![]() Besides being greatly feared and comparable to a Navy Frigate, she had a reputation for seaworthiness on long voyages and a cargo space over thrice as large as that of the sloop. The three-masted-square rigger boasted at least twenty cannon plus many swivel guns and crew of up to two hundred men therefore, she made an excellent flagship for pirates despite her lethargic movement. Her main sail could be fitted with either square sails that were best in quartering wind, or fore-and-aft sails for sailing windward. Perhaps her greatest virtue lie in her shallow draft that allowed her to navigate and patrol in waters that other ships could not.Ī versatile ship favored for combat, the Brigatine could carry a crew of one hundred men, and a cargo half- again as big as the sloop or schooner. If wind was favorable, a square topsail could be hoisted to give her speed that could on occasion exceed eleven knots.Ĭommonly the schooner sported two masts and had great speed as well. The single-masted sloop had a bowsprit almost as long as her hull making her perhaps the swiftest of vessels of her day. Sailing qualities varied widely between ships. Rigging -Three masts, square rigged, but many galleons had a lateen rig on the mizzen, especially 16th century ships. Tonnage - A galleon sailing the trans-Atlantic route might vary from 100 to 1000 tons. The Galleon was the most famous naval vessel of its time. The most famous caravels are the Nina and the Pinta, which sailed with Columbus on his maiden voyage to the New World. The caravels of this time were often square-rigged on the fore and main masts, although the lateen rig was kept for the mizzen. By this time many caravels were 100-200 tons in size, although this was still quite small in comparison to the average 400 or 500 ton galleon that was to dominate the seas in later decades. The peak of the caravel was the period from the 1430s to the 1530s when all of Europe, not just Spain and Portugal, made use of them. They were used as fishing boats, or coastal cargo ships. They carried a crew of 5 or 6 men and were perhaps 50 tons in size. These early caravels were small, three-masted vessels with lateen rigging. In Spain and Portugal, the earliest known caravels date from the 13th Century. However their small size limited the cargo capacity of the hull and they gradually disappeared in the late 16th century. Prior to the development of the galleon they were the mainstay of Spanish shipping. Early guns were of small caliber, slow to reload, and unreliable in battle.Ĭaravels were valued for their speed and relative ease of sailing in contrary winds. (These carracks are of rather late build and in a few days a graphic will be added here which better demonstrates the medieval origins of the design.)Īlthough guns are recorded as being in use on some European ships as early as 1337, they did not have any real affect on warfare for nearly 150 years. The relative similarities of galleon and carrack design are evident in the adjacent 17th century picture relatively small Portuguese carracks tangling with Dutch attackers. (To a lesser extent this is true of the galleon as well and contributed to its eventual demise as a ship design) To repel boarders the aft and forecastles were built up as towering fortresses bristling with archery or gun slits. The design emphasis was not on sailing quailities and artillery capacity, but with building a ship resistant to enemy boarding parties. They were the first large square-rigged ships to ply the seas and were valued because of their large capacity for carrying troops or cargo.Ĭarracks differed from galleons in that they were still primarily medieval ships built with an emphasis on winning a medieval style battle. ![]() ![]() ![]() Amid their favorites were the sloop and the schooner.Ĭarracks are regarded as the immediate predecessor of the galleon in terms of ship design. Pirates used a variety of ships, though generally gave preference to those with the greatest speed for it would do no good to spot a potential target only to have it out-sail you. ![]()
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