An engraving which dates from about the year 1600, and shows the Scheldt in front of Antwerp, as well as a view of Gouda, shows boats of this kind.
These galleys were only large rowboats, a little longer than the ordinary ones (DE JONGE, Vol. I, p. 80) and carried only 32 oars at the most. The largest Netherlands galley belonged to the guard of Amsterdam and was called the Terror of the Zuyder zee. Those which were used in naval battles come from the South.
Any one who knows the national character of the Dutch will not be astonished at seeing that the galley had no success in Holland. The trade of the galley slave was considered too vile and no volunteer rowers were to be found; furthermore slavery did not exist and serfdom had been early suppressed. (WITSEN, p. 194, col. 1.)
However, the cogs did not confine themselves to the simple forms which have been sketched. The constant wars, which brought out the fortified castles of the Middle Ages, soon led to the construction on the sea of structures of the same sort, and gradually there were seen to develope among us also the towers which arose at the bow and stern of the ships. The seals of Amsterdam give a striking illustration of this.
Military tactics were not without their influence on this way of building vessels. The crusades and the subsequent relations with the peoples of the Mediterranean, among whom the practice of castles was known, made us familiar with these superelevated constructions. If, in a first encounter, the enemy’s vessel could not be sunk, it was boarded so as to bring about a hand to hand fight. The conqueror was then he who had at hand the most robust ships and who could place himself sufficiently high up to let fly his arrows at the enemy. Nothing was more natural, then, than to imitate on ships the fortified castles with their crenelated towers. If the enemy succeeded in boarding the ship, the defense withdrew to the castles. There should be no cause for astonishment therefore at finding the old tops on the masts and at learning that even the boats were hoisted there in order more surely to crush the adversary under a shower of arrows and stones (Mr. DE JONGE, p. 20).
It can be conceived that the movable castles should not have answered to expectations and, therefore, that an arrangement was soon reached to make but a single body of the castle and the ship, and thence to raise the bow and the stern.
Portugal and Spain, imitating the Mediterranean, had the start of us in constructing castles.
Thus the vessel of the XVIth century is seen to develope gradually and we can understand how the intermediate low part between the forward and after castles should persist.
In the beginning, the deck did not exist in the central part. Then, in order to protect this last against stones and other projectiles, it was covered with a wooden lattice (See, among others, WITSEN, p. 51, col. 2), while its sides were furnished with loopholes covered with pewter, to make it more difficult to scale in case of boarding.
The English seals, more finely and more artistically engraved than ours, give an excellent idea of the progressive development of the castles. Five of them show the sides of the ships as clinker built, while the seal of the city of Poole makes the rivets really visible. The castles are so clearly shown in their successive phases of development, that any explanation is unnecessary. The steering oar, which is seen on the oldest seal, is replaced by a rudder on the others. The Boston seal shows a well turned out three-masted vessel with smooth sides.