato the Elder demonstrated
the close proximity of the Roman arch enemy Carthage by displaying a fresh fig to his audience that he claimed had
been picked in North Africa only three days past. Other cargoes carried by galleys were honey, cheese, meat and live
animals intended for gladiator combat. The Romans had several types of merchant galleys that specialized in various
tasks, out of which the actuaria with up to 50 rowers was the most versatile, including the phaselus (lit. “bean pod”)
for passenger transport and the lembus, a small-scale express carrier. Many of these designs continued to be used
until the Middle Ages.[30]
7.2.3 Roman Imperial era

The battle of Actium in 31 BC between the forces of Augustus and Mark Antony marked the peak of the Roman fleet
arm. After Augustus’ victory at Actium, most of the Roman fleet was dismantled and burned. The Roman civil wars
were fought mostly by land forces, and from the 160s until the 4th century AD, no major fleet actions were recorded.
During this time, most of the galley crews were disbanded or employed for entertainment purposes in mock battles or
in handling the sail-like sun-screens in the larger Roman arenas. What fleets remained were treated as auxiliaries of
the land forces, and galley crewmen themselves called themselves milites, “soldiers”, rather than nautae, “sailors”.[31]
The Roman galley fleets were turned into provincial patrol forces that were smaller and relied largely on liburnians,
compact biremes with 25 pairs of oars. These were named after an Illyrian tribe known by Romans for their sea
Depictions of two compact liburnians used by the Romans in their campaigns against the Dacians in the early 2nd century AD; reliefs
from Trajan’s Column, c. 113 AD.
roving practices, and these smaller craft were based on, or inspired by, their vessels of choice. The liburnians and
other small galleys patrolled the rivers of continental Europe and reached as far as the Baltic, where they were used
to fight local uprisings and assist in checking foreign invasions. The Romans maintained numerous bases around the
empire: along the rivers of Central Europe, chains of forts along the northern European coasts and the British Isles,
Mesopotamia and North Africa, including Trabzon, Vienna, Belgrade, Dover, Seleucia and Alexandria. Few actual
galley battles in the provinces are found in records. One action in 70 AD at the unspecified location of the “Island
of the Batavians” during the Batavian Rebellion was recorded, and included a trireme as the Roman flagship.[32] The
last provincial fleet, the classis Britannica, was reduced by the late 200s, though there was a minor upswing under
the rule of Constantine (272–337). His rule also saw the last major naval battle of the Roman Empire, the battle of
Hellespont of 324. Some time after Hellespont, the classical trireme fell out of use, and its design forgotten.[33]
7.2.4 Eastern Mediterranean
A transition from galley to sailing vessels as the most common types of warships began in the high Middle Ages (c.
11th century). Large high-sided sailing ships had always been formidable obstacles for galleys. To low-freeboard
oared vessels, the bulkier sailing ships like the carrack and the cog were almost like floating fortresses, being difficult
to board and even harder to capture. Galleys remained useful as warships throughout the entire Middle Ages because
of their maneuverability. Sailing ships of the time had only one mast, usually with just a single, large square sail. This
made them cumbersome to steer and it was virtually impossible to sail into the wind direction. Galleys therefore were
still the only ship type capable of coastal raiding and amphibious landings, both key elements of medieval warfare.[34]
In the eastern Mediterranean, the Byzantine Empire struggled with the incursion from invading Muslim Arabs from
the 7th century, leading to fierce competition, a buildup of fleet, and war galleys of increasing size. Soon after
conquering Egypt and the Levant, the Arab rulers built ships highly similar to Byzantine dromons with the help of
local Coptic shipwrights former Byzantine naval bases.[35] By the 9th century, the struggle between the Byzantines
and Arabs had turned the Eastern Mediterranean into a no man’s land for merchant activity. In the 820s Crete was
captured by Andalusian Muslims displaced by a failed revolt against the Emirate of Cordoba, turning the island into
a base for (galley) attacks on Christian shipping until the island was recaptured by the Byzantines in 960.[36]
7.2. HISTORY 41
7.2.5 Western Mediterranean
In the western Mediterranean and Atlantic, the division of the Carolingian Empire in the late 9th century brought on a
period of instability, meaning increased piracy and raiding in the Mediterranean, particularly by newly arrived Muslim
invaders. The situation was worsened by raiding Scandinavian Vikings who used longships, vessels that in many ways
were very close to galleys in design and functionality and also employed similar tactics. To counter the threat, local
rulers began to build large oared vessels, some with up to 30 pairs of oars, that were larger, faster and with higher
sides than Viking ships.[37] Scandinavian expansion, including incursions into the Mediterranean and attacks on both
Muslim Iberia and even Constantinople itself, subsided by the mid-11th century. By this time, greater stability in
merchant traffic was achieved by the emergence of Christian kingdoms such as those of France, Hungary and Poland.
Around the same time, Italian port towns and city states, like Venice, Pisa and Amalfi, rose on the fringes of the
Byzantine Empire as it struggled with eastern threats.[38]
After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, the old Mediterranean economy collapsed and the volume of trade
went down drastically. Its eastern successor, the Byzantine Empire, neglected to revive overland trade routes but
was dependent on keeping the sea lanes open to keep the empire together. Bulk trade fell around 600-750 while the
luxury trade increased. Galleys remained in service, but were profitable mainly in the luxury trade, which set off
their high maintenance cost.[39] In the 10th century, there was a sharp increase in piracy which resulted in larger ships
with more numerous crews. These were mostly built by the growing city-states of Italy which were emerging as the
dominant sea powers, including Venice, Genoa and Pisa. Inheriting the Byzantine ship designs, the new merchant
galleys were similar dromons, but without any heavy weapons and both faster and wider. They could be manned by
crews of up to 1,000 men and were employed in both trade and warfare. A further boost to the development of the
large merchant galleys was the upswing in Western European pilgrims traveling to the Holy Land[40]
In Northern Europe, Viking longships and their derivations, knarrs, dominated trading and shipping, though developed
separately from the Mediterranean galley tradition. In the South galleys continued to be useful for trade even as sailing
vessels evolved more efficient hulls and rigging; since they could hug the shoreline and make steady progress when
winds failed, they were highly reliable. The zenith in the design of merchant galleys came with the state-owned great
galleys of the Venetian Republic, first built in the 1290s. These were used to carry the lucrative trade in luxuries from
the east such as spices, silks and gems. They were in all respects larger than contemporary war galleys (up to 46 m)
and had a deeper draft, with more room for cargo (140-250 t). With a full complement of rowers ranging from 150
to 180 men, all available to defend the ship from attack, they were also very safe modes of travel. This attracted a
business of carrying affluent pilgrims to the Holy Land, a trip that could be accomplished in as little 29 days on the
route Venice-Jaffa, despite landfalls for rest and watering or for respite from rough weather.[41]
7.2.6 Development of the true galley
Late medieval maritime warfare was divided in two distinct regions. In the Mediterranean galleys were used for
raiding along coasts, and in the constant fighting for naval bases. In the Atlantic and Baltic there was greater focus on
sailing ships that were used mostly for troop transport, with galleys providing fighting support.[42] Galleys were still
widely used in the north and were the most numerous warships used by Mediterranean powers with interests in the
north, especially the French and Iberian kingdoms.[43]
During the 13th and 14th century, the galley evolved into the design that was to remain essentially the same until it
was phased out in the early 19th century. The new type descended from the ships used by Byzantine and Muslim
fleets in the early Middle Ages. These were the mainstay of all Christian powers until the 14th century, including the
great maritime republics of Genoa and Venice, the Papacy, the Hospitallers, Aragon and Castile, as well as by various
pirates and corsairs. The overall term used for these types of vessels was gallee sottili (“slender galleys”). The later
Ottoman navy used similar designs, but they were generally faster under sail, and smaller, but slower under oars.[44]
Galley designs were intended solely for close action with hand-held weapons and projectile weapons like bows and
crossbows. In the 13th century the Iberian kingdom of Aragon built several fleet of galleys with high castles, manned
with Catalan crossbowman, and regularly defeated numerically superior Angevin forces.[45]
From the first half of the 14th century the Venetian galere da mercato (“merchantman galleys”) were being built in the
shipyards of the state-run Arsenal as “a combination of state enterprise and private association, the latter being a kind
of consortium of export merchants”, as Fernand Braudel described them.[46] The ships sailed in convoy, defended by
archers and slingsmen (ballestieri) aboard, and later carrying cannons. In Genoa, the other major maritime power of
the time, galleys and ships in general were more produced by smaller private ventures.
In the 14th and 15th centuries merchant galleys traded high-value goods and carried passengers. Major routes in
A 13th-century war galley depicted in a Byzantine-style fresco.
the time of the early Crusades carried the pilgrim traffic to the Holy Land. Later routes linked ports around the
Mediterranean, between the Mediterranean and the Black Sea (a grain trade soon squeezed off by the Turkish capture
of Constantinople, 1453) and between the Mediterranean and Bruges— where the first Genoese galley arrived at Sluys
in 1277, the first Venetian galere in 1314— and Southampton. Although primarily sailing vessels, they used oars to
enter and leave many trading ports of call, the most effective way of entering and leaving the Lagoon of Venice. The
Venetian galera, beginning at 100 tons and built as large as 300, was not the largest merchantman of its day, when the
Genoese carrack of the 15th century might exceed 1000 tons.[48] In 1447, for instance, Florentine galleys planned to
call at 14 ports on their way to and from Alexandria.[49] The availability of oars enabled these ships to navigate close
to the shore where they could exploit land and sea breezes and coastal currents, to work reliable and comparatively
fast passages against the prevailing wind. The large crews also provided protection against piracy. These ships were
very seaworthy; a Florentine great galley left Southampton on 23 February 1430 and returned to its port at Pisa in 32
days. They were so safe that merchandise was often not insured.[50] These ships increased in size during this period,
and were the template from which the galleass developed.
7.2.7 Transition to sailing ships
As early as 1304 the type of ship required by the Danish defence organization changed from galley to cog, a flat-
bottomed sailing ship.[51]
During the early 15th century, sailing ships began to dominate naval warfare in northern waters. While the galley
still remained the primary warship in southern waters, a similar transition had begun also among the Mediterranean
powers. A Castilian naval raid on the island of Jersey in 1405 became the first recorded battle where a Mediterranean
power employed a naval force consisting mostly of cogs or nefs, rather than the oared-powered galleys. The battle of
Gibraltar between Castile and Portugal in 1476 was another important sign of change; it was the first recorded battle
where the primary combatants were full-rigged ships armed with wrought-iron guns on the upper decks and in the
waists, foretelling of the slow decline of the war galley.[52]
The transition from the Mediterranean war galley to the sailing vessel as the preferred method of vessel in the Mediter-
ranean is tied directly to technological developments and the inherent handling characteristics of each vessel types.
The primary factors were changing sail design, the introduction of cannons aboard vessels, and the handling charac-
teristics of the vessels.
7.2. HISTORY 43
Illustration of a 15th-century trade galley from a manuscript by Michael of Rhodes (1401–1445) written in 1434.
The sailing vessel was always at the mercy of the wind for propulsion, and those that did carry oars were placed at a
disadvantage because they were not optimized for oar use. The galley did have disadvantages compared to the sailing
vessel though. Their smaller hulls were not able to hold as much cargo and this limited their range as the crews were
required to replenish food stuffs more frequently.[53] The low freeboard of the galley meant that in close action with
a sailing vessel, the sailing vessel would usually maintain a height advantage. The sailing vessel could also fight more
effectively farther out at sea and in rougher wind conditions because of the height of their freeboard.[54]
Under sail, an oared warship was placed at much greater risk as a result of the piercings for the oars which were
required to be near the waterline and would allow water to ingress into the galley if the vessel heeled too far to one
side. These advantages and disadvantages led the galley to be and remain a primarily coastal vessel. The shift to sailing
vessels in the Mediterranean was the result of the negation of some of the galley’s advantages as well as the adoption
of gunpowder weapons on a much larger institutional scale. The sailing vessel was propelled in a different manner
than the galley but the tactics were often the same until the 16th century. The real-estate afforded to the sailing vessel
to place larger cannons and other armament mattered little because early gunpowder weapons had limited range and
were expensive to produce. The eventual creation of cast iron cannons allowed vessels and armies to be outfitted
much more cheaply. The cost of gunpowder also fell in this period.[55]
The armament of both vessel types varied between larger weapons such as bombards and the smaller swivel guns.
For logistical purposes it became convenient for those with larger shore establishments to standardize upon a given
size of cannon. Traditionally the English in the North and the Venetians in the Mediterranean are seen as some the
earliest to move in this direction. The improving sail rigs of northern vessels also allowed them to navigate in the
coastal waters of the Mediterranean to a much larger degree than before.[56] Aside from warships the decrease in the
cost of gunpowder weapons also led to the arming of merchants. The larger vessels of the north continued to mature
while the galley retained its defining characteristics. Attempts were made to stave this off such as the addition of
fighting castles in the bow, but such additions to counter the threats brought by larger sailing vessels often offset the
advantages of galley.[57]
7.2.8 Introduction of guns
Painting of the battle of Haarlemmermeer of 1573 by Hendrick Cornelisz Vroom. Note the use of small sailing vessels and galleys
on both sides.
From around 1450, three major naval powers established a dominance over different parts of the Mediterranean
using galleys as their primary weapons at sea: the Ottomans in the east, Venice in the center and Habsburg Spain
in the west.[58] The core of their fleets were concentrated in the three major, wholly dependable naval bases in the
Mediterranean: Constantinople, Venice and Barcelona.[59] Naval warfare in the 16th century Mediterranean was
fought mostly on a smaller scale, with raiding and minor actions dominating. Only three truly major fleet engagements
were actually fought in the 16th century: the battles of Preveza in 1538, Djerba in 1560 and Lepanto in 1571. Lepanto
became the last large all-galley battle ever, and was also one of the largest battle in terms of participants anywhere in
early modern Europe before the Napoleonic Wars.[60]
Occasionally the Mediterranean powers employed galley forces for conflicts outside the Mediterranean. Spain sent
galley squadrons to the Netherlands during the later stages of the Eighty Years’ War which successfully operated
against Dutch forces in the enclosed, shallow coastal waters. From the late 1560s, galleys were also used to transport
silver to Genoese bankers to finance Spanish troops against the Dutch uprising.[61] Galleasses and galleys were part
of an invasion force of over 16,000 men that conquered the Azores in 1583. Around 2,000 galley rowers were on
board ships of the famous 1588 Spanish Armada, though few of these actually made it to the battle itself.[62] Outside
European and Middle Eastern waters, Spain built galleys to deal with pirates and privateers in both the Caribbean
and the Philippines.[63] Ottoman galleys contested the Portuguese intrusion in the Indian Ocean in the 16th century,
but failed against the high-sided, massive Portuguese carracks in open waters.[64]
Despite the huge loss of men and material after the loss of the Spanish Armada in 1588 Spain maintained four
permanent galley squadrons. Together they formed the largest galley navy in the Mediterranean in the early 17th
century. They formed the backbone of the Spanish war fleet and were used for ferrying troops, supplies, horses and
munitions to Spain’s Italian and African possessions.[65] The Ottoman Turks attempted to contest the Portuguese rise
to power in the Indian Ocean in the 16th century with Mediterranean-style galleys, but were foiled by the formidable
7.2. HISTORY 45
Portuguese carracks. Even though the carracks themselves were soon surpassed by other types of sailing vessels,
their greater range, great size and high superstructures, armed with numerous wrought iron guns easily outmatched the
short-ranged, low-freeboard Turkish galleys.[64] The Spanish used galleys to more success in their colonial possessions
in the Caribbean and the Philippines to hunt pirates[66] and were used sporadically in the Netherlands and the Bay of
Biscay.[67]
Galleys had been synonymous with warships in the Mediterranean for at least 2,000 years, and continued to fulfill that
role with the invention of gunpowder and heavy artillery. Though early 20th-century historians often dismissed the
galleys as hopelessly outclassed with the first introduction of naval artillery on sailing ships,[68] it was the galley that
was favored by the introduction of heavy naval guns. Galleys were a more “mature” technology with long-established
tactics and traditions of supporting social institutions and naval organizations. In combination with the intensified
conflicts this led to a substantial increase in the size of galley fleets from c. 1520–80, above all in the Mediterranean,
but also in other European theatres.[69] Galleys and similar oared vessels remained uncontested as the most effective
gun-armed warships in theory until the 1560s, and in practice for a few decades more, and were actually considered
a grave risk to sailing warships.[70] They could effectively fight other galleys, attack sailing ships in calm weather or
in unfavorable winds (or deny them action if needed) and act as floating siege batteries. They were also unequaled in
their amphibious capabilities, even at extended ranges, as exemplified by French interventions as far north as Scotland
in the mid-16th century.[71]
Heavy artillery on galleys was mounted in the bow, which aligned easily with the long-standing tactical tradition of
attacking head on, bow first. The ordnance on galleys was heavy from its introduction in the 1480s, and capable
of quickly demolishing the high, thin medieval stone walls that still prevailed in the 16th century. This temporarily
upended the strength of older seaside fortresses, which had to be rebuilt to cope with gunpowder weapons. The
addition of guns also improved the amphibious abilities of galleys as they could make assaults supported with heavy
firepower, and were even more effectively defended when beached stern-first.[72] An accumulation and generalizing
of bronze cannons and small firearms in the Mediterranean during the 16th century increased the cost of warfare,
but also made those dependent on them more resilient to manpower losses. Older ranged weapons, like bows or
even crossbows, required considerable skill to handle, sometimes a lifetime of practice, while gunpowder weapons
required considerably less training to use successfully.[73] According to a highly influential study by military historian
John F. Guilmartin, this transition in warfare, along with the introduction of much cheaper cast iron guns in the
1580s, proved the “death knell” for the war galley as a significant military vessel.[74] Gunpowder weapons began to
displace men as the fighting power of armed forces, making individual soldiers more deadly and effective. As offensive
weapons, firearms could be stored for years with minimal maintenance and did not require the expenses associated
with soldiers. Manpower could thus be exchanged for capital investments, something which benefited sailing vessels
that were already far more economical in their use of manpower. It also served to increase their strategic range and
to out-compete galleys as fighting ships.[75]
7.2.9 Mediterranean decline
Atlantic-style warfare based on heavily armed sailing ships began to change the nature of naval warfare in the Mediter-
ranean in the 17th century. In 1616, a small Spanish squadron of five galleons and a patache was used to cruise the
eastern Mediterranean and defeated a fleet of 55 galleys at the battle of Cape Celidonia. By 1650, war galleys were
used primarily in the wars between Venice and the Ottoman Empire in their struggle for strategic island and coastal
trading bases and until the 1720s by both France and Spain but for largely amphibious and cruising operations or
in combination with heavy sailing ships in a major battle, where they played specialized roles. An example of this
was when a Spanish fleet used its galleys in a mixed naval/amphibious battle in the second 1641 battle of Tarragona,
to break a French naval blockade and land troops and supplies.[76] Even a purely Mediterranean power like Venice
began to construct sail only warships in the latter part of the century. Christian and Muslim corsairs had been using
galleys in sea roving and in support of the major powers in times of war, but largely replaced them with xebecs,
various sail/oar hybrids, and a few remaining light galleys in the early 17th century.[77]
No large all galley battles were fought after the gigantic clash at Lepanto in 1571, and galleys were mostly used as
cruisers or for supporting sailing warships as a rearguard in fleet actions, similar to the duties performed by frigates
outside the Mediterranean.[77] They could assist damaged ships out of the line, but generally only in very calm weather,
as was the case at the Battle of Málaga in 1704.[78] For small states and principalities as well as groups of private
merchants, galleys were more affordable than large and complex sailing warships, and were used as defense against
piracy. Galleys required less timber to build, the design was relatively simple and they carried fewer guns. They
were tactically flexible and could be used for naval ambushes as well amphibious operations. They also required few
skilled seamen and were difficult for sailing ships to catch, but vital in hunting down catching other galleys and oared
The Battle of Lepanto in 1571, naval engagement between allied Christian forces and the Ottoman Turks.
raiders.[79]
The largest galley fleets in the 17th century were operated by the two major Mediterranean powers, France and
Spain. France had by the 1650s become the most powerful state in Europe, and expanded its galley forces under
the rule of the absolutist “Sun King” Louis XIV. In the 1690s the French galley corps (Corps des galères) reached
its all-time peak with more than 50 vessels manned by over 15,000 men and officers, becoming the largest galley
in the world at the time.[80] Though there was intense rivalry between France and Spain, not a single galley battle
occurred between the two great powers after, and virtually no battles between other nations either.[81] During the
War of the Spanish Succession, French galleys were involved in actions against Antwerp and Harwich,[82] but due to
the intricacies of alliance politics there were never any Franco-Spanish galley clashes. In the first half of the 18th
century, the other major naval powers in North Africa, the Order of Saint John and the Papal States all cut down
drastically on their galley forces.[83] Despite the lack of action, the galley corps received vast resources (25-50%
of the French naval expenditures) during the 1660s centuries.[84] It was maintained as a functional fighting force
right up until its abolishment in 1748, though its primary function was more of a symbol of Louis XIV’s absolutist
ambitions.[85]
The last recorded battle in the Mediterranean where galleys played a significant part was at Matapan in 1717, between
the Ottomans and Venice and its allies, though they had little influence on the final outcome. Few large-scale naval
battles were fought in the Mediterranean throughout most of the remainder of the 18th century. The Tuscan galley
fleet was dismantled around 1718, Naples had only four old vessels by 1734 and the French Galley Corps had ceased
to exist as an independent arm in 1748. Venice, the Papal States and the Knights of Malta were the only state fleets
that maintained galleys, though in nothing like their previous quantities.[86] By 1790, there were less than 50 galleys
in service among all the Mediterranean powers, half of which belonged to Venice.[87]
7.2.10 Use in northern Europe

Oared vessels remained in use in northern waters for a long time, though in subordinate role and in particular cir-
cumstances. In the Italian Wars, French galleys brought up from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic posed a serious
threat to the early English Tudor navy during coastal operations. The response came in the building of a considerable
fleet of oared vessels, including hybrids with a complete three-masted rig, as well as a Mediterranean-style galleys
(that were even attempted to be manned with convicts and slaves).[88] Under King Henry VIII, the English navy used
several kinds of vessels that were adapted to local needs. English galliasses (very different from the Mediterranean
vessel of the same name) were employed to cover the flanks of larger naval forces while pinnaces and rowbarges were
used for scouting or even as a backup for the longboats and tenders for the larger sailing ships.[89] During the Dutch
Revolt (1566–1609) both the Dutch and Spanish found galleys useful for amphibious operations in the many shallow
waters around the Low Countries where deep-draft sailing vessels could not enter.[82]
7.2. HISTORY 47
Dutch ships ramming Spanish galleys in the Battle of the Narrow Seas, October 1602.
While galleys were too vulnerable to be used in large numbers in the open waters of the Atlantic, they were well-suited
for use in much of the Baltic Sea by Denmark, Sweden, Russia and some of the Central European powers with ports
on the southern coast. There were two types of naval battlegrounds in the Baltic. One was the open sea, suitable
for large sailing fleets; the other was the coastal areas and especially the chain of small islands and archipelagos that
ran almost uninterrupted from Stockholm to the Gulf of Finland. In these areas, conditions were often too calm,
cramped and shallow for sailing ships, but they were excellent for galleys and other oared vessels.[90] Galleys of the
Mediterranean type were first introduced in the Baltic Sea around the mid-16th century as competition between
the Scandinavian states of Denmark and Sweden intensified. The Swedish galley fleet was the largest outside the
Mediterranean, and served as an auxiliary branch of the army. Very little is known about the design of Baltic Sea
galleys, except that they were overall smaller than in the Mediterranean and they were rowed by army soldiers rather
than convicts or slaves.[91]
Baltic revival and decline
Galleys were introduced to the Baltic Sea in the 16th century but the details of their designs are lacking due to the
absence of records. They might have been built in a more regional style, but the only known depiction from the time
shows a typical Mediterranean vessel. There is conclusive evidence that Denmark became the first Baltic power to
build classic Mediterranean-style galleys in the 1660s, though they proved to be generally too large to be useful in the
shallow waters of the Baltic archipelagos. Sweden and especially Russia began to launch galleys and various rowed
vessels in great numbers during the Great Northern War in the first two decades of the 18th century.[92] Sweden
was late in the game when it came to building an effective oared fighting fleet, while the Russian galley forces under
Tsar Peter I developed into a supporting arm for the sailing navy and a well-functioning auxiliary of the army which
infiltrated and conducted numerous raids on the eastern Swedish coast in the 1710s.[93]
Sweden and Russia became the two main competitors for Baltic dominance in the 18th century, and built the largest
galley fleets in the world at the time. They were used for amphibious operations in Russo-Swedish wars of 1741–
43 and 1788–90. The last galleys ever constructed were built in 1796 by Russia, and remained in service well into
A painting of the Battle of Grengam in 1720 by Ferdinand Perrot (1808–41) showing a large Russian galley engaging Swedish
frigates at close range. Note the crowded fighting platform (rambade) in the bow.
the 19th century, but saw little action.[94] The last time galleys were deployed in action was when the Russian navy
attacked Åbo (Turku) in 1854 as part of the Crimean War.[95] In the second half of the 18th century, the role of
Baltic galleys in coastal fleets was replaced first with hybrid “archipelago frigates” (like the turuma or pojama) and
xebecs, and after the 1790s with various types of gunboats.[96]
7.3 Construction
Galleys have since their first appearance in ancient times been intended as highly maneuverable vessels, independent
of winds by being rowed, and usually with a focus on speed under oars. The profile has therefore been that of a
markedly elongated hull with a ratio of breadth to length at the waterline of at least 1:5, and in the case of ancient
Mediterranean galleys as much as 1:10 with a small draught, the measurement of how much of a ship’s structure that
is submerged under water. To make it possible to efficiently row the vessels, the freeboard, the height of the railing to
the surface of the water, was by necessity kept low. This gave oarsmen enough leverage to row efficiently, but at the
expense of seaworthiness. These design characteristics made the galley fast and maneuverable, but more vulnerable
to rough weather.
The documentary evidence for the construction of ancient galleys is fragmentary, particularly in pre-Roman times.
Plans and schematics in the modern sense did not exist until the 17th century and nothing like them has survived
from ancient times. How galleys were constructed has therefore been a matter of looking at circumstantial evidence
in literature, art, coinage and monuments that include ships, some of them actually in natural size. Since the war
galleys floated even with a ruptured hull and virtually never had any ballast or heavy cargo that could sink them, not
a single wreckage of one has so far been found. The only exception has been a partial wreckage of a small Punic
liburnian from the Roman era, the Marsala Ship.[97]
On the funerary monument of the Egyptian king Sahure (2487–2475 BC) in Abusir, there are relief images of vessels
with a marked sheer (the upward curvature at each end of the hull) and seven pairs of oars along its side, a number
that was likely to have been merely symbolical, and steering oars in the stern. They have one mast, all lowered and
vertical posts at stem and stern, with the front decorated with an Eye of Horus, the first example of such a decoration.
It was later used by other Mediterranean cultures to decorate seagoing craft in the belief that it helped to guide the
7.3. CONSTRUCTION 49
Illustration of an Egyptian rowed ship of c. 1250 BC. Due to a lack of a proper keel, the vessel has a truss, a thick cable along its
length, to prevent it from losing its shape.
ship safely to its destination. These early galleys apparently lacked a keel meaning they lacked stiffness along their
length. Therefore they had large cables connecting stem and stern resting on massive crutches on deck. They were
held in tension to avoid hogging, or bending the ship’s construction upwards in the middle, while at sea.[15] In the
15th century BC, Egyptian galleys were still depicted with the distinctive extreme sheer, but had by then developed
the distinctive forward-curving stern decorations with ornaments in the shape of lotus flowers.[98] They had possibly
developed a primitive type of keel, but still retained the large cables intended to prevent hogging.[16]
The design of the earliest oared vessels is mostly unknown and highly conjectural. They likely used a mortise con-
struction, but were sewn together rather than pinned together with nails and dowels. Being completely open, they
were rowed (or even paddled) from the open deck, and likely had “ram entries”, projections from the bow lowered the
resistance of moving through water, making them slightly more hydrodynamic. The first true galleys, the triaconters
(literally “thirty-oarers”) and penteconters (“fifty-oarers”) were developed from these early designs and set the stan-
dard for the larger designs that would come later. They were rowed on only one level, which made them fairly slow,
likely only 5-5.5 knots. By the 8th century BC the first galleys rowed at two levels had been developed, among the
earliest being the two-level penteconters which were considerably shorter than the one-level equivalents, and therefore
more maneuverable. They were an estimated 25 m in length and displaced 15 tonnes with 25 pairs of oars. These
could have reached an estimated top speed of up to 7.5 knots, making them the first genuine warships when fitted
with bow rams. They were equipped with a single square sail on mast set roughly halfway along the length of the
hull.[100]
7.3.1 The trireme
Main article: trireme

By the 5th century BC, the first triremes were in use by various powers in the eastern Mediterranean. It had now
become a fully developed, highly specialized vessel of war that was capable of high speeds and complex maneuvers.
At nearly 40 m in length, displacing almost 50 tonnes, it was more than three times as expensive than a two-level
penteconter. A trireme also had an additional mast with a smaller square sail placed near the bow.[101] Up to 170
oarsmen sat on three levels with one oar each that varied slightly in length. To accommodate three levels of oars,
rowers sat staggered on three levels. Arrangement of the three levels are believed to have varied, but the most well-
documented design made use of a projecting structure, or outrigger, where the oarlock in the form of a thole pin was
placed. This allowed the outermost row of oarsmen enough leverage for full strokes that made efficient use of their
oars.[102]
The first dedicated war galleys fitted with rams were built with a mortise and tenon technique, a so-called shell-first
method. In this, the planking of the hull was strong enough to hold the ship together structurally, and was also
planks
tenon
mortise
dowel
A schematic view of the mortise and tenon technique for shipbuilding that dominated the Mediterranean until the 7th century AD.[99]
watertight without the need for caulking. Hulls had sharp bottoms without keelsons in order to support the structure
and were reinforced by transverse framing secured with dowels with nails driven through them. To prevent the hull
from hogging there was a hypozoma, a thick cable that connected bow with stern. It was kept taught to add strength to
the construction along its length, but its exact design or the method of tightening is not not known.[104] The ram, the
primary weapon of Ancient galleys from around the 8th to the 4th century, was not attached directly on the hull but
to a structure extending from it. This way the ram could twist off if got stuck after ramming rather than breaking the
integrity of the hull. The ram fitting consisted of a massive, projecting timber and the ram itself was a thick bronze
casting with horizontal blades that could weigh from 400 kg up to 2 tonnes.[101]
7.3.2 Roman era

Galleys from 4th century BC up to the time of the early Roman Empire in the 1st century AD became successively
larger. Three levels of oars was the practical upper limit, but it was improved on by making ships longer, broader
and heavier and placing more than one rower per oar. Naval conflict grew more intense and extensive, and by 100
BC galleys with four, five or six rows of oarsmen were commonplace and carried large complements of soldiers and
catapults. With high freeboard (up to 3 m) and additional tower structures from which missiles could be shot down
onto enemy decks, they were intended to be like floating fortresses.[105] Designs with everything from eight rows of
oarsmen and upwards were built, but most of them are believed to have been impractical show pieces never used in
actual warfare.[106] Ptolemy IV, the Greek pharaoh of Egypt 221-205 BC is recorded as building a gigantic ship with
forty rows of oarsmen, though no specification of its design remains. One suggested design was that of a huge trireme
catamaran with up to 14 men per oar and it is assumed that it was intended as a showpiece rather than a practical
warship.[107]
With the consolidation of Roman imperial power, the size of both fleets and galleys decreased considerably. The

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4.3 See also . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

Not to be confused with Carvel (boat building).

m with a beam of 6 m and displacing around 60-75 tons.

1.3 See also

• Notorious - a replica caravel in Australia

1.5 External links

• Museu da Marinha, fac-similes, (Portuguese)

• Instituto Camões. Caravela

A lateen-rigged caravel, Caravela Latina

A replica of the caravel Boa Esperança in the city of Lagos, Portugal

For the rocks oﬀ the Cornish coast, see The Carracks.

The ﬁrst portrayed carrack in a Sienese painting from 1300 by A.Lorenzetti .

A Portuguese Carrack, as depicted in a map made in 1565.

2.2 Carracks in Asia

2.3 Famous carracks

• Great Michael, a Scottish ship, at one time the largest in Europe.

• Grace Dieu, commissioned by Henry V

• Peter von Danzig, ship of the Hanseatic League in 1460s-1470s.

2.4 See also

• Portuguese India Armadas

2.6 Further reading

2.7 External links

• Computer modeling of a Portuguese carrack

Relatively proportioned cog in the Seal of Stralsund

Reconstructed excavated cog from 1380 at Deutsches Schiﬀahrtsmuseum

3.4 See also

3.6 External links

4.1.1 Ancient era, ﬁrst uses

4.1.2 Age of ﬁghting sail, reﬁnement

4.1.3 Use in the Greek War of Independence

4.1.4 19th and 20th centuries, obsolescence

4.2 Notable uses

• Syracuse in their battle with the Athenian ﬂeet

4.3 See also

• MT explosive motor boat

• Shinyo (suicide boat)

• List of ﬁreships of the Royal Navy

[3] Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War, 7.53.4

[10] “Battle of Britain, September 1940”. naval-history.net.

[15] Alexander’s mole

4.5 External links

Chinese ﬁre ships of the Song dynasty (960-1279)

Operation Crossroads (Event Baker), conducted at Bikini Atoll (1946).

Hellburners at Antwerp by Famiani Strada

5.1.1 First use against Antwerp ship bridge

5.1.2 Inﬂuence on the Battle of Gravelines

[4] Motley, John Lothrop, History of the United Netherlands

[5] Folio society review of The Defeat of the Spanish Armada

5.3 External links

For other uses, see Galleon (disambiguation).

6.4 Distinguishing features

6.5 The oldest English drawings

6.6 Notable galleons

Model of English galleon sporting a bonaventure mizzen mast

6.8 See also

• Portuguese India Armadas

• Square Rigged Caravel

[3] “Collins Concise English Dictionary”. Retrieved 21 Feb 2014.

[6] Galeão - Navegações Portuguesas by Francisco Contente Domingues (Portuguese)