Galley

The term galley can refer to any ship propelled primarily by man-power, using oars. Most galleys also use masts and sails as a secondary means of propulsion.

Later galleys

Related Topics:
Byzantine Empire - Dromon - Medieval

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Medieval galleys in northern Europe

A development of the Viking longships and knaars, north European galleys were clinker built with a square sail and rows of oars, and looked very like their Norse predecessors.

Related Topics:
Viking - Longship - Knaar - Europe

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In the maritime domain of the Lords of the Isles, between 1263 and 1500, galleys were used for both warfare and transport around their territory which included the west coast of the Scottish Highlands, the Hebrides, and Antrim in Ireland. These ships were used for sea battles and for attacking the castles or forts built close to the sea. As a feudal superior, the Lord of the Isles required the service of a specified number and size of galleys from each holding of land. Examples are the Isle of Man which had to provide six galleys of 26 oars, and Sleat in Skye had to provide an 18-oar galley.

Related Topics:
Lords of the Isles - 1263 - 1500 - Scottish Highlands - Hebrides - Antrim - Ireland - Feudal - Isle of Man - Sleat - Skye

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Carvings of galleys on tombstones from 1350 onwards show the construction of these boats. From the 14th century, they changed from a steering oar to a stern rudder, with a straight stern to suit. From a document of 1624, a galley proper would have 18 to 24 oars, a birlinn 12 to 18 oars and a lymphad fewer still.

Related Topics:
1350 - 14th century - 1624 - Birlinn

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Renaissance

Galleys saw a European comeback in the 14th century as Venice expanded its influence in the Mediterranean, but medieval triremes used a simpler arrangment with one row of oars and three rowers to each oar.

Related Topics:
14th century - Venice

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The galleass or "galliass" (known as a "mahon" in Turkey) developed as a larger, higher and heavier form of galley; it usually carried three masts and had a forecastle and aftcastle (this form developed into the sailing carrack and then into the Mediterranean galleon. Galleons of northern Europe evolved concurrently from cog-like ships). The galliot emerged as a small, light type of galley. The number of oars or sweeps varied, the larger galley having twenty-five on each side. The galleass had as many as thirty-two, each worked by several men.

Related Topics:
Forecastle - Aftcastle - Carrack - Galleon

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It became the custom among the Mediterranean powers to sentence condemned criminals to row in the war-galleys of the state. Traces of this practice appear in France as early as 1532, but the first legislative enactment comes in the Ordonnance d'Orléans of 1561. In 1564 Charles IX of France forbade the sentencing of prisoners to the galleys for less than ten years. A brand of the letters GAL identified the condemned galley-slaves.

Related Topics:
1532 - 1561 - 1564 - Charles IX of France - Brand - Galley-slaves

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By the end of the reign of Louis XIV of France in 1715 the use of the galley for war purposes had practically ceased, but the French Navy did not incorporate the corps of the galleys until 1748. Marseille served as the headquarters of the galleys and of the convict rowers (galériens). The system sent the majority of these latter to Toulon, the others to Rochefort and to Brest, where they worked in the arsenal. At Toulon the convicts remained (in chains) on the galleys, which were moored as hulks in the harbour. Their shore prisons had the name bagnes ("baths"), a name given to such penal establishments first by the Italians (bagno), and allegedly deriving from the prison at Constantinople situated close by or attached to the great baths there. All French convicts continued to use the name galerien even after galleys went out of use; only after the French Revolution did the new authorities change the hated name - with all it signified - to forçat. In Spain, the word galera continued in use as late as the early 19th century for a criminal condemned to penal servitude.

Related Topics:
Louis XIV of France - French Navy - 1748 - Marseille - Toulon - Rochefort - Brest - Arsenal - Hulk - Constantinople - French Revolution - Spain - 19th century

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A vivid account of the life of galley-slaves in France appears in Jean Marteilhes's Memoirs of a Protestant, translated by Oliver Goldsmith, which describes the experiences of one of the Huguenots who suffered after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685.

Related Topics:
Jean Marteilhes - Memoirs of a Protestant - Oliver Goldsmith - Huguenot - Edict of Nantes

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The conditions were terrible, so even though some sentences were restricted to a number of years most would die even if they neither drowned, nor were slaughtered or tortured to death by the enemy or pirates. All sides often turned 'infidel' prisoners of war into galley slaves.

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The last galleys

The 15th century saw the development of the man-of-war, a truly ocean-going warship, carrying advanced sails that permitted tacking into the wind, and heavily armed with cannon. The man-of-war eventually rendered the galley obsolete except for operations close to shore in calm weather.

Related Topics:
15th century - Man-of-war - Cannon

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The galleass exemplifies an intermediate type between the galley and the true man-of-war. Galleasses featured side-mounted cannon such as characterized the man-of war (galleys' guns only fired directly forward) as well as banks of rowers. The gun-deck usually ran over the rowers' heads, although pictures showing the opposite arrangement exist. Galleasses usually carried more sails than true galleys, and were far deadlier; a galley caught broadside lay all but helpless, but coming broadside to a galleass, as with a man-of-war, merely exposed an attacker to her cannons' fire. Galleasses featured at the Battle of Lepanto (7 October 1571), with their firepower helping to win victory for the Christian fleet, and some sufficiently seaworthy galleasses accompanied the Spanish Armada in 1588. In the Mediterranean, with its shallower waters, less dangerous weather and fickle winds, galleasses and galleys alike continued in use long after they became regarded as obsolete elsewhere.

Related Topics:
Battle of Lepanto - 7 October - Spanish Armada - 1588

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Galleys made their final appearance in a Mediterranean battle in the Battle of Chesma in 1770; they lingered on in the shallow Baltic Sea and took part in the Russo-Swedish War in 1790.

Related Topics:
Battle of Chesma - 1770 - Baltic Sea - Russo-Swedish War - 1790

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