From the semi-barbarous epoch of the middle ages to the present
century, which has seen the birth of steam navigation, the form and
rig of vessels have undergone many modifications. We are about to give
a rapid historical sketch of these, quoting, as far as possible, those
types of naval architecture celebrated in preceding centuries. Still,
we are hardly permitted to go back farther than the ninth century,
where we find some certain ideas respecting the Scandinavian vessels.
Before this period all is confusion, and leaves us full of
uncertainty. We know well that the ancient _Trireme_ gave birth to a
sort of row-galleys known in the fifth century by the name of
_Dromons_; but we have no positive details respecting the precise form
of these vessels. In the sixth century, the Emperor Maurice, in a
treatise on the military art, spoke of them as vessels particularly
contrived for battle. Three hundred years later, the Emperor Leo, who
wrote on the same subject, said that the dromon was long, and broad in
proportion to its length, and that it carried on each side two banks
of oars, one above the other, of twenty-five each; but nothing further
to enlighten us. As for the Norman vessels from the ninth to the
twelfth century, we know the _drakar_ (dragon), which was as much of a
dragon as the ancient _Pristis_ was a whale――that is to say, that at
the summit of her prow rose a figure carved into a dragon, and that
her form had something that resembled a serpent. All of the dragons
were not of the same size. The dragon of Alaf Tryggrasson is spoken of
in cotemporary histories as the giant of Scandinavian vessels.
[Illustration: 1. TENTH CENTURY.――A NORMAN VESSEL.]
[Illustration: 2. TWELFTH CENTURY.――GALLEY, THREE ROWERS TO BENCH.]
Never was one seen larger, finer, or more imposing in bulk and
decoration. She had thirty-four oars on each side. If the tradition is
accurate, she must have been as long as the galleys of the sixteenth
century. It was, it will be seen, a vessel of considerable importance;
for galleys with twenty-six oars only were about one hundred and
thirty feet long. The dragons were built to resist a sea more stormy
than the Mediterranean. Consequently they had broad sides and a vast
stern, so as to have a firm seat on the water. They were flatbottomed,
and drew very little water. Besides the draker, the Scandinavians had
the _sekkar_, or serpent vessel, which had twenty benches of rowers.
Its form differed little from that of the dragon. It was only shorter,
shallower and narrower. All Norman vessels were alike in bow and
stern. But some war vessels had a little building on the poop called
the castle. This castle was a little embattled platform, where the
archers and slingers were placed. It would be difficult to tell
precisely what the internal arrangements of the Scandinavian vessels
were. The smallest were not probably decked. As for the larger ones,
they doubtless had a deck like the galleys; and beneath this deck a
hold, apportioned according to their wants, to rooms, magazines and
stables for their horses. The Scandinavian vessels had only one mast,
with a vane and four or five shrouds. The sail was square, attached to
a yard, furnished with sheets at its lower angles, and managed by two
braces that belayed aft. The yard had a halyard passing through a
block at the mast head. As for the rudder, it consisted of two blades,
large, crutchhandled oars, near the stern, on the right, and also left
of the vessel. The anchors of the Normans were like oars, but they did
not have that cross-bar of wood we call the stock. In the twelfth
century we see the galleys, according to Wenesalf, which were only
little light dromons, built particularly for speed, and having only
one tier of oars. The following is a textual passage from this writer
relating to them:――‘What the ancients called _liburnus_, the moderns
have named galley. It is a ship of no great depth, armed at the prow
with a motionless piece of wood, vulgarly called calcar (spur), an
instrument with which the galley pierces the enemy’s ships that she
strikes.’ A diminutive of the galley was the galleon, which, being
shorter and swifter, was better suited for discharging the Greek fire.
For the rest, starting from this invention, the action of the shock of
the calcar was by degrees replaced by the hand to hand struggle.
[Illustration: 3. THIRTEENTH CENTURY.――SHIP OF ST. LOUIS.]
[Illustration: 4. THIRTEENTH CENTURY.――A GALLEY.]
[Illustration: 5. FIFTEENTH CENTURY.――SHIPS OF CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.]
[Illustration: 6. FIFTEENTH CENTURY.――A CARRACK.]
Among the galleys, which afterwards gave birth to the _galea grossa_,
in assuming more capacity and more amplitude, some were manœuvred by
two oars to the bench, others three. It is even certain that, at a
later period, in the sixteenth century, the strongest ones had as many
as five oars, which appears incredible. The galleys possessed only one
mast, which was stepped rather forward――that is, in the first third of
the vessel. In the thirteenth century, the fleet which St. Louis took
with him towards the Holy Land, gives proof of the thorough
modifications which naval structures have undergone. St. Louis could
only collect the eighteen hundred vessels which composed his fleet,
without recourse to the marine of neighboring states――Genoa and Venice
among others. Now, the contracts for hire he exchanged with Venice for
many vessels, give us information with respect to one called the St.
Mary, represented in the engraving. This vessel had two decks and two
masts. It possessed two poops, placed above each other, two platforms,
an upper deck, and a fighting gallery of four or five feet overhanging
the poop. This ship, manned by one hundred and ten sailors, was one
hundred feet long. The same contracts give us also information
concerning another vessel, called the Rochefort. Although not so long
as the St. Mary, she was stronger and broader. She had two rudders;
one to starboard, and the other to larboard. Her sparring consisted,
also, of two masts; one at the prow, and the other amidships. The
mainmast was smaller and lower than the foremast. It had only
twenty-six braces, while the other had twenty-eight. The sails of
almost all the fleet were of cotton. All the sails were rectangular
triangles with the hypothenuse attached to the yard, and were called
_antennal_. Still, it is proper to mention the assertion of some
authors, that the sails of St. Louis’ vessels were square. Their
assertions were only founded on the form and dimensions of the yards,
which all the documents of the time represent as very long and slung
by the middle. We ought to observe that, in speaking of the St. Mary
and the Rochefort, Venetian ships, we have indirectly spoken of naval
constructions coming from the ports of France and those of other
European countries. At this period, all vessels, Genoese, Castilian,
French, etc., resembled each other; and to be acquainted with one was
to know all. The galleys of the thirteenth century were thus somewhat
changed. Lighter, sharper than those of the preceding century, in the
fourteenth, the kind called ‘subtle galleys,’ were observed to
preponderate. These galleys, extremely light and swift, were furnished
on each side with from twenty-four to twenty-six oars, and might have
been from one hundred and ten to one hundred and twenty feet in
length. Still, in the fourteenth century, and even in the fifteenth
and sixteenth, the most celebrated ships were the _carracks_. Their
tonnage may be estimated by their cargoes, which sometimes amounted to
fourteen hundred casks.
[Illustration: 7. SIXTEENTH CENTURY.――VENETIAN GALEASS.]
[Illustration: 8. SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.――THE GREAT HARRY.]
[Illustration: 9. SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.――STORE SHIP.]
[Illustration: 10. SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.――A GALLEY.]
[Illustration: 11. SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.――THE GALEASS.]
[Illustration: 12. SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.――THE SOVEREIGN OF THE SEAS.]
[Illustration: 13. SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.――THE ROYAL SUN.]
In 1359, the Castilians took a Venetian carrack, which had three
‘covers’ (decks), and must consequently have been as high as the great
storeships of the seventeenth century. In 1545, a French carrack, the
Carraquon, which passed for the finest ship and fastest sailer of the
western ocean, was of eight hundred tons burthen, and had one hundred
pieces of artillery of all calibers for armament. The carracks of the
fourteenth century had only two masts; in the fifteenth, they took
three, and afterwards four. At first three-decked, they finally
reached as high as seven decks. The poop and prow were the height of
three or four men above the deck, and looked like castles raised at
each of the extremities. The castles mounted each from thirty-five to
forty guns. In the galleys, the employment of fire-arms did not effect
material changes; the prow alone, somewhat shortened, was armed with a
gun mounted on a mass of wood destined for its recoil, and extending
amidships through the whole length of the vessel. This piece of wood
was called the _coursie_, and the gun placed upon it the _courser_. At
the sides, upright carriages supported a few falconets and other
pieces of small ordnance. The _galeass_, originating in the _galea
grossa_, as the latter did in the galley, carried, as well as the
carrack and other ships, a castle at the bow and a castle at the
stern. In the former, there were twelve guns in three tiers; in the
latter, ten only in two tiers. She had thirty-two benches of rowers,
and between each of her benches rose a swivel on a point. This, it
will be perceived, was a formidable armament. The galeass had three
masts and lateen sails. The Venetians made great use of this vessel.
Their famous Bucentaur belonged to this class. At the end of the
fifteenth century, when Christopher Columbus armed his vessels at
Palos, he formed his little flotilla exclusively of _caravels_. Now,
this name of caravel, which in the outset belonged only to a common
barque, was at this time borne by a vessel of considerable, but not
extraordinary size. The caravel had four masts; the forward one with a
square sail surmounted by a topsail, the three others each carrying a
lateen sail. These sails enabled the caravel to manœuvre well, and she
was as prompt to handle as the French _tartane_, much renowned at that
epoch. She came about as quickly as if she had been a row-boat. She
had but one deck, and very little carrying capacity. Still, if the
caravels of Christopher Columbus were smaller than those of a later
period, at the close of the sixteenth century, they were large enough
to contain ninety seamen and the provision necessary for a long
voyage. The flag ship of Columbus was called the Santa Maria; the two
other, La Pinta and La Nina. A passage in the journal of Columbus
himself, gives a detail of the canvass of the Santa Maria. ‘The wind,’
says he, ‘became mild and manageable, and I set all the sails of the
vessel――the mainsail with the two studding sails, the foresail, the
spritsail, the mizzen and the topsail.’ The caravels then had, like
all the great vessels of the period, a castle at the bow and a castle
at the stern. They made, on an average, six knots an hour. Columbus
was only thirty-five days in going from Palos to San Salvador――an
ordinary passage even in these days of quick sailing. The sixteenth
century was an epoch of progress for the marine; England particularly
gave it the onward impulse. Meanwhile, an important invention, that of
gun-ports, was due to a Frenchman, of Brest, named Descharges. The
system then adopted for the arrangement of batteries has never since
been changed, and exists to the present time. Historians and
antiquaries have taken great pains to arrive at a knowledge of the
forms of ships of war at this period. The documents written and drawn
are, some so confused, others so deficient in proportion and
perspective, that it is difficult to understand them.
[Illustration: 14. SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.――SEA-GOING CRAFT.]
[Illustration: 15. SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.――MEDITERRANEAN CRAFT.]
[Illustration: 16. SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.――LONG BARQUE.]
[Illustration: 17. SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.――OCEAN, LINE OF BATTLE SHIP.]
Still, as some authentic details respecting the Great Harry are known,
this ship may serve to give an idea of the navy of the sixteenth
century; and we have accordingly presented our readers with an
engraving of this formidable vessel. Up to the seventeenth century,
one model seems to have prevailed in all naval constructions. The
Spaniards and the Portuguese followed the example of the Venetians;
the Dutch and the northern nations derived their nautical knowledge
from the same sources; the English themselves, so jealous of their
naval supremacy, received their lessons in improving and strengthening
their embarkations from Italian masters. They were accustomed to place
at the extremity of the prow a sculptured figure, which served to
distinguish the vessels of one nation from another. The Venetians
adopted a bust from preference; the Spaniards, a lion; the English,
especially after the accession of the Stuarts, the figures of the
reigning monarch, either on horseback, or riding on a lion. The stern,
above the cabin windows, presented a plane surface or tablet, with
apertures for light and air, starboard and larboard. On Venetian,
Spanish and Portuguese stern some saint or hero was placed. Other
nations had only the arms of their respective states. Before the end
of the sixteenth century, some Portuguese and Spanish vessels carried
as many as eighty guns mounted on carriages. At this period, the
strongest vessel of the English navy carried but fifty guns or pieces
deserving that name. The ‘Sovereign of the Seas,’ built in 1637, at
Woolwich, Kent, ‘to the great glory of His Britannic Majesty,’ as a
cotemporary description we have before us declares, was decorated in a
style of regal magnificence. On her bow was king Edgar, on horseback,
trampling on seven kings; on the stern, a cupid on a lion; and grouped
together, at the bow, six statues, representing Counsel, Prudence,
Perseverance, Strength, Courage and Victory. On the quarter-deck, four
figures, with their attributes, Jupiter, with his eagle, Mars, with
sword and shield, Neptune, with his sea-horse, and Eolus on a
cameleon. On the stern, a Victory displayed her wings, and bore a
scroll with this device: _Validis incumbite remis_. This vessel had
two galleries on each side. These galleries, as well as the whole
vessel, were covered with trophies, emblems and scutcheons, of all
kinds. Her length from stem to stern was 232 feet. She carried five
lanterns, one of which, the largest, could contain ten persons,
standing, with ease. She had three decks running from stem to stern, a
forecastle-deck, a half-deck, a quarter-deck, and a poop-deck. Her
armament was as follows: thirty ports, with large and small guns, in
the lower battery; thirty ports, with culverins, in the second
battery; twelve ports in the forecastle, and fourteen on the
half-deck; finally, thirteen or fourteen swivels, a multitude of
port-holes for musketry, ten bow-chasers, and as many stern-chasers.
There were twelve anchors. ‘The Sovereign of the Seas,’ says Charnock,
‘was the first large vessel constructed in England. Splendor and
magnificence were particularly kept in view in building her. She was
in some sort the occasion of the serious complaints made of the
expenses of the navy in the reign of Charles I. Cut down one deck, she
became one of the best ships of war in the whole world.’ It is certain
that the suppression of this deck, and the lowering of her deck-cabin,
gave her more stability than she had at first. Now, for speed, what
she gained in strength by these changes was compensated by the length
added to her masts. Topsails at this period were an important addition
to ships. Old engravings show us the vessels of the sixteenth century
sailing generally under their courses. After the building of the
Sovereign of the Seas, this only occurred in particular cases and
certain conditions of the elements. Captain Phineas Pett directed the
work of building and afterwards improving the Sovereign of the Seas. A
learned engineer, he deserves the credit of having done more than any
one else to give an impulse to the English navy. The artillery was
strengthened, and the crews larger, and better lodged. The entire navy
felt this progress. The Sovereign of the Seas gauged 1637 tons, a
thing which, according to a historian of the time, deserved the
attention of the whole world, since it represented exactly the date of
her launch. Notwithstanding the thrice-fortunate augury which the
historian saw in this coïncidence, the Sovereign of the Seas met with
the fate of the Great Harry. She was destroyed, like the latter, by
fire, in a ship-yard, where she was being repaired, in 1696, after
sixty years’ service. Observe here that Fuller, in his history of the
‘Wonders of England,’ acknowledges that at the commencement of the
seventeenth century, the Dunkirkers furnished the models of the best
vessels built at this period in the British ports.
When Louis XIV became king of France, there was no French navy,
properly speaking. Voltaire asserts that in 1664 a few frigates and a
line-of-battle ship, in poor condition, constituted the entire force.
After the siege of La Rochelle, Richelieu, jealous of the growth of
the English navy, had given a sort of impulse to naval ideas by arming
immediately fifty ships and twenty galleys; but the effect of this
impulse was merely momentary. Colbert was the true creator of the
French navy. Under him, in less than five years, France possessed a
triumphant maritime force. The most renowned of the French ships at
this period was the Royal Sun. This vessel was constructed partly on
French, and partly on Dutch principles. She was 1600 tons, 150 feet
long, 48 broad, and 16 deep. She carried three lanterns on the poop.
As the flag-ship, she carried at the main the white standard,
embroidered with the fleurs-de-lys, and the French coat of arms
surrounded the orders of St. Michael and the Holy Ghost. The
decorations of the Royal Sun surpassed everything before or since. A
model of this ship is contained in the naval museum of the Louvre, at
Paris. The Royal Sun mounted 120 guns in three batteries complete,
with stern and bow guns.
The seventeenth century was perhaps the most brilliant period in the
history of galleys. Those of France were commanded by a general. There
were two kinds of them, the ordinary and the extraordinary. The
ordinary had only twenty-six oars, and twenty-six benches on each
side; the extraordinary had often thirty-two. There was no difference
of model between them, their dissimilarity only resulting from their
relative sizes. All were extremely long, low and narrow. They carried
only two masts and lateen sails. The armament consisted of five guns
forward and two swivels. These swivels were attached to the sides of
the galley to prevent the recoil. There were generally at least five
rowers to each oar, the oars being very long and very heavy. Between
the rowers’ benches and the sides of the ship there was a space where
the soldiers were stationed. Soldiers to fight, sailors to manœuvre,
and a gang composed of galley-slaves, or Turkish prisoners, made up
the crews of the galleys.
Naval architecture, in the course of the eighteenth century, advanced
in model, sparring and rigging of vessels. Two deckers with fifty guns
were superseded by frigates carrying the same number of pieces in one
battery. The following were the dimensions generally adopted for the
different classes of vessels: For first class vessels, one hundred and
sixty four to one hundred and eighty-six feet in length, forty-seven
to fifty feet in breadth, twenty-three to twenty-five feet in depth;
for second class vessels, one hundred and fifty-six to one hundred and
seventy in length, forty-three to forty-seven in breadth, twenty and a
half to twenty-three in depth; for third class vessels one hundred and
fifty to one hundred and sixty in length, forty-two to forty-three in
breadth, twenty to twenty and a-half in depth; for fourth class
vessels, one hundred and thirty-five to one hundred and fifty in
length, thirty-five to forty in breadth, seventeen to twenty in depth;
for fifth class vessels, one hundred and two to one hundred and thirty
in length, thirty-three to thirty-four in breadth, thirteen to
seventeen in depth; for sixth class vessels, sixty to seventy in
length, eighteen to twenty in breadth, nine to ten in depth. Among the
considerable changes in construction, the first that strikes the eye
is the enormous augmentation of canvas. Never did ships carry so much
sail.
At the same time that ships of fifty guns became frigates, in their
turn the light frigates――those, for instance, which carried from ten
to twenty pieces of artillery――formed a new class of vessels, under
the name of corvettes. The corvettes, at the beginning, had three
masts, and their guns under cover. Afterwards, to increase their
speed, they carried all their artillery on the upper deck. Later year,
the mizzen-mast was abandoned in the smallest. This kind of corvette
gave place to the brig-of-war. The bomb-galliot became a bomb-ketch, a
sort of three-masted corvette, with platforms between the main and
mizzen, and the main and fore masts. Yachts, galliots, gun-boats,
armed some with a few light pieces, others with one heavy gun,
complete the series of naval forces in use at the eighteenth century,
except a few varieties peculiar to different seas and coasts. As for
the fire-ship of the first part of the century, no mention is made of
it at the close; and if, since that time, certain infernal machines,
more or less closely fashioned after the fire-ships, have made their
appearance, they have only proved unfortunate attempts, and not
answered the expectations of their contrivers. The Turks alone
preserved these old warlike contrivances up to the present time; and
Navarino offered us, for the last time, the spectacle of a ship――the
Scipio――engaged with a fire-ship. Like the fire-ship, the ancient
galley disappeared with the eighteenth century. In the Mediterranean,
the three-masted barque has become the xebeck; and we find, under the
same appearance, all the embarkations spoken of in the preceding ages.
The lateen vessels are those the least changed in appearance, because,
from the simplicity of their rig, they sooner reached a stage
bordering on perfection.
The ship Ocean, represented in engraving (17), is an excellent
specimen of the science of the eighteenth century. Presented to Louis
XIV, by the estates of Burgundy, nothing was spared to make the
frigate worthy of its destiny. Built in 1760, it was modernized, and
is still in existence.