Cannabis Ruderalis

thcscience_admin

Search-for terms

avoid repetitions

Supporting refs

Notes-to-be-prosified

mil.hist.
trade
design
propulsion
piracy
strategy
tactics
prestige/etc
  • Egyptian river craft built for Nile, simple upsized when they turned ocean-going; had no keels, but centerline hawsers on crutches that could be tightened by twisting (tourniquet), side rudders, early versions with "double-stepped" masts[1]
  • Minoan Thera frieze ships are part of a "Minoan navy" according to Casson, the "first great sea power of the Mediterranenan"[2]
  • mortise-and-tenon technique "more cabinet work than carpentry" *[3], dated to 1300 BC at the latest[4]
  • earliest ancient warships used to ferry troops (mostly raiding); no real distinction from merchant freighters[5]
  • first dedicated fighters were "clean-lined" vessels used by SEA ROVERS for raiding, capturing merchants and for dispatches; dating from early 14th century BC[6]
  • Sea Peoples (rovers) survived in part after loss at the Delta as Tjeker and Peleset (Palestinians?)[7]
  • attack on Troy was made by typical SEA ROVERS[8]
  • Mycenaean galleys had 20-100 oars (usually 30-50): shallow draft, low railings, boom-less sail (bunched up against yard with brails (like venetian blinds)) [9]
  • open water sailing exceptional (and then with navigation by the stars); coast-hopping normal course of affairs, sleeping on land, pulling up galleys at night to eat; maritime acitivite squeezed into period from April to October throughout all of antiquity[10]
  • description of Homer's ships (1300-1200 BC): long, low hull; prow that rose straight up ("horns" as decoration in front, often backwards-curved; curved stern; ram entry depicted on pottery[11]
  • sea roving completely normal practice, so normal that Homer used it as a cover story when he returned to Ithaca; even Thucydides said it was "without stigma" further back in time[12]
  • Phoenician were the first to trade west of Corsica-Sardinia-Sicily (from c. 700 BC): mostly silver and especially tin from Spain and as far north as England (through middlemen)[13]
  • Greeks colonized Mediterranean and Black Sea 750-550 BC[14]
  • Phocaeans (Greeks) managed to get west of Gibralatar, but had to fight the Phoenicians for more permanent trading rights; won a Pyrrhic victory; three battles in total fought against Greeks, all Phoenician losses, but Gibraltar remained closed and Phoenician monopoly[15]
  • ram on an Athenian safety pin from 850 BC???[16]
  • from "open, undecked affairs" to a "half deck" covering bow, stern and with a centerline gangway; rowers sat on the same level as the railing, but could move down on a lower level when fighting commenced, getting increased protection; prow lost "swept back curve" (?); stern got its distinct fan-like decoration (often treated as "scalp" when cut off enemy ships after a victory) -> penteconters became the new "ship of the line"[17]
  • bireme invented before 700 (to shorten ships with an equal amount of oars), either by Greeks or Phoenicians; two rows were staggered to economize space[18]
  • two square sails standard by 700; masts were lowered before battle, or left ashore; a hemiolia, "one and a half-er?", was invented where some of the rowers could get out of their seats to stow the mast[19]
  • the trireme was made possible by adding an outrigger for the third, top-most, bank; hull shape retained, though; established by late 6th century BC; layout dominated ancient warfare until late 4th century BC[20]
  • extant dock slips show that triremes were 121 ft long, 20 ft wide[21]
  • slave rowers too expensive; had to be maintained "permanently"; only used in emergencies (Athens) and then often were rewarded with their freedom: considerable economic investment[22]
  • triremes aged quickly; 20 years at most, 25 in exceptional cases; Greeks had 4-grade quality classification of their galleys[23]
  • pointed rams (used early) could make a neat hole that it then stuck in; the later square, 3-fanned rams were designed to punch open seams[24]
  • ramming was a difficult tactic to pull off successfully; just the right amount of speed was required and advanced maneuvering; those that did not have well-drilled crews and commanders relied on boarding tactics and superiority in soldiers (like increasing the compliment to 40); basic anti-ramming tactic was to keep bow towards enemy until he tired, then board as quickly as possible[25]
  • a double line formation was used to achieve dieklplous, breakthrough, but only with superior numbers[26]
  • triaconters were outdated, but kept for scouting and dispatches; penteconters completely displaced by more efficient and maneuverable triremes[27]
  • the open sea was mostly a no-man's-land; only way to control sea lanes was to have overwhelming superiority in forces or to control most of the coastal areas[28]
  • Syracuse learned to reinforce their bow timbers and cornered the superior Athenian navy bow-to-bow[29]
  • merchant galleys were used for "shorter hauls and general coastal work"[30]
  • three successor-states formed power centers after brief existence of Alexander the Great's empire fell apart: Macedonia, Ptolemaic Kingdom and Seleucid Empire formed the new major naval powers of the Mediterranean; Seleucids and and Ptolemais "touched off the greatest naval naval race in ancient history"[31]
  • successive increase in galley size from sixes to sixteens and up to thirties, all actually used in battle (though the larger ones were rarer)[32]
  • Athlit ram was most likely from a five, possibly a four (76 x 95 x 226 cm; 465 kg); very expensive and complicated to cast even with later standards; the biggest single expense in constructing a galley; a war-trophy memorial shows evidence of a socket of one that was three times as wide (a "gargantuan casting"), likely from a ten captured at Actium; proves that ramming remained important, even if there was a shift towards infantry and other weapons[33]
  • Macedon and Ptolemys fought each other to a standstill in the 3rd century BC with "super galleys"; when Romans conquered Macedon in 168 BC and found a sixteen it was a "fossil" that hadn't been to sea for over 70 years[34]
  • Rhodes invented fire pots that were suspended from two rods projecting over the bows: could be dumped over enemy ships, or frighten them into exposing their sides for ramming[35]
  • Rhodian triemiolia developed as a pirate-hunter; a trireme were part of the uppermost row of oarsmen could move out to make room for the mast[36]
  • Romans copied Carthage in their wars with them; managed to take advantage of superiority in quality of soldiers by inventing the corvus (a spiked gang-plank); first used at Mylae 260 BC[37]
  • Romans gained experience in Punic Wars, stole/copied more fast designs and built a superior fleet: won in 241; forced Carthage to wage a land war against them in the Second Punic War; by 201 BC, Rome was the greatest sea power in the (Western?) Mediterranean[38]
  • Rome turned east and conquered it by 160s BC; avoided the sea to a great extent and let as much as possible of fleets be handled by allies[39]
  • Ptolemy IV built a floating villa for travel in style along the Nile[40]
  • gradual abandonment of mortise and tenon-technique until the first appearance of an "all-skeleton" construction in 1025[41]
  • Cilician pirates had their heydays in the 1st century BC with liburnians, hemiolias and even some triremes; eradicated by Pompey in 67 BC in an operation that created the squadrons that would later become the core of the new Roman regional fleets[42]
  • Augustus' admiral Agrippa invented "grapnel catapult"[43]
  • Augustus established Roman navy that dominated Mediterranean (based on Pompey's pirate-hunting operation)[44]
  • Misenum and Ravenna (on either side of Italy) became the bases for the two major core fleets/squadrons; contributed manpower to organize naumachias and to handle awnings at arenas and amphitheatres[45]
  • Romans eliminated the oarbox by broadening the hull; and introduced an "arched doghouse" in the stern as quarters for the commander[46]
  • beamier merchant galleys, probably based on earlier military horse transports[47]
  • ancient mariner's navigational tools/aids: local "coast pilots", possibly charts (none have survived), landmarks, knowledge of stars and constellations, lead line with a depression that held tallow to pick up bottom samples, messages to other ships and shore with flags; visibility in Mediterranean good and open water distance is generally not too great; winter sailing was avoided more because cloudy skies obscured visibility and skies rather than storms[48]
  • possible Roman naval patrols in Red Sea[49]


[50]

Lead

A French galley and Dutch men-of-war off a port by Abraham Willaerts, 17th century

A galley is a type of ship that is propelled mainly by rowing. It originated in the Mediterranean around the 8th century BC and remained in use in various forms until the early 19th century in warfare, trade and piracy. The galley is characterized by its long, slender hull, shallow draft and low clearance between sea and railing. Virtually all types of galleys have had sails that could be used in favorable winds, but human strength remained their primary method of propulsion. This allowed them the freedom to move independent of winds and currents, and with great precision.

Galleys were the warships used by the first major Mediterranean 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 16th century.

Galleys were the first ships to effectively use heavy cannons as anti-ship weapons. In 16th century, they were highly efficient gun platforms that forced changes in the design of medieval seaside fortresses and sailing warships.

They experienced their zenith in the late 15th century, but were by the 17th century swiftly displaced by sailing ships and hybrid types like the xebec. They were used for certain specific purposes in the Atlantic Ocean during the Middle Ages, and saw limited use in the Caribbean, the Philippines and the Indian Ocean in the early modern period, mostly as patrol craft. From the mid 16th they were in intermittent use in the Baltic Sea, where the geography benefited their usage, and experienced an isolated revival there in the 18th century with the expansion of Russia against the older Baltic powers of Sweden and Denmark.

In warfare it carried various types of weapons throughout its long existence, including rams, catapults and cannons, but relied primarily on its large crew to overpower enemy vessels in boarding actions and close combat.

  • amphibious nature; auxiliary of armies
  • dominant use by early states until 16th
  • shift of power to north, Atlantic and colonies

Definition and terminology

The term "galley" derives from the medieval Greek galea, a type of small Byzantine galley.[53] The origin of the Greek word is unclear but could possibly be related to galeos, "dog-fish; small shark".[54] The term has been attested in English from c. 1300[55] and has been used in most European languages from around 1500 as a general term for oared war vessels, especially those used in the Mediterranean from the late Middle Ages and onwards.[56]

It is only since the 16th century that the concept of a unified galley concept has been in use. Before that, and 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 oared vessels, though the "true" galley is defined as the ships belonging to the Mediterranean tradition.[57] The distinction is not entirely clear with different writers sometimes assigning different criteria. Naval historian Richard C. Anderson defined the pre-modern (NOT PRE-MEDIEVAL?) galley in the Mediterranean as a ship that possesses a ram, but at the same time pointed out that this criterion does not hold true in northern Europe.[58] Lionel Casson has used "galley" to describe all North European shipping in the early and high Middle Ages, including Viking merchants and even their famous longships.[59]

In the late 18th century, the "galley" was in some contexts used to describe oared gun-armed vessels which did not fit into the category of the classic Mediterranean-type galleys. During the American Revolutionary War and the wars against France and Britain the US Navy built vessels that were described as "row galleys" or simply "galleys", though they actually were variants of brigantines or Baltic gunboats.[60] The description was more a characterization of their military role, and partially due to technicalities in the administration and naval financing.[61]

Origins

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. Sea-going paddled craft have been attested by finds of terracotta sculptures and lead models in the region 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.[62] 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.[63] In the reign of Hatshepsut (c. 1479-57 BC), Egyptian galleys traded in luxuries on the Red Sea with the enigmatic Land of Punt. These ships have been recorded at the Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut at Deir el-Bahari.[64]

Shipbuilders, probably Phoenician, a seafaring people who lived on the southern and eastern coasts of the Mediterranean, were the first to create the two-level galley that would be widely known under its Greek name, biērēs, or bireme.[65] 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.[66]

  • look up navigation, beaching by night, etc. in Pryor (?)

Military history

A reconstruction of an ancient Greek galley fleet based on images of the Olympias

The first Greek galleys appeared around the second half of the 2nd millenium 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.[67] 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.[68]

  • 1100-700?

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 render an enemy galley useless by breaking its side planking. The relative speed and nimbleness of ships became important, since a slower ship could be outmaneuvered and disabled by a faster one. According to the Greek historian Herodotos, the first ramming action occurred in 535 BC between 60 Phocaean penteconters against 120 Etruscan and Carthaginian ships. On this occasion it was described as a innovation that allowed Phocaeans to defeat a larger force.[69]

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). 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. Triremes, especially, required considerable skill to row and oarsmen were mostly free citizens that had a lifetime of experience at the oar.[70]

The rise of classical civilizations

As civilizations around the Mediterranean grew in size and complexity, their navies and the galleys that made up their numbers grew larger. The basic design of two or three rows of oars remained the same, but more rowers were added to each oar. The reasons for the increase in size are not exactly known, but a prevailing theory is that it was required to allow the addition of fighting soldiers and to fit ranged weapons on ships, such as catapults. The size of the new naval forces made it difficult to find enough skilled rowers for a the one-man-per-oar system of the earliest triremes. With a system of 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.[71]

The successor states of Alexander the Great's empire built galleys that were like triremes or biremes in oar layout, but manned with additional rows of rowers for each oars. The Fleets with a high proportion of large galleys participated in battles of the Punic Wars (246-146) between the Roman republic and Carthage. In the contest between the these two great naval powers of the Mediterranean in the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC, massive naval battles were fought with hundreds of vessels and tens of thousands of soldiers, seamen and rowers.[72]

Roman Empire

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.

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 nautea, "sailors".[73] Instead, the Roman galley fleets were turned into provincial patrol forces that were smaller and relied largely on liburnians, compact biremes with 25 pairs of. These were named after an Illyrian tribe known by Romans for their sea 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, but one action in 70 AD at the uncertain location of the "Island of the Batavians" during the Batavian Rebellion was noted, and featured a trireme as the Roman flagship.[74] 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 final major naval battle of the Roman Empire, the battle of Adrianople of 324. Some time after Adrianople, the classical trireme fell out of use, and was eventually forgotten.[75]

C. 350-800

  • Byznatine navy
  • Carolingians
  • Italians
  • see Hocker in Morrison & Gardiner (1995)

Byzantine era

  • all naval warfare before 15?? was essentially amphibious?

In the eastern Mediterranean, the Byzantine Empire struggled primarily with the incursion from invading Muslim Arabs from the 7th century, leading to fierce competition, a buildup of naval forces, and that war galleys once more grew in size. Soon after conquering Egypt and the Levant, the Arabs built ships with the help of local Coptic shipwrights at former Byzantine naval bases, which were highly similar to Byzantine dromons.[76] By the 9th century, the struggle between the Byzantines a Arabs had turned the Eastern Mediterranean into a no man's land for most merchants. 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.[77]

The collapse and 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 similar to galleys and used 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.[78] 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.[79]

A 13th century war galley depicted in a Byzantine-style fresco.

Late medieval maritime warfare was divided in two distinct regions. In the Mediterranean, galleys were used for raiding along coasts and in the contest for naval bases. In the Atlantic and Baltic there was greater focus on sailing ships that were used mostly for troop transport, while galleys provided fighting support.[80] A transition from galleys to sailing vessels as the most commons vessels used in warfare began in the north during 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 tall, bulky sailing ships like the carrack and the cog were almost like floating fortresses, being difficult to board and even harder to capture. Galleys remained in use in northern naval warfare throughout the Middle Ages since they had the ability to maneuver in a way that sailing vessels of the time were incapable of. Sailing ships of the time had only one mast, usually with just one large square sail, and a very primitive rigging. This made them cumbersome to steer and they could not could only sail effectively in the direction of the wind. Galleys on the other hand, enjoyed great freedom of movement along coasts and were well-suited for raids and landing troops in amphibious operations.[81] As early as 1304 the type of ship required by the Danish defense organization changed from galleys??? to cogs, a flat-bottomed sailing ship.[82]

The modern "galley"

During the 13th and 14th century, the galley evolved into a design that was to remain essentially the same until it was phased out in the late 18th century. It was descended from the types used by the Byzantine and Muslim fleets and were the mainstay of all Mediterranean powers, 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 vessels was gallea sottile (Italian for "slender galley"), which established the modern term for the galley. The later Ottoman navy used similar vessels, though generally smaller, faster under sail, but slower under oars.[83]

With the steady decline of the Byzantine Empire in the eastern Mediterranean, the commercially-oriented Italian city-states rose as the new major Christian naval power in the Mediterranean.

  • Genoa used a "Commune" early on (1263) to assemble warfleets (of galleys); depended on "private" individuals to take their share[84]
  • permanent Genoese state war fleet was not established until 1559 and then fairly tiny (3-6 from 1559-86),[85] though a powerful merchant marine it had a "laughably small navy"[86] TRADE?
  • Genoese fleet organization was more flexible and open to change; innovated heavier "trireme" in 1290s; added more marines and guns to become the "most effective warship of its day"[87]
  • sailing season extended to winter as well (by Genoa?)[88] CROSS REF WITH PRYOR
  • War of Chioggia (1380?) saw the first time use of large scale use of gunpowder weapons/guns on ships (presumably galleys? - cross-ref with Guilmartin, Rodger, others)[89]
  • medieval France had "impressive galley dockyards" (unlike England)[90]
  • English and French used galleys manned by Italian (experts?)[91]

During the 14th century, galleys began to be equipped with cannons of various sizes, mostly smaller ones at first, but also larger bombardas on vessels belonging to Alfonso V of Aragon.[92] The War of Chioggia (1378-80) between Venice and Genoa was the first conflict with large scale use of gunpowder weapons on ships.[93]

During the early 15th century, the transition in northern waters to sailing ships in naval warfare began in earnest. A Castilian naval raid on Jersey in 1405 became the first recorded battle battle where even a Mediterranean power employed a force consisting mostly of cogs or nefs, rather than oared-powered galleys. Though the transition was obvious in the north, galleys remained the primary warship in the south. The battle of Gibraltar in 1476 has been identified as another important event in northern naval warfare. The battle was dominated by full-rigged ships armed with wrought-iron guns on the upper decks and in the waists, foretelling of the future dominance of sailing warships in the Atlantic and the North Sea.'[94]

Early nation-states/Christian-Ottoman clash/Zenith of the galley fleets

Naval warfare in the Mediterranean was in the 16th century still closely tied to land warfare and worked in a symbiosis with seaside fortresses and strategically vital ports.[95]

  • galley campaigning largely limited to summer season; winter campaigns occurred, but were calculated (or desperate) risks; only the Christian corsairs and the North African ghazis were "immune" to these limitations[96]
  • early heavy ship guns were effective against early forts and sailing ships with high profiles; galleys vulnerable to hits, but had small target area; maneuverability regardless of wind direction made them capable of disciplined formations (unlike sailing ships)[97]
  • lack of development of effective tactics for sailing ships before 1650[98]
  • 4 Genoese carracks vs "body" of Ottoman galleys off Constantinople on 20 April 1453: comparable to siege warfare at sea; attempts to board carracks under cover of bow arrows was held off by the Genoese with crossbows, hand cannon pellets and hurling large objects (to stave in galley bottoms; guns did not actually effect on outcome[99]
  • battle of Zonchio 1499: one large "command" carrack (?), galleys; two large Venetian carracks and galleys; all three large ships destroyed by Ottoman incendiaries; Ottoman huge gun on large ship sunk Venetian galley (and small "barge") outright early in battle; huge 200-lbs (ammunition weight) cannons used on both sides; gunpowder weapons employed, but not decisive on final outcome[100]

From around 1450, three major Mediterranean naval powers established a dominance over the Mediterranenan, all of which used galleys as their primary weapons at sea: the Ottomans in the east, Venice in the center and the Habsburg Empire in the west.[101] The core of their fleets were concentrated in the three major, wholly dependable naval bases in the Mediterranean: Barcelona, Venice and Constantinople.[102] 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,[103] it was the galley that was favored by he 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.[104] 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.(REF TO GUILMARTIN OR ROGER?) 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.[105]

Heavy artillery on galleys was mounted in the bow which fit conveniently with the long-standing tactical tradition of attacking head-on and 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 assault supported with heavy firepower, and could be even more effectively defended when beached stern-first.[106]

Naval warfare in the 16th century Mediterranean was largely fought on a small scale, with raiding and minor actions dominating. Only three truly major fleet engagements were actually fought in the 16th century: the battles of Prevesa in 1538, Djerba in 1560 and Lepanto in 1571. Lepanto became the last large galley battle ever, but was also one of the largest battle in terms of participants anywhere in early modern Europe before the Napoleonic Wars.[107]

On occasion, the Mediterranean powers employed galley forces for conflicts outside of 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.[108] Galleasses and galleys were part of an invasion force of over 16,000 men that 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.[109] Outside of European and Middle Eastern waters, Spain built galleys to deal with pirates and privateers in both the Caribbean and the Philippines.[110]

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.[111] WHAT ABOUT RED SEA (GUILMARTIN)?

Baltic

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.[112] 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 of the Mediterranean, and served as an auxiliary branch of the army. Very little is known about the design of Baltic galleys, except that they were overall smaller than in the Mediterranean and they were rowed by army soldiers rather than convicts or slaves.[113]

Transition to sailing ships

  • gun-armed galleys produced a "crisis in naval warfare" that led to the development of the galleon, combining ahead-firing guns (broadsides came later) with superior sailing abilities[114]
  • guns replaced men as fighting power, but could be stored (exchanging manpower for capital); sailing ships increased range dramatically, outcompeting galleys[115] KOLLA GUILMARTIN OM PRISFÖRÄNDRINGAR
  • "generalizing" of bronze ordnance in the Mediterranean (during 16th century) increased the cost of war at sea; introduction of small firearms increased not just firepower, but made military forces dependent on them more resilient to manpower losses; unlike those dependent on skill-heavy weapons like bows [116]
  • cast-iron guns, which cost one third of bronze guns, was the "death knell" of the war galley after c. 1580[117]
  • the Mediterranean ceased to be (as) profitable as a trading "theater" after c. 1600: too many conflicts made transports expensive and dangerous, great powers stalemated one another, massive pirate activity, no proper state protection or monopoly on violence; Western European merchants dealing in the Mediterranean evolved powerful defensive measures (and engaged in piracy) to deal with the harsh environment; warfare became more mobile, but predatory actions remained easier than it than to achieve "sea control strategies"[118]
  • decline of Mediterranean system of maritime war was caused by economic development and indirectly by technological development: food prices raised maintenance costs; increased number and cheapness of artillery introduced competing sailing ships; increasingly larger galleys stunted their own performance, range and amphibious capabilities (harder to beach, etc.); loss of specialist artillerist culture rendered single guns ineffective[119]
  • Bamford considers galleys to have been outclassed by sailing vessels; sails could only be beat under particular circumstances (becalmed and/or outnumbered and surrounded) and by letting their guard down; galleys were a waste of resources militarily (instead of going to sailing vessels), though good for "trade and harbor defense" and effective for projecting prestige[120]
  • the Three Basic Conflicts of the Mediterranean after 1650:[121]
    • Venice and the Ottoman Empire up to 1718 (faded in 1720s-30s)
    • Bourbon France and Habsburg Spain/Italy; ended in large part by the Bourbon overtaking of Spain in 1700
    • Christians and North African corsairs: corsairs largely replaced galleys with xebecs and light galleys, though Christian powers continued to use galleys as cruisers and on patrols
  • Spanish and French galley(?) fleets clashed in battle of Guetaria off Basque coast in 1638 (French major victory)[122]
  • Spanish waged "classical" galley warfare in by supplying troops in Tarragona in 1640[123]
  • galleys could be useful for towing damaged sailing ships out of the line (but only in a flat calm; at the battle of Malaga) (Rodger 2003: 170)
Painting of the battle of Haarlemmermeer of 1573 by Hendrick Cornelisz Vroom. Note the use of small sailing vessels and galleys on both sides.

The 16th century became the last great age of the war galley in the Mediterranean. The late 15th century saw the development of the man-of-war, the ocean-going trader and warship, beginning with the carrack, which evolved into the galleon and then into the square rigger. These warships carried advanced rigging and numerous sails that permitted tacking into the wind, and they were heavily armed with cannons. In the Mediterranean, the decline of the galley began in the early 17th century with the influx of Dutch pirates in summer, and were no answer in winter, when rough weather kept galleys on shore.[124] However, before sailing warships began carrying their primary armament along their sides (broadsides), galleys were fitted with heavy artillery pieces in the bows. This gave galleys several advantages: they could fire from a low position close to waterline; their hulls had small target areas; and they could move largely independent of adverse currents and weather conditions, outmaneuvering early types of sailing vessels in the right conditions. Though sailing ships would eventually become the dominant warships, the introduction of naval artillery actually strengthened the position of the galley's role as a warship, particularly in the Mediterranean. With the advent of heavy, long-range guns of wrought iron or bronze that could smash holes even in the heaviest of ship hulls, the galley became a highly effective gun platform. Placing one or several heavy cannon in the bows of a galley, allowed it to fire straight ahead on a very low trajectory, threatening to hole sailing ships near the waterline. This resulted in an expansion of galley navies all over Europe c. 1520-80, with a climax around 1571 with the battle of Lepanto, one of the largest naval battles ever fought.[125]

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 during the early 17th century. There they were the backbone of the warfleet and were also used for ferrying troops, supplies, horses and munitions to Spain's Italian and African possessions.[126] 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 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 were no match for the short-ranged, low-freeboard Turkish galleys.[127] The Spanish used galleys to more success in their colonial possessions in the Caribbean and the Philippines to hunt pirates[128] and were used sporadically in the Netherlands and the Bay of Biscay.[129]

  • qualitative changes in technology important to downfall of Mediterranean, but afterwards quantitative was even more important, especially the invention of cheap cast iron guns (in England 1543)[130]

17th and 18th century decline

  • galleys equipped by (private) merchants for defense of trade against piracy, etc.[131]
  • Spain was surpassed by France as the largest galley force around 1650[132]
  • galleys used mainly in the Mediterranean and Baltic (in permanent fleets); temporary use around rest of Europe and in North America (mainly in rivers, on lakes and in coastal areas)[133]
  • no large galley battles "in this period"; galleys functioned as cruisers; acting in support of sailing warships behind the line-of-battle in fleet actions, much like frigates did elsewhere[134]

For small states and principalities, galleys were more affordable than large and complex sailing warships.[135] 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 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.[136] Though there was intense rivalry between France and Spain, not a single galley battle occurred between the two great powers, and virtually no battles between other nations either.[137] During the War of the Spanish Succession, French galleys were involved in actions against Antwerp and Harwich[138], 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.[139] Despite the lack of action, the French Galley Corps received vast resources (20-25% of the French naval expenditures) during the last decades of the 17th centuries and was maintained as a functional fighting force right up until its abolishment in 1748. Its primary function became to symbolize the prestige of Louis XIV's hard-line absolutist ambitions by patrolling the Mediterranean to force ships of other states to salute the King's banner, convoying ambassadors and cardinals, and obediently participating in naval parades and royal pageantry.[140]

Stern of the Réale, the prestige galley of Louis XIV.

The French Galley Corps was fiercely defended against cutbacks by their conservative aristocratic officers corps, for whom it provided a stable existence and a comfortable livelihood.[141] Another reason that the Corps was kept alive was its usefulness as a penal institution and for suppressing and persecuting the French Protestant minority. Being a largely Catholic nation with a devotedly Catholic ruler, late 17th century France developed the method of sending both ordinary criminals and religious dissenters to serve as galley convicts, basically the equivalent of galley slaves. Protestants were often particularly poorly treated and died an early death or were forced to convert. The institution would become an infamous and hated symbol of the inhumanity of old French monarchy, especially in Protestant states.[141] As galleys began to lose their usefulness in northern waters, rivalry and a conscious distinction between oared and sailing navies became more common. In France, the administrative language of the early 17th century made a strict distinction between marine ("navy") and galères ("galleys") with the former referring exclusively to sailing ships. This separation did not disappear completely until the 1650s when modern state navies began to emerge.[142]

The last recorded battle in the Mediterranean where galleys played a significant part was at Matapan in 1717, between the Ottomans and Venice with its Christian 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, and then primarily by sailing warships. 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.[143]

The North

The Galley Subtle, one of the very few Mediterranean-style galleys employed by the English. Illustration from the Anthony Roll, c. 1546.

Oared vessels remained in use in northern waters for a long time, though in subordinate role and in particular circumstances. During the Dutch Revolt (1566-1609) against the Habsburg empire, both the Spanish and Dutch (including those who remained loyal to the Habsburgs) employed galleys in amphibious operations in shallow waters where deep-draft sailing vessels could not enter.[144] 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).[145] 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 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.[146]

Baltic revival

  • Russian buildup of galleys began in Sea of Azov; continued with defense of Gulf of Finland-acquisitions; established as offensive through conquering of Finland[147]
  • the modern Russian fleet developed from the need of amphibious attack capability in close cooperation with the army against Sweden and Ottoman Turkey[148]
  • the Russian and Swedish galley fleet formed the flank of the army when operating in the border wars[149]
  • 160 galleys built 1712-14 (130 of which raided Swedish coasts in 1719); horse galleys 1719-21; 89 galleys built 1726-30; 63 galleys built 1738-43; 40 built 1770; 86 built 1771-76; especially early Russian galleys deteriorated quickly and were likely built with cheap timber (pine, not oak) and not very well [150]
  • major clashes between the Swedish and Russian galley- and "rowing" fleets during the Great Northen War in the 1700s and 1710s (Hangö, Rilax)[151]
  • 44 Swedish galleys built 1748-49[152]
  • smaller Baltic Sea galleys adapted for small passages[153]
The second battle of Svensksund in 1790 between the Swedish and Russian navies was the last major naval battle between forces that included large numbers of galleys and other oared vessels.

In the 18th century, galleys experienced a revival in the Baltic Sea due to particular geographic conditions of the region. The extensive archipelago chain that extends from the eastern coast of central Sweden near the capital of Stockholm, via the Åland Islands and along the coast of the Gulf of Finland was ideally suited for amphibious warfare. At the other end of this chain lies Saint Petersburg, then the capital of the ascending new great power of Russia and its primary naval base in the Baltic. The thousands of rocky islets, islands with cramped inlets, shallows and sandbanks made it difficult for high sea fleets to enter these areas, which meant that shallow-draft galleys and other types of oared vessels had to provide naval support. Denmark was the first Baltic power to build classic Mediterranean-style galleys in the 1660s, though they were less useful along its areas of conflict with Sweden. Sweden and Russia began to launch galleys and various rowed vessels during the Great Northern War in the 1700s.[154]

Sweden was late in the game when it came to building an effective oared fighting fleet. During the Great Northern War the Russian fleet under Tsar Peter I developed an efficient supporting element of the army which it used to infiltrate and raid the easter Swedish coast.[155] It was not until the 1720s, after the war ended, that the Swedes realized the importance of oared vessels and began to build up a separate organization known as the archipelago fleet (skärgårdsflottan), under Gustav III officially the "Navy of the Army". The Swedish and Russian galley fleets fought in the war of 1741-43 and engaged in raiding and amphibious actions. The two forces reached their peak during the Russo-Swedish War in 1790. The last Russian galleys were constructed in 1796 and remained in service for many years, though they saw little action.[156] The last time galleys were deployed in action was when the Russian navy attacked Åbo (Turku) in 1854 as part of the Crimean War.[157] The Swedish navy still retained 27 galleys in 1809, and the last Swedish-built galley remained on the ship rolls until 1835, before it was retired at an age of 86 years.

Modern era

  • 1796, the last 20 war galleys in the world were built by Russia[158]
  • galleys were replaced with "archipelago frigates" (copied from Chapman designs), xebecs, gunboats, floating batteries built 1788-90; 1809 saw the last actual use of galleys in a fleet action anywhere in the world [159]
  • Chapman's and Ehrensvärd's collaboration led to new hybrid designs and eventually the introduction of gunboats; taking over the role of galleys[160]
  • unclear (according to Glete) situation of prestige use of galleys; oared vessels certainly still relevant and functional until the invention of practical stamships[161]
  • by 1790 only Venice, Genoa, the Papal States, Malta and Spain (minor force) had galleys left; all except Spain wiped out as states during Napoleonic Wars[162]
  • gunboats replaced galleys (and skärgårdfregatter) in 1800s[163]
  • War of the Spanish Succession, the Galley Corps shrunk from 55 (1690) to 40 (1700); after Louis XIV 26 (1716), 15 (1718-48); Corps abolished in 1748; North Africans, Order of Saint John, Papacy cut down on galleys more drastically[164]

INSERT PIC OF ANTHONY ROLL SHIPS (Antelope, Galley Subtle, etc.)

Though in decline, galleys were used in the Mediterranean by pirates and pirate-hunters alike and as inexpensive convoy escorts by merchants.


Trade

  • two types of Roman ships: galleys and merchants (Unger 1980: 34)
  • merchants were used in the navy; 500 transports for 92 warships against the Vandals in 533 (Unger 1980: 46)
  • large differences between South and North: differing hull designs, steering systems, propulsion; both had trade dominated by luxuries, but in the North it was mostly manufactured goods while South concentrated on silks and spices from Asia (South had much higher total value per unit of volume) (Unger 1980: 95-96)
  • the Western Mediterranean was less organized than the Eastern; more pirate activity, more trade in luxuries and less coastal trade; spices, silks, etc imported, slaves and "sylvan" products (and timber) exported (Unger 1980: 51)
  • cogs and hulks were used for carrying trade in the North (Unger 1980: 61-63)
  • sailing "round" ships transported bulk goods; galleys carried spices, silks, precious cloths, metals, weapons[165]
  • from the 15th century there were state owned merchant galleys, leased to the highest bidders in charter auctions; standardization of hulls (leased "bare" and empty) from 1420; 150 rowers and 20 officers and "specialists"[166]
  • Venetian state merchant galleys system eventually broke down in the 16th (?) century when faced with more enemies, especially aggressive Muslim expansion in Mediterranean[167]

In the earliest days of the galley, there was no clear distinction between galleys 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 sea-going galleys are recorded bringing back luxuries from across the Red Sea in the reign of pharaoh Hatshepsu (c. 1479-1457). Fitting rams to the bows of vessels sometime around the 8th century BC brought about distinct split in the design of warships, and set trade vessels apart, at least as the primary tools for naval warfare. The Phoenicians used galleys for transport that were less elongated, carried fewer oars and relied more on sails to propel them. 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 1:4 of sailing merchant ships and the 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.[168]

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 and 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 showing his audience a fig claimed to have 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 passanger transport and the lembus, a small-scale express carrier. Many of these designs continued to be used until the Middle Ages.[169]

After the fall of the Western Roman Empire in the early centuries AD, the Mediterranean economy collapsed. 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 mainly in the trade of luxuries, which set off their high maintenance cost.[170] In the 10th century, there was a rise in piracy which resulted in larger ships with more numerous crews built by the city-states of Italy who were emerging as the dominant sea powers at the time, including Venice, Genoa and Pisa. Inheriting Byzantine designs, the new merchant galleys were similar dromons without artillery, but 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 large merchant galleys was the upswing in Western European pilgrims traveling to the Holy Land[171]

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 rough weather.[172]

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.[173] 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 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.[174] In 1447, for instance, Florentine galleys planned to call at 14 ports on their way to and from Alexandria.[175] 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 (Mallet). These ships increased in size during this period, and were the template from which the galleass developed.

Design

  • feature of Byzantine warships essentially established by 600: larger than Roman, slower, less cargo space, larger crews, more firepower (Unger 1980: 43) 6:1 ratio, two-banked (2x25 oars per side), 40-50 x 5 m; minimum of one man per oar; 1.5 meter draught; flat bottom amidships; shields on the sides (like Vikings); no stringers, strengthened by strakes and wales; MORE TO BE GOT IF NEEDED AND SOURCE IS RELIABLE (Unger 1980: 43-45)
  • hulls need to have high (M)(length at waterline: 1/3 of displaced volume): a trireme has about 9 (and no ballast), medieval and medieval and "later war galleys" 6.5-8 (Coates 1995: 128)
  • sharp bottoms without keelsons to support the structure; transverse framing secured with dowels with nails driven through (Coates 1995: 131); hypozomata used since Hatshepsut and in ancient galleys, but of unknown design and method of tightening (Coates 1995: 132); hulls were watertight without any caulking (Coates 1995: 132)
  • ram-supporting structures were built on to the hull to take the impact of vertical or lateral motion and thereby protect the hull from penetration, weight of rams only about 0,4-2 t (Coates 1995: 133-4)
  • less expensive building technology; more fragile, but faster; after 600 came a "major step" towards skeleton construction, though not completely[176]
  • hull protection (lead sheathing) abandoned, though uses for warships in the 10th century[177]
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.

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.

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 curvature along its length) 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 sea going craft in the belief that it helped to guide the 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.[178] 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.[179] They had possibly developed a primitive type of keel, but still retained the large cables intended to prevent hogging.[180]

The design of the earliest oared vessels is mostly unknown and highly conjectural. They likely used a mortise construction, 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 ("thirty-oarers") and penteconters ("fifty-oarers") were developed from these early designs and set the standard 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 roughly halfway along the length of the hull.[181]

Antiquity

Further information: Hellenistic-era warships
The ram bow of the trireme Olympias, a modern full-scale reconstruction of a classical Greek trireme.

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 auxiliary galley from the Roman era.[182]

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.[183] Up to 170 oarsmen sat on three levels with one oar each that varied slightly in length. Two 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 or oarsmen enough leverage to complete their strokes without lowering the efficiency.[184]

A schematic of the mortise and tenon technique for shipbuilding that dominated the Mediterranean until the 7th century BC.[185]

The first dedicated war galleys fitted with rams were built with a mortise and tenon technique (see illustration), 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 watertight.[186] The ram, the primary weapon of Ancient galleys from around the 8th to the 4th century BC, was fitted onto a structure that was attached to hull rather than directly on the hull. This way galleys would not be holed if the ram was twisted off in action. It consisted of a massive projecting timber with a thick bronze casting with horizontal blades that could weigh from 400 kg up to 2 tonnes.[183]

Besides Athlit bronze rams, [187] the only other parts of ancient galleys to survive are parts of two Punic biremes off western Sicily (see Basch & Frost). These Punic galleys are estimated to have been 35 m long, 4.80 m wide, with a displacement of 120 tonnes. These biremes had evidence of an easily breakable pointed ram, more like the Assyrian image than the Athlit ram. This type of ram may have been designed to break off to prevent that the hull was breached.

Galleys were hauled out of the water whenever possible to keep them dry, light and fast and free from worm, rot and seaweed. Galleys were usually kept in ship sheds during the winter. The archaeological remains of these have left scholars with valuable clues to the dimensions of the ships themselves.[188]

Building an efficient galley posed technical problems. The faster a ship travels, the more energy it uses. Through a process of trial and error, the unireme or monoreme — a galley with one row of oars on each side — reached the peak of its development in the penteconter, about 38 m long, with 25 oarsmen on each side. It could reach 9 knots (18 km/h), only a knot or so slower than modern rowed racing-boats.

Roman era

Galleys from 4th century BC up to the time of the early Roman Empire in the 1st century AD became successively larger and heavier. Three levels of oars had proved to be the practical 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 freeboards (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.[189] 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.[190] Ptolemy IV, the Greek pharaoh of Egypt 221-205 BC is recorded as building a gigantic ship with forty rows of oarsmen, but without specification of its design. A suggested construction was that of a huge trireme catamaran with up to 14 men per oar.[191]

The size of ancient galleys, and fleets, reached their peak in ancient times with the defeat of Mark Antony by Octavian at the battle of Actium. Well-organized contenders for the power over the Mediterranean did not appear again until several centuries later, during the Roman civil wars of the 4th century, and the size of galleys decreased considerably. The huge polyremes disappeared and were replaced by triremes and liburnians, compact biremes with 25 pairs of oars that were well suited for patrol duty and chasing down pirates.[192] In the northern provinces oared patrol boats were employed to keep local tribes in check along the shores of rivers like the Rhine and the Danube.[193] As the need for large warships disappeared, the design of the trireme, the pinnacle of ancient war ship design, was forgotten. The last known reference to triremes in battle is dated to 324 at the battle of the Hellespont. In the late 5th century the Byzantine historian Zosimus declared the knowledge of how to build them to have been long since forgotten.[194]

Middle Ages

Medieval galleys like this pioneered the use of naval guns, pointing forward as a supplement to the above-waterline beak designed to break the enemies outrigger. Only in the 16th century were ships called galleys developed with many men to each oar.[195]

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.[196]

  • large northern vessels were sailed, most towed or rowed (Unger 1980: 57); Germanic ships (rowing barges) for moving men 24 meters long, similar in proportion to the dromon, clinker built, 15 pairs of oars (Unger 1980: 58)
  • Arab navies were based on Byzantine Greek model, used former Byzantine bases in Egypt and Coptic shipbuilders; qarib was the largest Arab warship, a 2-banked galley; the Arabs had less experienced sailors, likely (Unger) had larger ships to carry more troops since they were a land-focused force; flew quadrilateral lateens "short-luff dipping lug sail" (54) (Unger 1980: 53-54)
  • very little is known about Muslim galleys, assumed that they were highly similar to those used by Christians, but in general smaller and faster [197]
  • galleys of Charles I of Anjou, king of Sicily in 1275 were basically "huge rowing shells" at 10.7:1, 39x3.67m, 80 tons; designed to cut through the water rather than to ride the waves[198]
  • King Alfred in England built large rowing boats with 30 oars a side to counter threats from Vikings, up to 40 m long, reportedly "bigger, faster and higher in the water" compared to Viking vessels (Unger 1980: 80)
  • Viking ships similar in many ways to galleys, though distinct; extreme cases of 60 oars, though generally much smaller; sailed before the wind, mostly lacked any superstructures and were not armed with catapults, etc; primarily traders and people movers (Unger 1980: 82-94)
  • great galleys: lower breadth:length-ratio than warships, high bow to ride waves, higher freeboard, up to three masts with lateens (sometimes a square sail on the mainmast); rowed primarily in and out of harbors, otherwise a sailing vessel; went to Flanders, Egypt, Black Sea, etc; capable of open sea sailing; more room for provisions (or cargo/passengers);[199] after 1292 great galleys could make two round trips per year, but stuck mostly to coastal trunk routes to regularly fill up on provisions, water and "refresh" passengers ("recreation")[200]
  • 1:3 of the oars inside of the thole[201]
  • English vessels called "galleys" were "major" part of strike force: clinker-built, double-ended, single square sail, some with fighting castles in bow, stern and at mast; little actually known of design, possibly like old Viking ships, but really no conclusive evidence;[202] called "barges/balingers/barks" c. 1350-1500[203]; largely replaced by sailing ships by early 15th century, while remaining important for reconnaissance and patrol[204]

Byzantine navy

The primary warship of the Byzantine navy until the 12th century was the dromon ("runner" in medieval Greek) and other similar ship types that were evolved from the Roman liburnian. The term first appeared in the late 5th century, and was commonly used for a specific kind of war galley by the 6th century.[205] During the next few centuries, as the naval struggle with the Arabs intensified, heavier versions with two or possibly even three banks of oars evolved.[206] The main developments which differentiated the early dromons from the liburnians, and that henceforth characterized Mediterranean galleys, were the adoption of a full deck, the abandonment of rams on the bow in favor of an above-water spur, and the gradual introduction of lateen sails.[207] It's not clear why the ram disappeared, but one possibility is that it occurred because of the gradual evolution of the ancient shell-first construction method, against which rams had been designed, into the skeleton-first method, which produced a stronger and more flexible hull, less susceptible to ram attacks.[208] At least by the early 7th century, the ram's original function had been forgotten.[209]

The dromons of the 6th century were single-banked ships of probably 25 oars per side. Unlike ancient vessels the oars were no longer supported on an outrigger, but extended directly from the hull.[210] In later bireme dromons of the 9th and 10th centuries, the two oar banks were divided by the deck, with the first oar bank situated below, whilst the second oar bank was situated above deck.[211] The ship was steered by means of two quarter rudders at the stern (prymnē), which also housed a tent that covered the captain's berth.[212] A pavesade on which marines could hang their shields ran around the sides of the ship, providing some protection to the deck crew against missiles.[213] The prow featured an elevated forecastle,[214] while larger ships also had wooden castles on either side between the masts, providing archers with elevated firing platforms.[215] The bow spur was intended to ride over an enemy ship's oars, breaking them and rendering it helpless against missile fire and boarding actions.[216]

From the 12th century, the design of war galleys evolved into the form that would remain largely the same until the building of the last war galleys in the late 18th century. The length to breadth-ratio was a minimum of 8:1. A rectangular telaro, an outrigger, was added to support the oars and the rowers' benches were laid out in a diagonal herringbone pattern angled aft on either side of a central gangway, or corsia.[217] It was based on the form of the galea, the smaller Byzantine galleys, and would be known mostly by the Italian term gallia sottila, "slender galley". A second, smaller mast was added sometime in the 13th century and the number of rowers was rose from two to three rowers per bench as a standard from the late 13th to the early 14th century.[218] The gallee sottili would make up the bulk the main war fleets of every major naval power in the Mediterranean, assisted by the smaller galiotte, as well as the Christian and Muslim corsairs fleets. Ottoman galleys were very similar in design, though in general smaller, faster under sail, but slower under oars.[219] The standard size of the galley remained stable from the 14th until the early 16th century, when the introduction of naval artillery began to have effects on design and tactics.[220]

The traditional two side rudders were complemented with a stern rudder sometime after c. 1400 and eventually the side rudders disappeared altogether.[221] It was also during the 15th century that large artillery pieces were first mounted on galleys. Burgundian records from the mid 15th century describe galleys with some form of guns, but do not specify the size. The first conclusive evidence of a heavy cannon mounted on a galley comes from a woodcut depicting a Venetian galley in 1486.[222] The earliest guns were of large calibers, and were initially of wrought iron, which made them weak compared to cast bronze guns that would become standard in the 16th century. It was fixed directly on timbers in the bow facing directly forwards, a placement that would remain largely unchanged until the galley disappeared from active service in the 19th century.[223]

Early modern

  • half-galleys only common among North African corsairs[224]
  • galleasses only used by Venice until 1755[225]

(One bench on each side was typically removed to make space for platforms carrying the skiff and the stove.)

The regular galleys carried one 50-pound cannon or a 32-pound culverin at the bow as well as four lighter cannon and four swivel guns. The larger lanterns carried one heavy gun plus six 12 and 6 pound culverins and eight swivel guns.

By the start of the early modern period (c. 1500-1800), the design of galleys had been roughly the same for four centuries. A fairly standardized classification system for different sizes of galleys had also been developed by the advanced Mediterranean bureaucracies, and was based mostly on the number of benches a vessel had.[226]

  • so-called lantern galleys, usually used as command ships in action: 30 or more benches
  • galleys, the standard war vessels: 20-30 benches
  • galiots, used as cruisers or support vessels behind the lines in battles: 15-20 benches, usually with two rowers per oar)
  • fustas, similar to galiots in function, but generally smaller than galiots
  • brigantines, the smallest type of independently operating cruisers
  • fregatas, a support vessel and originally the "ship boat" of galleys
The ubiquitous bow fighting platform (rambade) of early modern galleys. This model is of a 1715 Swedish galley, somewhat smaller than the standard Mediterranean war galley, but still based on the same design.

With the introduction of guns in the bows of galleys, a specialized, permanent wooden structure (French: rambade; Italian: rambata; Spanish: arrumbada) that became standard on virtually all galleys during the early 16th century. There were some variations in the navies of different Mediterranean powers,[227] but the general layout was the same. The forward battery was covered by a wooden covering which gave gunners some protection, and functioned as both a staging area and a firing platform for soldiers.

In the mid-17th century, galleys reached what has been described as their "final form". With the exception of a few command galleys, the Mediterranean galleys would have 25-26 pairs of oars with five men per oar (c. 250 rowers). The armament consisted of one 24- or 36-pounder gun in the bows flanked by two to four 4- to 12-pounders. Light swivel guns were placed along the railings for close-quarter defense. The length-to-width ratio was 8:1, with two main masts carrying one large lateen each. One was placed in the bows, stepped slightly to the side to allow the large guns to recoil; the other was placed roughly along the center. A smaller additional mast, a "mizzen" further astern, could be raised if the need and circumstances called for it.[228] In the Baltic, galleys were generally shorter with a length-to-width ratio from 5:1 to 7:1, an adaptation to the cramped conditions of the Baltic archipelagos.[229]

  • galleys reached their "final form" in mid-17th century[230]
    • 25-26 pairs of oars with 5 men per oar (c. 250), 50-100 sailors, 50-100 soldiers: total of 400-450
    • one 24-36 pounder gun, 2-4 4-12 pounders, swivels along railings
    • 8:1 length-to-beam ratio; 2 main lateen masts with an extra ("mizzen"?) that could be raised in need
  • Swedish galleys shorter in early 18th (5:1), later around 6.5-7:1[231]
  • few instances of flagship galleys with up to 30 pairs of oars with 5-7 rowers per oar;[232] dimensions of Swedish and French "super galleys"[233]
  • centerline guns recoiled down the corsia; basically the same design for all Mediterranean galleys[234]
  • fairly small, but important differences in regional galley design[235]
    • Spain: "tactical infantry assault craft"; slower under oars, heavily manned; designed for amphibious raiding and large fleet actions
    • North Africans: galleys and galiots; "strategic raiding craft"; faster under oars to allow them to escape pirate patrols; guerilla galleys; ability to outflank fleet battle galleys
    • Venice: "heavily armed tactical attack transport": artillery platform designed for standoff actions; faster under oars, slower under sail; good for relieving besieged fortresses
    • Ottoman Turks: offensive strategic siege transport/defensive tactical craft; intended to hold off attacking relief fleets while land forces defeated the strongholds on land; fast under oars, decent sailer
  • galley "ratings" evolved in the more advanced Mediterranean bureaucracies, mainly based on the number of benches:[236]
    • galleass/great galley
    • lantern galleys - flagships (30+)
    • galleys - standard battle vessels (20+)
    • galiots - cruisers (15-20, 2 rowers per oar)
    • fustas - cruisers (smaller than galiots?)
    • brigantine - small cruisers ()
    • fregata - very small cruiser; originally a galley tender/"ship boat"
Caption goes here
  • galleys required less timber to build and were cheaper (simpler design, fewer guns), especially for small states; flexible for ambushes and amphibious operations; needed few skilled seamen; difficult for sailing ships to catch and important for catching other galleys[237]
  • galley (kitchen), where it was actually present, consisted of a clay-lined box that was positioned on one of the benches, usually on the port side[238]
  • rambade in French used for bow fighting platform from 16th century until end of galley era[239]
  • galeasses developed from the great galleys (but with more guns); used in England to a minor extent but the term was used for much smaller four-masted, broadside ships in Henry VIII's navy with unknown number of oars (oarports below guns); English also used smaller pinnaces, rowbarges[240]
  • remo di scaloccio, from scala, "ladder; staircase"[241]
  • one (main)mast regular rigging on (war) galleys until c. 1600; a temporary foremast became permanent, stepped to the side of gun recoil; a mizzen mast added in 18th, possibly already in the early 17th century[242]
  • Colbert imposed regulations on galley dimensions around 1678-79: about 185 ft long, 22 feet wide at the waterline; with 26 oars per side with 5 men per oar(69); oars for ordinary galleys were 38 ft, larger galleys had 45 ft long oars (70); one heavy 24- or 36-pounder coursier, chaser, gun with another 2-4 in smaller guns, all in the bow; swivel guns were used before but eliminated during Louis XIV since they had little use[243]
  • galleys were made more expensive the higher they were ranked (71-72); Patronne middle-large ranked ship; up to 50% more rowers in a réale, r painted white while (with three lanterns) normal French galleys were red (and had only two lanterns) (71) Pierre Puget was the most famous of galley ornamentors and it was was decorated with 109,000 livres for just cloth while a normal galley cost altogether 28,000[244]
  • for prestige purposes a galley was according to a report once built, with pre-cut timbers and 500 carpenters working in teams on one side each, caulked, tested and floated in 24 hours to impress the King[245]
  • Swedish (somewhat unsuccessful) "super-galleys" (or galleasses) used on the west coast: 48 m long, 30 pairs of oars, 500 men, 3x36-pounders[246]
  • half-galleys: 22 m, with 16-18 pairs of oars, armed with 6-pounders used, but only for reconnaissance[247]
  • 29 galärer i svenska flottan 1788; 20-22 årpar, 5 man per åra, 1x24p + 2x6p kanoner i fören, ca 250 mans besättning; främst som trupptransporter i skärgården[248]

Construction

Building an efficient galley posed technical problems. The faster a ship travels, the more energy it uses. Through a process of trial and error, the unireme or monoreme — a galley with one row of oars on each side — reached the peak of its development in the penteconter, about 38 m long, with 25 oarsmen on each side. It could reach 9 knots (18 km/h), only a knot or so slower than modern rowed racing-boats. To maintain the strength of such a long craft tensioned cables were fitted from the bow to the stern; this provided rigidity without adding weight. This technique kept the joints of the hull under compression - tighter, and more waterproof. The tension in the modern trireme replica anti-hogging cables was 300 kN (Morrison p198).

Propulsion

Modern reconstruction of a cross-section of an ancient Greek trireme, showing the three levels of rowers.

Throughout their long history, galleys always relied on rowing as the primary means of propulsion. The arrangement of rowers during the 1st millennium BC developed gradually from a single row up to three rows. Anything above three levels was physically impracticable. Initially, there was only one rower per oar, but the number steadily increased, with a wide variety of arrangements. The ancient classification of galleys was based on the numbers of rows or rowers plying the oars. Today it is best known by modernized Latin terminology based on numerals with the ending "-reme" from rēmus, "oar". A trireme was a ship with three rows of oarsmen, a quadrireme five, a hexareme six, and so forth. There were warships that ran up to ten or eleven rows, but anything above six was rare. A huge forty-rowed ship was built during the reign of Ptolemy IV in Egypt. Little is known about it's design, but it's assumed to have been an impractical prestige vessel.

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 fleets 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.[249]

A schematic of the mortise and tenon technique for shipbuilding that dominated the Mediterranean until the 7th century BC.[250]

Ancient rowing was done in a fixed seated position, the most effective rowing position, with rowers facing the stern. A sliding stroke, which would allow for use of the legs as well as the arms, has been suggested by earlier historians, but no conclusive historical evidence has supported it. Practical experiments with the full-scale reconstruction Olympias has shown that not enough space was available, and moving or rolling seats would have been very difficult to construct with ancient methods.[251] Rowers in ancient war galleys sat in an enclosed space below the SHIP SIDES with little view of their surroundings. The rowing was therefore managed by supervisors, and coordinated with pipes or rhythmic chants.[252] Galleys could be highly maneuverable, turning on their axis or even rowing backwards, which required a skilled and experienced crew.[253] In galleys with an arrangement of three men per oar, all would be seated, but the rower furthest inboard would perform a stand-and-sit stroke, getting up on his feet to push the oar forwards and sitting down again to pull it back.[254]

The faster a vessel travels, the more energy it uses and in order to reach higher speeds requires energy which a human-powered vessel is incapable of producing. Oar system generate very low amounts of energy for propulsion (only about 70 W per rower)and the upper limit for rowing in a fixed position lies around 10 knots.(Coates 1995: pp. 127-28) Ancient war galleys of the kind used in Classical Greece are by modern historians considered to be the most efficient of all galleys. A full-scale replica of a 5th century trireme, the Olympias was built in 198? and was used for a series of sea trials to test its performance. It showed that a cruising speed of 7-8 knots that could be maintained for a whole day would have been possible. Sprinting speeds of up to 10 knots were possible, but could only be maintained for a few minutes and took a heavy toll on the crew.(Shaw 1995: 169) Ancient galleys were built very light and the original triremes are assumed to never have been surpassed in speed (Shaw, "Oar Mechanics and Oar Power in Ancient Galleys" in Gardiner 1995: p. 163). Medieval galleys are believed to have been considerably slower since they were not built with ramming tactics in mind. A cruising speed of no more than 2-3 knots has been estimated. A sprint speed of up to 7 knots that could be maintained for no more than 20-30 minutes, but also risked exhausting the rowers completely. (GUILMARTIN? Age of the Galley?)

Rowing in headwinds or even moderately rough weather was difficult as well as exhausting.[255] In high seas, ancient galleys would set up masts with sails to run before the wind. They were highly susceptible to high waves, and could become unmanageable if the rowing frame (apostis) came awash. Ancient and medieval galleys are assumed to sailed only with the wind more or less astern with a top speed of 8-9 knots under fair conditions.[256] In ancient galleys, most of the power came from a singe square sail on a mast rigged a little forwards of the center of the ship with a smaller mast carrying a head sail in the bow. Triangular lateen sails are attested from the 2nd century AD, and gradually became the sail of choice in galleys. By the 9th century it was firmly established as part of the standard galley rig. Though more complicated and requiring a larger crew to handle than a square sail rig, it proved practical in the heavily-manned galleys.[257] Unlike a square sail rig, the spar does not pivot around the mast. To change tack, the entire spar, often much longer than the mast itself, had to be lifted over the mast and over to the other side, a complicated and time-consuming maneuver.[258]

In the latter half of the Middle Ages, large war galleys had three rows of oars, but with all oars on the same level in sets of three to a bench. This layout of oars is best known under the medieval Italian term alla sensile, "in the simple fashion", and relied on skilled oarsmen.

  • change recorded around 1300 (same source as Pryor) from two rowers per bench to three[259]

In the 16th century, galley fleet as well as the size of individual vessels increase in size, which required more rowers. The number of benches could not be increased without elongating the ships too much, and more than three oars per bench was not possible. The demand for more rowers also meant that the relatively limited number of skilled oarsmen could was not nearly enough to man all galleys. It became increasingly common to man galleys with convicts or slaves, which required a simpler method of rowing. This resulted in the introduction of a scaloccio rowing, "MEANING WHAT?". A single, much larger oar was used for each bench, with several rowers working it together. The number of oarsmen per oar rose from three up to five or even seven in some very large command galleys.[260]

  • alla sensile means "in the simple fashion"[261]


  • change from alla sensile to a scaloccio around 1550, allowing larger galleys; lantern galleys with 36 pairs of oars with up to 420 rowers appeared[262]
  • small boats tack easily with a lateen rigs (and carracks in general), but with large galleys (esp. great galleys) with yards up to 45 m, 7 t more complicated business[263]
  • 10 knots is the upper limit for fixed seat rowing (Coates 1995: 127); "oar systems have very low [energy] densities", 70 W per man and therefore little room for superfluous weight (Coates 1995: 128)
  • theoretical speeds: sprinting for 5 minutes, 10 knots; cruising speed, 7,5-8 knots (for a whole day); (Shaw 1995: 169)
  • ancient triremes were (likely) never surpassed in speed (Shaw, "Oar Mechanics and Oar Power in Ancient Galleys" in Gardiner 1995: 163)
  • sitting down is the most effective rowing position (Shaw 1995: 168)
  • with a SIX 3x2; with a FIVE 2x2 + 1x1; no ship had more than three levels because it was physically impracticable; no proof of moving (rolling) seats; (Shaw 1995: 168-169)
  • few rowers in ancient trireme could see much and orders by a supervisor was essential, done with chants ryppapai/o opop and pipes; trials proved that certain rythmic melodies conveyed by loudspeakers or collective humming worked[264]
  • sliding stroke is possible, but impractical; inconclusive evidence that ancient rowers were advised to use their legs, but it could just be used for a fixed rowing technique; trials with Olympias were not able to produce a practical use of sliding[265]
  • rowing backwards could be done in trials by rowing backwards with some skill required (max 3 knots) or simply turning around (5 knots)[266]
  • with three men per oar, all might have sat, but the 1 (furthest out) would have done a stand- and-sit stroke; with more than three all would have done a sit-and-stand stroke v
  • rowing in rough seas or a headwind is exhausting[267]
  • difficult to row even in moderate seas (Shaw 1995: 166-7)
  • alla sensile means "in the simple fashion"[268]
  • change recorded around 1300 (same source as Pryor) from two rowers per bench to three[269]
  • change from alla sensile to a scaloccio around 1550, allowing larger galleys; lantern galleys with 36 pairs of oars with up to 420 rowers appeared[270]

Performance

  • galleys highly susceptible to swamping in open seas, in combination with small stores made for limited range[271]
  • water among the biggest problems for galley range; at 0.5 gallon per man (a low estimate by Guilmartin (p. 63), agreed by Pryor) stores would not last long; medieval galleys carried 3000-5700 liters (800-1600 gallons);[272] normal water supply of maximum 2-3 weeks, less on merchant galleys which could prioritize cargo or passengers[273]
  • Dotson considers the need to be 4 liters per man, reducing the cruising range by half[274]
  • sailing season highly limited in Mediterranean: late Spring to early Autumn from antiquity to 15th century; possible, but still largely restricted winter travel rest of year after 15th; coastal trunk routes important to keep close to familiar shores, islands (Balearics, Crete, Corsica/Sardinia) and harbors; all battles clustered around these coasts and strategic bases; wind favored travel from west to east and north to south, opposite direction always slower[275]
  • Northern Europe has much more unfriendly waters (and to galleys): dangerous, rocky, gradually shallow shores (unlike sharply deep Mediterranean); difficult tides; violent Atlantic storms; plenty of easy Mediterranean sandy beaches for beaching ships; not until invention of advanced rigging did the North get “fighting chance” to overcome difficulties with sailing ships for both war and trade[276]
  • 17th century galleys could carry two months of (bread) rations (50 tons) at the most, but no wine, and that was considered unpractical due to hampered performance; required support fleets to rendezvous with[277]

Crew

  • galleys very filthy due to heavy over-crowding; so much that it was believed that it sped up decay by rotting the timbers[278]
  • great stench of galleys reputed to be origin for use of perfume by upper-class officers [279]
  • 3000 oarsmen required just for the Squadron of Spain under Philip IV; despised as convicts and forzados or Muslim galley slaves (their percentage increased until the 1610s) were driven hard, but were still considered valuable and measures were taken to not allow them to die; lesser crimes were penalized with galley duty to fill gaps; gypsies condemned to row; French POWs employed; sentences prolonged (illegally) to avoid loss of manpower; gypsies also used in French galley force[280]

Rowers

  • ventilation essential (as proven by the Olympias experiment) and lack of it is likely to lead to decline in performance; requires louvres on the sides and on top (at least until just before battle)[281]
  • water requirements at 2.8 t for 400 men (7 l/man + 2 l for other needs)[282]

Contrary to the popular image of rowers chained to the oars, conveyed by movies such as Ben Hur, there is no evidence that ancient navies ever made use of condemned criminals or slaves as oarsmen, with the possible exception of Ptolemaic Egypt.[283]

The literary evidence indicates that Greek and Roman navies generally preferred to rely on freemen to man their galleys.[284][285] Slaves were put at the oars only in exceptional circumstances. In some cases, these people were given freedom thereafter, while in others they began their service aboard as free men.

In early modern times however, it became the custom among the Mediterranean powers to sentence condemned criminals to row in the war-galleys of the state, initially only in time of war. Galley-slaves lived in very unhealthy conditions, and many died even if sentenced only for a few years - and provided they escaped shipwreck and death in battle in the first place.

Prisoners of war were often used as galley-slaves. Several well-known historical figures served time as galley slaves after being captured by the enemy, the Ottoman corsair and admiral Turgut Reis, the Maltese Grand Master Jean Parisot de la Valette, and the author of Don Quijote, Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, among them.

Galleys slaves and convicts

  • Roman merchants were manned with slaves (even masters?), but very seldom galleys (Unger 1980: 36)
  • "After the Bastille, the galleys were the greatest horror of the old regime." Albert Savine (1909)[286]; the worst conditions were for condemned Protestants, a small minority[287]
  • relatively lenient sentence compared to contemporary harsh bodily punishment and prisons that forced captors to pay for everything (while galley oarsmen were fed and under strict, but reasonable regulations)[288]
  • semi-"forced" wine-selling on French 17th century galleys with taverns on board run by comites (NCOs resonsible for rowers), a tradition going back to the Middle Ages[289]
  • 350-500 men in 170x40-45 feet[290]
  • rations of 2 lbs of bread or biscuit, bean soup, oil or lard, some wine[291]
  • rowing was difficult, requiring strength, rhythm, cooperation; coordinated with oral commands, drums and physical abuse by supervisors; accidents could lead to severe injuries or even death; frequent exercising was done, even in winter[292]; high mortality, few survived more than a few years; some 20-30 years "or more"[293]
  • the term galérien was used as a general term for convicts long after they were forced to serve in galleys, even after 1815[294]
  • two galley-convicted Protestants were released in 1775 after serving for 30 years each, at the ages of 58 and 72[295]
  • Spain was forced to use mostly servile rowers; Ottomans had the organization/structure in place to mix slaves with volunteers;[296] Venice had mostly free rowers (medieval tradition, alla sensile); Knights of Saint John used slaves extensively, as did Spanish (Habsburg) Italy, Papal State, Florence and Genoa; ghazis relied almost entirely on (Christian) slaves[297]

Contrary to the popular image of rowers chained to the oars, conveyed by movies such as Ben Hur, there is no evidence that ancient navies ever made use of condemned criminals or slaves as oarsmen, with the possible exception of Ptolemaic Egypt.[298]

The literary evidence indicates that Greek and Roman navies generally preferred to rely on freemen to man their galleys.[299] [285] Slaves were put at the oars only in exceptional circumstances. In some cases, these people were given freedom thereafter, while in others they began their service aboard as free men.

In early modern times however, it became the custom among the Mediterranean powers to sentence condemned criminals to row in the war-galleys of the state, initially only in time of war. Galley-slaves lived in very unhealthy conditions, and many died even if sentenced only for a few years - and provided they escaped shipwreck and death in battle in the first place.

Prisoners of war were often used as galley-slaves. Several well-known historical figures served time as galley slaves after being captured by the enemy, the Ottoman corsair and admiral Turgut Reis, the Maltese Grand Master Jean Parisot de la Valette, and the author of Don Quijote, Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, among them.

Piracy

  • an English purpose-built galley with fifty oars [small galley or galley-frigate?] for pirate hunting stationed at Jamaica from 1683[300]
  • Caribbean pirate vessels with oars regularly outran English pirate hunters; lack of sufficient numbers of oar-equipped sloops to run down pirates effectively up to at least the 1720s[301]
  • galleys built in Caribbean by Spanish to replace auxiliary galleon (with oars) force to protect against pirates/privateers; for a short time resulted in a system very like the Mediterranean; replaced by larger galleons 1583/84[302]
  • Barbary corsairs out of Algiers, Tunis, Tripoli, Morocco (and Morea); fought as holy warriors nominally under Ottoman "suzerainty", Christian galley slaves acquired through slave raids; assisted by Western renegades who served as experts, crewmen, gunners, etc. (some even converted); Knights of Saint Stephen operated out of Leghorn (Legorno?), Knights of Saint John out of Malta, both almost exact opposites of Muslim corsairs; Christian corsairs were manned by 30 or so knights, "paid soldiers" (mercenaries?; p. 47), crew and rowing crew of Muslim slaves, Christian convicts and buonavoglie, "free but normally desperate men who rowed unchained and were regarded as some protection against mutiny by the slaves" (p. 47)[303]
  • "mirror image of maritime predation, two businesslike fleets of plunderers set against each other and against the enemies of their faith[s]";[304] both requires/resulted in a complex and vast economic system sustained by piracy and slave raiding;[305] a "massive, multinational protection racket" (recent description in the The Times)[306]
  • typical Sallee sailing vessels were almost always equipped with oars and were lightly armed, heavily manned and very fast (fast enough for French admiral Tourville to believe that it took a Sallee prize sold into naval service to catch another Sallee ship)[307]
  • Barbary piracy was upheld despite lack [or shrinking] profits[308]
  • Christian corsairs finally disbanded by Napoleon in 1798 (after seven centuries of crusading)[309]
  • though less romanticized and less famous, Mediterranean corsairs equaled or outnumbered Atlantic and Caribbean (European) pirates[310]
  • an English purpose-built galley with fifty oars [small galley or galley-frigate?] for pirate hunting stationed at Jamaica from 1683[311]
  • Caribbean pirate vessels with oars regularly outran English pirate hunters; lack of sufficient numbers of oar-equipped sloops to run down pirates effectively up to at least the 1720s[312]
  • galleys built in Caribbean by Spanish to replace auxiliary galleon (with oars) force to protect against pirates/privateers; for a short time resulted in a system very like the Mediterranean; replaced by larger galleons 1583/84[313]
  • ghazis "resembled" Knights of Saint John[314]

Galleys had likely been employed for piracy in the Mediterranean since early Antiquity, and the predatory activities intensified after the collapse of the Roman Empire. The eastern Mediterranean became a kind of no man's land in the 9th century, located in the middle of the rivalry between the Byzantines and Muslim states. The island of Crete, as a Muslim emirate served as a major base for medieval pirates until it was re-captured by the Byzantines in 960.[315] The Western Mediterranean in the early Middle Ages lacked influence from any major powers, making it even less regulate and prone to piracy, with most of the trade being in more expensive goods (spices, silks, slaves, etc.) in well-defended merchant galleys.[316]

Though less romanticized and less famous than Atlantic and Caribbean pirates, the corsairs Mediterranean equaled or outnumbered them at any given point in history.[317] Mediterranean piracy was conducted almost entirely with galleys until the mid-17th century, when they were gradually replaced with highly maneuverable sailing vessels such as xebecs and brigantines. They were, however, of a smaller type than battle galleys, often referred to as galiots or fustas.[318] Pirate galleys were small, nimble, lightly armed, but often heavily manned in order to overwhelm the often minimal crews of merchant ships. In general, pirate craft were extremely difficult for patrolling craft to actually hunt down and capture. Anne Hilarion de Tourville, a French admiral of the 17th century, believed that the only way to run down raiders from the infamous corsair Moroccan port of Salé was by using a captured pirate vessel of the same type.[319] Using oared vessels to combat pirates was common, and was even practiced by the major powers in the Caribbean. Purpose-built galleys (or hybrid sailing vessels) were built by the English in Jamaica in 1683[320] and by the Spanish in the late 16th century.[321] Specially-built sailing frigates with oar-ports on the lower decks, like the James Galley and Charles Galley, and oar-equipped sloops proved highly useful for pirate hunting, though they were not built in sufficient numbers to check piracy until the 1720s.[322]

The expansion of Muslim power through the Ottoman conquest of large parts of the eastern Mediterraneanin the 15th and 16th century resulted in extensive piracy on sea trading. The so-called Barbary corsairs began to operate out of Algiers, Tunis, Tripoli, Morocco and Morea (modern-day Greece) around 1500, preying primarily on the shipping of Christian powers, including massive slave raids on land as well as at sea. They were nominally under Ottoman suzerainty, but had considerable independence to prey on the enemies of Islam. The Muslim corsairs were technically often privateers with support from legitimate, though highly belligerent, states. But they also considered themselves as holy Muslim warriors, or ghazis,[323] carrying on the tradition of fighting the incursion of Western Christians that had begun with the First Crusade late in the 11th century.[324] The Barbary corsairs had a direct Christian counterpart in the military order of the Knights of Saint John that operated out of Rhodes (Malta after 15??), though they were less numerous and took fewer slaves. Both sides waged war against the respective enemies of their faith, and both used galleys as their primary weapons. Both sides also used captured or bought galley slaves to man the oars of their ships; the Muslims relying mostly on captured Christians, the Christians using a mix of Muslim slaves, Christian convicts and a small contingency of buonavoglie, free men who out of desperation or poverty had taken to rowing.[325] The historian Peter Earle has described the two sides of the conflict as "mirror image[s] of maritime predation, two businesslike fleets of plunderers set against each other"[326]. This conflict of faith in the form of privateering, piracy and slave raiding generated a complex system that was upheld/financed/operated on the trade in plunder and slaves that was generated from a low-intensive conflict, as well as the need for protection from violence. The system has been described as a "massive, multinational protection racket".[327], the Christian side of which was not ended until 1798 in the Napoleonic Wars. The Barbary corsairs were finally quelled as late as the 1830s, effectively ending the last vestiges of counter-crusading.[328]

Strategy

  • "inverse relationship between a galley fleet's size and its radius of action"[329]
  • Viking tactics were hand-to-hand fighting; common to form defensive formations by lashing ships together side by side; attacks would be at the flanks with both sides feeding in fresh troops from other ships, including smaller craft; leader ships would often have their (larger) bows in front of others to be the first to engage in battle[330]

As floating siege batteries, galleys battered down fort and castle walls quickly at the same time as they could land troop to defeat their garrisons. With an appropriate base and a supporting supply train, they could conduct raids and invasions in a strategic radius of some 3,200 km (2,000 mi).[331] Unlike sailing vessels, the galley themselves were comparatively cheap and therefore expendable. The administrative and financial problem was not in producing enough hulls, but to supply the manpower to row and fight them, both in terms of quantity and quality, and to acquire the extremely expensive artillery to arm them. Before the 1580s, before a sizable arsenal had begun to accumulate, and before the invention of cheaper cast-iron guns, cannons were made from bronze and were quite rare. It was the personnel organizations and administrative structures, as well as the gun arsenals, that were the primary strategic resources during this time, not the galley fleet themselves. In contrast, sailing ship fleets consisted from quite early on of highly complex and expensive vessels with large amounts of artillery with temporary, and relatively more expendable crews.[332]

Tactics

In the earliest times of naval warfare boarding was the only means of deciding a naval engagement, but little to nothing is known about the tactics involved. In the first recorded naval battle in history, the battle of the Delta, the forces of Egyptian Pharaoh Ramesses III won a decisive victory over a force made up of the enigmatic group known as the Sea Peoples. As shown in commemorative reliefs of the battle, Egyptian archers on ships and the nearby shores of the Nile rain down arrows on the enemy ships. At the same time Egyptian galleys engage in boarding action and capsize the ships of the Sea Peoples with ropes attached to grappling hooks thrown into the rigging.[333]

A schematic reconstruction of a defensive circle of galleys seen from above.

Around the 8th century BC, ramming began to be employed as war galleys were equipped with heavy bronze rams. Records of the Persian Wars in the early 5th century BC by the Ancient historian Herodotus (c. 484-25 BC) show that by this time ramming tactics had evolved among the Greeks. The formations could either be in columns in line ahead, one ship following the next, or in a line abreast, with the ships side by side, depending on the tactical situation and the surrounding geography. There were two primary methods for attack: by breaking through the enemy formation (diekplous) or by outflanking it (periplous). The diekplous involved a concentrated charge in line ahead so as to break a hole in the enemy line, allowing galleys to break through and then wheel to attack the enemy line from behind. The periplous involved outflanking or encircling the enemy so as to attack them in the vulnerable rear or side by line abreast.[334] If one side knew that it had slower ships, a common tactic was to form a circle with the bows pointing outwards, thereby avoiding being outflanked. At a given signal, the circle could then fan out in all directions, trying to pick off individual enemy ships. To counter this formation, the attacking side would rapidly circle, feigning attacks in order to find gaps in the formation to exploit.[335]

Ramming itself was done by smashing into the rear or side of an enemy ship, punching a hole in the planking. This did not actually sink an ancient galley unless it was heavily laden with cargo and stores. With a normal load, it was buoyant enough to float even with a breached hull. It could also maneuver for some time as long as the oarsmen were not incapacitated, but would gradually lose mobility and become unstable as it flooded. The winning side would then attempt to tow away the swamped hulks as prizes. Breaking the enemy's oars was another way of rendering ships immobile, rendering them into easier targets. If ramming was not possible or successful, the on-board complement of soldiers would attempt to board and capture the enemy vessel by attaching to it with grappling irons. Accompanied by missile fire, either with bow and arrow or javelins. Trying to set the enemy ship on fire by hurling incendiary missiles or by pouring the content of fire pots attached to long handles is thought to have been used, especially since smoke below decks would easily disable rowers.[336]

The speed necessary for a successful impact depended on the angle of attack; the greater the angle, the lesser the speed required. At 60 degrees, 4 knots was enough to penetrate the hull, but this increased to 8 knots at 30 degrees. If the target for some reason was in motion towards the attacker, less speed was required, especially if the hit came amidships. War galleys gradually began to develop heavier hulls with reinforcing beams at the waterline, where a ram would most likely hit. There are records of a counter-tactic to this used by Rhodian ship commanders where they would angle down their bows to hit the enemy below the reinforced waterline belt. Besides ramming, breaking enemy oars was also a way to impede mobility and make it easier to drive home a successful ramming attack.[337]

Despite the attempts to counter increasingly heavy ships, ramming tactics were superseded in the last centuries BC by the Macedonians and Romans who were primarily land-based powers. Hand-to-hand fighting with large complements of heavy infantry supported by ship-borne catapults dominated the fighting style during the Roman era, a move that was accompanied by the conversion to heavier ships with larger rowing complements and more men per oar. Though effectively lowering mobility, it meant that less skill was required from individual oarsmen. Fleets thereby became less dependent on rowers with a lifetime of experience at the oar.[71]

The Byzantine fleet repels the Rus' attack on Constantinople in 941. The Byzantine dromons are rolling over the Rus' vessels and smashing their oars with their spurs.

Middle Ages

By late antiquity, in the 1st centuries AD, ramming tactics had completely disappeared along with the knowledge of the original trireme and its high speed and mobility. The ram was replaced by a long spur in the bow that was designed to break oars and to act as a boarding platform for storming enemy ship. The only remaining examples of ramming tactics was passing references to attempts to collide with ships in order to roll it over on its side.[338]

Byzantine ship attacking with Greek fire. Madrid Skylitzes manuscript, 11th century.

With the collapse of the unified Roman empire came the revival of large fleet actions. The Byzantine navy, the largest Mediterranean war fleet throughout most of the early Middle Ages, employed crescent formations with the flagship in the center and the heavier ships at the horns of the formation, in order to turn the enemy's flanks. Similar tactics are believed to have been employed by the Arab fleets they frequently fought from th 7th century onwards. Once the fleets were close enough, exchanges of missiles began, ranging from combustible projectiles to arrows, caltrops and javelins. The primary aim was not to sink ships, but to deplete the ranks of the enemy crews before the boarding commenced, which usually decided the outcome. Once the enemy was judged to have been sufficiently reduced, ships grappled each other, and the marines and upper bank oarsmen boarded the enemy vessel and engaged in hand-to-hand combat. On Byzantine galleys, the brunt of the fighting was done by heavily armed and armored troops called hoplites or kataphraktoi. These would attempt to stab the rowers through the oarports to reduce mobility, and then join the melée. If boarding was not deemed advantegous, the enemy ship could be pushed away with poles. The Byzantines were also the first to employ Greek fire, a highly effective incendiary liquid, as a naval weapon. It could be fired through a metal tube, or siphon mounted in the bows, similar to a modern flame thrower. The properties of Greek fire were close to that of napalm and was a key to several major Byzantine victories. By 835, the weapon had spread to the Arabs, who equipped harraqas, "fireships", with it.[338]

Later medieval navies continued to use similar tactics, with the line abreast formation as standard. As galleys were intended to be fought from the bows, and were at their weakest along the sides, especially in the middle. The crescent formation continued to be used throughout the Middle Ages as a tactic intended to allow the wings of the fleet to crash their bows straight into the sides of the enemy ships at the edge of the formation.[339]

Early modern

  • early modern galleys could move 200 yards in one minute, less time than it took to reload the main guns; fire was held until the last possible moment, similar to infantry tactics with early firearms; often fired with "scatter shot" to maximize death and injury to enemy crew[340]
  • line abreast formations moved at most around 2-3 knots (collectively) to hold the formations together; maximum of about 65 galleys in the center and 53-54 on the wings;[341] maximum dash speed of about 7 knots for at most 20 minutes (before rowers became tired to the point of exhaustion)[342]
  • advanced signaling systems in place in the 16th century Mediterranean, thanks to old traditions and well-developed organizations[343]
  • beaching was done stern first, pointing bow guns out; allowed rowers and crew to escape safely if the galley was threatened, leaving only soldiers and fighting men[344]
  • at Prevesa in 1538, it took a whole day to move a galley fleet 20 miles (out of a small gap?)[345]
  • control of the nearby shore was critical in a galley battle, making them highly amphibious weapons of war[346]
  • forward offensive power of galleys accentuated by guns, tactics remained much the same (but with some stand-off capabilities)[347]
  • medieval naval operation were auxiliary to land warfare; transporting armies, supporting army maneuvers; galleys were manned by soldiers who fought with army tactics[348]
Contemporary depiction of the battle of Lepanto in 1571 that shows the strict formations of the opposing fleets. Fresco in the Gallery of Maps in Vatican Museum.

In large-scale galley engagements tactics remained essentially the same until the end of the 16th century. Cannons and small firearms were introduced around 14th century, but did not have any immediate effect on tactics; the same basic crescent formation in line abreast that was employed at at the battle of Lepanto in 1571 as was used by the Byzantine fleet almost a millennium earlier.[349] Artillery was still quite expensive, scarce and not very effective. The galley therefore remained the most effective warship in the Mediterranean since it was the type of vessel that could most effective in boarding actions and in pulling off amphibious operations, particularly against seaside forts that had still not been adapted to heavy artillery.[350] Artillery on galleys was initially not used primarily as a long-range standoff weapon since the distance at which early cannons were effective, c. 500 m (1600 ft), could be covered by any galley in about two minutes, much faster than they could be reloaded.[351]

The estimated average speed of Renaissance-era galleys was fairly low, only 3 to 4 knots, and even lower, about 2 knots, when holding formation. Short speed bursts of up to 7 knots were possible for periods of no more than 20 minutes, but only at the expense of driving the rowers to the limit of their endurance and risking their exhaustion. This made galley actions relatively slow affairs, especially when they involved fleets of 100 galleys or more.[352] The sides and especially the rear, the command center, was the weak points of a galley, and was the preferred target of any attacker. Unless one side managed to outmaneuver the other, battle would be met with ships crashing into each other head on. Once the fighting began with galleys locking on to one another bow to bow, the fighting would be over the front line ships. Unless one was captured by a boarding party, fresh troops could be fed into the fight from reserve vessels in the rear.[353] The armament of 15th and 16th century galleys usually held their fire until the last possible moment and unleashed just before impact to achieve maximum amount of damage before the melee began. The effect of this could often be quite dramatic, as exemplified by an account from 1528 where a galley of Genoese commander Antonio Doria instantly killed 40 men on board Sicilian Don Hugo de Moncada in single volley from a basilisk, two demi-cannons and four smaller guns that were all mounted in the bows.[354]

Other uses?

  • French galleys defended by conservative "friends" despite being criticized as expensive, inefficient and burdened by the reputation as being a tool of the authority to force religious obedience as well as an excuse for keeping slaves[355]
  • Louis XIV took charge of the galley fleet and made it a state enterprise, rather than a private or mercenary business[356]
  • the French navy was the biggest consumer of construction material in late 17th century[357]
  • "embarrassing failure" of reconstruction of a Roman trireme for Napoleon III in 1860-61; too heavily built, oars too long and of different lengths; target practice and sunk by a torpedo[358]
  • writers in 5th to 16th centuries attempted to explain triremes in their own terms, failing in the process and producing images of impossible constructions due to a lack of understanding of the oar system[359]
  • galleys could "pay" for themselves by hiring out (forced) rowers as laborers out of the patrolling season; very timber efficient in a Mediterranean context of scarcity; required little (very expensive) ordnance in comparison with sailing ships[360]
  • sailing warships "almost never" caught galleys in 16th and 17th centuries that had opportunity to escape[361]
  • galleys associated with slavery, cruelty, "arbitrary authority", though the most cruelly treated Protestants were only a "notorious minority"[362]

Religious/ceremonial, prestige

The Galley Subtle, one of the very few Mediterranean-style galleys employed by the English. This illustration is from the Anthony Roll (c. 1546) and was intended as its centerpiece.

In early modern Europe, galleys held a level of prestige that sailing vessels did not enjoy. Galleys had from an early stage been commanded by the leaders of land forces, and fought with tactics adapted from land warfare. As such, they enjoyed the prestige associated with land battles, the ultimate achievement of a high-standing noble or king. In the Baltic, the Swedish king Gustav Vasa, in effect the founder of the independent modern Swedish state, showed particular interest in galleys, as was befitting a Renaissance prince. Whenever traveling by sea, Gustav, the court, royal bureaucrats and the royal bodyguard would always travel on galleys.[363] Around the same time, English king Henry VIII had high ambitions to live up to the reputation of the omnipotent Renaissance ruler and also had a few Mediterranean-style galleys built (and even manned them with slaves), though the English navy relied mostly on sailing ships at the time.[364]

The martial prestige of galleys was combined with the propaganda of the "Sun King", Louis XIV of France, that was put to use int the French Galley Corps. This created a tool and symbol of royal authority in the Mediterranean that did very little fighting, but functioned as a UTSKOTT of Louis' absolutist ambitions. The French galleys patrolled the Mediterranean, forcing ships of other states to salute the King's banner, convoying ambassadors and cardinals, and obediently participating in naval parades and royal pageantry.[365] Another function of the Galley Corps was to serve as a prison system for convicts, and as a feared punishment for religious and political dissenters. French Protestants were particularly ill-treated when sentenced to the galleys, making them an infamous penal institution, though the Protestant condemned to galley service were never more than a small minority.[141]

Galleys were used for purely ceremonial purposes by many rulers and states. The most famous example is the bucentaur of the Venetian Republic, a huge, richly ornamented galley which was used to carry the ruling doge on every Ascension Day to perform a ceremonial wedding between Venice and the sea.


  • early modern states used grand galleys as symbols of power, prestige and symbols of state power: bucentoro, La Réale and Kadirga (see below)
  • galleys were more closely associated with land warfare and land tactics; prestige of land warfare was transferred to galleys, which were seen as "the supreme symbol of royal power [...] derived from its intimate association with armies, and consequently with princes" [366]
  • the French Galley Corps was a "tool of royal authority" used to position Louis XIV against the Pope as a crusading force officered by the Knights of Saint John (with double allegiance to the Vatican); fighting "infidels" and punishing Protestant heretics[367]

Research

Archaeology

Surviving vessels

The naval museum in Istanbul contains the galley Kadırga (Turkish for "galley"), dating from the reign of Mehmed IV (1648–1687). It was the personal galley of the sultan, and remained in service until 1839. Kadırga is presumably the only surviving galley in the world, albeit without its masts. It is 37 m long, 5.7 m wide, has a draught of about 2 m, weighs about 140 tons, and has 48 oars that were powered by 144 oarsmen.

A 1971 reconstruction of the Real, the flagship of Don Juan de Austria in the Battle of Lepanto 1571, is in the Museu Marítim in Barcelona. The ship was 60 m long and 6.2 m wide, had a draught of 2.1 m, weighing 239 tons empty, was propelled by 290 rowers, and carried about 400 crew and fighting soldiers at Lepanto. She was substantially larger than the typical galleys of her time.

A group called "The Trireme Trust" operates, in conjunction with the Greek Navy, a reconstruction of an ancient Greek Trireme, the Olympias.[368]

Notes

  1. ^ Casson (1991), pp. 13–14
  2. ^ Casson (1991), pp. 19–20
  3. ^ Casson (1991), p. 28
  4. ^ Casson (1991), p. 29
  5. ^ Casson (1991), p. 30
  6. ^ Casson (1991), p. 31
  7. ^ Casson (1991), pp. 34–35
  8. ^ Casson (1991), pp. 36–38
  9. ^ Casson (1991), pp. 38–39
  10. ^ Casson (1991), p. 40
  11. ^ Casson (1991), p. 42
  12. ^ Casson (1991), pp. 44–46
  13. ^ Casson (1991), p. 65
  14. ^ Casson (1991), pp. 66–67
  15. ^ Casson (1991), pp. 74–75
  16. ^ Casson (1991), p. 76
  17. ^ Casson (1991), p. 77
  18. ^ Casson (1991), pp. 77–78
  19. ^ Casson (1991), p. 78
  20. ^ Casson (1991), p. 84
  21. ^ Casson (1991), p. 84
  22. ^ Casson (1991), p. 87
  23. ^ Casson (1991), pp. 88–89
  24. ^ Casson (1991), p. 89
  25. ^ Casson (1991), pp. 90–91
  26. ^ Casson (1991), p. 91
  27. ^ Casson (1991), p. 91
  28. ^ Casson (1991), p. 92
  29. ^ Casson (1991), pp. 94–95
  30. ^ Casson (1991), p. 115
  31. ^ Casson (1991), pp. 128–29
  32. ^ Casson (1991), pp. 130–33
  33. ^ Casson (1991), pp. 135–36
  34. ^ Casson (1991), pp. 136–38
  35. ^ Casson (1991), p. 139
  36. ^ Casson (1991), p. 139
  37. ^ Casson (1991), pp. 145–47
  38. ^ Casson (1991), p. 151
  39. ^ Casson (1991), p. 156
  40. ^ Casson (1991), pp. 157–58
  41. ^ Casson (1991), pp. 174–75
  42. ^ Casson (1991), pp. 180–83
  43. ^ Casson (1991), p. 185
  44. ^ Casson (1991), p. 186
  45. ^ Casson (1991), p. 187
  46. ^ Casson (1991), p. 190
  47. ^ Casson (1991), p. 192
  48. ^ Casson (1991), p. 195
  49. ^ Casson (1991), p. 203
  50. ^ Casson (1991), pp. –
  51. ^ Casson (1991), p.
  52. ^ Casson (1991), pp. –
  53. ^ Pryor (2002), pp. 86-87; Anderson (1962), pp. 37-39
  54. ^ Henry George Liddell & Robert Scott Galeos, A Greek-English Lexicon
  55. ^ Oxford English Dictionary (2nd edition, 1989), "galley"
  56. ^ See for example Svenska Akademiens ordbok, "galeja" or "galär " and Woordenboek der Nederlandsche Taal, "galeye"
  57. ^ Lehmann (1984), p. 12
  58. ^ Anderson (1962), pp. 1, 42
  59. ^ Casson (1995), p. 123
  60. ^ Karl Heniz Marquardt, "The Fore and Aft Rigged Warship" in Gardiner & Lavery (1992), p. 64
  61. ^ Mooney (1969), p. 516
  62. ^ Wachsmann (1995), p. 10
  63. ^ Wachsmann (1995), p. 11-12
  64. ^ Wachsmann (1995), pp. 21-23
  65. ^ Casson (1995), pp. 57-58
  66. ^ Wachsmann (1995), pp. 13-18
  67. ^ Morrison, Coates & Rankov (2000), p. 25
  68. ^ Wachsmann (1995), pp. 28-34
  69. ^ Morrison, Coates & Rankov (2000), p. 27-30
  70. ^ Morrison, Coates & Rankov (2000), pp. 38-41
  71. ^ a b Morrison, Coates & Rankov (2000), pp. 48-49
  72. ^ Morrison (1995), pp. 66-67
  73. ^ Rankov (1995), pp. 78–80
  74. ^ Rankov (1995), pp. 80–81
  75. ^ Rankov (1995), pp. 82–85
  76. ^ Unger (1980), pp. 53-55.
  77. ^ Unger (1980), pp. 96-97
  78. ^ Unger (1980), p. 80
  79. ^ Unger (1980), pp. 75-76
  80. ^ Glete (2000), p. 2
  81. ^ Rodger, (1997), pp. 64-65
  82. ^ Bass, p. 191
  83. ^ Pryor (1992), pp. 64-69
  84. ^ Balard, Michel, "Genoese Naval Forces in Mediterranean During the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries" in Hattendorf & Unger (2003), p. 139
  85. ^ Balard (2003), pp. 143-44
  86. ^ Balard (2003), p. 145
  87. ^ Dotson, John, "Genoese Naval Forces in Mediterranean During the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries" in Hattendorf & Unger (2003), p. 124
  88. ^ Dotson (2003), p. 125
  89. ^ Dotson (2003), p. 133
  90. ^ Friel (2003), p. 74
  91. ^ Runyan (2003), p. 59
  92. ^ Mott (2003), pp. 109-111
  93. ^ Dotson (2003), p. 133
  94. ^ Mott (2003), pp. 109-111
  95. ^ Guilmartin (1974), pp. 95–96ff
  96. ^ Guilmartin (1974), p. 108
  97. ^ Glete (2003), pp. 27-28
  98. ^ Rodger (1996); Glete (2003), pp. 38-39
  99. ^ Guilmartin (1974), p. 86
  100. ^ Guilmartin (1974), pp. 86–88
  101. ^ Glete (1993), p. 114
  102. ^ Guilmartin (1974), p. 101
  103. ^ FIND EXAMPLES OF PREVIOUS HISTORIANS CLAIMING IMMEDIATE BROADSIDE SUPREMACY
  104. ^ Glete (2003), p. 27
  105. ^ Glete (2003), p. 144
  106. ^ Guilmartin (1974), pp. 264–66
  107. ^ Glete (1993), pp. 114–15
  108. ^ Glete (2000), pp. 154, 163
  109. ^ Glete (2000), pp., 156, 158-59
  110. ^ Bamford (1973), p. 12; Mott, 113-14
  111. ^ Mott (2003), p. 112
  112. ^ Rodger (2003), pp. 230-30; see also R. C. Anderson, Naval Wars in the Baltic, pp. 177-78
  113. ^ Glete (2003), pp. 224-25
  114. ^ Rodger (2003), p. 245
  115. ^ Glete (2003), pp. 32-33
  116. ^ Guilmartin (1974), p. 254
  117. ^ Guilmartin (1974), p. 57
  118. ^ Glete (1993), p. 115
  119. ^ Guilmartin (1974), pp. 267–73
  120. ^ Bamford (1973), pp. 46-47
  121. ^ Jan Glete, "The Oared Warship" in Gardiner & Lavery (1992), p. 99
  122. ^ Glete (2000), p. 180
  123. ^ Glete (2000), p. 183
  124. ^ Tenenti (1967)
  125. ^ Glete (2000), pp. 27-28 144; Rodger (2003), pp. 244-45. See also Guilmartin (1974) for a detailed discussion of the introduction of artillery on galley warfare.
  126. ^ Goodman (1997), pp. 11-13
  127. ^ Mott (2003), p. 112
  128. ^ Bamford (1973), p. 12
  129. ^ Mott (2003), pp. 113-14
  130. ^ Guilmartin (1974), p. 263
  131. ^ Bamford (1973), p. 18
  132. ^ Bamford (1973), p. 16
  133. ^ Jan Glete, "The Oared Warship" in Gardiner & Lavery (1992), p. 98
  134. ^ Jan Glete, "The Oared Warship" in Gardiner & Lavery (1992), p. 99
  135. ^ Bamford (1974), pp. 17-18
  136. ^ Bamford (1974), p. 52
  137. ^ Bamford (1974), p. 45
  138. ^ Lehmann (1984), p. 12
  139. ^ Bamford (1974), pp. 272-73
  140. ^ Bamford (1974), pp. 23-25, 277-78
  141. ^ a b c Bamford (1974), pp. 275-78
  142. ^ Hattendorf (2003), p. 20
  143. ^ Bamford, (1974), pp. 272-73; Anderson, (1962), pp. 71-73
  144. ^ Lehmann (1984), p. 12
  145. ^ Rodger (1997), p. 208-12
  146. ^ John Bennel, "The Oared Vessels" in Knighton & Loades (2000), pp. 35-37.
  147. ^ Jan Glete, "The Oared Warship" in Gardiner & Lavery (1992), p. 99–100
  148. ^ Jan Glete, "Den ryska skärgårdsflottan: Myt och verklighet" in Norman (2000), pp. 79–81
  149. ^ Jan Glete, "Den ryska skärgårdsflottan: Myt och verklighet" in Norman (2000), p. 82
  150. ^ Jan Glete, "Den ryska skärgårdsflottan: Myt och verklighet" in Norman (2000), pp. 83–85
  151. ^ Lars Otto Berg, "Skärgårdsflottans fartyg: Typer och utveckling under 1700- och 1800-talen" in Norman (2000), p. 51
  152. ^ Lars Otto Berg, "Skärgårdsflottans fartyg: Typer och utveckling under 1700- och 1800-talen" in Norman (2000), p. 53
  153. ^ Lars Otto Berg, "Skärgårdsflottans fartyg: Typer och utveckling under 1700- och 1800-talen" in Norman (2000), p. 55
  154. ^ Anderson (1962), pp. 91-93; Berg, "Skärgårdsflottans fartyg" in Norman (2000) pp. 51
  155. ^ Glete, "Den ryska skärgårdsflottan" in Norman (2000), p. 81
  156. ^ Anderson (1962), p. 95
  157. ^ Bondioli, Burlet & Zysberg (1995), p. 205
  158. ^ Jan Glete, "Den ryska skärgårdsflottan: Myt och verklighet" in Norman (2000), p. 87
  159. ^ Jan Glete, "Den ryska skärgårdsflottan: Myt och verklighet" in Norman (2000), pp. 86–88
  160. ^ Lars Otto Berg, "Skärgårdsflottans fartyg: Typer och utveckling under 1700- och 1800-talen" in Norman (2000), p. 59-75
  161. ^ Jan Glete, "The Oared Warship" in Gardiner & Lavery (1992), p. 99
  162. ^ Jan Glete, "The Oared Warship" in Gardiner & Lavery (1992), p. 99
  163. ^ Jan Glete, "The Oared Warship" in Gardiner & Lavery (1992), pp. 101–2
  164. ^ Bamford (1973), pp. 272-73
  165. ^ Doumerc, Bernard, "An Examplary Maritime Republic: Venice at the End of the Middle Ages" in Hattendorf & Unger (2003), p. 157
  166. ^ Doumerc, Bernard, "An Examplary Maritime Republic: Venice at the End of the Middle Ages" in Hattendorf & Unger (2003), pp. 157-58
  167. ^ Doumerc, Bernard, "An Examplary Maritime Republic: Venice at the End of the Middle Ages" in Hattendorf & Unger (2003), pp. 162-65
  168. ^ Casson (1995), pp. 117-21
  169. ^ Casson (1995), pp. 119-23
  170. ^ Unger (1980), pp. 40, 47
  171. ^ Unger (1980), p. 102-4
  172. ^ Casson (1995), pp. 123-26
  173. ^ Braudel, The Perspective of the World, vol. III of Civilization and Capitalism (1979) 1984:126
  174. ^ Fernand Braudel, The Mediterranean in the Age of Philip II I, 302.
  175. ^ Pryor (1992), p. 57
  176. ^ Unger (1980), pp. 41-42
  177. ^ Unger (1980), p. 42
  178. ^ Wachsmann (1995), p. 11-12
  179. ^ This flower-inspired stern detail would later be widely used by both Greek and Roman ships.
  180. ^ Wachsmann (1995), pp. 21-23
  181. ^ Coates (1995), p. 136-37
  182. ^ Coates (1995), p. 127
  183. ^ a b Coates (1995), pp. 133-34; Morrison, Coates & Rankov (2000), pp. 165-67
  184. ^ Coates (1995), pp. 137-38
  185. ^ Unger (1980), pp. 41-42
  186. ^ Coates (1995), pp. 131-32
  187. ^ [1]
  188. ^ [2]
  189. ^ Coates (1995), pp. 138-40
  190. ^ Morrison, Coates & Rankov (2000), p. 77
  191. ^ Shaw(1995), pp. 164-65
  192. ^ Rankov (1995), pp. 78-79; Shaw (1995), pp. 164-65
  193. ^ Rankov (1995), pp. 80-83; Hocker (1995), pp. 88-89
  194. ^ Rankov (1995), p. 85
  195. ^ Pryor (1992), p. 67
  196. ^ Mott (2003), p. 107
  197. ^ Pryor (1992), pp. 62-63
  198. ^ Pryor (1992), p. 65-66
  199. ^ Pryor (1992), pp. 43-44
  200. ^ Pryor (1992), pp. 54-55
  201. ^ Anderson (1962), pp. 54-55
  202. ^ Friel (2003), pp. 69-70
  203. ^ Friel (2003), p. 70
  204. ^ Friel (2003), p. 71
  205. ^ Pryor & Jeffreys (2006), pp. 123–125
  206. ^ Pryor (1995), p. 102
  207. ^ Pryor & Jeffreys (2006), p. 127
  208. ^ Pryor & Jeffreys (2006), pp. 145–147, 152
  209. ^ Pryor & Jeffreys (2006), pp. 134–135
  210. ^ Pryor (1995), pp. 103–104
  211. ^ Pryor & Jeffreys (2006), pp. 232, 255, 276
  212. ^ Pryor & Jeffreys (2006), p. 215
  213. ^ Pryor & Jeffreys (2006), p. 282
  214. ^ It was in these that siphons for discharging Greek fire were housed; Pryor & Jeffreys (2006), p. 203
  215. ^ Pryor (1995), p. 104
  216. ^ Pryor & Jeffreys (2006), pp. 143–144
  217. ^ Anderson (1962), pp. 52, 54-55
  218. ^ Pryor (1992), p. 64
  219. ^ Pryor (1992), pp. 66-69
  220. ^ Anderson (1962), pp. 55-56
  221. ^ Anderson (1962), pp. 59-60; Pryor (1992), p. 61. Pryor argues against claims of stern rudders in use by the Byzantine and Arabs of the 9th century based on lack of evidence.
  222. ^ Lehmann (1984), p. 31
  223. ^ Guilmartin (1974), pp. 2xx-xx
  224. ^ Jan Glete, "The Oared Warship" in Gardiner & Lavery (1992), p. 98
  225. ^ Jan Glete, "The Oared Warship" in Gardiner & Lavery (1992), p. 98
  226. ^ The following is based on Glete (1993), p. 81.
  227. ^ Guilmartin (1974), pp. 200-something
  228. ^ Jan Glete, "The Oared Warship" in Gardiner & Lavery (1992), p. 98
  229. ^ Jan Glete, "The Oared Warship" in Gardiner & Lavery (1992), p. 100
  230. ^ Jan Glete, "The Oared Warship" in Gardiner & Lavery (1992), p. 98
  231. ^ Jan Glete, "The Oared Warship" in Gardiner & Lavery (1992), p. 100
  232. ^ Jan Glete, "The Oared Warship" in Gardiner & Lavery (1992), p. 98
  233. ^ Jan Glete, "The Oared Warship" in Gardiner & Lavery (1992), pp. 104–5
  234. ^ Guilmartin (1974), p. ???
  235. ^ Guilmartin (1974), pp. 217–19
  236. ^ Glete (1993), p. 81
  237. ^ Bamford (1973), pp. 14-16
  238. ^ Lehmann (1984), p. 22
  239. ^ Lehmann (1984), pp. 32-33
  240. ^ Anderson (1962), pp. 61-66
  241. ^ Anderson (1962), p. 69
  242. ^ Anderson (1962), p. 17
  243. ^ Bamford (1973), pp. 69-71
  244. ^ Bamford (1973), p. 72
  245. ^ Bamford (1973), pp. 67-77
  246. ^ Lars Otto Berg, "Skärgårdsflottans fartyg: Typer och utveckling under 1700- och 1800-talen" in Norman (2000), pp. 51–52
  247. ^ Lars Otto Berg, "Skärgårdsflottans fartyg: Typer och utveckling under 1700- och 1800-talen" in Norman (2000), p. 57
  248. ^ Jan Glete, "Kriget till sjöss 1788-1790" in Artéus (1992), p. 116
  249. ^ Morrison (1995), pp. 66-67
  250. ^ Unger (1980), pp. 41-42
  251. ^ (Shaw 1995: 168-169); Morrison, Coates & Rankov, The Athenian Trireme, pp. 246-47
  252. ^ Morrison, Coates & Rankov, The Athenian Trireme, pp. 249-52
  253. ^ Morrison, Coates & Rankov, The Athenian Trireme, pp. 246-47
  254. ^ Morrison, Coates & Rankov, The Athenian Trireme, pp. 246-47
  255. ^ Morrison, Coates & Rankov, The Athenian Trireme, p. 248
  256. ^ Pryor (1992), pp. 71-75
  257. ^ Unger (1980), pp. 47-49.
  258. ^ Pryor (1992), p. 42
  259. ^ Anderson (1962), pp. 52-53
  260. ^ Guilmartin (1974), pp. 226–27
  261. ^ Anderson (1962), p. 52
  262. ^ Guilmartin (1974), pp. 226–27
  263. ^ Pryor (1992), p. 42
  264. ^ Morrison, Coates & Rankov, The Athenian Trireme, pp. 249-52
  265. ^ Morrison, Coates & Rankov, The Athenian Trireme, pp. 246-47
  266. ^ Morrison, Coates & Rankov, The Athenian Trireme, pp. 246-47
  267. ^ Morrison, Coates & Rankov, The Athenian Trireme, p. 248
  268. ^ Anderson (1962), p. 52
  269. ^ Anderson (1962), pp. 52-53
  270. ^ Guilmartin (1974), pp. 226–27
  271. ^ Pryor (1992), pp. 70-71
  272. ^ Pryor (1992), pp. 76-78
  273. ^ Pryor (1992), pp. 83-84
  274. ^ Dotson (1995), pp. 219-20
  275. ^ Pryor (1992), pp. 87-101
  276. ^ Guilmartin (1974), pp. 63-67
  277. ^ Bamford (1973), p. 35
  278. ^ Bamford (1973), pp. 83-84
  279. ^ Rodgers (1939), pp. 235-36
  280. ^ Goodman (1997), pp. 215-20
  281. ^ Coates (1995), pp. 129-30
  282. ^ Coates (1995), p. 130
  283. ^ Casson, Lionel (1971). Ships and Seamanship in the Ancient World. Princeton: Princeton University Press. pp. 325–326.
  284. ^ Rachel L. Sargent, "The Use of Slaves by the Athenians in Warfare", Classical Philology, Vol. 22, No. 3 (Jul., 1927), pp. 264-279
  285. ^ a b Lionel Casson, “Galley Slaves”, Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association, Vol. 97 (1966), pp. 35-44 Cite error: The named reference "Lionel Casson, 1966, 36" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  286. ^ Bamford (1973), p. 105
  287. ^ Bamford (1973), pp. 11-12
  288. ^ Bamford (1973), pp. 26-28
  289. ^ Bamford (1973), p. 207
  290. ^ Bamford (1973), p. 208
  291. ^ Bamford (1973), p. 203
  292. ^ Bamford (1973), pp. 220-22
  293. ^ Bamford (1973), p. 224
  294. ^ Bamford (1973), p. 282
  295. ^ Bamford (1973), p. 288
  296. ^ Guilmartin (1974), pp. 109–112
  297. ^ Guilmartin (1974), pp. 114–19
  298. ^ Casson (1995), pp. 325–26
  299. ^ Rachel L. Sargent, "The Use of Slaves by the Athenians in Warfare", Classical Philology, Vol. 22, No. 3 (Jul., 1927), pp. 264-279
  300. ^ Earle (2003), p. 137
  301. ^ Earle (2003), p. 139
  302. ^ Glete (2000), p. 151
  303. ^ Earle (2003), pp. 39-52
  304. ^ Earle (2003), p. 50
  305. ^ Earle (2003), pp. 51-52
  306. ^ Earle (2003), p. 83
  307. ^ Earle (2003), p. 45
  308. ^ Earle (2003), p. 81
  309. ^ Earle (2003), p. 85
  310. ^ Earle (2003), p. 85
  311. ^ Earle (2003), p. 137
  312. ^ Earle (2003), p. 139
  313. ^ Glete (2000), p. 151
  314. ^ Guilmartin (1974), p. 120
  315. ^ Unger (1980), pp. 96-97
  316. ^ Unger (2003), pp. 96-97
  317. ^ Earle (2003), p. 85
  318. ^ Guilmartin (1974), pp. 217–19
  319. ^ Earle (2003), p. 45
  320. ^ Earle (2003), p. 137
  321. ^ Glete (2000), p. 151
  322. ^ Earle (2003), p. 139
  323. ^ Guilmartin (1974), p. 120
  324. ^ Earle (2003), pp. 39-52
  325. ^ Earle (2003), pp. 39-52
  326. ^ Earle (2003), pp. 51-52
  327. ^ Earle (2003), p. 83
  328. ^ Earle (2003), p. 85
  329. ^ Guilmartin (1974), p. 97
  330. ^ Rodgers (1940)
  331. ^ Guilmartin (1974), pp. 264–66
  332. ^ In many fleets, like that of Venice, galleys actually lacked individual names, or had names that were inherited from one physical vessel to another, often making it difficult to determine when a certain hull had been replaced by another; Glete (1993), pp. 95–96
  333. ^ Wachsmann (1995), pp. 28-34, 72
  334. ^ Morrison, Coates & Rankov (2000), pp. 42-43, 92-93
  335. ^ Morrison, Coates & Rankov (2000), pp. 54-55, 72
  336. ^ John Coates (1995), pp. 133-35
  337. ^ John Coates (1995), p. 133.
  338. ^ a b Hocker (1995), pp. 95, 98-99.
  339. ^ Pryor (1983), pp. 193-94
  340. ^ Guilmartin (1974), pp. 199–200
  341. ^ Guilmartin (1974), pp. 201–2
  342. ^ Guilmartin (1974), p. 203
  343. ^ Guilmartin (1974), p. 203
  344. ^ Guilmartin (1974), p. 53
  345. ^ Guilmartin (1974), p. 54
  346. ^ Guilmartin (1974), p. 56
  347. ^ Glete (2003), p. 35
  348. ^ Rodger (2003), p. 237
  349. ^ Guilmartin (1974), pp. 157-58
  350. ^ Guilmartin (1974), pp. 67, 76-79,
  351. ^ Guilmartin (1974), p. 199
  352. ^ Guilmartin (1974), pp. 203-5
  353. ^ Guilmartin (1974), pp. 248-49
  354. ^ Guilmartin (1974), pp. 200-1
  355. ^ Bamford (1973), pp. 275-80
  356. ^ Bamford (1973), pp. 68-69
  357. ^ Bamford (1973), p. 89
  358. ^ Morrison & Coates (2000), pp. 17-19
  359. ^ Morrison & Coates (2000), p. 15
  360. ^ Bamford (1973), pp. 13–15
  361. ^ Bamford (1973), p. 16
  362. ^ Bamford (1973), pp. 10–12
  363. ^ Jan Glete, "Vasatidens galärflottor" in Norman (2000), pp. 39, 42
  364. ^ John Bennel, "The Oared Vessels" in Knighton & Loades (2000), pp. 35-37.
  365. ^ Bamford (1974), pp. 23-25, 277-78
  366. ^ Rodger (2003), p. 237
  367. ^ Bamford (1973), pp. 4–8
  368. ^ The Trireme Trust

References

  • Anderson, Roger Charles, Oared fighting ships: From classical times to the coming of steam. London. 1962.
  • Bamford, Paul W., Fighting ships and prisons : the Mediterranean Galleys of France in the Age of Louis XIV. Cambridge University Press, London. 1974. ISBN 0-8166-0655-2
  • Basch, L. & Frost, H. "Another Punic wreck off Sicily: its ram" in International journal of Nautical Archaeology vol 4.2, 1975. pp. 201-228
  • Bass, George F. (editor), A History of Seafaring, Thames & Hudson, 1972
  • Capulli, Massimo: Le Navi della Serenissima - La Galea Veneziana di Lazise. Marsilio Editore, Venezia, 2003.
  • Gardiner, Robert & Lavery, Brian (editors), The Line of Battle: Sailing Warships 1650-1840. Conway Maritime Press, London. 1992. ISBN 0-85177-561-6
  • Casson, Lionel, "Galley Slaves" in Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association, Vol. 97 (1966), pp. 35–44
  • Casson, Lionel, Ships and Seamanship in the Ancient World, Princeton University Press, 1971
  • Casson, Lionel, "The Age of the Supergalleys" in Ships and Seafaring in Ancient Times, University of Texas Press, 1994. ISBN 029271162X [3], pp. 78–95
  • Glete, Jan, Navies and nations: Warships, navies and state building in Europe and America, 1500-1860. Almqvist & Wiksell International, Stockholm. 1993. ISBN 91-22-01565-5
  • Glete, Jan, Warfare at Sea, 1500-1650: Maritime Conflicts and the Transformation of Europe. Routledge, London. 2000. ISBN 0-415-21455-6
  • Guilmartin, John Francis, Gunpowder and Galleys: Changing Technology and Mediterranean Warfare at Sea in the Sixteenth Century. Cambridge University Press, London. 1974. ISBN 0-521-20272-8
  • Hattendorf, John B. & Unger, Richard W. (editors), War at Sea in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Woodbridge, Suffolk. 2003. ISBN 0-85115-903-6 [4]
    • Balard, Michel, "Genoese Naval Forces in the Mediterranean During the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries", pp. 137–49
    • Bill, Jan, "Scandinavian Warships and Naval Power in the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries", pp. 35–51
    • Doumerc, Bernard, "An Exemplary Maritime Republic: Venice at the End of the Middle Ages", pp. 151–65
    • Friel, Ian, "Oars, Sails and Guns: the English and War at Sea c. 1200-c. 1500", pp. 69–79
    • Glete, Jan, "Naval Power and Control of the Sea in the Baltic in the Sixteenth Century", pp. 215–32
    • Hattendorf, John B., "Theories of Naval Power: A. T. Mahan and the Naval History of Medieval and Renaissance Europe", pp. 1–22
    • Mott, Lawrence V., "Iberian Naval Power, 1000-1650", pp. 103–118
    • Pryor, John H., "Byzantium and the Sea: Byzantine Fleets and the History of the Empire in the Age of the Macedonian Emperors, c. 900-1025 CE", pp. 83–104
    • Rodger, Nicholas A. M., "The New Atlantic: Naval Warfare in the Sixteenth Century", pp. 231–47
    • Runyan, Timothy J., "Naval Power and Maritime Technology During the Hundred Years War", pp. 53–67
  • Hutchinson, Gillian, Medieval Ships and Shipping. Leicester University Press, London. 1997. ISBN 0-7185-0117-9
  • Knighton, C. S. and Loades, David M., The Anthony Roll of Henry VIII's Navy: Pepys Library 2991 and British Library Additional MS 22047 with related documents. Ashgate Publishing, Aldershot. 2000. ISBN 0-7546-0094-7
  • Lehmann, L. Th., Galleys in the Netherlands. Meulenhoff, Amsterdam. 1984. ISBN 90-290-1854-2
  • Morrison, John S. & Gardiner, Robert (editors), The Age of the Galley: Mediterranean Oared Vessels Since Pre-Classical Times. Conway Maritime, London, 1995. ISBN 0-85177-554-3
    • Alertz, Ulrich, "The Naval Architecture and Oar Systems of Medieval and Later Galleys", pp. 142–62
    • Bondioli, Mauro, Burlet, René & Zysberg, André, "Oar Mechanics and Oar Power in Medieval and Later Galleys", pp. 142–63
    • Casson, Lionel, "Merchant Galleys", pp. 117–26
    • Coates, John, "The Naval Architecture and Oar Systems of Ancient Galleys", pp. 127–41
    • Dotson, John E, "Economics and Logistics of Galley Warfare", pp. 217–23
    • Hocker, Frederick M., "Late Roman, Byzantine, and Islamic Galleys and Fleets", pp. 86–100
    • Morrison, John, "Hellenistic Oared Warships 399-31 BC", pp. 66–77
    • Pryor, John H."From dromon to galea: Mediterranean bireme galleys AD 500-1300", pp. 101–116.
    • Rankov, Boris, "Fleets of the Early Roman Empire, 31 BC-AD 324", pp. 78–85
    • Shaw, J. T., "Oar Mechanics and Oar Power in Ancient Galleys", pp. 163–71
    • Wachsmann, Shelley, "Paddled and Oared Ships Before the Iron Age", pp. 10–25
  • Mooney, James L. (editor), Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships: Volume 4. Naval Historical Center, Washington. 1969.
  • Mallett, Michael E., The Florentine Galleys in the Fifteenth Century, Oxford, 1967
  • Morrison, John S. & Coates, John F., The Athenian Trireme: the History and Reconstruction of An Ancient Greek Warship. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. 2000. ISBN
  • Template:Sv Norman, Hans (editor), Skärgårdsflottan: uppbyggnad, militär användning och förankring i det svenska samhället 1700-1824. Historiska media, Lund. 2000. ISBN 91-88930-50-5
  • Pryor, John H., "The naval battles of Roger of Lauria" in Journal of Medieval History 9. Amsterdam. 1983; pp. 179-216
  • Pryor, John H., Geography, technology and war: Studies in the maritime history of the Mediterranean 649-1571. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. 1992. 0-521-42892-0 [5]
  • Rodger, Nicholas A. M., The Safeguard of the Sea: A Naval History of Britain 660–1649. W.W. Norton & Company, New York. 1997. ISBN 0-393-04579-X
  • Rodgers, William Ledyard, Naval Warfare Under Oars: 4th to 16th Centuries, Naval Institute Press, 1940.
  • Tenenti, Alberto Piracy and the Decline of Venice 1580-1615 (English translation). 1967
  • Unger, Richard W. The Ship in Medieval Economy 600-1600 Croom Helm, London. 1980. ISBN 0-85664-949-X

External links

Images

Caption goes here
Caption goes here

Commons:Category:Bucentaur

References

  • Template:Sv icon Artéus, Gunnar, Gustav III:s ryska krig. Probus, Stockholm. 1992. ISBN 91-87184-09-5
  • Bamford, Paul W., Fighting ships and prisons : the Mediterranean Galleys of France in the Age of Louis XIV. Cambridge University Press, London. 1974. ISBN 0-8166-0655-2
  • Template:Fr icon Basch, Lucien, "La voile latine, son origine, son évolution et ses parentés arabes", in H. Tzalas, Tropis VI, 6th International Symposium on Ship Construction in Antiquity, Lamia 1996 proceedings, Athens: Hellenic Institute for the Preservation of Nautical Tradition, pp. 55–85
  • Casson, Lionel, "Galley Slaves" in Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association, Vol. 97 (1966), pp. 35-44
  • Casson, Lionel, "The Age of the Supergalleys" in Ships and Seafaring in Ancient Times, University of Texas Press, 1994. ISBN 029271162X[6], pp. 78-95
  • Goodman, David, Spanish naval power 1589-1665: reconstruction and defeat. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. 1997. ISBN 0-521-58063-3
  • Guilmartin, John Francis, Gunpowder and Galleys: Changing Technology and Mediterranean Warfare at Sea in the Sixteenth Century. Cambridge University Press, London. 1974. ISBN 0-521-20272-8
  • Hattendorf, John B. & Unger, Richard W. (editors), War at Sea in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Woodbridge, Suffolk. 2002. ISBN 0-85115-903-6[7]
    • Balard, Michel, "Genoese Naval Forces in the Mediterranean During the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries", pp. 137-49
    • Bill, Jan, "Scandinavian Warships and Naval Power in the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries", pp. 35-51
    • Doumerc, Bernard, "An Exemplary Maritime Republic: Venice at the End of the Middle Ages", pp. 151-65
    • Friel, Ian, "Oars, Sails and Guns: the English and War at Sea c. 1200-c. 1500", pp. 69-79
    • Glete, Jan, "Naval Power and Control of the Sea in the Baltic in the Sixteenth Century", pp. 215-32
    • Hattendorf, John B., "Theories of Naval Power: A. T. Mahan and the Naval History of Medieval and Renaissance Europe", pp. 1-22
    • Mott, Lawrence V., "Iberian Naval Power, 1000-1650", pp. 103-118
    • Pryor, John H., "Byzantium and the Sea: Byzantine Fleets and the History of the Empire in the Age of the Macedonian Emperors, c. 900-1025 CE", pp. 83-104
    • Rodger, Nicholas A. M., "The New Atlantic: Naval Warfare in the Sixteenth Century", pp. 231-47
    • Runyan, Timothy J., "Naval Power and Maritime Technology During the Hundred Years War", pp. 53-67
  • Hutchinson, Gillian, Medieval Ships and Shipping. Leicester University Press, London. 1997. ISBN 0-7185-0117-9
  • Lehmann, L. Th., Galleys in the Netherlands. Meulenhoff, Amsterdam. 1984. ISBN 90-290-1854-2
  • Morrison, John S. & Gardiner, Robert (editors), The Age of the Galley: Mediterranean Oared Vessels Since Pre-Classical Times. Conway Maritime, London, 1995. ISBN 0-85177-554-3
    • Alertz, Ulrich, "The Naval Architecture and Oar Systems of Medieval and Later Galleys", pp. 142-62
    • Bondioli, Mauro, Burlet, René & Zysberg, André, "Oar Mechanics and Oar Power in Medieval and Later Galleys", pp. 142-63
    • Casson, Lionel, "Merchant Galleys", pp. 117-26
    • Coates, John, "The Naval Architecture and Oar Systems of Ancient Galleys", pp. 127-41
    • Dotson, John E, "Economics and Logistics of Galley Warfare", pp. 217-23
    • Hocker, Frederick M., "Late Roman, Byzantine, and Islamic Galleys and Fleets", pp. 86-100
    • Morrison, John, "Hellenistic Oared Warships 399-31 BC", pp. 66-77
    • Rankov, Boris, "Fleets of the Early Roman Empire, 31 BC-AD 324", pp. 78-85
    • Shaw, J. T., "Oar Mechanics and Oar Power in Ancient Galleys", pp. 163-71
    • Wachsmann, Shelley, "Paddled and Oared Ships Before the Iron Age", pp. 10-25
  • Morrison, John S. & Coates, John F., The Athenian Trireme: the History and Reconstruction of An Ancient Greek Warship. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. 2000. ISBN
  • Template:Sv Norman, Hans (editor), Skärgårdsflottan: uppbyggnad, militär användning och förankring i det svenska samhället 1700-1824. Historiska media, Lund. 2000. ISBN 91-88930-50-5
  • Pryor, John H., Geography, technology and war: Studies in the maritime history of the Mediterranean 649-1571. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. 1992. 0-521-42892-0[8]
  • Pryor, John H. & Jeffreys, Elizabeth M., The Age of the ΔΡΟΜΩΝ: The Byzantine Navy ca. 500–1204. Brill Academic Publishers, Leiden. 2006. ISBN 978-9004151970
  • Rodgers, William Ledyard, Naval Warfare Under Oars, 4th to 16th Centuries: A Study of Strategy, Tactics and Ship Design. United States Naval Institute, Annapolis, Maryland. 1939.
  • Unger, Richard W. The Ship in Medieval Economy 600-1600 Croom Helm, London. 1980. ISBN 0-85664-949-X (SU, VA)

KB

  • Pryor, John H. & Jeffreys, Elizabeth, The Age of the Dromon: The Byzantine Navy ca. 500-1204. Brill, Leiden. 2006. 90-04-15197-4
  • Casson, Lionel, The Ancient Mariners: Seafarers and Sea Fighters of the Mediterranean in Ancient Times. Princeton University Press, Princeton. 1991. ISBN 978-0691014777 (SUB)
  • Casson, Lionel, Ships and Seamanship in the Ancient World Johns Hopkins University Press, . 1995.. ISBN 978-0801851308
  • Friel, Ian, The Good Ship: ships, shipbuilding and technology in England, 1200-1520. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore. 1995. ISBN 0-7141-0574-0
  • Lane, Frederic Chapin, Venetian ships and shipbuilders of the Renaissance, (New edition), Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore. 1992 [1934]. ISBN 0-8018-4514-9[9]
  • Mallett, Michael E., The Florentine Galleys in the Fifteenth Century: With the Diary of Luca di Maso degli Albizzi, Captain of the galleys 1429-1430. Clarendon Press, Oxford. 1967.

SU

  • Westerdahl, Christer, Crossroads in ancient shipbuilding: proceedings of the sixth International symposium on boat and ship archaeology, Roskilde 1991. Oxbow, Oxford. 1994. ISBN 0-946897-70-0

SH

VA

  • Michael Wedde, "On the alleged connection between the early Greek galley and the watercraft of the Nordic rock art" (pp. 57-71) in European Association of Archaeologists. Meeting, The Aegean Bronze Age in relation to the wider European context: papers from a session at the eleventh annual meeting of the European Association of Archaeologists, Cork, 5-11 September 2005. Archaeopress, Oxford. 2008. ISBN 978-1-4073-0187-7
  • Casson, Lionel, Ships and Seamanship in the Ancient World. Johns Hopkins Univ. Press, Baltimore, Md, 1995[1971] ISBN 0-8018-5130-0
  • Gardiner, Robert, The archaeology of medieval ships and harbours in northern Europe: papers based on those presented to an International symposium on boat and ship archaeology at Bremerhaven in 1979. Oxford, 1979. ISBN: 0-86054-068-5

SSM

  • Gardiner, Robert & Unger, Richard W. (editors), Cogs, Caravels and Galleons: The Sailing Ship 1000-1650. Conway Maritime Press, London. 1994. ISBN 0-85177-560-8
  • Symonds, Craig L., New aspects of naval history: selected papers presented at the fourth Naval history symposium, United States Naval academy, 25-26 October 1979 Naval Inst. P., Annapolis. 1981. ISBN 0-87021-495-0 (ALB)

GU

UU

  • Anderson, Roger Charles, Oared Fighting Ships: From classical times to the coming of steam. London. 1962.

previous

  • George F. Bass, ed., A History of Seafaring, Thames & Hudson, 1972
  • L.Basch & H. Frost Another Punic wreck off Sicily: its ram International journal of Nautical Archaeology vol 4.2, 201-228, 1975
  • Lionel Casson, Ships and Seamanship in the Ancient World, Princeton University Press, 1971
  • H.Frost et al. Lilybaeum supplement to Notizae Scavi d'Anichita 8th ser vol 30 1981 (1971)
  • Brian Lavery, Maritime Scotland, B T Batsford Ltd., 2001, ISBN 0-7134-8520-5
  • Michael E. Mallett, The Florentine Galleys in the Fifteenth Century, Oxford, 1967
source: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User:Peter_Isotalo/galley&oldid=451552796

Leave a Reply