Galleons were large, multi-decked
sailing ships first used as armed cargo carriers by
Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...
an states from the 16th to 18th centuries during the
age of sail and were the principal vessels drafted for use as
warships
A warship or combatant ship is a naval ship that is built and primarily intended for naval warfare. Usually they belong to the armed forces of a state. As well as being armed, warships are designed to withstand damage and are usually faster an ...
until the
Anglo-Dutch Wars
The Anglo–Dutch Wars ( nl, Engels–Nederlandse Oorlogen) were a series of conflicts mainly fought between the Dutch Republic and England (later Great Britain) from mid-17th to late 18th century. The first three wars occurred in the second ...
of the mid-1600s. Galleons generally carried three or more masts with a
lateen
A lateen (from French ''latine'', meaning "Latin") or latin-rig is a triangular sail set on a long yard mounted at an angle on the mast, and running in a fore-and-aft direction. The settee can be considered to be an associated type of the same ...
fore-and-aft rig on the rear masts, were
carvel built with a prominent squared off raised stern, and used
square-rigged sail plans on their fore-mast and main-masts.
Such ships were the mainstay of maritime commerce into the early 19th century, and were often drafted into use as auxiliary naval war vessels—indeed, were the mainstay of contending fleets through most of the 150 years of the
Age of Exploration—before the Anglo-Dutch wars brought purpose-built
ship-rigged warship
A warship or combatant ship is a naval ship that is built and primarily intended for naval warfare. Usually they belong to the armed forces of a state. As well as being armed, warships are designed to withstand damage and are usually faster ...
s,
ships of the line, that thereafter dominated war at sea during the remainder of the
age of sail.
Etymology
The word ''galleon'' 'large ship' comes from
Old French
Old French (, , ; Modern French: ) was the language spoken in most of the northern half of France from approximately the 8th to the 14th centuries. Rather than a unified language, Old French was a linkage of Romance dialects, mutually intellig ...
''galion'' 'armed ship of burden' or from (Castilian)
Spanish
Spanish might refer to:
* Items from or related to Spain:
**Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain
**Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries
**Spanish cuisine
Other places
* Spanish, Ontario, Can ...
''galeón'' 'galleon, armed merchant ship', (perhaps via Italian ''galeone'' 'big ''galea'', big galley') from
Medieval Greek
Medieval Greek (also known as Middle Greek, Byzantine Greek, or Romaic) is the stage of the Greek language between the end of classical antiquity in the 5th–6th centuries and the end of the Middle Ages, conventionally dated to the Fall of Co ...
''galea'' '
galley', to which the French or Spanish augmentative suffix ''-on'' is added. Another possible origin is the Old French word ''galie'' 'galley'; also from Medieval Greek ''galea''. The ''galea'' was a warship of the
Byzantine navy, and its name may be related to the Greek word ''galeos'' '
dogfish shark'. The term was originally given to certain types of war
galleys in the
Middle Ages
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...
.
The ''
Annali Genovesi'' mention galleons of 60, 64 and 80 oars, used for battle and on missions of exploration, in the 12th and 13th centuries. It is very likely that the ''galleons'' and ''galliots'' mentioned in the accounts of the crusades were the same vessels. In the early 16th century, the Venetian ''galleoni'' were a new class of galley used to hunt down pirates in the
Mediterranean
The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western Europe, Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa ...
.
Later, when the term started to be applied to sail-only vessels, it meant, like the English term "man-of-war", any large warship that was otherwise no different from the other sailing ships of the time.
History
In the beginning of the 16th century, a lowering of the
carrack's
forecastle and elongation of the
hull gave the ocean-going galleons an unprecedented level of stability in the water, and reduced
wind resistance at the front, leading to a faster, more maneuverable vessel. The galleon differed from the older types primarily by being longer, lower and narrower, with a square tuck
stern instead of a round tuck, and by having a snout or head projecting forward from the bows below the level of the forecastle. In
Portugal
Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...
at least, Portuguese carracks were usually very large ships for their time (often over 1,000
tons), while galleons were mostly under 500 tons, although the
Manila galleon
fil, Galyon ng Maynila
, english_name = Manila Galleon
, duration = From 1565 to 1815 (250 years)
, venue = Between Manila and Acapulco
, location = New Spain (Spanish Empire ...
s were to reach up to 2,000 tons. With the introduction of the galleon in
Portuguese India Armadas
The Portuguese Indian Armadas ( pt, Armadas da Índia) were the fleets of ships funded by the Crown of Portugal, and dispatched on an annual basis from Portugal to India. The principal destination was Goa, and previously Cochin. These armada ...
during the first quarter of the 16th century, carracks' armament was reduced as they became almost exclusively cargo ships (which is why the Portuguese carracks were pushed to such large sizes), leaving any fighting to be done to the galleons. One of the largest and most famous of Portuguese galleons was the ''
São João Baptista'' (nicknamed ''Botafogo'', "Spitfire"), a 1,000-ton galleon built in 1534, said to have carried 366 guns.
Carracks also tended to be lightly armed and used for transporting cargo in all the fleets of other Western European states, while galleons were purpose-built warships, and were stronger, more heavily armed, and also cheaper to build (five galleons could cost around the same as three carracks) and were therefore a much better
investment for use as warships or transports. There are disputes about its origins and development but each
Atlantic
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe an ...
sea power built types suited to its needs, while constantly learning from their rivals. It was the captains of the Spanish navy,
Pedro Menéndez de Avilés and
Álvaro de Bazán, who designed the definitive long and relatively narrow hulled galleon for Spain in the 1550s.
The galleon was powered entirely by wind, using
sails carried on three or four
masts, with a
lateen sail continuing to be used on the last (usually third and fourth) masts. They were used in both military and trade applications, most famously in the
Spanish treasure fleet
The Spanish treasure fleet, or West Indies Fleet ( es, Flota de Indias, also called silver fleet or plate fleet; from the es, label=Spanish, plata meaning "silver"), was a convoy system of sea routes organized by the Spanish Empire from 1566 to ...
, and the Manila galleons. While carracks played the leading role in early global explorations, galleons also played a part in the 16th and 17th centuries. In fact, galleons were so versatile that a single vessel might be refitted for wartime and peacetime roles several times during its lifespan. The galleon was the prototype of all square-rigged ships with three or more masts for over two and a half centuries, including the later
full-rigged ship
A full-rigged ship or fully rigged ship is a sailing vessel's sail plan with three or more masts, all of them square-rigged. A full-rigged ship is said to have a ship rig or be ship-rigged. Such vessels also have each mast stepped in three s ...
.
The principal warships of the opposing
English and
Spanish
Spanish might refer to:
* Items from or related to Spain:
**Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain
**Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries
**Spanish cuisine
Other places
* Spanish, Ontario, Can ...
fleets in the 1588 confrontation of the
Spanish Armada and in the 1589 confrontation of the
English Armada
The English Armada ( es, Invencible Inglesa, lit=English Invincible), also known as the Counter Armada or the Drake–Norris Expedition, was an attack fleet sent against Spain by Queen Elizabeth I of England that sailed on 28 April 1589 during ...
were galleons, with the modified English
race-built galleons developed by
John Hawkins proving their great utility in combat, while the capacious Spanish galleons, designed primarily as transports, showed great endurance in the battles.
Construction
Galleons were constructed from
oak (for the
keel),
pine
A pine is any conifer tree or shrub in the genus ''Pinus'' () of the family Pinaceae. ''Pinus'' is the sole genus in the subfamily Pinoideae. The World Flora Online created by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and Missouri Botanical Garden accepts ...
(for the masts) and various
hardwoods for
hull and
decking. Hulls were usually
carvel-built. The expenses involved in galleon construction were enormous. Hundreds of expert tradesmen (including
carpenters,
pitch-melters,
blacksmith
A blacksmith is a metalsmith who creates objects primarily from wrought iron or steel, but sometimes from other metals, by forging the metal, using tools to hammer, bend, and cut (cf. tinsmith). Blacksmiths produce objects such as gates, gr ...
s,
coopers,
shipwrights, etc.) worked for months before a galleon was seaworthy. To cover the expense, galleons were often funded by groups of wealthy businessmen who pooled resources for a new ship. Therefore, most galleons were originally consigned for trade, although those captured by rival states were usually put into military service.
The most common gun used aboard a galleon was the
demi-culverin, although gun sizes up to
demi-cannon
The demi-cannon was a medium-sized cannon, similar to but slightly larger than a culverin and smaller than a regular cannon, developed in the early 17th century. A full cannon fired a 42-pound shot, but these were discontinued in the 18th centur ...
were possible.
Because of the long periods often spent at sea and poor conditions on board, many of the crew often perished during the voyage; therefore advanced
rigging systems were developed so that the vessel could be sailed home by an active
sailing crew a fraction of the size aboard at departure.
Distinguishing features
Galleons were a class of blue-water sailing ship that combined the easy-to-maneuver
fore-and-aft rig of smaller shipping (boats) with the square rig of
late middle ages
The Late Middle Ages or Late Medieval Period was the period of European history lasting from AD 1300 to 1500. The Late Middle Ages followed the High Middle Ages and preceded the onset of the early modern period (and in much of Europe, the Renai ...
cargo vessels. The galleons solidified the place of the square-rig and the centrally situated tallest main-masts and the slightly shorter fore-masts of a square-rigged ship characteristic of the 16th–19th centuries, but introduced the use of the lateen rig to sail closer to the wind on a tack than could a square-rigged vessel—an important attribute in restricted waters, but more so over long voyages where holding a few compass points closer to the wind might save hundreds of miles and days or weeks of sailing 'beating into the wind'.
The most distinguishing features of the galleon include the long, prominent
beak or beakhead followed by a
foremast and mainmast, both noticeably taller than the single or double
lateen-rigged mizzen
The mast of a sailing vessel is a tall spar, or arrangement of spars, erected more or less vertically on the centre-line of a ship or boat. Its purposes include carrying sails, spars, and derricks, and giving necessary height to a navigation l ...
masts with their sloped
lateen-rig yards, and below those the square
quarter gallery at the
stern. On average with three masts, in larger galleons, a fourth mast was added, usually another lateen-rigged mizzen, called the
bonaventure mizzen.
The galleon continued to be used into the 18th century, by which time purpose-built vessels such as the
fluyt
A fluyt (archaic Dutch: ''fluijt'' "flute"; ) is a Dutch type of sailing vessel originally designed by the shipwrights of Hoorn as a dedicated cargo vessel. Originating in the Dutch Republic in the 16th century, the vessel was designed to faci ...
, the
brig and the
full-rigged ship
A full-rigged ship or fully rigged ship is a sailing vessel's sail plan with three or more masts, all of them square-rigged. A full-rigged ship is said to have a ship rig or be ship-rigged. Such vessels also have each mast stepped in three s ...
, both as a trading vessel and
ship of the line, rendered it obsolete for trade and warfare respectively.
The oldest English drawings
The oldest known scale drawings in
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
are in a manuscript called "Fragments of Ancient Shipwrightry" made in about 1586 by
Mathew Baker, a
master-shipwright. This manuscript, held at the Pepysian Library, Magdalene College, Cambridge, provides an authentic reference for the size and shape of typical English galleons built during this period. Based on these plans, the Science Museum, London has built a 1:48 scale model ship that is an exemplar of galleons of this era.
Notable galleons
* ''São João Baptista'', nicknamed ''
Botafogo'', the most powerful warship when launched (1534) by the Portuguese; became famous during the
Conquest of Tunis (1535), where it was commanded by
Infante Luís, Duke of Beja.
*"La Galga", the
Assateague Spanish galleon that was shipwrecked in 1794; according to legend, the ancestors of the now famous
Chincoteague ponies swam ashore from its hold.
* ''
Adler von Lübeck'', the largest ship of its day when launched in 1566.
* The
Manila galleon
fil, Galyon ng Maynila
, english_name = Manila Galleon
, duration = From 1565 to 1815 (250 years)
, venue = Between Manila and Acapulco
, location = New Spain (Spanish Empire ...
s, Spanish trading ships that sailed once or twice per year across the
Pacific Ocean
The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the contin ...
between
Manila
Manila ( , ; fil, Maynila, ), officially the City of Manila ( fil, Lungsod ng Maynila, ), is the capital of the Philippines, and its second-most populous city. It is highly urbanized and, as of 2019, was the world's most densely populate ...
in the
Philippines
The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no),
* bik, Republika kan Filipinas
* ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas
* cbk, República de Filipinas
* hil, Republ ...
and
Acapulco in
New Spain (now
Mexico
Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...
); (1565–1815).
* ''
San Salvador'', flagship vessel in
João Rodrigues Cabrilho's 1542 exploration of present-day California in the United States.
* ''San Pelayo'', the large 906-ton galleon which served as the flagship of
Pedro Menéndez de Avilés during his expedition to establish
St. Augustine, Florida in 1565. The vessel was so large it could not enter St. Augustine's harbor, so Menendez ordered it offloaded and sent it back to Hispaniola. At a later date her crew mutinied and sailed to Europe where the ship wrecked off the coast of Denmark.
* ''
Golden Hind
''Golden Hind'' was a galleon captained by Francis Drake in his circumnavigation of the world between 1577 and 1580. She was originally known as ''Pelican,'' but Drake renamed her mid-voyage in 1578, in honour of his patron, Sir Christopher Hat ...
'', the ship in which Sir
Francis Drake circumnavigated the globe 1577–1580.
* ''
Dainty'', ship with which Sir
Richard Hawkins
Admiral Sir Richard Hawkins (or Hawkyns) (c. 1562 – 17 April 1622) was a 17th-century English seaman, explorer and privateer. He was the son of Admiral Sir John Hawkins.
Biography
He was from his earlier days familiar with ships and the s ...
sought to emulate the circumnavigation voyage of his cousin Drake. She was captured by the Spanish in the
action of Atacames Bay in 1594 and served in the Spanish Navy in the South American Pacific for several years.
* ''
Ark Raleigh'', the ship was designed and built by
Sir Walter Raleigh. She was later chosen by Lord Howard, admiral of the fleet to be the flagship of the English fleet in the fight against the
Spanish Armada in 1588 and was summarily renamed ''
Ark Royal
Five ships of the Royal Navy have borne the name HMS ''Ark Royal'':
* , the flagship of the English fleet during the Spanish Armada campaign of 1588
* , planned as freighter, built as seaplane carrier during the First World War, renamed ''Pegasu ...
''.
* ''
Revenge'', a galleon built in 1577, the flagship of Sir
Francis Drake in the Battle of the
Spanish Armada in 1588, was captured by a Spanish fleet off Flores in the Azores in 1591 and sank while being sailed back to Spain.
* ''
São Martinho'', the Portuguese galleon, the flagship of
Duke of Medina Sidonia, commander-in-chief of the
Spanish Armada.
* ''
Triumph
The Roman triumph (Latin triumphus) was a celebration for a victorious military commander in ancient Rome. For later imitations, in life or in art, see Trionfo. Numerous later uses of the term, up to the present, are derived directly or indirectl ...
'', the largest Elizabethan galleon; flagship of Sir
Martin Frobisher in the Battle of the
Spanish Armada.
* ''
San Juan Bautista'' (originally called Date Maru, 伊達丸 in Japanese). She crossed the
Pacific Ocean
The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the contin ...
from
Japan to
New Spain in 1614. She was of the Spanish galleon type, known in
Japan as Nanban-Sen (南蛮船).
* ''
Nuestra Señora de la Concepción'', a Spanish galleon, known to her crew as ''Cacafuego'' for her strong cannon.
She was captured by Sir
Francis Drake in 1578 and all her treasures were brought to England. She was holding treasures mined in one year by the Spanish in the Americas.
* ''
Padre Eterno'', a Portuguese galleon launched in 1663. She was considered to be the biggest ship of her time, carrying 144 pieces of artillery with a displacement up to 2,000 tons.
*''
Vasa'', the only original galleon to be preserved. She sank in 1628 and was raised in 1961 for preservation as a
museum ship.
Notes
References
* Alertz, U. (1991) ''Vom Schiffbauhandwerk zur Schiffbautechnik : die Entwicklung neuer Entwurfs- und Konstruktionsmethoden im italienischen Galeerenbau (1400–1700)'', Hamburg : Kovač,
* Humble, R. and Bergin, M. (1993) ''A 16th century galleon'', Inside story series, Hemel Hempstead : Simon & Schuster,
* Kirsch, P. (1990) ''The Galleon: the great ships of the Armada era'', London : Conway Maritime,
* Rutland, J. (1988) ''A galleon'', 2nd rev. ed., Connaty, M. (ed.), London : Kingfisher,
* Serrano Mangas, F. (1992) ''Función y evolución del galeón en la carrera de Indias'', Colección Mar y América 9, Madrid : Editorial MAPFRE,
External links
Galleon - World History Encyclopedia*
ttps://web.archive.org/web/20070927025904/http://www.greatgridlock.net/Sqrigg/squrig2.html The Development of the Full-Rigged Ship From the Carrack to the Full-Rigger
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Merchant sailing ship types
Military history of Spain
Maritime history of Portugal
Exploration ships
Privateer ships
Ships attacked and captured by pirates