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177-654: A galley is a type of ship optimised for propulsion by oars . Galleys were historically used for warfare , trade , and piracy mostly in the seas surrounding Europe. It developed in the Mediterranean world during antiquity and continued to exist in various forms until the early 19th century. It typically had a long, slender hull, shallow draft , and often a low freeboard . Most types of galleys also had sails that could be used in favourable winds, but they relied primarily on oars to move independently of winds and currents or in battle. The term "galley" originated from

354-414: A centerboard or deep keel, which is much needed when sailing across or close to the wind. Timbers can be added as necessary compromise but always with some loss of the fundamental benefits of the construction method. Clinker construction remains a useful method of construction for small wooden vessels, especially for sea-going dinghies which need to be light enough to be readily moved and stored when out of

531-563: A full-rigged ship or a vessel may be described as "ship-rigged". Alongside this rig-specific usage, "ship" continued to have the more general meaning of a large sea-going vessel. Often the meaning can only be determined by the context. Some large vessels are traditionally called boats , notably submarines . Others include Great Lakes freighters , riverboats , and ferryboats , which may be designed for operation on inland or protected coastal waters. In most maritime traditions ships have individual names , and modern ships may belong to

708-461: A keel . To provide a stiffening along its length, they had large cables, trusses, connecting stem and stern resting on massive crutches on deck. They were held in tension to avoid hogging while at sea (bending the ship's construction upward in the middle). In the 15th century BC, Egyptian galley-like craft were still depicted with the distinctive extreme sheer, but had by then developed the distinctive forward-curving stern decorations with ornaments in

885-458: A ship class often named after its first ship. In many documents the ship name is introduced with a ship prefix being an abbreviation of the ship class, for example "MS" (motor ship) or "SV" (sailing vessel), making it easier to distinguish a ship name from other individual names in a text. "Ship" (along with "nation") is an English word that has retained a female grammatical gender in some usages, which allows it sometimes to be referred to as

1062-475: A square sail . They were steered by rudders hung on the sternpost . In contrast, the ship-building tradition of the Mediterranean was of carvel construction  – the fitting of the hull planking to the frames of the hull. Depending on the precise detail of this method, it may be characterised as either "frame first" or "frame-led". In either variant, during construction, the hull shape

1239-512: A "she" without being of female natural gender . For most of history, transport by ship – provided there is a feasible route – has generally been cheaper, safer and faster than making the same journey on land. Only the coming of railways in the middle of the 19th century and the growth of commercial aviation in the second half of the 20th century have changed this principle. This applied equally to sea crossings, coastal voyages and use of rivers and lakes. Examples of

1416-488: A Greek term for a small type of galley and came in use in English from about 1300. It has occasionally been used for unrelated vessels with similar military functions as galley but which were not Mediterranean in origin, such as medieval Scandinavian longships , 16th-century Acehnese ghalis and 18th-century North American gunboats . Galleys were the primary warships used by the ancient Mediterranean naval powers, including

1593-438: A common and legitimate occupation among ancient maritime peoples. The later Athenian historian Thucydides described it as having been "without stigma" before his time. 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 ,

1770-405: A crew headed by a sea captain , with deck officers and engine officers on larger vessels. Special-purpose vessels often have specialized crew if necessary, for example scientists aboard research vessels . Carvel (boat building) Carvel built or carvel planking is a method of boat building in which hull planks are laid edge to edge and fastened to a robust frame, thereby forming

1947-590: A deadweight cargo and being sailed and steered." At this time, ships were developing in Asia in much the same way as Europe. Japan used defensive naval techniques in the Mongol invasions of Japan in 1281. It is likely that the Mongols of the time took advantage of both European and Asian shipbuilding techniques. During the 15th century, China's Ming dynasty assembled one of the largest and most powerful naval fleets in

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2124-410: A disadvantage because they were not optimized for oar use. The galley did have disadvantages compared to the sailing vessel though. Their smaller hulls were not able to hold as much cargo and this limited their range as the crews were required to replenish food stuffs more frequently. The low freeboard of the galley meant that in close action with a sailing vessel, the sailing vessel would usually maintain

2301-548: A few years, steam had replaced many of the sailing ships that had served this route. Even greater fuel efficiency was obtained with triple-expansion steam engines – but this had to wait for higher quality steel to be available to make boilers running at 125 pounds per square inch (860 kPa) in SS Aberdeen (1881) . By this point virtually all routes could be served competitively by steamships. Sail continued with some cargoes, where low costs were more important to

2478-463: 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 rich pilgrims to the Holy Land, a trip that could be accomplished in as little 29 days on the route Venice– Jaffa , despite landfalls for rest and watering, or to shelter from rough weather. Later routes linked ports around

2655-550: A galley is defined as a vessel relying primarily on oars, but which can also use sails when necessary, and which developed in the Mediterranean. "Galley" is also occasionally used as a generic term for any type of oared vessels that are larger than boats and with similar functions but which are built according to other shipbuilding traditions. It was only from the Late Middle Ages that a unified galley concept started to come into use. Ancient galleys were named according to

2832-718: A general term for oared warships or more specifically for the Mediterranean-style vessel. The term derives from the Medieval Greek galea , a smaller version of the dromon , the prime warship of the Byzantine navy . The origin of the Greek word is unclear but could possibly be related to galeos , the Greek word for dogfish shark . Throughout history, there has been a wide variety of terms used for different types of galleys. In modern historical literature,

3009-546: A given size of cannon. Traditionally the English in the North and the Venetians in the Mediterranean are seen as some the earliest to move in this direction. The improving sail rigs of northern vessels also allowed them to navigate in the coastal waters of the Mediterranean to a much larger degree than before. Aside from warships the decrease in the cost of gunpowder weapons also led to the arming of merchants. The larger vessels of

3186-409: A heavier but more rigid hull, capable of taking a variety of sail rigs . Clinker (lapstrake) construction involves longitudinal overlapping "riven timber" (split wood) planks that are fixed together over very light scantlings . A carvel boat has a smoother surface which gives the impression that it is more hydrodynamically efficient since the exposed edges of the clinker planking appear to disturb

3363-444: A height advantage. The sailing vessel could also fight more effectively farther out at sea and in rougher wind conditions because of the height of their freeboard. Under sail, an oared warship was placed at much greater risk as a result of the piercings for the oars which were required to be near the waterline and would allow water to ingress into the galley if the vessel heeled too far to one side. These advantages and disadvantages led

3540-540: A keel made from a dugout canoe. Their designs were unique, evolving from ancient rafts to the characteristic double-hulled, single-outrigger, and double-outrigger designs of Austronesian ships. In the 2nd century AD, people from the Indonesian archipelago already made large ships measuring over 50 m long and standing 4–7 m out of the water. They could carry 600–1000 people and 250–1000 ton cargo. These ships were known as kunlun bo or k'unlun po (崑崙舶, lit. "ship of

3717-402: A lifetime of practice, while gunpowder weapons required considerably less training to use successfully. According to an influential study by military historian John F. Guilmartin, this transition in warfare, along with the introduction of much cheaper cast iron guns in the 1580s, proved the "death knell" for the war galley as a significant military vessel. Gunpowder weapons began to displace men as

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3894-620: A long time, though in subordinate role and in particular circumstances. 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). Under King Henry VIII ,

4071-404: A major battle, where they played specialized roles. An example of this was when a Spanish fleet used its galleys in a mixed naval/amphibious battle in the second 1641 battle of Tarragona , to break a French naval blockade and land troops and supplies. Even the Venetians, Ottomans, and other Mediterranean powers began to build Atlantic style warships for use in the Mediterranean in the latter part of

4248-553: A number of ranked grades based on the size of the vessel and the number of its crew. The most basic types were the large commander "lantern galleys", half-galleys, galiots , fustas , brigantines , and fregatas . Naval historian Jan Glete has described these as a sort of predecessor of the later rating system of the Royal Navy and other sailing fleets in Northern Europe. Classicist Lionel Casson has applied

4425-668: A rearguard in fleet actions, similar to the duties performed by frigates outside the Mediterranean. They could assist damaged ships out of the line, but generally only in very calm weather, as was the case at the Battle of Málaga in 1704. They could also defeat larger ships that were isolated, as when in 1651 a squadron of Spanish galleys captured a French galleon at Formentera . For small states and principalities as well as groups of private merchants, galleys were more affordable than large and complex sailing warships, and were used as defense against piracy. Galleys required less timber to build,

4602-481: A serious threat to sailing warships, but were gradually made obsolete by the development of full-rigged ships with superior broadside armament . Galleys were unsuitable in the wider ocean, far from land and bases of resupply. They had difficulty in rough weather. Their role as flexible cruisers and patrol craft in the Mediterranean was also taken over by xebecs and other oar-sail hybrids. Oars on ancient galleys were usually arranged in 15–30 pairs, from monoremes with

4779-465: A ship could incapacitate an enemy ship by punching a hole in its planking. The relative speed and nimbleness of ships became important, since a slower ship could be outmaneuvered and disabled by a faster one. The earliest designs had only one row of rowers that sat in undecked hulls, rowing against thole pins , or oarports, that were placed directly along the railings. The practical upper limit for wooden constructions fast and maneuverable enough for warfare

4956-546: A single galley battle occurred between the two great powers during this period, and virtually no naval battles between other nations either. During the War of the Spanish Succession , French galleys were involved in actions against Antwerp and Harwich , 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

5133-483: A single line of oars to triremes with three lines of oars in a tiered arrangement. Occasionally, much larger polyremes had multiple rowers per oar and hundreds of rowers per galley. Ancient shipwrights built galleys using a labour-intensive, shell-first mortise and tenon technique up until the Early Middle Ages. It was gradually replaced by a less expensive skeleton-first carvel method. The rowing setup

5310-521: A single mast and bank of oars. Colorful frescoes at the Minoan settlement on Santorini (about 1600 BC) depict vessels with tents arranged in a ceremonial procession. Some of the vessels are rowed, but others are paddled. This has been interpreted as a possible ritual reenactment of more ancient types of vessels, alluding to a time before rowing was invented. Little is otherwise known about the use and design of Minoan ships. Mediterranean galleys from around

5487-522: A single propeller driven by a diesel or, less usually, gas turbine engine ., but until the mid-19th century they were predominantly square sail rigged. The fastest vessels may use pump-jet engines . Most commercial vessels such as container ships, have full hull-forms (higher Block coefficients ) to maximize cargo capacity. Merchant ships and fishing vessels are usually made of steel, although aluminum can be used on faster craft, and fiberglass or wood on smaller vessels. Commercial vessels generally have

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5664-496: A single row of oarports on the lower deck, close to the waterline. The three British galley frigates also had distinctive names – James Galley , Charles Galley , and Mary Galley . In the late 18th century, the term "galley" was sometimes used to describe small oared gun-armed vessels. In North America, during the American Revolutionary War and other wars with France and Britain, the early US Navy and

5841-465: A small overall displacement. Due to the light nature of the construction method, increasing the beam did not commensurately increase the vessel's survivability under the twisting forces arising if, for example, when sailing downwind, the wave-train impinges on the quarter rather than dead astern. In these conditions greater beam widths may have made clinker vessels more vulnerable. As torsional forces increased in proportion to displaced (or cargo) weight,

6018-454: A smooth surface. Traditionally the planks are neither attached to, nor slotted into, each other, having only a caulking sealant between the planks to keep water out. Modern carvel builders may attach the planks to each other with glues and fixings. It is a "frame first" method of hull construction, where the shape is determined by the framework onto which the planks are fixed. This is in contrast to "plank first" or "shell first" methods, where

6195-526: A symbol of Louis XIV's absolutist ambitions. The last recorded battle in the Mediterranean where galleys played a significant part was at Matapan in 1717, between the Ottomans and Venice and its allies, though they had little influence on the outcome. Few large-scale naval battles were fought in the Mediterranean throughout most of the remainder of the 18th century. The Tuscan galley fleet was dismantled around 1718, Naples had only four old vessels by 1734 and

6372-585: A time-consuming and physically demanding job. The modern variation is to use much narrower planks that are edge-glued instead of being caulked. With modern power sanders a much smoother hull is produced, as all the small ridges between the planks can be removed. This method started to become more common in the 1960s with the more widespread availability of waterproof glues, such as resorcinol (red glue) and then epoxy resin. Modern waterproof glues, especially epoxy resin, have caused revolutionary changes in carvel and clinker construction. Traditionally, nails provided

6549-595: Is a vessel that carries goods by sea. A common notion is that a ship can carry a boat, but not vice versa . A ship is likely to have a full-time crew assigned. A US Navy rule of thumb is that ships heel towards the outside of a sharp turn, whereas boats heel towards the inside because of the relative location of the center of mass versus the center of buoyancy . American and British 19th century maritime law distinguished "vessels" from other watercraft; ships and boats fall in one legal category, whereas open boats and rafts are not considered vessels. Starting around

6726-501: Is based on Latin numerals with the suffix -reme from rēmus , "oar". A monoreme has one bank of oars, a bireme two, and a trireme three. A human-powered oared vessel is not practically feasible as four or more oars to a bank will either interfere with each other, or be too high above the waterline to be practicable. In describing galleys, any number higher than three did not refer to banks of oars, but to additional rowers per oar. Quinquereme ( quintus + rēmus )

6903-559: Is because the fastenings of a clinker hull took all the hogging and sagging forces imposed by the ship moving through large waves. In carvel construction, these forces are also taken by the edge-to-edge contact of the hull planks. From Middle English carvel, carvelle, carvile, kervel (“small ship; caravel ”); from Old French caruelle, carvelle, kirvelle . The term was used in English when caravels became popular in Northern European waters from c.  1440 onwards, and

7080-423: 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 galleys 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. Fleets with large galleys were put in action in conflicts such as

7257-428: Is determined by the frames, not the planking. The hull planks are not fastened to each other, only to the frames. These Mediterranean ships were rigged with lateen sails on one or more masts (depending on the size of the vessel) and were steered with a side rudder. They are often referred to as "round ships". Crucially, the Mediterranean and Northern European traditions merged. Cogs are known to have travelled to

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7434-511: Is found in Egypt during the 4th millennium BCE. In 2024, ships had a global cargo capacity of 2.4 billion tons, with the three largest classes being ships carrying dry bulk (43%), oil tankers (28%) and container ships (14%). Ships are typically larger than boats, but there is no universally accepted distinction between the two. Ships generally can remain at sea for longer periods of time than boats. A legal definition of ship from Indian case law

7611-465: Is greater internal hull space available. A clinker vessel whose ribs occupy less space than a carvel vessel's is more suitable for cargo which is bulky rather than dense. A structural benefit of clinker construction is that it produces a vessel that can safely twist and flex around its long axis (running from bow to stern). This is an advantage in North Atlantic rollers, provided the vessel has

7788-615: Is often referred to as a " polyreme ". Medieval and early modern galleys were described based on the changing designs that evolved after the ancient designs and rowing arrangement had been forgotten. Among the most important is the Byzantine dromon, the predecessor to the Italian galea sottile  [ it ] , the final form of the Mediterranean war galley. As galleys became an integral part of an advanced, early modern system of warfare and state administration, they were divided into

7965-542: Is the Late Bronze Age Uluburun shipwreck off the coast of Turkey, dating back to 1300 BC. By 1200 B.C., the Phoenicians were building large merchant ships. In world maritime history, declares Richard Woodman, they are recognized as "the first true seafarers, founding the art of pilotage, cabotage , and navigation" and the architects of "the first true ship, built of planks, capable of carrying

8142-455: Is the first known engagement between organized armed forces using sea vessels as weapons of war, though primarily as fighting platforms. The Phoenicians were among the most significant naval civilizations in early classical antiquity , but little detailed evidence has been found of what kind of ships they used. The best depictions found so far have been small, highly stylized images on seals which illustrate crescent-shaped vessels equipped with

8319-411: Is unknown, but the largest number of jong deployed in an expedition is about 400 jongs, when Majapahit attacked Pasai, in 1350. Until the late 13th or early 14th century, European shipbuilding had two separate traditions. In Northern Europe clinker construction predominated. In this, the hull planks are fastened together in an overlapping manner. This is a "shell first" construction technique, with

8496-623: The actuaria with up to 50 rowers was the most versatile, including the phaselus (lit. "bean pod") for passenger transport and the lembus , a small-scale express carrier. Many of these designs continued to be used until the Middle Ages. After the fall of the Western Roman Empire around the 5th century AD, the old Mediterranean economy collapsed and the volume of trade went down drastically. The Eastern Roman Empire neglected to revive overland trade routes, but

8673-625: The Bay of Biscay . Spain maintained four permanent galley squadrons to guard its coasts and trade routes against the Ottomans, the French, and their corsairs. Together they formed the largest galley navy in the Mediterranean in the early 17th century. They were the backbone of the Spanish Mediterranean war fleet and were used for ferrying troops, supplies, horses, and munitions to Spain's Italian and African possessions. In Southeast Asia during

8850-485: The Early Middle Ages , and cannons from the 15th century. However, they relied primarily on their large crews to overpower enemy vessels through boarding . Galleys were the first vessels to effectively use heavy gunpowder artillery against other ships and naval fortifications. Early 16th-century galleys had heavy guns in the bow which were aimed by manoeuvring the entire vessel. Initially, gun galleys posed

9027-744: The Kunlun people") by the Chinese, and kolandiaphonta by the Greeks. They had 4–7 masts and were able to sail against the wind due to the usage of tanja sails . These ships may have reached as far as Ghana . In the 11th century, a new type of ship called djong or jong was recorded in Java and Bali . This type of ship was built using wooden dowels and treenails, unlike the kunlun bo which used vegetal fibres for lashings. In China, miniature models of ships that feature steering oars have been dated to

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9204-575: The Ottomans in the east, Venice in the center and Habsburg Spain in the west. The core of their fleets were concentrated in the three major, wholly dependable naval bases in the Mediterranean: Constantinople , Venice , and Barcelona . Naval warfare in the 16th-century Mediterranean was fought mostly on a smaller scale, with raiding and minor actions dominating. Only three truly major fleet engagements were actually fought in

9381-894: The Phoenicians , Greeks and Romans . The galley remained the dominant type of vessel used for war and piracy in the Mediterranean Sea until the start of the early modern period . A final revival of galley warfare occurred during the 18th century in the Baltic Sea during the wars between Russia , Sweden , and Denmark . In the Mediterranean, they remained in use until the very end of the 18th century, and survived in part because of their prestige and association with chivalry and land warfare. In war, galleys were used in landing raids, as troop transports and were very effective in amphibious warfare . While they usually served in wars or for defense against piracy, galleys also served as trade vessels for high-priority or expensive goods up to

9558-642: The Punic Wars (246–146 BC) between the Roman Republic and Carthage , which included massive naval battles with hundreds of vessels and tens of thousands of soldiers, seamen, and rowers. 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

9735-736: The Red Sea as far as the myrrh -country." Sneferu 's ancient cedar wood ship Praise of the Two Lands is the first reference recorded (2613 BC) to a ship being referred to by name. The ancient Egyptians were perfectly at ease building sailboats. A remarkable example of their shipbuilding skills was the Khufu ship , a vessel 143 feet (44 m) in length entombed at the foot of the Great Pyramid of Giza around 2500 BC and found intact in 1954. The oldest discovered sea faring hulled boat

9912-787: The United Kingdom in the Falkland Islands and the United States in Iraq . The size of the world's fishing fleet is more difficult to estimate. The largest of these are counted as commercial vessels, but the smallest are legion. Fishing vessels can be found in most seaside villages in the world. As of 2004, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization estimated 4 million fishing vessels were operating worldwide. The same study estimated that

10089-599: The Warring States period (c. 475–221 BC). By the Han dynasty , a well kept naval fleet was an integral part of the military. Sternpost-mounted rudders started to appear on Chinese ship models starting in the 1st century AD. However, these early Chinese ships were fluvial (riverine), and were not seaworthy. The Chinese only acquired sea-going ship technologies in the 10th-century AD Song dynasty after contact with Southeast Asian k'un-lun po trading ships, leading to

10266-454: The atakebune . In Korea, in the early 15th century during the Joseon era, " Geobukseon "(거북선), was developed. The empire of Majapahit used large ships called jong , built in northern Java, for transporting troops overseas. The jongs were transport ships which could carry 100–2000 tons of cargo and 50–1000 people, 28.99–88.56 meter in length. The exact number of jong fielded by Majapahit

10443-533: The railway up to and past the early days of the Industrial Revolution . Flat-bottomed and flexible scow boats also became widely used for transporting small cargoes. Mercantile trade went hand-in-hand with exploration, self-financed by the commercial benefits of exploration. During the first half of the 18th century, the French Navy began to develop a new type of vessel known as a ship of

10620-408: The streamline and cause drag. A clinker certainly has a slightly larger wetted area, but a carvel hull is not necessarily more efficient: for given hull strength, the clinker boat is overall lighter, and displaces less water than a heavily-framed carvel hull. As cargo vessels become bigger, the vessel's weight becomes small in comparison with total displacement; and for a given external volume, there

10797-463: The "eye" of the builder. Therefore fewer very highly skilled personnel are needed. One of the transitional ships is the Yassi Ada ship (seventh century CE), which was excavated between 1960 and 1965. This had the lower strakes of planking fastened edge-to-edge with mortises and tenons, then the floor s were added, followed by more planking joined with tenons. This brought the planking up to

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10974-646: The 13th and 14th century, the galley evolved into the design that was to remain essentially the same until it was phased out in the early 19th century. The new type descended from the ships used by Byzantine and Muslim fleets in the Early Middle Ages. These were the mainstay of all Christian powers until the 14th century, 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 types of vessels

11151-402: The 14th century BC, the first dedicated fighting ships were developed, sleeker and with cleaner lines than the bulkier merchants. They were used for raiding, capturing merchants and for dispatches. During this early period, raiding became the most important form of organized violence in the Mediterranean region. Casson used the example of Homer 's works to show that seaborne raiding was considered

11328-822: 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 nautae , "sailors". The Roman galley fleets were turned into provincial patrol forces that were smaller and relied largely on liburnians , compact biremes with 25 pairs of oars. 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

11505-475: 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 ( corps des galères ) reached its all-time peak with more than 50 vessels manned by over 15,000 men and officers, becoming the largest galley fleet in the world at the time. Although there was intense rivalry between France and Spain, not

11682-554: The 16th and early 17th century, the Aceh Sultanate had fleets of up to 100 native galley-like vessels ( ghali ) as well as smaller rowed vessels, there were described by Europeans as lancarans , galliots , and fustas. Some of the larger vessels were very large with heavier armament than standard Mediterranean galleys, with raised platforms for infantry and some with stern structures similar in height to that of contemporary galleons . Galleys had been synonymous with warships in

11859-544: The 16th century: the battles of Preveza in 1538, Djerba in 1560, and Lepanto in 1571. Lepanto became the last large all-galley battle ever, and was also one of the largest battle in sheer number of participants in early modern Europe before the Napoleonic Wars . The Mediterranean powers also employed galley forces for conflicts outside the Mediterranean. Spain sent galley squadrons to the Netherlands during

12036-563: The 19th century, but saw little action. The last time galleys were deployed in action was when the Russian navy was attacked in Åbo ( Turku ) in 1854 as part of the Crimean War . In the second half of the 18th century, the role of Baltic galleys in coastal fleets was replaced first with hybrid "archipelago frigates" (such as the turuma or pojama ) and xebecs, and after the 1790s with various types of gunboats. The documentary evidence for

12213-633: The 3rd or 2nd century BC had a length to breadth ratio of 6:1, proportions that fell between the 4:1 of sailing merchant ships and the 8:1 or 10:1 of war galleys. 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. In Latin they were called actuaria (navis) , "(ship) that moves", stressing that they were capable of making progress regardless of weather conditions. As an example of

12390-411: 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 14 km/h (9 mph), making them

12567-482: The 9th century typically had 15 and 25 pairs of oars ("triaconters" and " penteconters ", respectively) with just one level of oars on each side, or "monoremes". Sometime during the 8th century the first bireme galleys were built by adding a second level of rowers, one level above the other. This created a second bank of oars, adding more propulsion power with the same length of hull. It made galleys faster, more maneuverable and sturdier. Phoenician shipbuilders were likely

12744-586: The 9th century, the struggle between the Byzantines and Arabs had turned the Eastern Mediterranean into a no-man's land for merchant activity. In the 820s Crete was captured by Al-Andalus Muslims who had fled 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. In

12921-510: The 9th century. Its slow adoption involved some variation and experimentation. Some ships were built using "framing-first", as opposed to the full "frame-first" system. In "framing-first", some of the framing is installed in the lower part of the hull, followed by the planking of that area, more framing is added to increase the height of the hull, and then more planking added to that. (The Romano-Celtic ship-building tradition of Northern Europe used "framing-first", but this part of Europe did not adopt

13098-508: The Baltic Sea in the 16th century but the details of their designs are lacking due to the absence of records. They might have been built in a more regional style, but the only known depiction from the time shows a typical Mediterranean style vessel. There is conclusive evidence that Denmark-Norway became the first Baltic power to build classic Mediterranean-style galleys in the 1660s, though they proved to be generally too large to be useful in

13275-631: The Baltic region is the wreck of Gribshunden , flagship of the Danish-Norwegian King Hans. The three-masted ship was built in 1485 probably near Rotterdam, and served as Hans's "floating castle" for ten years before sinking in June 1495. Clinker was the predominant method of ship construction used in Northern Europe before the carvel. In clinker built hulls, the planked edges overlap; carvel construction with its strong framing gives

13452-599: The Dutch and Spanish found galleys useful for amphibious operations in the many shallow waters around the Low Countries where deep-draft sailing vessels could not enter. 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-Norway , Sweden, Russia, and some of the Central European powers with ports on

13629-463: The English navy used several kinds of vessels that were adapted to local needs. English galliasses (very different from the Mediterranean vessel 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. During the Dutch Revolt (1566–1609) both

13806-592: 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. By 1790, there were fewer than 50 galleys in service among all the Mediterranean powers, half of which belonged to Venice. Oared vessels remained in use in northern waters for

13983-911: The Great Lakes, "topping off" when they have exited the Seaway. Similarly, the largest lakers are confined to the Upper Lakes ( Superior , Michigan , Huron , Erie ) because they are too large to use the Seaway locks, beginning at the Welland Canal that bypasses the Niagara River . Since the freshwater lakes are less corrosive to ships than the salt water of the oceans, lakers tend to last much longer than ocean freighters. Lakers older than 50 years are not unusual, and as of 2005, all were over 20 years of age. SS  St. Marys Challenger , built in 1906 as William P Snyder ,

14160-547: The High and Late Middle Ages , even as sailing vessels evolved more efficient hulls and rigging. The zenith in the design of merchant galleys came with the state-owned " great galleys  [ it ] " of the Venetian Republic , first built in the 1290s. The great galleys 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 tonnes). With

14337-542: The Highland galley), close relatives of longship types like the snekkja . By the 14th century, they were replaced with balingers in southern Britain while longship-type Highland and Irish galleys and birlinns remained in use throughout the Middle Ages in northern Britain. The French navy and the Royal Navy built a series of "galley frigates" from around 1670–1690 that were small two-decked sailing cruisers with

14514-627: The Lakes. These vessels are traditionally called boats, not ships. Visiting ocean-going vessels are called "salties". Because of their additional beam , very large salties are never seen inland of the Saint Lawrence Seaway . Because the smallest of the Soo Locks is larger than any Seaway lock, salties that can pass through the Seaway may travel anywhere in the Great Lakes. Because of their deeper draft, salties may accept partial loads on

14691-572: The Mediterranean Sea, the Order of Saint John based in Malta, and of the Papal States in central Italy, cut down drastically on their galley forces. Despite the lack of action, the galley corps received vast resources (25–50% of the French naval expenditures) during the 1660s. It was maintained as a functional fighting force right up until its abolition in 1748, though its primary function was more of

14868-528: 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, it was the galley that was favored by the 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

15045-463: The Mediterranean in the 12th and 13th centuries. Some aspects of their designs were being copied by Mediterranean ship-builders early in the 14th century. Iconography shows square sails being used on the mainmast but a lateen on the mizzen, and a sternpost hung rudder replacing the side rudder. The name for this type of vessel was "coche" or, for a larger example, "carrack". Some of these new Mediterranean types travelled to Northern European waters and, in

15222-570: The Mediterranean in the early 17th century. In 1616, a small Spanish squadron of five galleons and a patache cruised the eastern Mediterranean and defeated an Ottoman fleet of 55 galleys at the Battle of Cape Celidonia . By 1650, war galleys were used primarily in the struggles between Venice and the Ottoman Empire for strategic island and coastal trading bases and until the 1720s by both France and Spain for largely amphibious and cruising operations or in combination with heavy sailing ships in

15399-573: 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 the Mediterranean, and served as an auxiliary branch of the army. Very little is known about the design of Baltic Sea galleys, except that they were overall smaller than in the Mediterranean and they were rowed by army soldiers rather than convicts or slaves. Galleys were introduced to

15576-467: The Mediterranean, between the Mediterranean and the Black Sea, and between the Mediterranean and Bruges . In 1447 Florentine galleys could stop at as many as 14 ports on their way to and from Alexandria in Egypt. The earliest use for galleys in warfare was to ferry fighters from one place to another, and until the middle of the 2nd millennium BC had no real distinction from merchant freighters. Around

15753-420: The Northern European tradition is the bottom planking of the cog . Here, the hull planks are not joined to each other and are laid flush (not overlapped). They are held together by fastening to the frames but this is done after the shaping and fitting of these planks. Therefore, this is another case of a "shell first" construction technique. These Northern European ships were rigged with a single mast setting

15930-480: The amphibious abilities of galleys as they could make assaults supported with heavy firepower, and were even more effectively defended when beached stern-first. An accumulation and generalizing of bronze cannons and small firearms in the Mediterranean during the 16th century increased the cost of warfare, but also made those dependent on them more resilient to manpower losses. Older ranged weapons, like bows or even crossbows, required considerable skill to handle, sometimes

16107-659: The army), while the Russian galley forces under Tsar Peter I developed into a supporting arm for the sailing navy and a well-functioning auxiliary of the army which infiltrated and conducted numerous raids on the eastern Swedish coast in the 1710s. Sweden and Russia became the two main competitors for Baltic dominance in the 18th century, and built the largest galley fleets in the world at the time. They were used for amphibious operations in Russo-Swedish wars of 1741–43 and 1788–90 . The last galleys ever constructed were built in 1796 by Russia, and remained in service well into

16284-588: The bulkier sailing ships, the cog and the carrack , were almost like floating fortresses, being difficult to board and even harder to capture. Galleys remained useful as warships throughout the entire Middle Ages because of their maneuverability. Sailing ships of the time had only one mast, usually with just a single, large square sail. This made them cumbersome to steer. Though equipped to beat to windward, their performance at this would have been limited. Galleys were therefore important for coastal raiding and amphibious landings, both key elements of medieval warfare. In

16461-490: The captain's use was "galley" even though it was issued to the ship by the navy dockyard as a "gig". 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 forward, a less efficient form of propulsion than rowing with proper oars , facing backward. Seagoing paddled craft have been attested by finds of terracotta sculptures and lead models in

16638-535: 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 easily outmatched the short-ranged, low-freeboard Turkish galleys. The Spanish used galleys to more success in their colonial possessions in the Caribbean and the Philippines to hunt pirates and sporadically used them in the Netherlands and

16815-425: The century. Christian and Muslim corsairs had been using galleys in sea roving and in support of the major powers in times of war, but largely replaced them with xebecs , various sail/oar hybrids, and a few remaining light galleys in the early 17th century. No large all-galley battles were fought after the gigantic clash at Lepanto in 1571, and galleys were mostly used as cruisers or for supporting sailing warships as

16992-545: The consequences of this include the large grain trade in the Mediterranean during the classical period . Cities such as Rome were totally reliant on the delivery by sailing and human powered (oars) ships of the large amounts of grain needed. It has been estimated that it cost less for a sailing ship of the Roman Empire to carry grain the length of the Mediterranean than to move the same amount 15 miles by road. Rome consumed about 150,000 tons of Egyptian grain each year over

17169-427: The construction of ancient galleys is fragmentary, particularly in pre-Roman times. Plans and schematics in the modern sense did not exist until around the 17th century and nothing comparable 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

17346-604: The decline of ocean liners as air travel increased. The rise of container ships from the 1960s onwards dramatically changed the nature of commercial merchant shipping, as containerization led to larger ship sizes, dedicated container routes and the decline of general cargo vessels as well as tramp steaming. The late 20th century also saw a rise in cruise ships for tourism around the world. In 2016, there were more than 49,000 merchant ships , totaling almost 1.8 billion deadweight tons . Of these 28% were oil tankers , 43% were bulk carriers , and 13% were container ships . By 2019,

17523-568: The defeat of Athens by Sparta and its allies. 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. It was associated with the latest in warship technology around the 4th century BC and could only be employed by an advanced state with an advanced economy and administration. They required considerable skill to row and oarsmen were mostly free citizens who had years of experience at

17700-457: The design was relatively simple and they carried fewer guns. They were tactically flexible and could be used for naval ambushes as well amphibious operations. They also required few skilled seamen and were difficult for sailing ships to catch, but vital in hunting down and catching other galleys and oared raiders. Among the largest galley fleets in the 17th century were operated by the two major Mediterranean powers, France and Spain. France had by

17877-464: The development of the junks . The earliest historical evidence of boats is found in Egypt during the 4th millennium BCE The Greek historian and geographer Agatharchides had documented ship-faring among the early Egyptians : "During the prosperous period of the Old Kingdom , between the 30th and 25th centuries BC , the river -routes were kept in order, and Egyptian ships sailed

18054-482: The development of the large merchant galleys was the increase in Western European pilgrims traveling to the Holy Land. In Northern Europe, Viking longships and their derivations, knarrs , dominated trading and shipping. They functioned and were propelled similar to the Mediterranean galleys, but developed from a separate building tradition. In the Mediterranean, merchant galleys continued to be used during

18231-414: The earliest conclusive written reference dates to 542 BC. These new galleys were called triērēs (literally "three-fitted") in Greek. Romans later applied the term triremis which is the origin of "trireme" and the name used most commonly today. Until at least the late 2nd century BC, there was no clear distinction between ships of trade and war other than how they were used. River boats plied

18408-423: The early 15th century, sailing ships began to dominate naval warfare in northern waters. While the galley still remained the primary warship in southern waters, a similar transition had begun also among the Mediterranean powers. A Castilian naval raid on the island of Jersey in 1405 became the first recorded battle where a Mediterranean power employed a naval force consisting mostly of cogs or carracks, rather than

18585-573: The eastern Mediterranean, the Byzantine Empire struggled with the incursion from invading Muslim Arabs from the 7th century, leading to fierce competition, a buildup of fleet, and war galleys of increasing size. Soon after conquering Egypt and the Levant, the Arab rulers built ships highly similar to Byzantine dromons with the help of local Coptic shipwrights from former Byzantine naval bases. By

18762-618: The end of the Middle Ages . Its oars guaranteed that it could make progress where a sailing ship would have been becalmed , and its large crew could defend it against attacks from pirates and raiders. This also made it one of the safest and most reliable forms of passenger transport , especially for Christian pilgrims during the High and Late Middle Ages . For naval combat, galleys were equipped with various weapons: rams and occasionally catapults until late antiquity, Greek fire during

18939-539: The famous 1588 Spanish Armada , though few of these actually made it to the battle itself. Outside European and Middle Eastern waters, Spain built galleys to deal with pirates and privateers in both the Caribbean and the Philippines. 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. Even though

19116-591: The fighting power of armed forces, making individual soldiers more deadly and effective. As offensive weapons, firearms could be stored for years with minimal maintenance and did not require the expenses associated with soldiers. Manpower could thus be exchanged for capital investments, something which benefited sailing vessels that were already far more economical in their use of manpower. It also served to increase their strategic range and to out-compete galleys as fighting ships. Atlantic-style warfare based on large, heavily armed sailing ships began to change naval warfare in

19293-418: The first genuine warships when fitted with bow rams. They were equipped with a single square sail on mast set roughly halfway along the length of the hull. Ship The word ship has meant, depending on the era and the context, either just a large vessel or specifically a ship-rigged sailing ship with three or more masts, each of which is square-rigged . The earliest historical evidence of boats

19470-516: The first three centuries AD. Until recently, it was generally the case that a ship represented the most advanced representation of the technology that any society could achieve. The earliest attestations of ships in maritime transport in Mesopotamia are model ships , which date back to the 4th millennium BC. In archaic texts in Uruk , Sumer , the ideogram for "ship" is attested, but in

19647-402: The first to build two-level galleys, and bireme designs were soon adopted and further developed by the Greeks. A third bank of oar was added by attaching an outrigger to a bireme. The outrigger was a projecting frame that gave additional leverage for a third rower to handle an oar efficiently. It has been hypothesized that early forms of three-banked ships may have existed as early as 700 BC, but

19824-466: The first two decades of the 15th century, a few were captured by the English, two of which had previously been under charter to the French. The two-masted rig started to be copied immediately, but at this stage on a clinker hull. The adoption of carvel hulls had to wait until sufficient shipwrights with appropriate skills could be hired, but by late in the 1430s, there were instances of carvel ships being built in Northern Europe, and in increasing numbers over

20001-590: The forces incident on the hull imposed an upper limit on the size of clinker-built vessels. The greater rigidity of carvel construction became necessary for larger offshore cargo vessels. Later carvel-built sailing vessels exceeded the maximum size of clinker-built ships several times over. A further clinker limitation is that it does not readily support the point loads associated with lateen or sloop sailing rigs. At least some fore-and-aft sails are desirable for manoeuvrability. The same problem in providing for concentrated loads creates difficulties siting and supporting

20178-494: The full "frame-first" method until much later, as discussed below.) The changeover from planking-first to frame-first happened over the same period that the Mediterranean Square Sail rig was being replaced by lateen rig. That change has been suggested to save building, fitting out and maintenance costs (though previously it was thought to be to achieve better sailing performance – something which, against

20355-413: The galley to be and remain a primarily coastal vessel. The shift to sailing vessels in the Mediterranean was the result of the negation of some of the galley's advantages as well as the adoption of gunpowder weapons on a much larger institutional scale. The sailing vessel was propelled in a different manner than the galley but the tactics were often the same until the 16th century. The real-estate afforded to

20532-496: The growing maritime republics of Italy which were emerging as the dominant sea powers, including Venice , Genoa , and Pisa . Their merchant galleys were similar to dromons, but without heavy weapons and both faster and wider. The largest types were used by Venice, based on galley types like the pamphylon and chelandion . They had tower-like superstructures and could be manned by crews of up to 1,000 men and could be employed in warfare when required. A further boost to

20709-427: The hull shape being defined by the shaping and fitting of the hull planks. The reinforcing frame s (or ribs) are fitted after the planks. Clinker construction in this era usually used planks that were cleft (split radially from the log) and could be made thinner and stronger per unit of thickness than the sawn logs, thanks to preserving the radial integrity of the grain. An exception to clinker construction in

20886-642: The inscriptions of the kings of Lagash , ships were first mentioned in connection to maritime trade and naval warfare at around 2500–2350 BCE. Austronesian peoples originated in what is now Taiwan . From here, they took part in the Austronesian Expansion . Their distinctive maritime technology was integral to this movement and included catamarans and outriggers . It has been suggested that they had sails some time before 2000 BCE. Their crab claw sails enabled them to sail for vast distances in open ocean. From Taiwan, they rapidly colonized

21063-726: 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. 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. 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

21240-461: The invention of an effective stern gland for the propeller shaft, worked better than paddle wheels . Higher boiler pressures of 60 pounds per square inch (410 kPa) powering compound engines, were introduced in 1865, making long-distance steam cargo vessels commercially viable on the route from England to China – even before the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869. Within

21417-562: The islands of Maritime Southeast Asia , then sailed further onwards to Micronesia , Island Melanesia , Polynesia , and Madagascar , eventually colonizing a territory spanning half the globe. Austronesian sails were made from woven leaves, usually from pandan plants. These were complemented by paddlers, who usually positioned themselves on platforms on the outriggers in the larger boats. Austronesian ships ranged in complexity from simple dugout canoes with outriggers or lashed together to large edge-pegged plank-built boats built around

21594-544: 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. Galleasses and galleys were part of an invasion force of over 16,000 men that conquered the Azores in 1583. Around 2,000 galley rowers were on board ships of

21771-426: The line , featuring seventy-four guns. This type of ship became the backbone of all European fighting fleets. These ships were 56 metres (184 ft) long and their construction required 2,800 oak trees and 40 kilometres (25 mi) of rope; they carried a crew of about 800 sailors and soldiers. During the 19th century the Royal Navy enforced a ban on the slave trade , acted to suppress piracy , and continued to map

21948-517: The method of hull construction took the name of the first vessel type made in that way in English and European shipyards. Carvel construction originated in the Mediterranean during the first millennium CE. It gradually replaced the edge-to-edge joining of hull planks by mortises and tenons – a "planking first" technique – which had been used by ancient Egyptians, Phoenicians and for much of classical antiquity . Archaeological evidence for this transition suggests it took place from c.  500 CE to

22125-511: The mid-16th century. Heavy artillery on galleys was mounted in the bow, which aligned easily with the long-standing tactical tradition of attacking head on, 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

22302-431: The middle of the 18th century, sailing vessels started to be categorised by their type of rig . (Previously they were described by their hull type – for example pink , cat .) Alongside the other rig types such as schooner and brig , the term "ship" referred to the rig type. In this sense, a ship is a vessel with three or more masts, all of which are square-rigged . For clarity, this may be referred to as

22479-535: 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), including the Battle of Aegospotami in 405 BC, which sealed

22656-447: The navies they fought built vessels that were referred to "galleys" or " row galleys ". These are today best described as brigantines or Baltic-style gunboats . The North American "galleys" were classified based on their military role, and in part due to technicalities in administration and naval financing. In the latter part of the 19th century, the Royal Navy term for the gig (a ship's boat optimised for propulsion by oar) reserved for

22833-561: The new naval forces also made it difficult to find enough skilled rowers for the one-man-per-oar system of the earliest triremes. With 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. The successor states of Alexander the Great 's empire built galleys that were like triremes or biremes in oar layout, but manned with additional rowers for each oar. The ruler Dionysius I of Syracuse ( c.  432 –367 BC)

23010-690: The north and were the most numerous warships used by Mediterranean powers with interests in the north, especially France , the Iberian kingdoms and the Italian merchant republics . The kings of France operated the Clos de Galées (literally "galley enclosure") in Rouen during the 14th and 15th century where they had southern-style war galleys built . The Clos was built by Genoese in 1298 and they continued to dominate shipbuilding there until its destruction in 1419 so that they wouldn't fall into English hands. During

23187-449: The north continued to mature while the galley retained its defining characteristics. Attempts were made to stave this off such as the addition of fighting castles in the bow, but such additions to counter the threats brought by larger sailing vessels often offset the advantages of galley. From around 1450, three major naval powers established a dominance over different parts of the Mediterranean, using galleys as their primary weapons at sea:

23364-404: The number of oars, the number of banks of oars or rows of rowers. The terms are based on contemporary language use combined with recent compounds of Greek and Latin words. The earliest Greek single-banked galleys are called triaconters (from triakontoroi , "thirty-oars") and penteconters ( pentēkontoroi , "fifty-oars"). For later galleys with more than one bank of oars, the terminology

23541-459: The oar. As civilizations around the Mediterranean grew in size and complexity, both their navies and the galleys that made up their numbers became successively larger. The basic design of two or three rows of oars remained the same, but more rowers were added to each oar. The exact reasons are not known, but are believed to have been caused by addition of more troops and the use of more advanced ranged weapons on ships, such as catapults . The size of

23718-448: The oared-powered galleys. The Battle of Gibraltar between Castile and Portugal in 1476 was another important sign of change; it was the first recorded battle where the primary combatants were full-rigged ships armed with wrought-iron guns on the upper decks and in the waists, foretelling of the slow decline of the war galley. The sailing vessel was always at the mercy of the wind for propulsion, and those that did carry oars were placed at

23895-478: 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 (literally "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 about 10 km/h (6 mph). By

24072-539: The outer skin of the hull is made and then reinforced by the insertion of timbers that are fitted to that shape. The most common modern "plank first" method is clinker construction ; in the classical period "plank first" involved joining the edges of planks with mortise and tenon joints within the thickness of the timbers, superficially giving the smooth-hull appearance of carvel construction, but achieved by entirely different means. Compared to clinker-built hulls, carvel construction allowed larger ships to be built. This

24249-555: The present day). The different methods were known of by mariners in both places, but when, for instance, Mediterranean galleys were employed by the French and English during the Hundred Years' War , shipwrights familiar with carvel work had to be recruited to carry out maintenance and repairs. In the 1440s interest in the caravel grew in northern waters and shipyards there started building caravels in carvel construction. An archaeological example of an early carvel-built ship in

24426-474: The presumptions of many maritime historians, can be shown not to have happened). The move to carvel construction is believed to be another cost-saving measure (though it is felt that this is not well understood by marine archaeologists). The difficult skill of mortising planks at precisely the right angle (where the hull is curved at the turn of the bilges ) is avoided. Carvel construction allows hull shape to be determined by design, whilst planking-first relies on

24603-466: The principles of naval architecture that require same structural components, their classification is based on their function such as that suggested by Paulet and Presles, which requires modification of the components. The categories accepted in general by naval architects are: Some of these are discussed in the following sections. Freshwater shipping may occur on lakes, rivers and canals. Ships designed for those body of waters may be specially adapted to

24780-543: The provinces are found in records. One action in 70 AD at the unspecified location of the "Island of the Batavians" during the Batavian Rebellion was recorded, and included a trireme as the Roman flagship. 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 last major naval battle of

24957-528: The quest for more efficient ships, the end of long running and wasteful maritime conflicts, and the increased financial capacity of industrial powers created more specialized ships and other maritime vessels. Ship types built for entirely new functions that appeared by the 20th century included research ships , offshore support vessels (OSVs), Floating production storage and offloading (FPSOs), Pipe and cable laying ships , drill ships and Survey vessels . The late 20th century saw changes to ships that included

25134-538: The region of the 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 larger seaworthy vessels that were paddled and possibly even equipped with sails. The first evidence of more complex craft considered prototypes for later galleys comes from Ancient Egypt during the Old Kingdom (about 2700–2200 BC). Under

25311-509: The rest of the century. This hybridisation of Mediterranean and Northern European ship types created the full-rigged ship , a three-masted vessel with a square-rigged foremast and mainmast and a lateen sail on the mizzen. This provided most of the ships used in the Age of Discovery , being able to carry sufficient stores for a long voyage and with a rig suited to the open ocean. Over the next four hundred years, steady evolution and development, from

25488-517: 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

25665-576: 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. During the reign of Hatshepsut (about 1479–1457 BC), Egyptian galleys traded in luxuries on the Red Sea with the enigmatic Land of Punt , as recorded on wall paintings at the Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut at Deir el-Bahari . The first Greek galley-like ships appeared around

25842-531: The sailing vessel to place larger cannons and other armament mattered little because early gunpowder weapons had limited range and were expensive to produce. The eventual creation of cast iron cannons allowed vessels and armies to be outfitted much more cheaply. The cost of gunpowder also fell in this period. The armament of both vessel types varied between larger weapons such as bombards and the smaller swivel guns. For logistical purposes it became convenient for those with larger shore establishments to standardize upon

26019-532: 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. Late medieval maritime warfare was divided in two distinct regions. In the Mediterranean galleys were used for raiding along coasts, and in the constant fighting for naval bases. In the Atlantic and Baltic there was greater focus on sailing ships that were used mostly for troop transport, with galleys providing fighting support. Galleys were still widely used in

26196-560: The second half of the 2nd millennium BC. In the epic poem, the Iliad , set in the 12th century BC, oared vessels with a single row of oarmen were used primarily to transport soldiers between land battles. The first recorded naval battle occurred as early as 1175 BC, the Battle of the Delta between Egyptian forces under Ramesses III and the enigmatic alliance known as the Sea Peoples . It

26373-472: The shallow waters of the Baltic archipelagos. Sweden and especially Russia began to launch galleys and various rowed vessels in great numbers during the Great Northern War in the first two decades of the 18th century. Sweden was late in the game when it came to building an effective oared fighting fleet ( skärgårdsflottan , the archipelago fleet , officially arméns flotta , the fleet of

26550-418: The shape of lotus flowers . They had possibly developed a primitive type of keel, but still retained the large cables intended to prevent hogging. The construction 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

26727-524: The shipper than a predictable and rapid journey time. The Second Industrial Revolution in particular led to new mechanical methods of propulsion , and the ability to construct ships from metal triggered an explosion in ship design. These led to the development of long-distance commercial ships and Ocean liners , as well as technological changes including the Marine steam engine , screw propellers, triple expansion engines and others. Factors included

26904-593: The size of contemporary carracks. Before the adoption of carvel construction, the increasing size of clinker-built vessels came to necessitate internal framing of their hulls for strength. Parallel to the development of warships, ships in service of marine fishery and trade also developed in the period between antiquity and the Renaissance. Maritime trade was driven by the development of shipping companies with significant financial resources. Canal barges, towed by draft animals on an adjacent towpath , contended with

27081-506: 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. Galleys of

27258-606: 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 displaying a fresh fig to his audience that he claimed had 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

27435-500: The starting point of the carrack , gave types such as the galleon , fluit , East Indiaman , ordinary cargo ships, warships, clippers and many more, all based on this three-masted square-rigged type. The transition from clinker to carvel construction facilitated the use of gun ports. As vessels became larger, clinker construction became less practical because of the difficulty of finding commensurately large logs from which to cleave planks. Nonetheless, some clinker vessels approached

27612-466: The term "galley" to oared Viking ships of the Early and High Middle Ages , both their well known longship warships and their less familiar merchant galleys. Oared military vessels built on the British Isles in the 11th to 13th centuries were based on Scandinavian designs, but were referred to as "galleys" because of the similarity in function. Many of them were similar to birlinns (a smaller version of

27789-486: 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. 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

27966-697: The unified Roman Empire (before the permanent split into Western and Eastern [later "Byzantine"] Empires), the Battle of the Hellespont of 324. Some time after the Battle of the Hellespont, the classical trireme fell out of use, and its design was forgotten. A transition from galley to sailing vessels as the most common types of warships began in the High Middle Ages ( c.  11th century ). Large high-sided sailing ships had always been formidable obstacles for galleys. To low-freeboard oared vessels,

28143-516: The war galleys floated even with a ruptured hull and virtually never had any ballast or heavy cargo that could sink them, almost no wrecks have so far been found. 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 upward curvature at each end of the hull) and seven pairs of oars along its side, a number that

28320-402: The water. Traditional carvel methods leave a small gap between each plank that is caulked with any suitable soft, flexible, fibrous material, sometimes combined with a thick binding substance, which would gradually wear out and the hull would leak. When the boat was beached for a length of time, the planks would dry and shrink, so when first refloated, the hull would leak badly unless re-caulked,

28497-425: The waterline. Further frames were added to this next set of planking, but these continued up to the height of the intended sheerline. The strakes from the waterline up were then fastened on as carvel planking (with some wales interspersed with the regular strakes). Northern Europe used clinker construction for the period discussed above, and into the 15th century (and continued to do so for many small craft into

28674-535: The waterways of ancient Egypt during the Old Kingdom (2700–2200 BC) and seagoing galley-like vessels were recorded bringing back luxuries from across the Red Sea in the reign of pharaoh Hatshepsut . When rams or cutwaters were fitted to the bows of warships sometime around 700 BC, it resulted in a more distinct split between warships and trade ships. Phoenicians used galleys for trade that were less elongated, carried fewer oars and relied more on sails. Carthaginian trade galley wrecks found off Sicily that date to

28851-522: The western Mediterranean and Atlantic, the 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 very close to galleys in design and functionality and also employed similar tactics. To counter

29028-516: The widths and depths of specific waterways. Examples of freshwater waterways that are navigable in part by large vessels include the Danube , Mississippi , Rhine , Yangtze and Amazon Rivers, and the Great Lakes . Lake freighters , also called lakers, are cargo vessels that ply the Great Lakes . The most well-known is SS  Edmund Fitzgerald , the latest major vessel to be wrecked on

29205-519: The world for the diplomatic and power projection voyages of Zheng He . Elsewhere in Japan in the 15th century, one of the world's first iron-clads, "Tekkōsen" ( 鉄甲船 ), literally meaning "iron ships", was also developed. In Japan, during the Sengoku era from the 15th century to 17th century, the great struggle for feudal supremacy was fought, in part, by coastal fleets of several hundred boats, including

29382-490: The world's 29 million fishermen caught 85,800,000 tonnes (84,400,000 long tons ; 94,600,000 short tons ) of fish and shellfish that year. In 2023, the number of ships globally grew by 3.4%. In 2024, new ships are increasingly being built with alternative fuel capability to increase sustainability and reduce carbon emissions. Alternative ship fuels include LNG , LPG , methanol , biofuel , ammonia and hydrogen among others. Because ships are constructed using

29559-419: The world's fleet included 51,684 commercial vessels with gross tonnage of more than 1,000 tons , totaling 1.96 billion tons. Such ships carried 11 billion tons of cargo in 2018, a sum that grew by 2.7% over the previous year. In terms of tonnage, 29% of ships were tankers , 43% are bulk carriers , 13% container ships and 15% were other types. In 2008, there were 1,240 warships operating in

29736-501: The world, not counting small vessels such as patrol boats . The United States accounted for 3 million tons worth of these vessels, Russia 1.35 million tons, the United Kingdom 504,660 tons and China 402,830 tons. The 20th century saw many naval engagements during the two world wars , the Cold War , and the rise to power of naval forces of the two blocs. The world's major powers have recently used their naval power in cases such as

29913-691: The world. Ships and their owners grew with the 19th century Industrial Revolution across Europe and North America, leading to increased numbers of oceangoing ships, as well as other coastal and canal based vessels. Through more than half of the 19th century and into the early years of the 20th century, steam ships coexisted with sailing vessels. Initially, steam was only viable on shorter routes, typically transporting passengers who could afford higher fares and mail. Steam went through many developmental steps that gave greater fuel efficiency, thereby increasingly making steamships commercially competitive with sail. Screw propulsion, which relied, among other things, on

30090-563: Was gallee sottili ("slender galleys"). The later Ottoman navy used similar designs, but they were generally faster under sail, and smaller, but slower under oars. 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 Crown of Aragon built several fleet of galleys with high castles, manned with Catalan crossbowmen, and regularly defeated numerically superior Angevin forces. During

30267-427: Was also simplified and eventually developed into a system called alla sensile with up to three rowers sharing a single bench, handling one oar each. This was suitable for skilled, professional rowers. This was further simplified to the a scaloccio method with rowers sharing a bench but using just a single large oar, sometimes with up to seven or more rowers per oar in the very largest war galleys. This method

30444-402: Was around 25–30 oars per side. By adding another level of oars, a development that occurred no later than c. 750 BC, the galley could be made shorter with as many rowers, while making them strong enough to be effective ramming weapons. The emergence of more advanced states and intensified competition between them spurred on the development of advanced galleys with multiple banks of rowers. During

30621-404: Was dependent on keeping the sea lanes open to keep the empire together. In 600–750 AD bulk trade declined while luxury trade increased. Galleys remained in service, but were profitable mainly in the luxury trade, which set off their high maintenance cost. In the 10th century, there was a sharp increase in piracy which resulted in larger trade ships with more numerous crews. These were mostly built by

30798-463: Was likely to have been symbolical rather than a realistic depiction, and steering oars in the stern. These vessels have only one mast and vertical stems and sternposts , with the front decorated with an Eye of Horus , the first example of such a decoration. The eye was later used by other Mediterranean cultures to decorate seagoing craft in the belief that it helped to guide the ship safely to its destination. The early Egyptian vessels apparently lacked

30975-420: Was literally a "five-oar", but actually meant that there were more than one rower per oar in a bireme or trireme arrangement. For simplicity, many modern scholars refer to these as "fives", "sixes", "eights", "elevens", etc. Anything above six or seven rows of rowers was uncommon, but even an entirely unique " forty " has been attested from the 3rd century BC. Any galley with more than three or four lines of rowers

31152-415: Was more suitable for the use of forced labour , both galley slaves and convicts . Most galleys were equipped with sails that could be used when the wind was favourable: basic square sails until the Early Middle Ages and later lateen sails . The word galley has been attested in English from about 1300. Variants of the same term were established in many other European languages from around 1500 both as

31329-1102: Was the oldest laker still working on the Lakes until its conversion into a barge starting in 2013. Similarly, E.M. Ford , built in 1898 as Presque Isle , was sailing the lakes 98 years later in 1996. As of 2007 E.M. Ford was still afloat as a stationary transfer vessel at a riverside cement silo in Saginaw, Michigan . Merchant ships are ships used for commercial purposes and can be divided into four broad categories: fishing vessels , cargo ships , passenger ships , and special-purpose ships. The UNCTAD review of maritime transport categorizes ships as: oil tankers, bulk (and combination) carriers, general cargo ships, container ships, and "other ships", which includes " liquefied petroleum gas carriers, liquefied natural gas carriers, parcel (chemical) tankers, specialized tankers, reefers , offshore supply, tugs, dredgers , cruise , ferries , other non-cargo". General cargo ships include "multi-purpose and project vessels and roll-on/roll-off cargo". Modern commercial vessels are typically powered by

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