Galiot

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Galiot in Willaumez's Dictionnaire de la Marine
Galiot in Willaumez's Dictionnaire de la Marine

Galiots (or galliots) were types of ships from the Age of Sail.

In the Mediterranean, galiots were a type of smaller galley, with one or two mast and about twenty oars, using both sails and oars for propulsion. Warships of the type typically carried between two and ten cannon of smaller calibre, and between 50 and 150 men.

From the 17th century, in the Dutch Republic, galiots were one or two-masted ketch-like ships, with a rounded bow and aft, like a fluyt. They weighted between 50 and 300 tonnes, and had lateral stabilisers. They were used mainly for trade in the Republic and Germany.

In France, galiots were two-masted bomb vessels, the size of corvettes.

According to Philip Gosse's Age of Piracy, it was a Barbary galiot, captained by Barbarossa I, that captured two Papal vessels in 1504.