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150-551: Built between 1910 and 1921, the gas tanks were built to hold gas. Until the 1960s, the gas tanks had been maintained by an inspector using a rowboat . Due to the increasing prevalence of much more compact gas cylinders , Brooklyn Union Gas began dismantling the gas tanks in 1996. Because the Long Island Expressway frequently became congested in that area, "backup at the Elmhurst Gas Tanks" became

300-462: 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

450-482: A playground and more than 620 trees. The six-acre (2.4 ha) park's bathrooms were delayed greatly, however. Having opened in September 2012, the restroom facilities were stylish and spacious, although highly controversial; they drew wide criticism due to their $ 2.3 million cost. The Queens Vietnam Veterans Memorial , a $ 2.85 million memorial to Vietnam War veterans, at the northeastern corner of Elmhurst Park,

600-495: A boat facing either way. The current emphasis on the health aspects of rowing has resulted in some new mechanical systems being developed, some (such as the Rantilla rowing method) very different from the traditional rowing systems of the past. A seated rower pulls on one or two oars, which lever the boat through the water. The pivot point of the oars (attached solidly to the boat) is the fulcrum for this lever. The person operating

750-410: A boat on a mooring might tend to be short, whilst a boat for use on rivers and to travel long distances might be long and narrow. Over time the design, of both the oars and the blades, has significantly changed. Typically, the part of the oars that are inboard of the rowlock have stayed the same length but the outboard part has gotten shorter. The different lengths of the oars affect both the energy that

900-411: A brief period. Longer, narrower rowing boats can reach 7 knots (13 km/h; 8.1 mph) but most rowing boats of 4.3 m (14 ft) can be rowed at 3–4 knots (5.6–7.4 km/h; 3.5–4.6 mph). Many old rowing boats have very full ends (blunt ends); these may appear at first glance to be bad design as it looks slow, not fast. However a full-ended rowing boat will rise to a sea and not dig in as

1050-439: 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 ,

1200-411: 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

1350-525: A familiar phrase in radio traffic reporting . Having been literal rather than legal landmarks , the two huge gas holders were completely removed by 2001. Construction on the $ 20 million park, spearheaded by former Mayor Michael Bloomberg , started in 2007. On May 24, 2011, the Elmhurst Park was opened on the former site of the gas tanks. The park contained state-of-the-art facilities including benches, lighting, lawns, and jogging paths, in addition to

1500-399: A finer hulled boat might do, thus a compromise needs to be made between the factors of speed and of seaworthiness. This style of rowing boat was designed to carry a bigger load and the full sections gave far more displacement. Also older boats were often very heavily constructed compared to their modern counterpart, hence weighed far more. A rowing boat designed as a tender carrying occupants to

1650-464: 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

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1800-616: 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

1950-721: 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,

2100-445: 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

2250-404: 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

2400-621: 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 ,

2550-631: 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 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

2700-462: 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

2850-596: A modern oarsman does with a sliding seat. Galleys usually had masts and sails, but would lower them at the approach of combat. Greek fleets would even leave their sails and masts on shore (as being unnecessary weight) if possible. The use of oars in rowing instead of paddling came rather late to northern Europe, sometime between 500 BC-1 AD. This change might have been hastened by the Roman conquest of Northern Gaul. However, between 500 and 1100 AD, combined sailing and rowing vessels dominated trade and warfare in northern Europe in

3000-424: 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 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

3150-554: 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

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3300-410: A pair of oars, one on each side of the boat. When each person uses a single oar on one side of the boat, that action is termed "pulling". In fresh water terminology, "rowing" is the use of one oar per person, whilst "pulling" denotes each person using two oars. Traditional boats propelled by oar are fitted with thwarts - seats that go from one side of the hull to the other, as well as forming part of

3450-420: A pair of oars. In a maritime setting "sculling" means propelling a boat with a single oar operated over the stern . This article focuses on the general types of rowing, such as recreation and transport rather than the sport of competitive rowing which is a specialized case of boat racing using strictly regulated equipment and a highly refined technique. The beginning of rowing is clouded in history but

3600-670: 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,

3750-405: A reversing transmission to achieve forward motion of the boat with a pulling motion on the oars. Rowing is a cyclic (or intermittent) form of propulsion such that in the quasi-steady state the motion of the system (the system comprising the rower, the oars, and the boat), is repeated regularly. In order to maintain the steady-state propulsion of the system without either accelerating or decelerating

3900-481: 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

4050-465: 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

4200-516: 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,

4350-483: 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

4500-522: 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

4650-497: 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

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4800-552: A straight keel boat will track well in a straight line but resist turning. High sided and fine-ended boats, such as dories, are affected by wind. Their trim can be altered by using a plastic container of water attached to a rope that can be moved to the bow or stern as need be. Long-distance rowers can keep up a steady 20 strokes per minute compared to a racing shell which can be rowed at 30–40 strokes per minute or more by fit athletes (depending on distance and racing circumstances). A rower can maintain high stroke-rates per minute for only

4950-501: 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 )

5100-423: 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

5250-573: Is functionally similar to paddling , but rowing requires oars to be mechanically attached to the boat, and the rower drives the oar like a lever , exerting force in the same direction as the boat's travel; while paddles are completely hand-held and have no attachment to the boat, and are driven like a cantilever , exerting force opposite to the intended direction of the boat. In some strict terminologies, using oars for propulsion may be termed either "pulling" or "rowing", with different definitions for each. Where these strict terminologies are used,

5400-616: 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

5550-456: 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

5700-624: 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

5850-485: 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

6000-608: The Napoleonic Wars . The Mediterranean powers also employed galley forces for conflicts outside the Mediterranean. Spain sent galley squadrons to the Netherlands during 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

6150-591: 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

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6300-646: 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

6450-403: 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

6600-823: 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

6750-529: 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

6900-424: 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 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

7050-566: 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

7200-634: 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

7350-411: 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

7500-482: 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

7650-587: 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

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7800-508: 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

7950-600: 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

8100-511: 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 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

8250-464: 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

8400-547: 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

8550-543: 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

8700-570: 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

8850-632: 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

9000-520: 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

9150-434: 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

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9300-578: 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 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

9450-595: The Whitehall rowing boat design was introduced from England. However the famed nautical historian Howard I. Chapelle , cites the opinion of the late W. P. Stephens that in New York City there is a Whitehall Street and this was where the Whitehall was first built. Chapelle, Stephens and others agree that the design came into existence some time in the 1820s in New York City, having first been built by navy yard apprentices who had derived their model to some extent from

9600-586: 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: 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

9750-642: The amount of space provided for oar storage in the boat. Wooden oars are generally made of a light, strong wood, such as fir or ash. The blades can either be flat for general use or spooned for faster propulsion. In modern racing boats, oars are created from a composite of materials such as carbon fiber which makes them lightweight. The origins of this distinctive and practical craft are unclear. In earlier times, however, builders were often sailors or seafaring men. Successful designs for large and small craft alike evolved slowly and as certain desirable qualities were attained and perfected they rarely changed. Some hold that

9900-481: 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

10050-660: 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

10200-403: The boat in high winds. If the freeboard is too low, water will enter the boat through waves. If the boat is designed for one person then only a single rowing position is required. If the rower is to carry a passenger at the stern than the boat will be stern heavy and trim will be incorrect. When it comes to how long the rowing boat should be, it is a compromise between two factors that will affect

10350-589: 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

10500-491: 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

10650-426: 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

10800-427: 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

10950-568: 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

11100-458: The definitions are reversed depending on the context. On saltwater a "pulling boat" has each person working one oar on one side, alternating port and starboard along the length of the boat; whilst "rowing" means each person operates two oars, one on each side of the boat. On inland waterways, the opposite applies, with "rowing" being where each person in a crew works one oar and "sculling" (especially in sport rowing ) involves each participant using

11250-458: 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

11400-484: 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

11550-416: 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

11700-423: 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

11850-574: 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

12000-618: 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

12150-592: 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

12300-456: 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

12450-413: The fullness or fineness of the ends, and trim. Design details are a compromise between competing factors. If the waterline beam (width) is too narrow the boat will be tender and the occupant at risk of falling out, if the beam is too wide the boat will be slow and have more resistance to waves. Overall beam (width) is important. If the rowlocks are too close together the oars will be difficult to use. If

12600-413: 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

12750-408: 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 the intensified conflicts this led to a substantial increase in

12900-496: 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

13050-550: The height that ensures the balance of the rowing boat, a weight can be added in the bow, alternatively, the boat can supply a second rowing position further forward for this purpose. There are some advantages and disadvantages that are attributed to the weight of the rowing boat. A very light boat will most likely start to slow down as soon as the oar stroke has ended. In contrast, a heavier boat will likely continue to move forward. Most modern style rowing boats are considerably lighter than traditional clinker-built style. Spring in

13200-481: The hull structure. A boat that is "double banked" has two crew members sitting on each thwart, each pulling an oar on their side of the boat. In a "single banked" boat, there is one person on each thwart pulling one oar. Though there is usually an even number of oars used in single banked boats (alternating port and starboard along the length of the boat) a common exception is the arrangement in many whaleboats , where five oars were often used, three on one side and two on

13350-509: The keel or rocker influences how a rowing boat performs. Longer, slender race boats have less rocker of about 7.6 cm (3 in). A short 2.4-meter (8 ft) pram dinghy has a rocker of 15–18 cm (6–7 in). Boats with less rocker are easier to row and faster in flat or nearly flat water. However, in any waves a boat with 13–15 cm (5–6 in) of rocker will be more seaworthy—rising over waves rather than going through them. A boat with more rocker can change direction easily whereas

13500-446: 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 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

13650-638: 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 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

13800-512: 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

13950-535: 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

14100-449: 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

14250-562: 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)

14400-692: 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

14550-406: 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

14700-456: The oar is kept in position (when applying maximum force) by a stretcher , a footrest that may be as simple as a wooden bar that can be adjusted by positioning in different pairs of notches in the bottom of the boat. Different types of pivot points can be used as a fulcrum for the oar. The traditional terminology, in a strict application, varies between boats operating on salt water and in fresh water. "Rowing" at sea denotes each rower operating

14850-460: 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

15000-449: 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

15150-414: The oars are held in place at a pivot point that is in a fixed position relative to the boat. This point is the load point for the oar to act as a second-class lever (the blade fixed in the water is the fulcrum). In flatwater rowing, the boat (also called a shell or fine boat ) is narrow to avoid drag , and the oars are attached to oarlocks ( also called gates ) at the end of outriggers extending from

15300-482: The oarsman facing forward in a standing position. This allows the boat to maneuver very quickly and with agility - useful in the narrow and busy canals of Venice. Competitive regattas are also held using the Venetian rowing technique by using both gondolas and other types of vessels. There are three styles of Venetian rowing, each slightly different. The first consists of a single oarsman with one oar, standing near

15450-472: The old naval gig. Galley 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

15600-478: 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

15750-662: The other major naval powers in 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

15900-470: The other. Push rowing , also called back-watering if used in a boat not designed for forward motion, uses regular oars with a pushing motion to achieve forward-facing travel, sometimes seated and sometimes standing. This is a convenient method of manoeuvring in a narrow waterway or through a busy harbour. The Venetian rowing ( voga alla veneta ) is the traditional technique in Venice , Italy in which

16050-471: The primary warships used by the ancient Mediterranean naval powers, including 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

16200-415: The propulsion force developed is the result of a complex interaction between unsteady fluid mechanics (the water flow around the blade) and solid mechanics and dynamics (the handle force applied to the oar, the oar's inertia and bending characteristic, the acceleration of the boat and so on). The distinction between rowing and other forms of water transport, such as canoeing or kayaking , is that in rowing

16350-544: 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

16500-598: 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

16650-570: 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

16800-568: The rower has to put in as well as the performance, in terms of speed of the rowing boat. A short oar makes quick but short strokes possible. A short oar is easier to use in a narrow creek or a crowded anchorage. This is important in a small tender which may be heavily laden with passengers, limiting the swing of the oars. A short, quick stroke prevents the bow being driven under in choppy waters while heavily laden. Longer oars can be used to produce longer, slower strokes, which are easier to maintain over long distances. Designers may match oar length to

16950-773: The rower stands up, facing forward and resting a single oar in a special oarlock called fórcola . The pletna of Slovenia is rowed forward in the standing position with two oars. Another system (also called sculling ) involves using a single oar extending from the stern of the boat which is moved side to side underwater somewhat like a fish tail, such as the Chinese yuloh , by which quite large boats can be moved. Sampans are rowed by foot in Ninh Bình Province of northern Vietnam. The Intha people of Burma row forwards using their legs. The "Rantilla" system of frontrowing oars uses inboard mounted oarlocks and

17100-434: The rowlocks are too far apart then the boat will be overly large and rowing will be inefficient, wasting a rower's effort. Sometimes on narrow, faster rowing boats for protected waters outriggers are added to increase rowlock separation. If the freeboard (height of the gunwale above the waterline) is too high then windage will be high and as a result, the boat will be caught by the wind and the rower will not be able to control

17250-632: 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

17400-399: 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

17550-534: 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

17700-561: 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

17850-647: The shallow rivers of Mesopotamia . Both the Euphrates and the Tigris rivers were part of this region and flowing from the north to the south they quickly became an integral part of the non-nomadic civilizations. Rowing vessels, especially galleys , were extensively used in naval warfare and trade in the Mediterranean from classical antiquity onward. Galleys had advantages over sailing ships in light seas with low winds: they were easier to maneuver, capable of short bursts of speed, and able to move independently of

18000-473: 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

18150-420: 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

18300-511: 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 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

18450-436: The sides of the boat. Racing boats also have sliding seats to allow the use of the legs in addition to the body to apply power to the oar. In Venice, gondolas and other similar flat-bottomed boats are popular forms of transport propelled by oars which are held in place by an open wooden fórcola . The Voga alla Veneta technique of rowing is considerably different from the style used in international sport rowing , due to

18600-664: 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

18750-463: The smaller swivel guns. For logistical purposes it became convenient for those with larger shore establishments to standardize upon 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

18900-507: 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

19050-606: 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

19200-408: The speed of the boat. If the boat is too short, the boat will reach a very low maximum speed. If the boat is too long, there will be more friction and more wet surface. Therefore, the minimum recommended length should be around 16 feet. If the boat is longer than that recommended length, the boat is usually narrower and although faster will generally be more difficult to balance. To have good width and

19350-505: The stern of the boat where the oar also acts as a rudder. The second style consists of one or two oarsmen, each with two crossed oars (known as a la valesàna ). The third style has two or more oarsmen, rowing on alternate sides of the boat. The classic shapes of rowing boats reflect an evolution of hundreds of years of trial and error to get a good shape. Some factors to be considered are waterline length, speed, carrying capacity, stability, windage, weight, seaworthiness, cost, waterline beam,

19500-406: The system, the sum of all the external forces on the system, averaged over the cycle, must be zero. Thus, the average drag (retarding) force on the system must equal the average propulsion force on the system. The drag forces consist of aerodynamic drag on the superstructure of the system (components of the boat situated above the waterline), as well as the hydrodynamic drag on the submerged portion of

19650-413: The system. The propulsion forces are the forward reaction of the water on the oars while in the water. The oar can be used to provide a drag force (a force acting against the forward motion) when the system is brought to rest. Although the oar can be conveniently thought of as a lever with a "fixed" pivot point in the water, the blade moves sideways and sternwards through the water, so that the magnitude of

19800-467: 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

19950-487: 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

20100-615: The time that has come to be known as the Viking Age . Galleys continued to be used in the Mediterranean until the advent of steam propulsion . In some localities, rear-facing systems prevail. In other localities, forward-facing systems prevail, especially in crowded areas such as in Venice, Italy and in Asian and Indonesian rivers and harbors. This is not strictly an "either-or", because in different situations it's useful to be able to row

20250-698: 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,

20400-409: The use of oars in the way they are used today can be traced back to ancient Egypt. Whether it was invented in Egypt or something learned from Mesopotamia via trade is not known. However, archaeologists have recovered a model of a rowing vessel in a tomb dating back to the 18-19th century BC. The model they found was of a wide boat with shallow bottom, rather like a barge , which was designed to float on

20550-517: 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

20700-536: 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

20850-522: 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

21000-635: The wind. During the classical age of oared galleys, the Greeks dominated the Mediterranean while the Athenians dominated the other Greeks. They used thousands of lower-class citizens to serve as rowers in the fleet. In Classical Athens , a leading naval power at the time, rowing was regarded as an honorable profession of which men should possess some practical knowledge. The Classical trireme used 170 rowers; later galleys included even larger crews. Trireme oarsmen used leather cushions to slide over their seats, which allowed them to use their leg strength as

21150-565: 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

21300-427: 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

21450-574: Was announced in June 2017. Although planning and fundraising started in the mid-2000s, construction started in December 2018. The memorial was dedicated the following December. The semicircular memorial features the names of 371 Queens residents who died while fighting in the war. Rowboat Rowing is the act of propelling a human-powered watercraft using the sweeping motions of oars to displace water and generate reactional propulsion . Rowing

21600-403: 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

21750-406: 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

21900-667: Was dismantled around 1718, Naples had only four old vessels by 1734 and 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

22050-463: 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

22200-420: 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

22350-410: Was more of 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

22500-416: 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

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