Spain and Portugal have a maritime legacy that echoes worldwide as their ships are known for breaking into unknown territories and seas that had never been breached by the world before. Their innovations led to the opening of a world that had never known true globalization. The evolution of expansion through exploration and colonization was dependent on the ships that the Iberians used to transport them. Ship technology and improving developments allowed for the continuing conquests of Iberia in the world. Developments in shipbuilding went uninhibited so long as there was a demand to conquer the seas. Expansion into these new lands led to the early impact of Mesoamerican goods in Iberian society. Ship improvements were continually innovating ever since the fourteenth and fifteenth century when Christians were assaulting Muslim powers and the boundary between the two kingdoms kept getting pushed further and further south. When the boundary moved across the sea to Africa, Iberia followed suit and needed improved ships to take them there to continue to fight.
Contents |
Clearly Spain and Portugal's geography played a huge role in their access to the ocean. Iberians were proportionally closer to the sea than much of Europe; easy access allowed Iberia to become a people of mariners. These people had the motivation to move; they were close to the wealth of Africa and all of the Mediterranean. Expansion and the development of ship technology were due to military, religious and commercial endeavors. There was a need for maritime experience, ship technology, power and organization. There were many factors that led to the decision of Spain and Portugal to put their efforts into the sea. Portugal was no longer fighting Castile by 1411 and they were able to focus their attention on Ceuta by 1415.[1] Due to the crusades, trade and external alliances became cemented in the system. Portugal wanted to make sure that its coast was protected from Muslim raids and they also wanted to make sure that they secured their base in the Mediterranean. They were able to attack Muslim commerce as well as be part of the profitable trade of gold, slaves and ivory that tended to be part of all Christian missions.[2] It was due to the fact that there was a need to be in multiple locations quickly and safely that the Spanish and Portuguese put their efforts into maritime technology.
Spain and Portugal were able to have a unique evolution of ships because they were on a geographically crucial land area, one that was literally a hinge between Northern and Southern waters. When there was no reason to expand the development of ships, their development was partially stagnant, even though they were not perfected yet. People would utilize mainly two kinds of ships: longships and roundships (dromonds). Longships were reliant on oarsmen and they tended to be used as warships. Roundships, on the other hand, used sails and tended to be used for carrying freight.[3] These ships met the conditions of the sea but not in a perfected sense. The galley (longship) had to be light so that the men could propel it and it had to be long enough so enough men could move the ship. These specifications made it impossible for the ship to be adequately provisioned for a long voyage. As long as the longship was not venturing too far from any given port, she did her job, but clearly for the voyages that would make Spain and Portugal infamous, she was simply not cut out for the work. The roundship was able to hold more provisions and she was able to resist more perilous weather than the longship but was impossibly slow, so almost useless as a ship meant to work in warring conditions.[4] These ships were important for their intended jobs, but in no way capable of maritime exploration to distant seas. If Iberians wanted to travel further, they had to utilize different technologies to propel the advancement of ships. Iberia was exposed to both Northern and Southern ships from surrounding states. The Mediterranean tended to rely on triangular lateen sails and the use of actual tools to correct navigation. Lateen sails were such an innovation because they had the ability to carry a ship with even the smallest of breezes.[5] Atlantic sailors tended to utilize a stouter, heavier Baltic cog, lapstreak, planked cargo ship with a single square sail that had axial stern rudders that was meant to help in the stormy waters they were accustomed to.[6]
There were obstacles to work around, such as the dependence on wood for the construction of ships. Geography benefited Portugal by allowing them open access to the water and a suitable coast for ports, but they also had to deal with scarce forests from which to procure trees. In order to encourage shipbuilders, the government would give specific subsidies to certain areas. This was the case in Lisbon, where the government completely eliminated the tax on trees from the royal forest for trees that would be made into ships that would be over one hundred tons.[7] Lesser amounts of trees meant that the people working on the construction would not be allotted room for mistakes, so the ships being newly built were clearly being built with the newest of ship technologies which let to the development of Portuguese expansion through the water.
Spain had an easier time with shipbuilding because it was more forested than Portugal. This is not to say that Spain had a limitless supply of trees, but it did allow them more room for ship variation. Spain did not direct its people to fell trees because of their desire for tree conservation; this was because of the assumed necessity for firewood, and the need for trees to provide acorns and shelter for cattle.[8] The Spanish monarchy urged people to replace the trees that they cut down by encouraging that for every one felled, two seeds should be planted. What unfortunately tended to occur was the simple transplanting of trees to areas with recently cut down forests. This often resulted in trees that died because they were not able to properly adjust to the new environment.[9] It was not until 1560s and 70s that Philip II began to show actual interest in the timber for shipbuilding and began allocating definite numbers of oaks trees that needed to be set in certain districts. There were definite laws that were being enforced with special forest guards that reported directly to the king; this even resulted in some corporations pleading poverty.[10] The Spanish were such excellent shipbuilders; later on in the century, ships themselves were used as items of commerce. The English alone have records of buying six galleons from the Spanish in order to build up their own fleet. Even with a dwindling supply of trees, the profitable avenue of shipbuilding encouraged construction. Shipbuilding became integrated into the Spanish economy; areas specialized. Seville, for example, was known for the repairing of ships, the manufacture of sails and the making of biscuits and casks for shipyard provisions.[11] These commercial interests financed the continual development of ships. As long as there was a need for better, faster, stronger ships, people were able to improve technologies, therefore making it more probable for ships to be able to venture further from the shore and eventually across an entire ocean.
Surprisingly enough though, there were other factors that pitted themselves against Iberian domination. Whether traveling up the rivers in Africa or encountering the indigenous populations in the New World, both these groups had easily maneuverable canoes that could put lots of pressure on the Portuguese and Spanish. Natives could sail up close to caravels and heavily attack them with projectiles, then leave before people of Iberia could position themselves in an ideal fighting stance.[12]
People’s interests were the motivation for the continual development of ships, including people that were not initially dreaming of traveling over the vast expanses of the ocean. Merchants were agents of change. They desired stronger vessels that were most efficient with the most cargo possible. Traders desired large ships because they were harder to attack and they could carry bulk commodities cheaply. The problem with these huge vessels: they had a long turnaround rate, which was less profitable and when smaller ships started arming themselves with artillery, large ships became vulnerable.[13] What is important to note is that need facilitated change. By the fifteenth and sixteenth century, merchants began to start favoring smaller ships. They went from heavy to a lighter sailing craft. This was around the same time that people began realizing their potential to explore further off the coasts.
Ship change depends on the purpose; technologies do not invent themselves without a demand. What may have begun as commercial enterprises eventually shifted to voyages of discovery. Distant exploration wants meant that better ships’ development was expected. Stable ships that could be controlled by a limited number of sailors that were small enough to be easily maneuverable along the coast and rivers, yet big enough for provisions and trade goods across long distances were needed. New ship developments were needed for merchants and as ships improved people realized they had potential to explore. And once people knew they had a desire to explore, ships changed their function as well. Ships for exploration had one main job: to carry an explorer’s feedback, they did not have to carry a merchant’s goods or a warrior’s guns.[14] This realization was huge because it meant that ship engineers now had a specific purpose for their newest construction projects. They started adapting the Mediterranean roundship that relied on a single, square rig on the mainmast and they slowly began increasing the cargo tonnage. By the fifteenth century one can easily see the transformation as ships went from single to multi-rigged and they started having a heavier reliance on artillery.[15] This is evidence for a nice hybrid between commercial and military ships. Technologies were being communicated more readily and this led to regional differences in ships slowly becoming less distinct. When looking in a textbook one may see an array of multiple names for ships in this century, but in reality many of these ships were fundamentally the same. With a common purpose fitted to ships, which was the exploration of new territories and the expansion of the crown, ships were more uniformly designed and common patterns emerged.
By the fifteenth and sixteenth century, the main ships in use were the caravels and naus (carrack). Caravels are unique because they are an ‘evolved’ ship. They started as a small, open boat that was used by coastal merchants and fisherman. Once the boat started to be used for more than trade and fishing, it was realized that it needed to be built for the sea rather than cargo. The nau was built with more beams. It was larger and considered a “workhorse” that was able to carry colonists, arms, tools and provisions. The naos was a clear contrast with the caravel mainly due to its higher state of utility, minus the speed of the caravel.[16] These ships are what propelled Spain and Portugal to split the world between themselves. This high development of technology that drew upon past innovations allowed for the further expansion and exploration of uncharted waters without any inhibitions.
The origin of their name holds some controversy, though it is strongly supported that caravel comes from the Greek word Καραβος, meaning light vessel."The vessel so named which had a real celebrity in the XV and XVI centuries, the vessel employed by the Portuguese in their voyages of discovery and by Christopher Columbus in his daring adventure to the westward, was a small structure belonging to the family of roundships but more graceful in shape than its contemporaries, the nefs, and having narrower quarters. It was a faster sailer, more able, and was better fitted for all enterprises demanding speed and rapid maneuvering." [17] It had square sterns, fore and after castles and fairly high bulwarks, a bowsprit and usually four masts. It is hard to specifically look at the rig because depending on the period and the nationality, the rig was subject to change. The early caravels did not have square sails, though later, square sails were carried on the foremast for running or for bad weather. The most identifiable rig was a four mast vessel with a square-rigged foremast raking far forward and having a round top and three lateen-rigged masts gradually decreasing in size.[18] Looking at exceptions may show that mainmasts occasionally carried a roundtop similar to what was on a foremast. Another type of caravel was with four masts but lateen and square sails were arranged so that the first and fourth masts were lateen sails while the second and third masts were square sails. Theses varieties of ships changed based on exploration while most of them were around an eighty-ton range.
Caravels were designed specifically to outmaneuver previous ships. They were meant for nimble and shallow trips. Initially they went quite short in distance and duration. As voyages got longer, caravels began relying on larger storing ships that would be able to join them. They needed a ship that would be a huge storehouse of supplies as well as be able to have the consolidated power of a caravel, hence the invention of naos.
Caravels and naos created an unmatchable team for explorers. Columbus used one nau, the Santa Mariá, and two caravels, the Pinta and Niña, on his journey across the Atlantic. It was so successful because it had defensive armaments and the team was highly maneuverable; they were similar to floating batteries of firepower.[19] Vasco de Gama saw the success of Columbus and in 1497 he followed Dias’s lead to India using two newly constructed naos, each weighing in at one hundred tons, and one caravel, weighing in at fifty tons. By 1502 he went on another journey using ten naos and five armed caravels to go to the East African coast.[20] These newly designed ships easily tore apart Islamic dhows. Following this pattern, Magellan had a fleet of five naos, though only one made it back on the return journey.
It is helpful to look at caravels in three phases of maritime vessels: early caravels, exploring caravels and fleet caravels. Before the Spanish and Portuguese began their discoveries of exploration, caravels were small and unable to leave the sight of shore. Some of them did not even have decks. The next phase was the exploratory caravels. As Iberians began questing for more than what was immediately tradable off the their own shores, they began experimenting more with ships so that gold, slaves, ivory and spices could be part of the Iberian world. Before the caravel was perfected, Iberians were relying on multiple ships: the barcha and barineles. These were in common use by the 1400s and were drawn upon to round Bojador, which took twelve years and fifteen voyages to complete. Both of these ships were utilized to continue further down the African coast. The barcha weighed in at around twenty-five to thirty tons, ; it was partially decked, was considered a sailing vessel although it could be rowed with the fourteen to fifteen men that usually could fill the capacity of the ship. The barinel was similar, though slightly larger.[21] These ships were influential in their time, but the problem was that they tended to be slow and unmanageable for exploration. When these ships would make their way but up the coast when returning from Africa, it was difficult for them to fight the northeast winds. Even the addition of square sails and oars was found to be too slow. Technology changes when people demand it to; there was a need for larger crews, provisions and trading truck, not to mention a desire for more maneuverability.
When people began to realize that they had specific needs that barchas and barineles were not fulfilling, that is when they started drawing on aspects of the caravel. It was realized that the caravel’s shallow draft was good for riverine commerce and that is when they started understanding that the caravel, if adapted properly, would be beneficial for deeper exploration. A windward vessel was a must, so triangular sails that would allow better access to the wind were drawn upon for the revamping of the explorative ship. Part of how the Portuguese were able to build better ships was by creating hybrids of what they had seen. The caravela Latina combined what Iberians had seen in Egypt with their Arab conquests to make a ship that was longer, larger, lighter and more sophisticated than what had ever been used before. A typical carvel was fifty plus tons, twenty to thirty meters in length and six to eight meters in breadth, the lateen sails were rigged on two-thirds tall masts and occasionally no bowsprit. These adjustments made it possible to increase the speed and the crew, but at the expense of cargo space and war capabilities.[22] People learned that what may have been of benefit going up the coast of Africa was not useful for Atlantic voyages. There was a demand for better technology so the caravela redonda was engineered. It consisted of adding three masts so there would be an increased steering ability, a new rig for ocean sailing and square sails.[23] These improvements made it possible to sail the entire Atlantic without as much uncertainty.
These initial exploratory vessels were not the end of the caravel’s evolution, the caravela redonda continued to increase in size as well having a rigging system that became even more complex. The caravel now had three or four mast, bowsprit, topsails and now included a crow’s nests. These transformations were another phase of the caravels and by this time they were considered caravelas de armada. This means that they were owned by the state or employed by men of war. A variation was the caravela de mexerguerira; it was an advice boat that was meant to transmit orders within the fleet.[24] There was a continual change in ships because they all held different purposes. Caravels are almost universally known for their lateen sails, yet with the caravela en la modal Andalucia, the lateen sails were abandoned and its forecastle produced a higher bow.[25] These ships allowed for a different type of movement that was better adjusted for the Atlantic Ocean. Spain was such a formidable power on the Atlantic and the Mediterranean because it knew how to adapt its ships to fit the purpose and environment they were sailing in, whether it was galleys for war or a different craft for exploration.[26] By the end of the seventeenth century, caravels were no longer being used as a main ship for exploration, they were ships that remained for the fishermen of Galicia while new ships like the pataches began to replace them because they were fast, small, and easy for reconnaissance.[27]
As glorious as the caravel may have acted, its light nature meant that it was susceptible to volatile ocean conditions. After journeys furthered in distance, it was realized that explorers had higher demands so the caravel got a new partner: the nau. This vessel was designed to carry larger amounts of weaponry and cargo while still maintaining reasonable speed and durability. The hull and rig were more sophisticated than previous ships and this allowed for there to be more ease on the ocean. This form was not alien from the caravel, it was an improved version. It was able to sit high in the water, ; this was a hybrid idea from earlier roundships, which allowed the entire vessel to be roomier. These ships had forward masts and topsails with a crow’s nest, while still mixing in lateen mizzens and square mainsails.[28] There was a demand for a more seaworthy ship that still had the perks of the caravel, so the naos was engineered.
The seas carried more than explorers. Commercial trade propelled new technologies to improve ships, but another factor was for military reasons. Motivations moved to military conquests; the scale of war increased to an unprecedented amount in the sixteenth century.[29] Countries needed to prove their military might to show that they could maintain their sovereignty. Military means was also for expansion and coercion. One of the best vessels for that was the galleon, which was primarily used as a war vessel. It was built in the fifteenth and sixteenth century, while its use spanned from transporting treasure and cargo from the Americas to that of being war vessels.[30]
It is important to notice the differences that began to develop with the galleon versus other ships of the time, such as the capital ship, because it was made to act more efficient in a time of war, such as having less decks which helped make them for graceful in the water, not to mention easier to handle for sailors. This does not mean it was the perfect design; it was large and cumbersome, and as learned in 1588, these ships were easily outmaneuvered by the English’s lighter and swifter ships.[31] Galleons had three divisions (levels) whereas great ships had four.[32] Another difference is the form of the head; the galleon was not long and projecting forecastle like many of the larger ships that sailed during this time. Instead the galleon’s forecastle ended at her stern. It had an elongated and slimmer beck, which was comparable to a galley, which means that it projected forward.[33] The transom of the stern was square and the poop deck narrow. One can specifically look at the region of Spain and Portugal with more variations, such as the skids were meant to strengthen the sides. The fore and mainmasts were made with round tops and were capable of carrying courses and topsails in addition to having one or two lateen mizzens.[34] In short, “the galleon was three-masted and square rigged, usually with two decks, and with its main batteries in broadsides.” [35] These ships were unique from other ships of the time because they were made with a specific purpose of going to war, and because that was their job, they were made to be most efficient on the sea while catering to the needs of soldiers and sailors.
After the defeat of the Spanish Armada, the galleon lost much prestige; by the seventeenth century, new ships were already being designed that would better fit the needs of Iberia. The demands of Iberian people led to new ship technologies. Developments of shipbuilding were adjusted to fit the time and the motivations of the state, though a definite decline in shipbuilding occurred as Iberians adjusted to more internal conflicts.