San Lorenzo Zustinian Class Ship Of The Line
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

The ''San Lorenzo Zustinian'' class were a class of at least twenty-nine 70-gun
third-rate In the rating system of the Royal Navy, a third rate was a ship of the line which from the 1720s mounted between 64 and 80 guns, typically built with two gun decks (thus the related term two-decker). Rating When the rating system was f ...
ships of the line A ship of the line was a type of naval warship constructed during the Age of Sail from the 17th century to the mid-19th century. The ship of the line was designed for the naval tactic known as the line of battle, which involved the two column ...
built by the
Venetian Venetian often means from or related to: * Venice, a city in Italy * Veneto, a region of Italy * Republic of Venice (697–1797), a historical nation in that area Venetians might refer to: * Masters of Venetian painting in 15th-16th centuries * ...
Arsenale The Venetian Arsenal () is a complex of former shipyards and armories clustered together in the city of Venice in northern Italy. Owned by the state, the Arsenal was responsible for the bulk of the Venetian Republic's naval power from the Late ...
from 1691 to 1746, in three different series with minor changes in the ships' length.Note that by contemporary British practice these 70-gun ships should be rated as third rates, but the Venetian Navy considered the ''San Lorenzo Zustinian''-class first rate vessels. This different classification was never changed for prestige issues. It was the most numerous class of ship of the line built in
Venice Venice ( ; ; , formerly ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 islands that are separated by expanses of open water and by canals; portions of the city are li ...
, and the last to see active service in a war against the Ottoman Empire in 1718. All this class' ships were planned before 1720, and the vast majority was launched before the
Peace of Passarowitz The Treaty of Passarowitz, or Treaty of Požarevac, was the peace treaty signed in Požarevac ( sr-cyr, Пожаревац, , ), a town that was in the Ottoman Empire but is now in Serbia, on 21 July 1718 between the Ottoman Empire and its ad ...
. The last four vessels were completed to 70% in 1720s, then stored in the roofed shipbuilding docks of the Arsenale to be finished and launched between 1739 and 1746, a solution that was widely used with the following . Those class ships were the first to enter service under the Venetian classification standards, devised by the ''Ammiraglio dell'Arsenal'' Stefano Antipa in 1694. In 1696, the ''Sol d'Oro'', a vessel of this class, was the first ship launched with standardized colours in the Venetian sailing fleet.


Background and design

After the losses of the ships ''San Marco Grande'', ''Sant'Iseppo'' and ''Monton d'Oro'' weakened the Armada Grossa, the
Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...
decided lo launch two more (Venetian) first rate vessels. Those two ships, ordered in 1690, were intended to be part of the ''Giove Fulminante''-class, and had to copy the waterlines of ''Costanza Guerriera'', built by Iseppo Depieri di Piero some years before. Actually, only the first vessel, the ''Leon Coronato'', built again by Depieri, respected those intentions: the second, baptized ''San Lorenzo Zustinian'', was built by Stefano de Zuanne de Michiel and turned out to be quite different. Although its design was derived from the previous class, the ship was bigger, having a
beam Beam may refer to: Streams of particles or energy *Light beam, or beam of light, a directional projection of light energy **Laser beam *Radio beam *Particle beam, a stream of charged or neutral particles **Charged particle beam, a spatially lo ...
of 38 Venetian feet (13.20 m), a keel
length Length is a measure of distance. In the International System of Quantities, length is a quantity with Dimension (physical quantity), dimension distance. In most systems of measurement a Base unit (measurement), base unit for length is chosen, ...
of 115 Ven. feet (39.95 m) and a normal draught of 16.55 Ven. feet (5.75 m). Moreover, it could embark 70 guns instead of 68, carrying at first 4 culverins and 24 20-pounder guns on the gundeck, 4 culverins and 24 14-pounder guns on the upper gundeck, 12 12-pounder guns on the quarterdeck and 2 14-pounder culverins on the forecastle.Note that the Venetian scale used the ''libbra sottile'' (0.301 kg) Being larger and longer than the ''Giove Fulminante'', the ''San Lorenzo'' was more stable, and could also exit from
Malamocco Malamocco () was the first, and for a long time, the only, settlement on the Lido of Venice barrier island of the Lagoon of Venice. It is located just south of the island's center and it is part of the Lido-Pellestrina borough of the municipali ...
with the complete armament on board. For all these reasons, it was considered the first and namesake of a new ship of the line class, the most numerous ever built in the
Arsenal An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...
.


Ships


First batch (1690–94)


Second batch (1695–1708)


Third batch (1714–1717)


Construction and developments

The ''San Lorenzo Zustinian'' was built with the traditional "single frame" technique used at the time in the
Venetian Arsenal The Venetian Arsenal () is a complex of former shipyards and Armory (military), armories clustered together in the city of Venice in northern Italy. Owned by the state, the Arsenal was responsible for the bulk of the Republic of Venice, Venetian ...
, but with thicker pieces: the main frames were 22 cm thick instead of the 17 cm of the ''Giove Fulminante''-class. This experimental vessel was met with overall applause, and with a decree dated 19 December 1693 the Senate ordered to take her as model for new first rates construction. Stefano de Zuanne de Michiel, its designer and builder, was instructed to build another one with the same measures, that was eventually baptized ''Stella Maris'', and two other vessels were ordered and laid down. After the Battle of Chios (1694), the
Venetian Venetian often means from or related to: * Venice, a city in Italy * Veneto, a region of Italy * Republic of Venice (697–1797), a historical nation in that area Venetians might refer to: * Masters of Venetian painting in 15th-16th centuries * ...
fleet, that lost in the fight two of her four most powerful vessels, the ''Leon Coronato'' and the newly built ''Stella Maris'', found herself into a severe shortage of battleship. To answer this issue, the
Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...
ordered the immediate laying down of four new first rate vessel, built on the measures of the ''San Lorenzo'' but able to carry the newly designed 30-pounder guns on the gundeck and 20-pounders on the upper gundeck. To meet these requirements, the ships length was increased to 118 Venetian feet (41.03 m), thus originating the second batch of the ''San Lorenzo''-class. Those ships structures was further strengthened, in order to sustain the stronger concussion of bigger guns, by inserting reinforcement ribbings between the frames under the waterline, a solution originally implemented on the captured Ottoman vessels ''Sant'Alvise'', ''Santissima Annunziata'' and ''San Marco Grande'' in 1651. Vessels of this batch were built throughout the following 13 years – the last was ordered in 1708 – and their aging design led to new problems. In the final stages of the
Morean War The Morean war (), also known as the Sixth Ottoman–Venetian War, was fought between 1684–1699 as part of the wider conflict known as the "Great Turkish War", between the Republic of Venice and the Ottoman Empire. Military operations ranged ...
, the ''San Lorenzo''-class vessels, at the time the larger ships in Venetian service, started to embark 50-pounder guns on their gundecks. Moreover, part of those ships, finished in a great hurry during the war, were built with not properly seasoned wood, and deteriorated quickly. The need to sustain the stress of more powerful guns, and the arguments over the resistance of Venetian vessels born out of many cases of hogging in mothballed ships led shipbuilders to reinforce the internal structures of new vessels, and increase their frames thickness to 28.2 cm. The results were evident in the ''Colomba d'Oro'' and the ''Grand'Alessandro'': being heavier, they drew more, and turned out to be slow in any wind condition. To solve this problem, in 1702 Fabio Bonvicini, that had been ''Capitano Ordinario delle Navi'' during the war and was now a Senate member, proposed to build longer ships with thicker frames, able to carry 50-pounder guns, with reduced beam and smaller decks height. Only in 1708, winning the opposition of Arsenal's master builders, was laid down a ship that corresponded to Bonvicini suggestion, the ''Corona'', launched in November 1711, but, due to arguments over the danger posed by rough sea to the big first rate ships, it was not replicated. In the summer of 1714, when the Ottoman-Venetian War of 1714–1718 was about to start, the consistence of the ''Armata Grossa'' was reduced to only 22 vessels, mostly second and third rates. To reinforce the naval forces that were about to clash with a 40 vessels strong Ottoman fleet, the works ongoing on the last four vessels of the second batch were accelerated. As those ships were launched, six new first-rates were ordered and laid down in the Arsenal: they were still inspired by the ''San Lorenzo'', but modified according to Bonvicini's notes. Those new vessels, able to carry 50-pounder guns on the gundeck and 30-pounders on the upper gundeck, had a keel length of 122 Venetian feet (42.38 m) and formed the third batch of the class.


See also

*
Venetian Navy The Venetian navy () was the navy of the Venetian Republic which played an important role in the history of the republic and the Mediterranean world. It was the premier navy in the Mediterranean Sea for many centuries between the medieval and ea ...
*
Arsenal of Venice The Venetian Arsenal () is a complex of former shipyards and Armory (military), armories clustered together in the city of Venice in northern Italy. Owned by the state, the Arsenal was responsible for the bulk of the Republic of Venice, Venetian ...
*
Battle of Imbros (1717) The Battle of Imbros was a naval clash that took place on 12, 13 and 16 June 1717 near Imbros in the Aegean Sea, between the sailing fleets of Venice and the Ottoman Empire. The outnumbered Venetian Armada Grossa, under the ''Capitano Straordi ...


References


Notes


Citations


Bibliography

* * {{Venetian navy Ship of the line classes Ships built by the Venetian Arsenal 17th century in the Republic of Venice 18th century in the Republic of Venice