We pass now to speak of the Spanish treasure-frigates. These were an important class of vessel during the last quarter of the sixteenth century. The length on their upper deck was nearly four times the beam, and they possessed considerable speed. They were not properly cargo ships, but built in order to carry the valuable treasures from the Spanish Main across the Atlantic to Spain. Specially designed by Pero Menendez Marquez about the year 1590, to get across from the West Indies with the utmost despatch, they carried 150 men with soldiers and marines. Hakluyt[91] contains “certaine Spanish letters intercepted by shippes ... containing many secrets touching” South America and the West Indies. The extremely interesting drawing in Fig. 56 was sent home by an English spy and is now preserved in the Records Office, by whose permission it is reproduced here. This illustration shows very clearly that she had evolved from a galley. She has three masts of which the main and mizzen are seen to possess topmasts that lower. These two masts also have topsails. The yards of the mainsail and foresail have also affixed to their extremities crescent-shaped shear-hooks for tearing the enemy’s rigging. The forestay and foretopmast stay are well indicated. The mizzen has a lateen as usual, and the ram still survives. The artist has also shown the netting mentioned just now. As to the hull, we see from the spy’s handwriting that she was “104 foote by the keele” and “34 foote in breadth.” She has three tiers of guns, these being mounted also forward, so as to be able to fire straight ahead. She appears to have as many as six decks aft—main, upper, spar and four poop decks. The greatest precaution was taken by the Spanish government to ensure seaworthiness in the ships leaving their shores for the West Indies. Three times they had to be inspected before being allowed to set forth: once when empty, then when laden, and lastly, immediately before departure. No cargo was allowed to be carried on deck except water, provisions and passengers’ luggage. In the huge “channels” which were mentioned above were stowed such commodities as wool, small casks of water, and straw. Mr. Oppenheim mentions that an ancient “Plimsoll” mark was ordered by the inspectors in the year 1618, although the Genoese statutes had ordained this as early as 1330.
When in 1592 the English captured the “huge carak” called the Madre de Dios belonging to Portugal, there were found stowed in her capacious channels about 200 tons of goods. This will give some idea of the extent to which these channels grew in size. Hakluyt contains a long and detailed account of the capture and dimensions of this carack, which was the largest the English seamen had yet encountered. She was 1600 tons, having between 600 and 700 souls aboard, besides her rich cargo of jewels and spices and silks and other goods. She was eventually brought into Dartmouth, and is said never again to have left the harbour. When surveyed, Hakluyt says that she measured from beak-head to the stern, 165 feet, extreme beam, 46 feet 10 inches. Her draught when laden had been 31 feet, which, being about the draught of one of the largest modern liners, would seem exaggerated did not the account definitely state that the survey was exactly made by “one M. Robert Adams, a man in his faculty of excellent skill.” When, after being lightened, she was taken into Dartmouth, she drew only 26 feet, which is still enormous. Her decks at the stern comprised a main orlop and three closed decks. At the bows she had a forecastle and a spar-deck “of two floors apiece.” The length of her keel was 100 feet, of the mainmast 121 feet, while the circuit at the partners was 10 feet 7 inches, the main yard being 106 feet long. The following year another enormous carack was fired and sunk by the English. Her name was Las Cinque Llagas (“The Five Wounds”), and she is said by some to have been bigger even than the Madre de Dios.
Fig. 57. Mediterranean Galley.
One of the most memorable of naval battles was that which was fought on the Adriatic Sea in 1571. On the one side were the allied forces of Venice, Spain, and the Papal States: on the other, the Turks who were defeated. Galleys and galleasses played an important part in obtaining this victory. To what development the galley had attained since the times of the early Greeks and Romans will be seen in Figs. 57 and 58. But in spite of all that history had added to them, it is surprising how little they differ in essentials. Fig. 57 has been sketched from a model in the South Kensington Museum. It is quite old, and is said to have belonged to the Knights of Malta. Her dimensions if built to scale would work out at about 165 feet long, by 22 feet beam, with extreme beam from gunwale to gunwale, 31 feet. The depth would be 9·9 feet, and the number of sweeps 44. In the United Service Museum there is also an instructive Maltese galley model of a large size which, though of the eighteenth century, differed so little as to be closely similar to the excellent illustration which we give in Fig. 58. This has been taken from an important publication, of the beginning of the seventeenth century, by Joseph Furttenbach, entitled “Architectura Navalis,” printed at Ulm in 1629. As will be seen, each oar is still worked by a gang of men. At the stern the captain sits with his knights by his side, while at the extreme stern is the pilot. Along the corsia or gangway down the ship walk two men with long poles with which to beat the lazy oarsmen. The principal armament was carried in the bows and so was unable to be used for broadside fire. Notice also the survival of the trumpeters. The length of this vessel was 169 feet from beak to stern, with an extreme beam of about 20 feet. The word antennæ is still found at this time as applied to the yards. In spite of the handiness of the galley and her consequent popularity in the Mediterranean, she was thoroughly despised by Elizabethan seamen. Much more after their own heart was the nave or ship shown in Fig. 59, and also taken out of Furttenbach. The reader will notice a wise restriction of high-charged structures. This vessel, in fact, shows a steady improvement in naval architecture. Thus, besides the lateen mizzen she carries a square topsail above, while in addition to the spritsail seen furled to its yard on the bowsprit, there has now been added a sprit topsail whose yard is seen to hoist up a sprit topmast. When we compare this vessel with the wooden walls of the eighteenth century, she will be seen to be wonderfully modern. The last traces of crude mediævalism are disappearing. Science in design has fast begun to supplant rule of thumb and guess-work based only on ignorance. Skill has taken the place of inexperience in the work of the shipwright, and both design and construction have been based on the knowledge obtained not only in long and tedious voyages, but in the brisk fighting between nation and nation and privateer against treasure ship and trader. In the same volume of Furttenbach a useful plan of the lines of this ship is given, from which we see that whilst the mainmast is stepped at the keelson, the fore and mizzen are stepped on the main deck.
Fig. 58. An Early Seventeenth-century Galley.
A favourite vessel with the Turkish pirates who infested the Mediterranean at this time was the carramuzzal, classed as a brigandine. Her sail, says Hakluyt, consisted of “a misen or triangle” sail, that is of course a lateen. She is shown in Furttenbach purposely without rigging or sails so as to indicate clearly her method of firing. The tartana, with her lateen sail, sometimes seen in contemporary prints, was a Mediterranean fishing vessel.
Fig. 59. A Full-rigged Ship of the Early Seventeenth Century.