A galeas is a type of small trade vessel that was common in the
Baltic Sea
The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden and the North and Central European Plain.
The sea stretches from 53°N to 66°N latitude and fr ...
and
North Sea
The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. An epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian S ...
from the 17th to the early 20th centuries. The characteristics of the ships depend somewhat from where the ship originated. Swedish variants had two masts and were rigged as
ketches or sometimes as
schooner
A schooner () is a type of sailing vessel defined by its rig: fore-and-aft rigged on all of two or more masts and, in the case of a two-masted schooner, the foremast generally being shorter than the mainmast. A common variant, the topsail schoo ...
s. The galeas was developed from the Dutch
galliot, which was rigged in a similar way, but was equipped with a rounded stern. The Swedish galliot was sometimes called "Dutch hoy" or "English dogger". The galeas has a galliot's rig, but with a square stern.
Sources
Skonare (skonert), brigantin, briggHigh resolution photos of a model
Merchant sailing ship types
Sailboat types
Tall ships
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