A galleon was a large, multi-decked sailing ship used primarily by European states from the 16th to 18th centuries. Whether used for war or commerce, they were generally armed with the demi-culverin type of cannon.


The galleon was an ocean going ship type which evolved from the carrack in the second half of the sixteenth century. A lowering of the forecastle and elongation of the hull gave galleons an unprecedented level of stability in the water, and reduced wind resistance at the front, leading to a faster, more maneuverable vessel. The galleon differed from the older types primarily by being longer, lower and narrower, with a square tuck stern instead of a round tuck, and by having a snout or head projecting forward from the bows below the level of the forecastle.

In Portugal at least, carracks were usually very large ships for their time (often over 1000 tons), while galleons were mostly under 500 tons, although the Manila galleons were to reach up to 2000 tons. Carracks tended to be lightly armed and used for transporting cargo, while galleons were purpose-built warships, and were stronger, more heavily armed, and also cheaper to build (5 galleons could cost around the same as 3 carracks) and were therefore a much better investment for use as warships or transports. There are nationalist disputes about its origins and development, but each Atlantic sea power built types suited to their needs, while constantly learning from their rivals.

The galleon was powered entirely by sail, carried on three or four masts, with a lateen sail continuing to be used on the last (usually third and fourth) masts. They were used in both military and trade applications, most famously in the Spanish treasure fleet, and the Manila Galleons. In fact, galleons were so versatile that a single vessel may have been refitted for wartime and peacetime roles several times during its lifespan. The galleon was the prototype of all square rigged ships with three or more masts for over two and a half centuries, including the later full rigged ship.


The principal warships of the opposing English and Spanish fleets in the 1588 confrontation of the Spanish Armada were galleons, with the modified English "race built" galleons developed by John Hawkins proving decisive, while the capacious Spanish galleons, designed primaráily as transports for long ocean voyages, proved incredibly durable in the battles and in the great storms on the voyage home; most survived the ordeal.

Galleons were constructed from oak (for the keel), pine (for the masts) and various hardwoods for hull and decking. Hulls were usually carvel-built. The expenses involved in galleon construction were enormous. Hundreds of expert tradesmen (including carpenters, pitch-melters, blacksmiths, coopers, shipwrights, etc.) worked day and night for months before a galleon was seaworthy. To cover the expense, galleons were often funded by groups of wealthy businessmen who pooled resources for a new ship. Therefore, most galleons were originally consigned for trade, although those captured by rival states were usually put into military service.

The most common gun used aboard a galleon was the demi-culverin, although gun sizes up to demi-cannon were possible.
Because of the long periods often spent at sea and poor conditions on board, many of the crew sometimes perished during the voyage; therefore advanced rigging systems were developed so that the vessel could be sailed home by an active sailing crew a fraction of the size aboard at departure.

The most distinguishing features of the galleon include the long beak, the lateen-rigged mizzenmasts, and the square gallery at the stern off of the captain cabin. In larger galleons, a fourth mast was added, usually a lateen-rigged mizzen, called the bonaventure mizzen.

The galleon continued to be used into the 18th century, by which time purpose-built vessels such as the fluyt, the brig and the full rigged ship, both as a trading vessel and ship of the line, rendered it obsolete for trade and warfare respectively.

The oldest known scale drawings in England are in a manuscript called "Fragments of Ancient Shipwrightry" made in about 1586 by Mathew Baker, a master-shipwright. This manuscript, held at the Pepysian Library, Magdalene College, Cambridge, provides an authentic reference for the size and shape of typical English galleons built during this period. Based on these plans, the Science Museum, London has built a 1:48 scale model ship that is an exemplar of galleons of this era.

A fluyt, fluit, or flute (Dutch pronunciation: [flœy̯t])[p] is a Dutch type of sailing vessel originally designed as a dedicated cargo vessel. Originating from the Netherlands in the 16th century, the vessel was designed to facilitate transoceanic delivery with the maximum of space and crew efficiency. The inexpensive ship — which could be built in large numbers[1] — usually carried 12 to 15 cannons, but was still a somewhat easy target for pirates. Nonetheless, the fluyt was a significant factor in the 17th century rise of the Dutch seaborne empire.[2]
[edit] Ship design

The standard fluyt design minimized or completely eliminated its armaments to maximize available cargo space, and used block and tackle extensively to facilitate ship operations. This ship class was credited in enhancing Dutch competitiveness in international trade, and was widely employed by the Dutch East India Company in the 17th and 18th centuries.[3] However, its usefulness caused the fluyt to gain such popularity that similar designs were soon developed by seagoing competitors of the Dutch.

The design of fluyts was largely similar to that of the early galleons. These ships typically weighed 200-300 tons and were approximately 80 feet in length (24.4 m). The pear-shaped vessel had a large cargo bay near the waterline and a relatively narrow deck above. In part, this design was a method used to avoid high taxes collected by Denmark in the Oresund, which was assessed based on area of the main deck. The fluyt was square rigged with two or three masts. Masts were much higher than those of galleons to allow for greater speed. At times fluyts were also armed and served as auxiliary vessels, which was a common practice in the Baltic Sea.

A sloop (from Dutch sloep) is a sail boat with a fore-and-aft rig and a single mast farther forward than the mast of a cutter. A sloop's fore-triangle is smaller than a cutter's, and unlike a cutter, a sloop usually bends only one headsail, though this distinction is not definitive; some sloops such as the Friendship Sloop have more than one. Ultimately the position of the mast is the most important factor in determining whether a ship is classified as a sloop.
On a gaff rigged, single masted boat, the clearest distinction between a sloop and a cutter is the run of the forestay. On the sloop, it runs to the outboard end of the bowsprit, which means that the bowsprit must always stay in position and cannot be retracted. On a cutter, the forestay runs to the stem head of the hull. This allows the bowsprit to be run back inboard and stowed. This can be helpful in crowded harbours or when stowing the jib in strong wind conditions.

 

Rationale behind the sloop rig

No design is perfect for all conditions; sloops are designed to optimize upwind sailing. However, sloops also offer an excellent overall acceptable compromise, if not optimal, to all points of sail. It is clear that the most difficult direction to sail is to the windward (known as sailing close-hauled); this requires some specific design features. The sail should be as vertical as possible to optimize the energy of the wind.
Two forces act on a vessel to push it from vertical (also known as heeling over): (1) the weight of the rig itself will tend to heel the boat, and (2) the sideways force of the wind on the sails. The sloop is a light rig with fewer lines and spars, and the sails on a sloop tend to be flat which minimizes sideways force when well trimmed. The heeling forces are also counterbalanced by the keel, which uses weight and hydrodynamics to offset the forces from the rigging and sails.
When sailing upwind, it is also important to minimize the drag of the wind on the sail and rig. A major cause of drag of the sail is a vortex of turbulent air generated by the top of the mast and sail. Secondary causes are non-optimal aerodynamic shapes of masts, stays and control lines. The sloop minimizes the drag of the tip-vortex with a high and narrow sail design (high aspect), maximizing the amount of sail for a given tip-vortex compared to a square-rigged or gaff-rigged ship. Also, the simplicity of the rig reduces the drag induced by control lines, masts and spars.

 

Sails carried

To maximize the amount of sail carried, the classical sloop may use a bowsprit, which is essentially a spar that projects forward from the bow of the boat. For downwind sailing, the typical foresail may be replaced (or sometimes supplemented) by larger curved sails known as spinnakers or gennakers. The typical foresail known as the jib, which does not overlap the mast more than 10 to 20 percent, may be replaced by a genoa, which overlaps the mast by as much as 55 to 100 percent for racing rules and sometimes more. The mainsail and Genoa form an efficient double wing.

 

The Bermuda Sloop

The modern yachting sloop is known as the Bermuda sloop, due to its Bermuda rig (also known as the Marconi rig, due to its resemblance to the wireless towers of Guglielmo Marconi), which is the optimal rig for upwind sailing; consequently sloops are popular with sport sailors and yachtsmen, and for racing. The rig is simple in its basic form, yet when tuned properly it is maneuverable and fast. The main disadvantage is the relatively large size of the sails, especially on larger vessels. It is also less successful sailing downwind; the addition of a spinnaker is necessary for faster downwind speed in all but the strongest winds, and the spinnaker is an intrinsically unstable sail requiring continual trimming.
The Bermuda sloop is a type of fore-and-aft rigged sailing vessel developed on the island of Bermuda in the 17th century. In this sense, the term applied to small ships, rather than boats. In its purest form, it is single-masted, although ships with such rigging were built with as many as three masts. Its original form had gaff rig, but evolved to use what is now known as Bermuda rig, making it the basis of nearly all modern sailing yachts. Although the Bermuda sloop is often described as a development of the narrower-beamed Jamaica sloop, which dates from the 1670s, the high, raked masts, and triangular sails of its Bermuda rig are rooted in a tradition of Bermudian boat design dating from the early 17th century. Part of that tradition included long, horizontal bowsprits, and large jibs. Three jibs were commonly used on Bermudian ships. Triangular sails appeared on Bermudian boats early in the 17th century, a development of the Dutch bezaan, or leg-of-mutton rig, itself derived from the Lateen rig. This became the Bermuda rig, and was appearing on Bermudian ships by the early 19th century. A large spinnaker was carried on a spinnaker boom when running down-wind.

 

Jamaican Sloop

Jamaican Sloops were slightly different from Bermuda Sloops, the largest difference being that these ships were built on the shores of Jamaica. The keel for Jamaica sloops would be usually between 50-75 feet, but could be built longer. They usually had a speed of around 12 knots, which is equivalent to about 13 mph.^[1] The sloops were built near the shore and usually out of cedar trees since these were very resistant to rot, grew very fast and tall, and had a taste displeasing to animals^[2] One of the reasons why Jamaican sloops were built out of cedar and not oak, was because of the specific properties of cedar. The oak that would normally be used would rot in about 10 years while cedar would last for close to 30 and was considerably lighter than oak.^[2] The change in weight also made the ships made of cedar faster and able to maneuver quicker. Pirates found these ships very beneficial because they were able to sail in shallow areas where larger ships would either run aground or be unable to sail through at all. When the ship had to be careened, Pirates needed a safe haven in order to ground the ship. The shallow areas provided great protection from many of the naval ships of the English, since those tended to be larger and unable to safely sail in the shallow waters.^[2] Since piracy was a nuisance in Caribbean waters, merchants sought ships that could be easily defended. The irony about these ships, though, is that, although the ships were needed to be fast and maneuverable in order to avoid pirates, if one of these ships was captured, that speed and maneuverability would be in the hands of the pirates.

 

Historic naval definition

The naval term "sloop" referred to ships with different rigs and sizes varying from navy to navy. "Sloop-of-war" was more of a reference to the purpose of the craft rather than the specific size or sailplan. (Further confusion was caused by the practice of redesignating a vessel simply according to the rank of the commanding officer.) The Royal Navy began buying Bermuda sloops, beginning with an order for three sloops-of-war (HMS Dasher, HMS Driver, and HMS Hunter, were each of 200 tons, armed with twelve 24 pounders) placed with Bermudian builders in 1795. They were intended to counter the menace of French privateers, which the Navy's ships-of-the-line were ill-designed to counter. Eventually, Bermuda sloops became the standard advice vessels of the navy, used for communications, reconnoitering, anti-slaving, anti-smuggling, and other roles to which they were well suited. The most notable examples of these were HMS Pickle, which raced back to England with news of the British victory and the death of Admiral Lord Nelson at the end of the Battle of Trafalgar, and HMS Whiting (79 tons and four guns), which lowered anchor in the harbor of Hampton Roads on 8 July 1812, carrying dispatches. The American privateer Dash, which happened to be leaving port, seized the vessel. The crew of the Whiting had not yet received news of the American declaration of war, and her capture was the first naval action of the American War of 1812. Generally a sloop was smaller than a frigate; however, in the later days of the U.S. Navy's sailing fleet, some of the largest vessels were called sloops because they carried fewer guns than a frigate, as few as 20. The classification of sloop was similar to a corvette.

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In sailing, a brigantine is a vessel with two masts, only the forward of which is square rigged.

BRIG, or BRIGANTINE, a merchant-ship with two masts. This term is not universally confined to vessels of a particular construction, or which are masted and rigged in a method different from all others. It is variously applied, by the mariners of different European nations, to a peculiar sort of vessel of their own marine.

...

Among English seamen, this vessel is distinguished by having her main-sail set nearly in the plane of her keel; whereas the main-sails of larger ships are hung athwart, or at right angles with the ship’s length, and fastened to a yard which hangs parallel to the deck: but in a brig, the foremost edge of the main-sail is fastened in different places to hoops which encircle the main-mast, and slide up and down it as the sail is hoisted or lowered: it is extended by a gaff above, and by a boom below.

1. a. A vessel

(a.) originally identical with the brigantine (of which word brig was a colloquial abbreviation); but, while the full name has remained with the unchanged brigantine, the shortened name has accompanied the modifications which have subsequently been made in rig, so that a brig is now

(b.) A vessel with two masts square-rigged like a ship's fore- and main-masts, but carrying also on her main-mast a lower fore-and-aft sail with a gaff and boom.

A brig differs from a snow in having no try-sail mast, and in lowering her gaff to furl the sail. Merchant snows are often called 'brigs'. This vessel was probably developed from the brigantine by the men-of-war brigs, so as to obtain greater sail-power.