NAVAL MATTERS.

Old Traditions: Long Vessels and Broad Vessels.—The Dromon.—The Galéasse.—The Coque.—Caracks and Galleons.—Francis I.’s Great Carack.—Caravelles.—The Importance of a Fleet.—Hired Fleets.—Poop Guards.—Naval Laws.—Seaport Tribunals.—Navigation in the open Seas.—The Boussole.—Armament of Men-of-War.—Towers and Ballistic Engines.—Artillery.—Naval Strategy.—Decorations and Magnificent Appointments of Vessels.—Sails and Flags.—The Galley of Don Juan of Austria.—Sailors’ Superstitions.—Discipline and Punishments.

Ships from the most remote ages have been divided into two classes, namely, long vessels, those propelled by the oar, or by the wind, sometimes by the two combined, and vessels of greater beam, which trusted to their sails alone. The Middle Ages conformed to these traditions; they possessed galleys which answered to the long vessels of antiquity, and ships which corresponded to the larger class.

The galleys of the Middle Ages, like the long vessels of antiquity, may be divided into several varieties. The large galley (Fig. 68), strong in build and swift in sailing, had received from the Greeks the significant name ofdromon(runner). In the fifth century Theodoric had a thousand dromons constructed for the defence of the Italian coasts and for the transport of corn; in the ninth, the Emperor Leo the Philosopher, in the military precepts he gave to his son, recommended the construction of dromons with two tiers of oars, five-and-twenty in each tier on each side. For the flag-ship (if we may use the term) of the commander of the fleet, he recommended the construction of a much larger dromon with a hundred oars in each tier, similar tothose that used to be built in Pamphylia, and which, for that reason, were known aspamphiles. The fleet was to be accompanied by smaller dromons, with a single tier of oars, for the purpose of carrying despatches, and to act as scouts. These bore more particularly the name ofgalleys. For more than three hundred years the construction and rigging of ships underwent no change (Fig. 69); in the twelfth century the dromon was still the principal type of the class of ships propelled by oars. Next came the galley, smaller than the dromon, but fitted, like it, with two tiers of oars, and lastly, thegalionorgaléide(termed later thegaliot), a much smaller vessel than the galley.

Fig. 68.—Poop of an Ancient Galley.—From Pompeian Paintings collected in the Bourbon Museum, Naples.

The largest and the best-armed galley which at that period ploughed the Mediterranean was the one encountered by Richard Cœur de Lion, according to the historian Matthew Paris, on the 3rd of June, 1191, near the coast of Syria, and which was carrying large reinforcements to the camp of the unbelievers, who were besieging at that time the town of Acre. When the sailors of the English fleet first perceived this gigantic vessel, whose vast hull was painted with the most brilliant colours, whose poop was surmounted with a castellated tower, whose three masts unfurled to the wind an immense expanse of canvas, and whose long oars beat the waves with majestic rhythm, they were surprised, and undecided how to act. Richard, however, ordered his men to attack the floating fortress. His lighter galleys surrounded it on all sides, in spite of the arrows and glass vases showered on them by the dromon. These vases broke when they came in contact with the galleys, and enveloped them in Greek fire. The captain of the Arab craftattempted to sail away from his swarm of assailants, but the wind fell, and half his rowers having been slain by the English arrows, he was forced to accept battle. The galleys skirmished around the dromon, striking it repeated blows with their brazen prows, and making large holes in its sides. At last, after a desperate resistance, the giant was engulfed in the waters with all its defenders.

Fig. 69.—A Norman Vessel (Eleventh Century).—Restoration from the Bayeux Tapestry.

A companion craft to the dromon, as before mentioned, was thepamphile, which, before disappearing in the fifteenth century, frequently changed its shape and character. Nor must we forget thechelande(Fig. 70), orsélandre, which a writer of the eleventh century represents as a ship of extraordinary length, of great speed, possessing two tiers of oars, and a crew of a hundred and fifty men, and which, three centuries later, became a large flat sailing vessel, and was termedchaland. Thetaride, a kind of merchant galley with oars, and thehuissier, the name of which was derived from ahuis, or large door, which opened in its side in front of the poop to allow of the embarkation of horses, were contemporaneous with the pamphile and with the sélandre; as also was thechatorchatte, which William of Tyre mentions in connection with a maritime war which took place in 1121. According to him it was a ram-armed vessel larger than a galley, and carried a hundred oars, each of which was handled by two men.

Besides all these there were thebucentaures(Fig. 71), large Venetian galleys, and thesagettes, orsaïties(arrows), whose names denote their slender shape and speed, and which, with their twelve or fifteen oars on each side,played the same part in the twelfth century as thebaliner, orbarineal, and thebrigantinplayed from the fourteenth to the seventeenth.

Fig. 70.—Turreted Vessel which protected the Port of Venice.—From a Medal struck in honour of the Doge P. Candiano I., who died in 887 (Venetian Museum).

There were two sorts of vessels used in the fifteenth and the sixteenth centuries also belonging to the numerous and varied family of the galley—thefusteand thefrégate, both smaller examples of thegaléasse. A galley was termedgaléasse(Fig. 72) when it was of large size, powerfully armed, and propelled by such long and heavy oars that it took six or seven men to work one of them.

Fig. 71.—TheBucentaure, State Barge used for the Marriage of the Doge of Venice with the Sea.—From the Model preserved in the Arsenal of Venice.

We have not by any means exhausted the number of long vessels propelled by oars, but we will now turn to those which only used sails, and which were termednefs, or round vessels.

In the tenth century the Venetians employed these large heavy vessels, which they had adopted from the Saracens, and which were termedcumbaries(from the Latincymba), orgombaries. To the same class belonged thecoque(Fig. 73), which, according to an old chronicler, had a round stem and stern, a high freeboard, and drew very little water. This style of vessel, which from its shape was considered insubmersable, was largely used both for warlike and commercial purposes, from the twelfth to the close of the fifteenth century.

Thecoque, so frequently employed in the Middle Ages, doubtless suggested the construction of another large vessel of the same sort, called by the Venetiansbuzo, by the Genoesepanzono, andbusseby the Provençaux, three words having a similar signification.[4]These various names plainly indicate the character of this kind of vessel, namely, that it was a broad-beamed, slow-sailing craft, but one capable of carrying large and heavy cargoes.

Fig. 72.—Sketch of a Galley of the Sixteenth Century, painted in distemper on the door of a cupboard preserved in the Doria Palace, Genoa.

Such names, however, asgombaries,coques, andbusses, are nowadays as completely forgotten as the ships to which they were applied, while such terms ascarraqueandgalliotstill convey a meaning understood by everybody. Indeed, they immediately call up in the mind the memory of the numerous Spanish galleons which, according to popular tradition, were constantly returning home laden with Peruvian gold, and of those gigantic caracks which, hailing from the French ports on the Atlantic and the Mediterranean,invested the navy of France, in the reigns of Louis XII. and Francis I., with such a splendid and imposing renown.

Fig. 73.—The Coque.—From a Miniature in a Manuscript Virgil of the Fifteenth Century (Riccardi Library, Florence).

In 1545, Francis I. had a magnificent carack constructed in Normandy, so richly decorated, with such lofty decks and towers, and so capitally appointed, that it was called the Great Carack. It was anchored in the roadstead of Havre-de-Grâce. Henry VIII. ordered one equally splendid (Fig. 74), in which he intended to embark when he started to meet his brother sovereign at the famous Field of the Cloth of Gold. The French vessel was about to set sail at the head of a powerful fleet dispatched to meet the English. The King, desirous of inspecting it, boarded it on the eve of its departure, accompanied by a numerous and brilliant court. A collation had been prepared for him and his suite, the band was playing, salutes were thundering out in his honour, and he himself was in the midst of his inspection of the floating citadel, when suddenly cries of alarm were heard. A fire had broken out between decks; it burnt with astonishing rapidity, and, before help could be efficiently rendered, the whole of the rigging was in flames. In a few hours all that remained of the Great Carack was an immense hull, half consumed, aground on the beach, upon which the sea was casting up the corpses of those of the crew who were killed by the discharge of its cannons during the progress of the conflagration.

Fig. 74.—Man-of-War in which Henry VIII., King of England, embarked in 1520 at Dover to come to France.—From a Drawing by Holbein.

The galliot occupied an intermediate place between the ship properly so called and the large galley. It was, in fact, a slighter vessel, longer and narrower in the beam than all other kinds of ships. Galliots were sometimes,but not often, propelled by oars (Fig. 76). The ordinary build of galliot, whose poop consisted of two rounded quarter circles, separated by the rudder-post, had two decks; the largest of all had three. Two remarkable galliots are mentioned in history, one of which was an exact model of the celebrated Great Carack. It was built at Venice to carry three hundred guns and five hundred soldiers, besides its own crew of sailors, but while still in the lagoons it was caught in a tremendous hurricane. Being severely tossed by the wind and the waves, its rolls threw the whole of its heavy ordnance to the port-side, and, being unable to right itself, it turned over, and went down in sight of the town.

Fig. 75.—Spanish Ship of the End of the Fifteenth Century.—From an Engraving in the “Arte del Navegar,” by Peter of Medina.

Merely mentioning thepalandres, thehourques, thepataches, and themahones, which were smaller than the galliot, but which had certain advantages of their own, we come to a craft whose diminutive dimensions have not prevented it from acquiring a kind of historical renown, in consequence of the important events at the close of the fifteenth century in which it played a part. The craft we refer to is thecaravel(Fig. 77), which had the honour of carrying Columbus to the New World. The design of the caravel was taken from thecaravo, a small barque used by the Spaniards. The grace, the lightness, the fine outlines, and the speed of the caravel, recommended it to the hardy mariners who sailed, in search of new continents, across theAtlantic Ocean. Narrow at the poop, wide at the prow, carrying a double tower at its stern, and a single one at its bows, the caravel carried four vertical masts and one inclined one. Two square sails were bent from the foremast, while the three others each bore a single triangular one (Fig. 78). The caravel sailed as well against the wind as before it, and tacked as easily as a row boat; so, at least, we are told in the log of the first voyage of Columbus.

Fig. 76.—Three-masted Galley, with Square Sails, of the Sixteenth Century.—From a Picture by Raphael in the Cathedral of Sienna.

It is, therefore, an undeniable fact that the sailors of the Middle Ages did not lack large and handsome ships, though the boldest mariner did not care to put too much salt water between his craft and the shore, and, as a rule, the longest voyages were made by following the outline of the coast. The Middle Ages, moreover, could often boast the possession of considerable fleets. In 1242 the Genoese put to sea with ninety-three galleys, thirty traders, and three large ships, to struggle for the supremacy of the seas with a hundred and ten Pisan and Imperial galleys. At the beginning of the same century the Crusaders, when they set sail to attack Constantinople, had a fleet of three hundred vessels according to one writer, and of four hundred and eighty according to another. Amongst them there was one calledThe World, of such large size and so beautifully finished that it was the admiration of all the ports along the coasts of the Mediterranean. Joinville, the ingenuous historian of the crusades of Louis IX., tells us that that sainted king sailed from the port of Aigues-Mortes with a fleet of “eighteen hundred vessels, large and small,”some of which carried as many as a thousand passengers, and some a hundred horses.

Fig. 77.—Spanish Caravel in which Columbus discovered America.—From a Drawing attributed to Columbus, and placed in the “Epistola Christofori Columbi:” undated edition (1494?), 8vo.

In 1295, the combined French and Norwegian fleets, intended to act against the English (Figs. 79 and 80) in the wars of Philippe le Bel and Edward I., amounted to upwards of five hundred vessels, two hundred and sixty of which were galleys, and three hundred and thirty ships of different sizes. Three centuries later fleets were not a whit more numerous or more powerful, though better equipped and organized. In 1570, Sultan Selim sent from Constantinople, against the island of Rhodes, a fleet of a hundred and sixteen galleys, thirty galliots, thirteenfustes, six large ships, one galleon, eightmahones, fortypasse-chevaux(horse transports), and a great number ofcaramoussats, laden with provisions, with artillery, and with stores of allkinds. The Christians, under Marco-Antonio Colonna, could only oppose to this formidable flotilla one hundred and four galleys, twelvegaléasses, one large galleon, and fourteen large ships.

Fig. 78.—French Caravel.—From “Premières Œuvres de J. Devaux, Pilot du Havre,” Manuscript of the Sixteenth Century, in the National Library of Paris.

But in point of fact, and it was one of the consequences of feudalism, large fleets were never constructed and kept up by the governments under whose authority they put to sea. Kings and republics possessed, it is true, a small number of vessels of their own that carried their flag, but, generally speaking, too few to allow them to attack a formidable enemy, or to enable them to defend themselves against one. Here, again, a complete analogy existed between feudal rights at sea and those on land. Feudalism possessed its ships as well as its castles. The barons who possessed estates near the sea-coast were bound to keep up at their own cost one or more vessels, fitted either for war or commerce. The rich merchants of Venice, of Genoa, of Marseilles, and, in later times, of Havre, of Dieppe, and of Antwerp (Fig. 81), by means of their vast wealth, either individually or by combining together, maintained flotillas of galleys and ships.

When war was imminent, and it became necessary to prepare a fleet tocarry the Crusaders, the sovereign, directed the nobles who held fiefs and were ship-owners to prepare their vessels for sea, and to equip and arm them—an order which did not require any long time or especial pains to carry into effect, for at that period every sea being infested with pirates, merchant vessels were always forced to keep themselves armed in self-defence. Each sailor of the crew could, at a pinch, be turned into a soldier; and, besides these, there were always cross-bowmen and regular soldiers, whose duty it was to be the first to board an enemy’s ship, or to beat back his boarders with handspikes and cross-bow shafts. To embark, therefore, a few catapults and a few extra soldiers was all that was ordinarily required to transform a peaceable merchant vessel into a ship or galley of war.

Fig. 79.—Seal of the Town of Dover (1281).

The admiral appointed to the command of the fleet published the order to arm in every port under his master’s rule. In virtue of this order, the first proceeding was to exhibit thecartel—a scroll fastened to the top of a post or the end of a lance—announcing that so many vessels of such and such a kind were to be ready equipped within a given time, to take the seas against such and such an enemy, or to proceed in such and such a direction. Besides the cartel, which was displayed on the shore or in the gateway ofthe town, surrounded with garlands and pennants, floated the standard of the prince, which had previously been blessed at a solemn mass celebrated to pray for the success of the undertaking. The sea trumpets rang out their fanfares, and a herald at arms repeated in a loud voice the purport of the cartel. A clerk stood by, pen in hand, for the purpose of registering the names of the sailors and marines, who, as they gave them, settled the conditions of their engagement. A formal contract binding both sides was then signed and sealed before a notary, and as soon as sufficient hands had volunteered, the cartel was taken down and the trumpets ceased to sound.

Fig. 80.—Seal of the Town of Yarmouth (Thirteenth Century).

When the ships of the sovereign, and of the nobles and burgesses his feudal vassals, were insufficient in number to form the fleet with which it was desirable to put to sea, recourse was had to allies and to foreign navies in general. Vessels were bought, hired, and chartered, but in the latter case they were usually only employed as transports. The merchants of Genoa and Venice were in this manner the principal charterers for the Crusaders. In 1246, Saint Louis addressed a demand to them for ships, at the same time making a similar request to the merchants of Marseilles. Emissaries from the king were sent into Provence and Italy to make contracts for the construction and chartering of vessels for the transport of the armedpilgrims who were to accompany him to the Holy Land. These envoys, amongst whom was Brother Andrew, “the prior of the holy house of Jerusalem,” made the necessary arrangements with the podestate of Genoa, with the Duke of Venice, and with the syndicate of the commune of Marseilles, and settled the size of the ships, the number of their crew, the space reserved for each passenger and each horse, and the different tariffs for the berths in the fore and aft towers, for those in the main saloons (termedparadis), for those between decks, and for those under the lower deck.

Fig. 81.—View of the Port of Antwerp in 1520.—Fac-simile of a Drawing by Albert Dürer, in the Gallery of the Archduke Albert, at Vienna.

In 1263 the arrangements for St. Louis’s second crusade were carried out in a similar manner.

Genoese vessels reappear in the “army of the sea prepared in the year of grace 1295” by Philippe le Bel against Edward I. of England; in the fleet equipped in 1337 by Philippe de Valois against Edward III.; and in the splendid flotilla lost by Nicholas Behuchet, a French admiral, at l’Ecluse in 1340. Two centuries later the Genoese again contributed ten caracks tothe armada prepared by the order of Francis I. on the coast of Normandy, though most of them unfortunately foundered at the mouth of the Seine through the ignorance of their pilots. History also informs us that Andrew Doria (Fig. 82), a Genoese, was one of Francis’ admirals, having commanded that sovereign’s Mediterranean fleet for several months.

Fig. 82.—Andrew Doria (1468–1560).—From a Portrait of the Period in the Collection of the Doges of Genoa.—National Library of Paris.

The adventurers who served on board vessels chartered by a sovereign or a foreign State were usually the sons, brothers, relations, friends, or dependents of the captains who commanded them. Moreover, the chosen band which, under the name ofretenue de poupe[5](Fig. 83), was entrusted with the duty of defending the captain’s flag, was solely recruited from among these adventurers. Their principal duty being the defence of this flag, which floated on the starboard side close to the entrance to the poop, they wereexpected never to leave their post, except at the captain’s express order. Even when a galley was boarded at the stern, and its deck, up to the mainmast, was swarming with the enemy, all was by no means lost, for the poop still remained in the hands of its brave defenders, who died at their post rather than yield. Among the splendid feats of arms which have adorned naval history, many instances could be cited when a ship’s safety was secured by the desperate resistance of its poop guard. The warriors of the sea (Figs. 84 and 85) were always distinguished for their extreme intrepidity and boldness, and it is easy to believe that from them emanated the system of submarine warfare (Figs. 86 and 87), which, in the fifteenth century, gave birth to a series of extraordinary inventions in nautical weapons.

Fig. 83.—Seal of the Town of Sandwich, representing the Poop Guard (Thirteenth Century).

It is to the credit of these benighted ages, too often accused of barbarism and social anarchy, that in most of the Mediterranean ports overseers were appointed, whose duty it was to inspect and survey everything connected withvoyages beyond the sea—that is to say, voyages to the Holy Land. This friendly tribunal settled all differences between the passengers or pilgrims and the ship-owners or captains, according to the terms of their reciprocal contracts. One part of their duties was to carefully measure the space assigned to each passenger, to see that every individual had his proper allotment,so as to secure that all were made as comfortable as possible for the voyage, which usually lasted for twenty-five or thirty days.

Fig. 84.—Galley Soldier (Sixteenth Century).Fig. 85.—Galley Slave (Sixteenth Century).From Cesare Vecellio, “Degli Habiti Antichi:” 8vo, 1590.

Fig. 84.—Galley Soldier (Sixteenth Century).

Fig. 85.—Galley Slave (Sixteenth Century).

From Cesare Vecellio, “Degli Habiti Antichi:” 8vo, 1590.

In point of fact, a perfect maritime code was drawn up to regulate during the passage the mutual relations of the different inmates of the same vessel, and to establish a reciprocity between the ships of friendly nations. The merchant, for instance, who spent a great portion of his life at sea, was treated on board ship with greater deference than the soldier who was there for a short time only. When several merchants chartered a vessel in common for the transport of their merchandise, and proceeded to sea in it themselves, the captain was bound to consult them and to follow their advice in allperils, whenever storms threatened, or when from a dread of pirates it seemed advisable to put into the nearest port. Before setting sail, the captain and the crew swore upon the Gospel to defend the ship and its passengers against the elements and against man. In the latter case, however, the merchants themselves became soldiers for the nonce, and were prepared to assist in the defence of their floating home.

Fig. 86.—The Diver.

Fig. 87.—Man-at-Arms.From Woodcuts by Végèce, “L’Art Militaire:” Paris, Christian Wechel, 1532, small 4to.

Fig. 87.—Man-at-Arms.

From Woodcuts by Végèce, “L’Art Militaire:” Paris, Christian Wechel, 1532, small 4to.

It was usual, in order to give both vessels and merchants the best possible chance, for ships, not strong enough separately to resist pirates, to sail together in twos and threes, or, if possible, in still larger numbers. When a large powerful ship fell in with a smaller vessel which claimed its protection, it was bound to throw it a hawser so as to fasten the two vessels together, and enable them to assist one another in case of need. A ship’s captain who refused to render this service to a smaller craft than his own, would have run the risk of a very heavy punishment. The maritime code, whose regulations were decided by the overseers, laid down that all merchandise entrusted to a ship’s captain should be properly stored away in the hold, and not left on the deck, on which the rigging, the carpenter’s and caulker’s tools,the weapon cases, and the water casks were alone to be placed. Similarly, any damage done to the cargo during the voyage, owing to bad stowage or bad ballasting, was liable to be made good by the ship-owner, who was bound to have his ship in the best possible condition, and who was held responsible for the proper preservation of the cargo.

Fig. 88.—Discovery of the Antilles by Columbus.—From a Drawing attributed to him in the “Epistola Christofori Columbi:” undated (1494?), 8vo.

Longer voyages began to be undertaken in the fifteenth century, navigation having been rendered less dangerous by the improvements in the mariner’s compass, in the quadrant, and in other nautical instruments. Ships went as far as to the Azores, and to the Canary Islands, to the coast of Guinea, and to the East Indies; and one even touched at the new continent discovered by Columbus (Fig. 88), and named by Americus Vespazius. Certain seasons of the year, however, were considered dangerous, duringwhich all navigation was absolutely forbidden by law. Already, in the fourth century, the magistrates entrusted with naval mattersclosedthe sea from the third day of the Ides of November to the sixteenth of the Ides of March; in the thirteenth century, the season opened in April and closed in October. In the sixteenth, no vessel could legally return to Venice from Constantinople, Alexandria, or the coast of Syria, from the 15th of November to the 20th of January. Although this regulation, which had for its object the protection of seafaring men, was often broken, there were others emanating from the same source, and issued in the same spirit, that were more binding. For instance, galleys (galleys were frequently used in commercial ventures), as soon as they were launched, underwent a minute inspection by the overseers, who, after satisfying themselves on the solidity of their construction, gauged their capacity, and marked the water line on their side, beyond which it was illegal to submerge them.

Fig. 89.—Seal of the Town of Poole (Thirteenth Century).

But we will leave a subject whose complicated details would lead us too far, and return to the equipment proper of vessels. As far back as the tenth century, the Emperor Leo originated the practice of building towers for attack and defence on the deck of the dromons; these towers, from the centre of which sprang the mainmast, reached half-way up the mast. This custom was still observed in the thirteenth century, and was no doubt handed downfrom very ancient times when it was usual to build towers and citadels on the decks of triremes. The round class of vessels were also provided with towers, one fore and another aft. In the smaller vessels these towers were simply platforms surrounded with a crenulated parapet and raised upon pillars (Fig. 89); in the larger ones, the towers were constructed of several stories added to the normal elevation of the poop and prow. Mangonels, catapults, and other projectile machines were placed on these towers and platforms. The big ships especially carried terrible engines of destruction, sometimes a heavy beam which worked horizontally like an ancient battering-ram against the sides of a hostile vessel, sometimes an immense bulk of timber, which was worked vertically from the top of the mast in order to shatter and sink a smaller craft. Around the masts, too, and nearly at their tops,châteletsor platforms were suspended, in which were hidden, behind a low parapet, slingers, archers, and stone-throwers. In the sixteenth century, these châtelets on board the vessels of the Mediterranean were calledcagesorgabies, while in the North sailors designated them by the Icelandic term ofhunes(Fig. 90).

Fig. 90.—Seal of the Town of Boston (1575), on which thehuneis depicted at the extremity of the mast.

The introduction of gunpowder on board ship was long subsequent to the invention of fire-arms, and was very slowly adopted by most navies. From the fact that, in the middle of the fifteenth century, a vessel of seven hundred and fifty tons burden had only a single piece of artillery, and one of fifteen hundred only eight guns, and as for a commission of fourmonths—the usual length of a ship’s commission in the Middle Ages—each piece of artillery was only provided with five-and-twenty to thirty rounds, we see with what difficulty and how slowly the new style of weapons replaced the old one. In the ships’ inventories of 1441, side by side withbombardes, we find invariably figuring large cross-bows,viretons, darts, long lances, and complete sets of armour for the sailors. Things were not much more advanced than they were in 1379 at the celebrated naval battle of Chioggia, in which the Venetians made use, against the Genoese, of cannon constructed of pieces of metal, welded together and covered with a casing of wooden staves, bound round with stout iron bands and ropes. Some of these primitive guns exploded at their first discharge; one alone survives, and is now to be seen in the arsenal at Venice, the solitary specimen of the first attempt at projecting iron and stone shot from a tube by the ignition of saltpetre, sulphur, and charcoal.

Fig. 91.—Prows of Galleys armed with the Spur.—From Drawings by Breugel the Elder, engraved by Fr. Huys (1550).

More than a hundred years passed away before marine artillery attained any importance; it was not till the close of the sixteenth century that Brantôme was able to put on record that he had seen in the Mediterranean a galliot armed with two hundred pieces of artillery, belonging to Cosmo I. of Medici, the Grand-Duke of Tuscany.

The galleys of the Middle Ages and of the sixteenth century, armed atfirst with an iron spur and afterwards with four or five cannon placed in the bows, always engaged the enemy prow first, and bore down in order of battle, side by side, in a straight or curved line. The half-moon formation practised by the ancients was reserved for the largest fleets. At Lepanto (Fig. 92), for instance, the Christian fleet was drawn up in the form of a half-moon, and was divided into four squadrons: one in the centre, two at the wings, and one in reserve. In front of each division sixgaléasseswere posted in couples to open the engagement; they were all one hundred and sixty feet in length, twenty-seven in breadth, and fifteen above the water-line, and they did a great deal of damage to the Turkish fleet with their powerful artillery. Previous to the construction of these gigantic galleys, a line of round vessels used to be placed in the van to receive the first brunt of the battle. Sometimes, besides this vanguard of sailing vessels, ships were placed at the wings, the most powerful in the quarter where it was imagined that the struggle would become the hottest. The smaller craft formed a line in reserve, always prepared to row to the assistance of a hard-pressed galley.

Fig. 92.—Plan of the Naval Battle of Lepanto.—From a Drawing by Don Juan, preserved in the Archives of Simancas, Spain.

In the eleventh century, at the battle of Durazzo, the Venetian ships, being hard pressed by the Italo-Norman fleet of Robert Guiscard, Duke of Puglia and Calabria, and unable to make for the land owing to the dropping of the wind, ranged themselves in a line, and bound themselves together, leaving but a small interval between each ship, just sufficient to allow their smaller vessels to row out, harass the enemy, and hasten back again. This style of battle was not a new one, being the reproduction of a manœuvre invented or employed for the first time by Scipio in the days of ancient Rome. When time had developed the progress of marine artillery, a fleet composed of large ships, in giving battle to one consisting of galleys, always presented their broadsides to their antagonists, since, in this position, the fire from their double row of cannon could do the galleys the most harm. This order of battle, however, was not always observed, particularly when the guns, owing to their great weight, were placed in the prow (Fig. 93).

At first, merely to preserve the wood, the ship-builders covered every part of the vessel exposed to the action of the air or water with a coating of pitch, but this sombre and uniform tint soon wearied the eye. A more brilliant colour, prepared with wax, was painted over the pitch; the costlier class of ships glistened in all the splendour of white, ultramarine, and vermilion, while pirates, and occasionally men-of-war, were covered with a coat of green paint, which, blending with the colour of the sea, prevented them from being distinguished at any distance. Gilding glistened on the vessels of the rich, and the sculptor’s chisel added busts and figures to the decoration of their bows and sterns. Even in this respect the Middle Ages still followed the traditions of antiquity.

The decorations of ships varied according to the caprice of owners and the fashion of the times. The Saracen dromon boarded and taken by Richard Cœur-de-Lion had one side coloured green and the other yellow. The Genoese at first painted their ships green; but in 1242, when they were at war with the Pisans, they coloured them white spotted with vermilion crosses, that is, “red crosses on a silver ground,” which resembled the arms of “Monsieur Saint-Georges.” Red was the colour generally adopted for ships’ hulls in the sixteenth century, though a pattern in black and white was sometimes added, and sometimes the ground was painted black and the pattern only vermilion.

Fig. 93.—Pontifical Galley with Sails and Oars, and provided with heavy Artillery.—Drawn by Breugel the Elder, and engraved by Fr. Huys (1550).

In 1525, when Francis I., made prisoner at the battle of Pavia, was takento Barcelona, the six galleys which carried the captive sovereign and his suite were painted entirely black from the top of the masts to the water-line. This was not, however, the first time that ships had been known to put on mourning: for instance, the Knights of St. Stephen, in the fifteenth century, hid the brilliant hues of theirCapitane,[6]and painted its sails, pennants, awnings, oars, and hull with black, and swore never to alter the sombre hue till theirorder had recaptured from the Turks a galley lost by the Pisans in an engagement which, however, had not been altogether inglorious for the vanquished.

Fig. 94.—Seal of Edward, Count of Rutland (1395).

Vessels in the Middle Ages, as in ancient times, had frequently gold-coloured and purple sails. The sails of seigniorial ships were generally brilliantly emblazoned with the coat-of-arms of the seignior (Fig. 94); the sails of merchant vessels and of fishing boats with the image of a saint, the patron figure of the Virgin, a pious legend, a sacramental word, or a sacred sign, intended to exorcise evil spirits, who played no inconsiderable part in the superstitions of the toilers of the deep. Different kinds of sails were originally employed to make signals at sea, but flags soon began to be used for this purpose. A single flag, having a different meaning according to its position, ordinarily sufficed to transmit all necessary orders in the daytime. At night its place was taken by lighted beacons. These flags, banners, standards, and pennants, most of them embroidered with the arms of a town, a sovereign, or an admiral, were made of some light stuff, taffeta or satin. Sometimes square, sometimes triangular, sometimes forked, each had its own use and signification, either for the embellishment of the vessel’s appearance or to assist in its manœuvring. The galleys were provided with a smaller kind of pennant, which was put up at the prow or fastened to the handle of each oar: these were purely for ornamental purposes, and were often trimmed with golden or silken fringes.

Amongst the most celebrated flags and standards of the French navy we must not omit to mention thebaucents, a name that recalls theBauséant, the banner of the Knights Templars. These flags, made of red taffeta, and sometimes “sprinkled with gold,” were only employed in the most merciless wars, for, says a document of 1292, “they signified certain death and mortal strife to all sailors everywhere.” In 1570, Marco-Antonio Colonna hoisted on his flag galley a pennant of crimson damask, which bore on both sides a Christ on the Cross between St. Peter and St. Paul, with the Emperor Constantine’s motto,In hoc signo vinces. The banner which Don Juan of Austria received at Naples, on the 14th of April, 1571, with the staff of supreme command over the Christian league, was made of crimson damask fringed with gold, on which were embroidered, besides the arms of the prince, a crucifix with the arms of the Pope, of the Catholic king, and of the republic of Venice, united by a chain, symbolical of the union of the three powers “against the Turk.”

TheNormans, or the men of the north, were as fond of these brilliant standards as the nations of the Mediterranean. When they sailed on a warlike expedition, or when they celebrated a victory over pirates, they covered their vessels with flags. The poet Benoît de Sainte-More tells us that it was in this fashion, covered with seven hundred banners of different colours, that Rollo brought his fleet back up the Seine to Meulan. The Middle Ages made use of all kinds of fanciful decorations for their vessels; during the Renaissance, this taste was renewed and was an improvement both upon the customs of antiquity, whence it drew its inspirations, and on those of the thirteenth century, which it seemed anxious to forget (Fig. 95). “A galley,” says the learned M. Jal, “was in those days a species of jewel, and was handed over for embellishment to the hands of genius as a piece of metal was given to Benvenuto Cellini.” Sculptors, painters, and poets combined their talents to adorn a ship’s stern. No more striking example of this artistic refinement in naval ornamentation could be well quoted than that of the Spanish galley which was constructed in 1568 by order of Philip II. for his brother, Don Juan of Austria, to whom he had confided the command of the fleet intended to fight the barbarous Moorish States of Africa. The vessel’s cutwater was painted white and emblazoned with the royal arms of Spain, and with the personal ones of Don Juan. The prince being a Knight of the Golden Fleece, and the adventurous expedition on which he was bound being likely to beattended with as many perils as that of the Argonauts, the history of Jason and of the good ship Argo was represented in coloured sculpture on the stern above the rudder. This pictured poem was accompanied with four symbolical statues—Prudence, Temperance, Power, and Justice, above whichfloated angels carrying the symbols of the theological virtues. On one side of the poop might be seen Mars the Avenger, Mercury the Eloquent, and Ulysses stopping his ears against the seductions of the Sirens; on the other, Pallas, Alexander the Great, Argus, and Diana. Between these were inserted pictures, which conveyed either a moral lesson for the benefit of the young admiral, or a delicate eulogium on Charles V., his father, or on Philip II., his brother. All these emblems werechefs-d’œuvreof drawing and sculpture, which the brilliancy of their gold, azure, and vermilion settings tended to enhance.

Fig. 95.—Man-of-War of the Sixteenth Century.—Drawn by William Barendsz and engraved by Visscher, from the Collection of Engravings in the National Library of Paris.

A noticeable incident in the above description is its incongruous mixture of Christian and Pagan allegories. It bears witness to the anti-religious tendency of the school of thought of the Renaissance, and is a faithful reflection of the alteration in custom and belief. In the Middle Ages, sailors, and indeed all classes of society, were imbued with a strong spirit of faith, tinged, however, with a great deal of superstition. As in our day, they had a sincere belief in Providence, and professed great devotion to the Virgin; in seasons of peril they invoked those saints who were supposed to take special interests in ships and sailors; but, in spite of their natural reverence for religion, they allowed themselves to be influenced by childish superstition, and confused the promptings of their orthodox faith with all kinds of vain imaginings. Sailors have ever been superstitious; their credulous brains are the parents of all the fantastic beings and animals that they persuade themselves they have seen in their wanderings, and with which they have peopled the mysterious depths of the ocean. The sirens of antiquity, the monsters of Scylla and Charybdis, have been far surpassed by modern legendary creations, such as thekraken, a gigantic mass of pulp, which attacked and dragged down the largest ships; thebishop fish, which, mitre on head, blessed and then devoured shipwrecked mariners; theblack hand, which, even in the days of Columbus, was depicted on the map as marking the entrance to thesunless ocean; and the numerous troops of hideous demons, one of whom, in the sight of the whole French fleet of Crusaders on their way to attack the island of Mitylene, in the reign of Louis XII., clutched and swallowed up a profligate sailor, who, over his dice, had “blasphemed and defied the Holy Virgin.”

Blasphemy was by no means uncommon among seamen; in spite of the laws of the Church and the regulations of the Admiralty, they insistedon using the most frightful oaths; they swore continually by bread, by wine, and by salt, meaning thereby the very principles of life itself, and by their soul—an oath which was forbidden on pain of the severest punishment. Yet the mariners of the Middle Ages had strong reasons for avoiding open blasphemy, for, an offence against Heaven being considered far more criminal than any injury to mankind, a blasphemer was liable to fine, to the cat, and to death itself. Even in the thirteenth century the Danish code inflicted a comparatively moderate punishment on a thief; it shaved his head, tarred and feathered him, and made him run the gauntlet of the whole crew, after which it contented itself with dismissing him from his ship.

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