Galleons were large, multi-decked sailing ships developed in Portugal and Spain and first used as armed cargo carriers by Europeans from the 16th to 18th centuries during the age of sail and were the principal vessels drafted for use as warships until the Anglo-Dutch Wars of the mid-1600s. Galleons generally carried three or more masts with a lateen fore-and-aft rig on the rear masts, were carvel built with a prominent squared off raised stern, and used square-rigged sail plans on their fore-mast and main-masts.
The Battle of the Downs took place on 21 October 1639, during the Eighty Years' War. A Spanish fleet, commanded by Admiral Antonio de Oquendo, was decisively defeated by a Dutch force under Lieutenant-Admiral Maarten Tromp. Victory ended Spanish efforts to re-assert naval control over the English Channel and confirmed Dutch dominance of the sea lanes, while it is also alleged to be the first major action to feature line of battle tactics.
The Battle of Getaria was fought on 22 August 1638 during the Franco-Spanish War (1635–59), at Getaria, in northern Spain. A French naval force commanded by Henri de Sourdis attacked and destroyed a Spanish squadron under Lope de Hoces, who survived but was killed at the Battle of the Downs in 1639.
The naval Battle of Vila Franca do Campo, also known as Battle of Ponta Delgada and Naval Battle of Terceira Island, took place on 26 July 1582, off the coast of the island of São Miguel in the Portuguese archipelago of the Azores, during the War of the Portuguese Succession. A combined corsair expedition, mainly French, sailed against a Spanish naval force made up of Portuguese and Castilian ships, to preserve control of the Azores under the pretender António, Prior of Crato and to defend the islands from incorporation into the Iberian Union, the largest French force sent overseas before the age of Louis XIV.
São João Baptista, nicknamed Botafogo ("Spitfire"), was a Portuguese galleon built in the 16th century, around 1530, considered the biggest and most powerful warship in the world by Portuguese, Castillian, and Italian observers of the time.
The Battle of Cádiz (1656) was an operation in the Anglo–Spanish War (1654–1660) in which an English fleet destroyed or captured the ships of a Spanish treasure fleet off Cádiz.
The Battle of Gibraltar took place on 10 August 1621, during the Eighty Years' War between the Spanish Empire and the Dutch Republic. A Dutch East India Company fleet, escorted by a squadron under Willem Haultain de Zoete, was intercepted and defeated by nine ships of Spain's Atlantic fleet under Fadrique de Toledo while passing the Strait of Gibraltar.
The naval Battle of the Abrolhos took place on 12 September 1631 off the coast of Pernambuco, Brazil, during the Eighty Years' War. A joint Spanish-Portuguese fleet under admiral Antonio de Oquendo defeated the Dutch after a six-hour naval battle.
The recapture of Bahia was a Spanish–Portuguese military expedition in 1625 to retake the city of Bahia in Brazil from the forces of the Dutch West India Company (WIC).
The 4th Portuguese India Armada was a Portuguese fleet that sailed from Lisbon in February, 1502. Assembled on the order of King Manuel I of Portugal and placed under the command of D. Vasco da Gama, it was the fourth of some thirteen Portuguese India Armadas, was Gama's second trip to India, and was designed as a punitive expedition targeting Calicut to avenge the numerous defeats of the 2nd Armada two years earlier.
The action of 18 February 1639 was a naval battle of the Eighty Years' War fought off Dunkirk between a Dutch fleet under the command of Admiral Maarten Tromp and the Spanish Dunkirk Squadron under Miguel de Horna. Horna, who had orders to join with his ships Admiral Antonio de Oquendo's fleet at A Coruña, escorted at the same time a transport convoy carrying 2,000 Walloon soldiers to Spain, where they were needed. The attempt to exit Dunkirk was done in sight of the Dutch blockading squadron of Maarten Tromp. A 4-hour battle ensued and Horna was forced to retreat into Dunkirk leaving behind two of his galleons, whilst another ran aground. Despite his success in stopping the sortie, many of Tromp's ships suffered heavy damage, and the Dutch Admiral was forced to abandon the blockade. Therefore, De Horna, after repairing his squadron, was able to accomplish his mission.
The action of 12–17 January 1640 was a naval battle between a Dutch fleet and a combined Spanish-Portuguese fleet during the Eighty Years' War. The battle took place on the Brazilian coast off Pernambuco and was an attempt by a fleet consisting of approximately eighty vessels transporting about 5,000 soldiers under the command of Portuguese Admiral Fernando de Mascarenhas to land reinforcements to bolster the Portuguese militia besieging the city of Recife. On 12 January this fleet was intercepted by a Dutch task force of about forty ships commanded by Willem Loos. The ensuing battle lasted with occasional breaks until the evening of 17 January, when the Spanish and Portuguese fleet retreated and sailed away to the north.
The História trágico-marítima is a famous 18th-century collection of narrative accounts of the travails and wrecks of several Portuguese ships, principally carracks (naus) on the India run between 1552 and 1602, and the oft-harrowing stories of their survivors.
The Third Fernandine War was the last conflict of the Fernandine Wars, and took place between 1381–1382, between the Crown of Castile and the Kingdoms of Portugal and England. When Henry II of Castile died in 1379, John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster claimed their rights of the throne of the Kingdom of Castile, and found an ally Ferdinand I of Portugal.
The Battle of the Gulf of Oman was a naval battle between a large Portuguese armada under Dom Fernando de Meneses and the Ottoman Indian fleet under Seydi Ali Reis. The campaign was a catastrophic failure for the Ottomans who lost all of their ships.
Francisco Díaz Pimienta (1594–1652) was a Spanish naval officer who became Captain general of the Ocean Fleet.
Lope de Hoces was a Spanish admiral who was killed in action at the Battle of the Downs.
Cinco Chagas was a Portuguese nau (carrack) that was sunk during the action of Faial on 22–23 June 1594 during the Anglo-Spanish War. When it was sunk, the carrack was reportedly having a burden tonnage of 2,000 tons.
Cinco Chagas was a Portuguese carrack She was constructed from 1559 to 1560 in Goa. The Portuguese viceroy Dom Constantino de Braganza supervised the process. C. R. Boxer considers her to have been "probably the most famous of the India-built carracks." Cinco Chagas, nicknamed Constantina, was in service for around twenty six years, making nine or ten trips between Portugal and the East Indies. She was also a flagship for five Portuguese viceroys. The historian Dave Horner writes that this was probably a record, because ships were "lucky if they survived two or three roundtrips".
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