My interest in the topic encourages me to go even further. Last month I received over 2.8 K views from the readers of my blog: an all-time record.
There is little to report about this week. I completed collecting data about the East Roman fleets, which knew several bouts of boom and bust. I realized that a better option would be to compare the opposing navies, e.g., the Byzantines vs. Arabs, the Normans vs. Byzantines, the Venetians vs. Genoese, and the Venetians vs. Ottomans. Demanding research, but only after finishing it will I be able to decide whether my current chapter makes water.
I am now checking the Norman fleet vs. Byzantium, i.e., the foundation of the Norman fleet in South Italy and Sicily and the Norman invasion of the Balkans. This is a preliminary stage, which will take a lot of time. However, without this basic knowledge, I will have nothing to say about the blue powers' strategy and tactics in the Mediterranean. If I decide to cover the Renaissance, I must add a section about the confrontation between the Ottomans and the Spanish. The newly discovered data may change my conclusions in previous chapters about the development of war galleys.
I have uploaded a new paper
https://www.academia.edu/104456432/War_galleys_in_the_Medieval_Mediterranean
This is the initial part of the first chapter of the new project on shipping in the medieval and renaissance Mediterranean. The article delves into galleys as omnipresent warships in the medieval Mediterranean. It analyses their performance, propulsion, sailing mode, and behavior on choppy seas. The paper elaborates on the craft's freeboard, wintering, and provisioning. The concluding section sums up the storyline. I have launched a discussion on this paper so that every reader may join. Unfortunately, Academia disconnected the notification function of 1 K academics related to this field.
