SAILING SHIPS SPAINISH GALLEONS AND ENGLISH TRIREME GALLEYS; THEIR DIFFERENCES

By Mary

A cool breeze sends shivers down your spine as sea water sprays your face. You check your map and you find you are right on course. The galleon you are riding is ready for war against your enemy - the English - in their slow but steady Venetian Trireme Galley.

Galleons were Spanish ships made in the seventeenth century to carry gold and silver back from the ÒNew WorldÓ. The gold and silver was stolen from the many native tribes in the ÒNew WorldÓ at that time. Once the ships returned to Spain, the captain of the ship would be rewarded with half of the riches he brought back. Unfortunately, the Spanish captains did not always make it back to Spain to collect their rewards. The English privateers were cunning and would wait in their boats, the English Venetian Trireme Galleys. They kept their boat in hiding until one of the Spanish ships pulled out of their dock and headed home with their gold and silver. The privateers would then attack the ship, steal all of the loot, sink the ship, and race back to England with their prize. Luckily, the galleons were fast and were sometimes able to outrun the privateers in their slow, oar-propelled galleys.

Galleons were built for speed and stability, and they were designed to combat galleys. The name ÒgalleonÓ probably originated because when the ship was first made, there was a beak-head that projected out of the hull and would ram into the galleys. Galleons usually had three or four decks: the main deck, the half-deck, the quarter-deck, and the poop-deck, and four masts: the main mast with three sails, the foremast with three sails, the mizzen mast with two sails, and the bowsprit with two sails. A large number of masts and sails made the ship much easier to steer, so the Spanish ended up using four masts and ten sails on their galleons. Galleons were sleek and slim war ships. The ships carried more than fifty large Òship killingÓ cannons (These cannons were large and strong enough to blast ships out of the water) and Òman killingÓ guns (These smaller guns were taken aboard enemy ships to kill the many sailors on board) to protect the riches on the way back to Spain. These guns were too heavy to keep on the main deck, so they were kept below deck and were fired through gunports, which were small openings on the sides of the ships. Normally, the galleonÕs length from bow to stern was 135.5 feet, their keel was 100 feet long, and their beam was 33 feet wide. They were soon famous as the best war-ships on the sea, carrying large fortunes of silver and gold and richly decorated.

English Venetian Trireme galleys may have been slow ships, but they did have many good points. Galleys were propelled by oars and had sails when they were needed. They were able to travel fast when the wind was good and when the wind was bad, unlike many other sailing ships, the galleys had oars to move around with. Normally there were 168 oars, 84 to each side of the ship. Each oar would have at least two or three men to row it, although five men rowing a single oar was also common. A galley was usually 86 feet long from bow to stern, with a 58 foot long keel, and the beam was 21.5 feet wide. The ships were very heavy and strong enough to carry large guns. Galleys originated in England and many privateer ships returned home filled to the brim with riches like silver, gold, jewels, and other treasures.

Spanish galleons and English Venetian Trireme galleys were both grand ships and highly valued in their countries. Galleons were larger and faster, but the galleys had more flexibility. They both had good and bad points, and itÕs hard to say which ship was truly greater. What do you think? If you had been alive in the seventeenth century and you were on a galleon full of gold and silver, what would you have thought and done if a sailor had just spotted an English galley coming to attack you? Why?

Bibliography

R. J. Unstead, See Inside a Galleon

Landstrom, Sailing Ships

Anderson, The Sailing Ship

Edward V. Lewis and Robert OÕBrien, Ships

Rand McNally, The Explorer World Atlas