History of Ships Ships of Discovery Jean Vaucher (April 2019) |
In this section we consider ships developed for long distance exploration and trade - away from the Mediterranean.
Venetian Galley |
Viking Drakkar |
COG typical dimensions: |
Cog on Paris Crest
|
Northern Cog |
Mediterranean Cog |
Two types of ships were developped:
Caravela latina |
Caravela redonda |
Large Caravel |
In 1492 Colombus's used 2 caravels, the Nina and the Pinta, and a larger carrack, the Santa Maria, as his flagship [More].
Large carracks had ample room for large crews, provisions and cargo required for east Indies trading. Their size and stability allowed mounting of cannons.
Typical Carrack |
Vespucci's ship 468 tons, 86 men |
Magellan's Victoria Replica |
Carrack |
Carracks were also used by Vasco de Gama for the first successful trip to India around the Cape of Good Hope. In 1498, de Gama left Portugal with 170 men, 3 carracks and one caravel; he returned 22 months later with only 2 ships and 55 men. He had sailed 24,000 miles and spent 300 days at sea [ BBC History ]. For the next 100 years, the Portuguese controled the East India trade, sending a fleet to India almost every year, scheduled to coincide with the monsoons. For more details see our historical page.
Carracks for exploration like the Santa Maria or de Gama's San Gabriel were small, about 90 tons; but merchant ships would average 250-500 tons with a crew of 40-80 and some war ships went up to 1000 tons. The average speed was about 80 miles/day and the trip to India took 6 to 8 months each way.
"In 1606, after 9 month at sea returning from India, the Nossa sank in view of Lisbon. She was a Nao with a 40 m hull and 9 m beam. The cargo, the main reason for the voyage, consisted of 250 tons of peppercorns, complemented with many other spices and drugs, countless bales of cotton and silk cloth of all sizes and colors, furniture, porcelain, exotic animals and thousand of luxury items from the workshops of the far east. The ship also carried 450 people, including crew and passengers, food and water for six months, spares and fittings." [see Pepper Wreck]
Columbus ship Single hold |
A 600 ton India Nao (4 decks below) |
Click images to enlarge |
Texas A&M References:
Note: modern sailboats with fore and aft rigs can sail about 40° to the wind but at best a square rig could only do 70°.
Galleons also started using portholes to allow guns to be mounted lower in the hull and not just on deck. This made it possible to have more powerful guns which would not capsize the ship when fired. The Galleon was a sound multi-purpose design. War ships would have cannons on all decks whereas a merchant might have one gun deck and use the others for cargo.
Whereas, carracks were usually very large ships (often over 1000 tons), galleons were mostly under 500 tons. The Manila galleons, were to reach up to 2000 tons, were the exception. From 1565 to 1815, these were Spanish trading ships that sailed once or twice per year across the Pacific Ocean between the Philippines and Acapulco in New Spain. Goods would then be taken overland to VeraCruz and hence to Spain.
The galleon continued to be used until the early 18th century, when better designed and purpose-built vessels such as the fluyt, brig and the ship of the line rendered it obsolete for trade and warfare respectively. In time, the long beak became curved and shorter, top sails were added, jibs were introduced and the lateen-rigged mizzenmast was replaced with a gaff rigged spanker sail.
Spanish Galleon |
Adler von Lübeck (1565) Hanseatic League warship 2500 tons, 138 cannons |
Drake's Golden Hind (1580) |
a) Bowsprit Sail | b) Waterline | c) Bowsprit | d) Anchor | e) Rudder | f) Mizzen Mast | g) Mizzen Sail |
h) Main Mast | i) Crowsnest | j) Top Sail | k) Main Sail | l) Foresail | m) Foremast | n) Bowsprit Mast |
Batavia (1628) |
Gotheborg (1740) |
Amsterdam (1750) |
Arniston (1794) |
In order to catch favorable monsoon winds, ships had to leave Copenhagen in December-January and it might take up to 3 months to get out of the North Sea into the Atlantic. Thereafter, the ships took the usual sailing to the Cape. Then China vessels would go straight east pushed by the Trade winds before turning north to aim for Sunda Strait between Java and Sumatra and on to Canton. The return journey would again pass by the Sunda Strait before aiming directly for the Cape. The passage from Copenhagen to Canton normally took 7-8 months at sea followed by 4-5 months in Canton obtaining cargo, repairing and refitting the ship. The return trip was faster: 6 months for a total round trip of 18-20 months.
This route was used safely by Europeans for over 100 years. In the 40 years from 1732 to 1772, 65 ships made the journey and only 6 were wrecked (4 on the North Sea leg). However, wear and tear was such that the useful life of a ship was 4-5 voyages (8-10 years).
The 650 ton Batavia, shown above, is better known for the fact that its skipper planned to hijack the ship on its maiden voyage in 1628. He steered away from the rest of the fleet but went too far and struck a reef off the west coast of Australia.