A galleass was a warship that combined the sails and armament of a galleon or carrack with the maneuverability of the oared galley. [1] [2] Originally invented by the Republic of Venice for their use in the Mediterranean, they were also extensively used in the Atlantic by Spanish Empire. While never quite matching up to the full expectations for its design, the galleass nevertheless remained in use during the 16th and 17th centuries. [3]
Venetian galleasses were higher, larger and slower than regular galleys. They had up to 32 oars, each worked by up to five men. They usually had three masts, and unlike galleys, proper forecastles and an aftcastles. Much effort was made in Venice to make galleasses as fast as possible to compete with regular galleys. The gun deck usually ran over the rowers' heads, but there are also pictures showing the opposite arrangement. Galleasses usually carried more sails than galleys and had far more firepower; [4] a galley caught in a galleass's broadside was in great danger, since it would be exposed to a large amount of gunfire. Relatively few galleasses were built by Venice —one disadvantage was that, being more reliant on sails, their position at the front of the galley line at the start of a battle could not be guaranteed.
Galleasses were further developed by Spanish shipbuilder Álvaro de Bazán the Elder, who adapted them for their usage in the Atlantic (galeaza atlántica or cantábrica), finding in them much potential to hunt down sailing ships in absence of wind. [5] Unlike the Mediterranean models, Atlantic galleasses were designed primarily as sailing ships and would only deploy their rows to strategically turn or sprint. This allowed them a better maneuverability than sailing ships, while the increased size also allowed for superior firepower compared to Mediterranean galleasses. [6] His son Alonso de Bazán experimented with a similar model named galizabra, which combined traits of both a galley and a zabra. [7]
Some authors identify as galleasses the great galleys used by Venice during the Second Ottoman–Venetian War, forming part of the fleets of the Battle of Zonchio in 1499. [8] [9] These ships were described to be so advanced that the Ottomans could not replicate them yet, not even after capturing two in the Battle of Modon and towing one to Constantinople. [10] Otherwise, the Mediterranean galleass is considered to have been probably invented during the naval reforms of Cristoforo da Canal, after the end of the Third Ottoman-Venetian War in 1540. [11]
Also in the 1540s, Bazán the Elder built a private fleet in Biscay, including Atlantic galleasses like the 800-ton Santa María and the 1200-ton Santa María Magdalena, carrying 100 guns each. They were employed with great success in counter-privateering. [6] [12] Bazán also proposed to replace the sailing ships in the Spanish treasure fleets with galleasses of 200-400 tons, which would again employ sails normally and switch to rows when necessary. The project was rejected by a mix of political and logistic problems, so he repurposed the ships to escort the existent fleets, similarly gaining renown for their performance and reliability. [13]
In 1561, Pedro Menéndez de Avilés designed and built 230-ton Atlantic galleasses inspired by Bazán the Elder, which received the name of galeones agalerados ("galleyed galleons"). He formed a fleet of twelve, nicknamed the "Twelve Apostles", to protect the Spanish treasure fleets from French and English pirates and privateers, for which they exceeded expectations. However, their rows were eventually discarded as impractical when it was found out the ships would take water through the row-ports while rowing into the wind, and their cargo hold was also improved with an additional bridge. As a result, their model evolved into the galeoncete, a fast, lighter galleon. In 1577, they were complemented with much larger galleasses and galleons designed by Cristóbal de Barros to serve as flagships. [14]
Spanish galleasses were also used in conjunction with carracks by Álvaro de Bazán the Younger to fight off pirates and privateers in the Atlantic, since these usually employed carracks and other sailing ships themselves, which could be rendered easy prey for galleasses in conditions of little to no wind. [2] However, with the end of the Italian Wars, Spain eventually redirected their resources to the Mediterranean, where Ottomans and Barbary corsairs mainly used quicker galleys ans galiots, leading Bazán to replace his fleet by a similar squad of galleys. [2]
Six Venetian galleasses fought at the Battle of Lepanto in 1571, their firepower helping to break the force of the first Ottoman attack. [15] The Ottomans under Ali Pasha were forced to divide their line and bypass the galleasses in order to continue their advance and clash with the Christian line. [16] The galleasses were left out of the battle, as unfavorable wind worsened their unmaneuverability and the chaos of the battle prevented them to fire from afar without hitting their own ships, [16] but their contribution had helped to win victory for the Holy League fleet. [17] Bazán the Younger organized the construction of Venetian-style galleasses in Naples in 1572. [18]
By 1580, Atlantic galleasses were falling out of favor and gradually evolving into galleons. While powerful and adaptable, vessels combining both sails and rows in the ocean were proving too complicated and expensive to build, especially compared to the new models of exclusively sailing ships. The same year, Álvaro de Bazán the Younger and Cristóbal de Barros accorded the new design of galleon, which would become predominant in the Spanish navy. [14] Alonso de Bazán built the first two galizabras in Lisboa in 1584, the 200-ton Julia and Augusta, but similarly, he discovered their number of rowers was insufficient for their size, so he had them rebuilt as galeoncetes. [19]
These ships were all part of the Spanish Armada in 1588, which featured eight of the galleons built by Bazán and Barros, the two galeoncetes built by Alonso and four great Mediterranean galleasses from Naples, of which two were possibly from the batch built in 1572 (one of them was the La Girona). The first two types of vessels proved seaworthy enough to survive the fiasco and return to Spain, but the four Neapolitan galleasses turned out unsuitable for the Atlantic weather. [20] With 50 guns apiece, 300 soldiers and sailors, and 300 rowers, they were formidable ships, forming part of the front-line of fighting ships, but they were too fragile and overcrewed. [18] [21] During the Channel actions, they were repeatedly called on as a squad in any calm, to rescue Spanish stragglers or cut-off a stray English ship. [22] However, their leader was wrecked after the Battle of Gravelines, and only two of the four made it back safely to Spain. [23]
In the Mediterranean, with its less dangerous weather and fickle winds, galleasses continued to be in use as auxiliaries to galleys long after they became obsolete elsewhere. [24] In 1615, Pedro Téllez-Girón, Duke of Osuna built four heavy galleasses in Sicily in preparation of an Ottoman attack. [25] However, events like the Battle of Cape Gelidonya, where six privateer vessels also owned by Osuna defeated a much larger Ottoman galley fleet, proved the value of sailing vessels in the Mediterranean and initiated the general declive of galleasses. [24] One year later, the Venetian armada deployed six galleasses against Osuna's fleet the Battle of Ragusa, with little success. [26] Galleasses were still featured at both sides of the Ottoman-Venetian War of 1645–1669, with the Ottomans finally adopting galleasses or mahons (from Arabian mahun, meaning boat). [27] [28]
Media related to Galleasses at Wikimedia Commons
