Galleys versus Sailing Ships: Plying the Waters of the Medieval Mediterranean

 

Venetian War Galley, late sixteenth century

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Genoese Merchant Vessel

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The first chapter of a new unit compares and contrasts galleys and sailing ships negotiating maritime routes in the medieval Mediterranean. It discusses shipbuilding approaches and the diet of seafarers. The paper is based on my previous version penned about seven years ago but sustained major corrections. Due to personal reasons, I will keep the draft intact but I cannot help uploading the first page for you. 

A curious landlubber gazing at the sea could discern with ease two broad types of watercraft hugging the coast: oared vessels (galleys) and sailing ships. These breeds epitomized the unabated contest between seaworthiness and speed.

Oared vessels were born for speed and doomed to fight; not for nothing tags like "dromon" (Greek: "racer") in Byzantium and "sagitta" (Latin: "arrow") in the West stuck to them. Endowed with a cigar-like body and shallow draft, which rendered them minimum water resistance, galleys boasted of their built-in velocity.  When the hull was normally laden, the freeboard amidships could descend as low as half a meter. A Byzantine chronicler mocks at Sicilian triremes at the outbound voyage from a successful raid, claiming that they were so overloaded with trophies that literally "submerged down to the oars". 

Routinely propelled by wind, which would inflate fore-and-aft sails, galleys switched to sweeps in standard situations, when they were becalmed or had to get in or out of the port, or in emergencies, to avoid running aground or encountering reefs, rocks, or shallows. They also took to oars when tempo and maneuverability were counted, for example in maritime engagements, coastal raids, or transportation of diplomatic missions. The use of human power imparted remarkable freedom of movement to their banana-shaped bodies.  

Galleys were discerned by the number of rowing seats on a bank of oars, by and large, from one to three, known as monoremes, biremes, and triremes. The experiments of naval architects with four and five sweeps did not give polyremes a competitive edge over less crowded models.

In contrast to their mobility, longships were mediocre and capricious sailers. Traveling under canvas to preserve muscle power, they made the most of the sail under the wind astern and at flat seas but found fault with an air current stronger than a light breeze.

Long-hulled warships could make a good headway, cutting coastal waves at ease on short stretches of sea travel and under favorable conditions. However, when confronted even with mild winds, they performed badly and would withdraw from the race on the brink of storms. The galley masters would rather linger away the foul weather in the comfort of taverns than put the craft's safety at risk.