Page 351 - Encyclopedia Of World History Vol IV

1652 berkshire encyclopedia of world history

Robert Fulton's first steamboat on the
Hudson River. The steamboat soon
became a faster and more reliable
replacement for the sailing ship.

and by the 1400s clinker-plank construction gave way to
edge-to-edge planking attached to internal framing.

1350–1700 CE
The Venetian galley, ranging from 39 to 50 meters long,
often with two banks of oars and one mast with lateen-
rigged sails, dominated the medieval Mediterranean
beginning at the end of the ninth century. By the four- such as the galleon. Shorter than a galley, not as bulky or
teenth century Venetians began building “great galleys”— heavy as a carrack, the galleon had three or four masts,
bigger, longer vessels with two masts for commercial and with both square and lateen rigging. It had high sides and
passenger traffic. During the sixteenth century a new castles for artillery. Large oceangoing sailing ships were
Mediterranean ship emerged, the galliass, a huge galley also being developed in China as early as the tenth cen-
designed for warfare. Galliasses had both oars and sails tury CE. During the thirteenth century the Venetian trav-
and crews of up to seven hundred. Six galliasses fought eler Marco Polo reported seeing four-masted merchant
at the Battle of Lepanto in Greece’s Corinthian Gulf in ships during his long stay in China. In 1973 a large
1571, helping to defeat the Ottoman Turkish fleet. Gal- thirteenth-century ship was found at Houzhou; it was
leys and galliasses also formed part of the Spanish about 35 meters long, with a keel and double cedar
Armada in 1588. planking on the hull. Writings from the Ming dynasty
The invention of the carrack during the mid-fifteenth (1368–1644) describe the voyages of Zeng He in a fleet
century resulted from the combination of northern and of nine-masted ships 120 meters long, although
southern shipbuilding influences. Carracks, created in the researchers have found no such ships. Chinese ship-
shipyards of Venice and Genoa, were large modified building was suddenly ended in 1550 with an imperial
cogs, with three, four, or even five masts with a variety of ban on overseas commerce.
sails, both square and lateen rigged. Multiple masts and The founding of the Dutch East India Company in
combination rigging made carracks easy to control and 1592 propelled the Dutch to the forefront of long-distance
faster than traditional designs. Another innovation was trading, eclipsing the Portuguese.The three-masted Dutch
frame-first construction, where planks were nailed to the flute, a narrow merchant ship that was developed partially
frame. Carracks were the largest merchant vessels of to avoid taxation related to the width of the vessel,
their time, hauling 362 metric tons, but by the sixteenth remained the dominant cargo vessel into the eighteenth
century they were hauling 907 metric tons. The English century and was soon being built in England, Germany,
king, Henry VIII, beginning in 1509 built a fleet of “great and Scandinavia. The English and French trading com-
ships,” including two large carracks. Both ships were panies, created in response to Dutch maritime power, also
heavily armed with artillery, and when the wreckage of owned their own fleets and militia. During the seven-
the Mary Rose was discovered, two thousand arrows in teenth century science entered the shipyards, particularly
neat bundles were found. Smaller and lighter than the in France, with highly trained naval architects applying
carrack, the caravel also appeared during the fifteenth mathematics to ship design. Around 1670 the huge cas-
century, probably of Spanish or Portuguese origin. Pri- tles at the ship’s stern began to shrink to reduce weight.
marily for commercial use, the caravel is known prima- Large naval fleets came to the forefront in warfare dur-
rily for its use in the great exploration voyages of ing the seventeenth century. The capture of Gibraltar in
Christopher Columbus of Genoa, Italy, and Bartolomeo 1704 by the British was one of the great successes of the
Dias and Vasco da Gama of Portugal. British fleet and gave England control of access to the
Growing transatlantic trade during the sixteenth cen- Mediterranean. During the eighteenth century the con-
tury resulted in the development of oceangoing vessels struction and outfitting of warships took center stage as the