During the tenth century the Zelander, or Galander,[673] figures with the Dromond and the Pamphyle; but three centuries afterwards these vessels had discontinued the use of oars and had become sailing vessels under a somewhat similar name. The accounts which have been preserved of the Zelander describe her as a vessel of extraordinary length and great swiftness, having two banks of oars, and a crew of one hundred and fifty men. Contemporary with the Zelander we have the Huissier, a vessel of a peculiar description, and deriving her name from having an opening or large port in her poop, through which horses were shipped, for the conveyance of which these vessels seem to have been more especially designed. This large opening, when the Huissier had completed her loading, was securely closed and caulked, like the bow and stern ports in the ships of our own time employed in the timber trade.
The Cat.
The Saitie.
The Galliot, &c.
In the list of ships engaged for the expedition against Crete (A.D. 949) mention is made, not merely of Huissiers, Zelanders, and Pamphyles, but of vessels known as Zelander-Huissiers and Zelander-Pamphyles, or of a description embodying the qualities and advantages of both. “Cats,” to which William of Tyre, speaking of an incident in 1121, calls attention, were sharp-beaked ships, larger than galleys, having one hundred oars, each of which was worked by two men, or “double banked” in the phraseology of our own time. The Saitie, or Sagette (arrow), was a small, fast-rowing vessel, or barge, propelled by oars, but considerably less than even the smallest class of galleys. In the twelfth century this description of craft had from ten to twelve oars on each side, and was employed during the five succeeding centuries for the same purposes as the Brigantine. The Galliot, the Furt, the Brigantine, and the Frigate became in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries diminutives of the galley, and were known as the Galeass, when large, broad, and heavily armed. The galeass had her oars ranged, either in threes upon a single bank, or had twenty-six oars on each side, in which case, the oar being larger and heavier, from six to seven men, seated upon the same bench, were employed upon it.[674]
The Galeass.
The galeass figures among the drawings of other vessels of a similar class in the representation of a naval engagement, of, as is presumed, the fourteenth or fifteenth century. With the exception of the very high poop, she, in nearly all other respects, resembles the galeasses which formed the vanguard of the fleet at the battle of Lepanto (A.D. 1571). Of these a drawing may be seen in Charnock’s work on Naval Architecture.
The Galleon.
In the tenth century the Saracens possessed large and very heavy ships, which, according to the Emperor Leo, were called Cumbaries, or Gombories. The Venetians adopted this large ship of burden, and Sagarino, the chancellor, says that they, by whom they were called Galleons, built and armed thirty-three of these vessels. Charnock furnishes a drawing of a Galleon of the sixteenth century, A.D. 1564.
The Buzo.