The Spanish naval architecture, which flourished after that of Portugal, felt undoubtedly and intensely the influence of the Mediterranean. The Spanish galleons and caracks recall the Genoese “nefs” and caracks, of which only a few old reproductions have been preserved, and which came up under the influence of relations with Northern nations.
In addition to the galleons, the galleys and the galliasses held an important place in the Spanish navy. The frequent use of vessels with oars made hand to hand fights quite rare and led to less frequent boarding among the nations of the South, this being the reverse of the practise among the Northern races.
The pictures of the Mediterranean vessels can be consulted to advantage in order to obtain an idea of the Spanish ships.
The sea power of Spain disappeared, as is known, with the Invincible Armada, in 1588. A summary description of this fleet will give an idea of the importance of the ships which composed it. It was made up of one-hundred-and-thirty-two vessels, of which (HOLMES, p. 92) four were galleys, four galliasses, thirty vessels of less than 100 tons and ninety-four ships of 130 to 1550 tons. The round-stern ships had a total capacity of 59,120 tons. There were 2761 pieces of artillery and the ships companies contained 7862 seamen and 20,671 soldiers.
The English fleet had one-hundred-and-ninety-seven vessels, of which only thirty-four belonged to the royal navy, all the rest were merchantmen hastily equipped for war.
The largest English ship was the Triumph, built in 1561, of 1000 to 1100 tons burden and carrying three hundred sailors, forty gunners and one-hundred-and-sixty soldiers. It mounted forty-six guns. Besides the “Triumph”, the English fleet had but seven vessels of 600 to 1000 tons whereas the Spanish fleet had forty-five vessels of this size. The total of all hands of the English fleet amounted to 15,551 souls.
In this struggle Holland was with England; it was she that kept the Duke of Parma shut up at Dunkerque. The largest vessels of the Netherlands fleet were of 400 tons. Both in England and with us, merchant ships, which did duty temporarily as men of war, were leased for the war. This old custom of the Middle Ages still survived. Besides, it was all the simpler, at this latter period, to equip merchantmen for war, as artillery was still in its infancy or even unknown.
The following figures (HOLMES, p. 95) show how much larger the vessels of the Southern States were than ours, as a rule. In 1592, the English captured a Portuguese carack of 1600 tons, 165 feet between perpendiculars and showing seven decks.
In 1594, it was the turn of a Spanish carack with 1100 men on board. When Cadiz was taken in 1596, two Spanish galliasses fell into the enemy’s hands; they were vessels of 1200 tons; the flagship “San-Felipo”, which was blown up measured 1500 tons.
A Portuguese carack of 1600 tons, called the San-Valentino, valued with her guns at a million ducats, was captured at Cezimbra in 1602.