The oared fighting ship was still very much in evidence in the later middle ages and well into the early modern period, especially in the Mediterranean where it was well suited to the often windless conditions which neutralised conventional sailing ships. Galleys played a crucial role in the battle of Lepanto 1571, of the key battles in European history, where two hundred Christian galleys defeated a Turkish fleet. The galley was less well suited to use in Northern waters, though kings like Henry VIII included galleys in their fleets if only because the enemy had them. The Mediterranean galley was developed from the Byzantine Dromon with rowing power augmented by the use of an outrigger, known as an apostis, to facilitate larger oars and multiple rowings systems. Unlike the classical Greek and Roman galleys the medieval equivalents were not multiply banked. Instead they were either rowed by having multiple oarsmen pulling single sweeps with all but the most outboard of the oarsmen rising and falling with the stroke of the oar. This was known as the a scalocio method (409) which could be used successfully with prisoners and convicts. alternative, preferred by the Venetian, was the terzaruolo or zenzile technique which used single oarsmen arranged in echelons of three (410) . At first sight this looked like the ancient Greek method updated, but in fact the oarsmen were all on the same level pulling oars of different lengths. Also present at Lepanto was a hybrid form of galley known as the Galleas which had a significant sailing capability and was equipped with castles and artillery (28)(587) . The Mediterranean galleas was a formidable weapon well suited to its conditions of use. In the North the galleas was less useful and tended to be an oar assisted sailing ship rather than a galley with a sailing capability. Galleases were also used by the Spaniards in the Armada of 1588 (549)(118) and one of them, the Girona, has been excavated by Robert Stenuit.
The galley and the galleas continued into the seventeenth century and were embellished in the same way as sailing ships (545) La Reole 1680, but their role became increasingly ceremonial as the state barges of kings, emperors and doges (13) as in the Bucentaur. Galleases can still be found in the eighteenth century (27) but their rational was beginning to expire.
The state of the art development of shipbuilding from the late sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries becomes a matter of the proliferation of types all based on the design concept of the skeleton built carvel hulled galleon, and the development of purpose designed ships to fulfil specific roles. But many of the smaller vessels continued and continue to be built. Many wooden fishing vessels and coasters which are still with us today have the roots in the past and are often more directly related to their remote ancestors in antiquity than the great wooden ships of the nineteenth century. It is for that reason that the study of small boats should be a prime interest for the nautical archaeologist.
(318) Profiles of Ships from Greenhill
1) The Graveney Boat
2) Thirteenth century clinker boat, Kalmar ship.
3) A cog of the late C13th
4) A hulk of the C15th
5) A C15th carrack based on the Mataro model
6) Early 3 master based on Hastings manuscript
7) late C15th three master
8) C16h Galleon
9) early C17th armed merchantman
12) late C17th royal yacht
14) Frigate Unicorn 1748.
This page is under development and not all references are complete.