Medieval War Ships and Naval
War
(from the Fourth to the Sixteenth
Century)
Roman warship (4th century, Mainx)
Byzantine dromon
• 30-50 meters long
and 5-7 meters wide,
carrying up to 250
men (200 rowers and
50 marines)
Greek Fire and Byzantine Naval Warfare
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The Chronicle of Theophanes (810) reports
that in 673 an inventor named Kallinikos “had
devised a sea fire which ignited the Arab ships
and burned them with all hands. Thus it was
that the Romans returned with victory and
discovered the sea fire.” Greek Fire was a
combustible substance made from some
combination of petroleum, naphtha, and other
ingredients that at the least could not be put
out with water and perhaps was either spread
or even ignited by contact with water.
Byzantine chroniclers falsely claimed that the
formula remained a closely guarded state
secret. In actuality, Greek Fire was used by
Arab fleets as well and was a standard part of
the weaponry of eastern Mediterranean fleets
700-1100. The substance itself, either pumped
at high pressure out of bronze siphons
mounted on the bows of galleys or lobbed,
from on-board catapults, in earthenware pots
that would shatter on impact, constituted a
deadly weapon against wooden ships that the
Byzantine navy used again and again to
devastating effect, most decisively at the siege
of Constantinople in 717. Only when the Turks
discovered how to combat it in the late
eleventh century (vinegar, rather than water,
did the trick in dousing the flames) did Greek
Fire lose importance as a Byzantine naval
weapon; the formula was lost with the fall of
the Empire, never to be recovered.
Greek Fire had limitations, as the siphons had
limited range and catapulted pots had limited
accuracy. Greek Fire had to be handled
carefully lest one’s own ship caught fire.
Stephen Morillo
Byzantine naval warfare in the eleventh century
Viking ships
Ships ca. 1140 (English ms)
Cinque Ports
Eustace the Pirate (d. 1217)
• Eustace the Pirate was a
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mercenary naval
commander from Boulogne
(nw France, on English
channel).
Served King John of
England vs. Philip
Augustus of France,12051212
Naval bases on Channel
Islands
Switched sides in 1212,
raided Folkestone
Defeated twice in 1217,
Battles of Sandwich and
Dover. Captured at
Sandwich and beheaded
The 24th of August 1217 AD, Battle of Sandwich
in English Channel off eastern coast of Kent
After King John reneged on Magna Carta, the rebel barons offered the throne to King Philip
Augustus of France’s eldest son Louis. When John died in 1216, he left a nine-year-old heir
(Henry III) to fight both a rebellion and French invasion. At the end of 1216 Louis held London
and had many powerful allies, though many barons turned from him when he lost the Battle of
Lincoln Fair in May 1217. Louis needed reinforcements and new supplies in his London
stronghold, and after several abortive attempts a French fleet sailed from Calais on St
Bartholomew's Day (August 24) 1217, with more than 100 knights and more importantly with
stores and currency aplenty. The large fleet had already been attacked in harbor whilst waiting
for a fair wind in Calais, and the English had been given time to prepare for the invasion,
assembling a fleet under Hubert de Burgh in Sandwich, Kent. The French fleet under Robert de
Courtenai and the former pirate Eustace the Monk was undoubtedly larger than the defenders
could muster, but as at the preceding Battle of Dover the English out sailed the French,
manoeuvring behind them, boarding ships picked out as targets, and very effectively using lime
to burn the French vessels and blind their sailors. Eustace pragmatically wanted to sail on to
London once the English fleet was behind his own, but the more aggressive de Courtenai,
perhaps conscious of his honour as well as aware of his force being numerically superior, decided
to turn and fight. For Eustace this was to prove a fatal error. The English captured many of the
knights sailing to reinforce Louis, and even more significantly they captured the supply vessels,
putting the French sailors on board these ships to the sword.
Eustace, loathed for his former piratical exploits, was found hiding away from the fray, hauled up
on deck, and in spite of his offer of a huge ransom was summarily executed by one Stephen
Crabbe, who cut his head off there and then. The head was put on a spear and marched around
Canterbury and Dover.
The Battle of Sandwich was the turning point for Louis, whose grab for England was now
doomed. Indeed, the English ended up gaining The Channel Islands when the conflict was finally
resolved. (http://www.information-britain.co.uk/famdates.php?id=588)
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Illustration of the naval battle of Sandwich in 1217 by the English monk and chronicler
Matthew Paris (c.1250). On the left, English bishops bless the English fleet, saying: “I
absolve those who are about to die for the liberation of England.” In the center we
see an English archer shooting a bag filled with quick-lime and a second man flinging
a pot, again presumably filled with quick-lime, at the French, as an English sailor
lashes the two ships together with a grappling hook. On the right, Matthew Paris
depicts the hand-to-hand fighting aboard the French ship during which Eustace the
Pirate, commander of the French fleet was beheaded (far right). Corpus Christi
College Cambridge MS 16, fol. 52 r.
Catalan 120-oared galley (late 13th cent)
Length: 43 meters
Beam: 5 meters
• “Depiction of a 120
oared galley, which
was the largest
type deployed by
the fleet. Unlike
their opponents,
these galleys had
raised forecastles
and poops from
which the dreaded
Catalan
crossbowmen could
shoot down on their
adversaries. The
admiral's galley
was traditionally
painted red.”
Lawrence Mott
Lawrence Mott
(http://websrv5.sdu.dk/mott/warsicilianvespers/warofthevespers/fleetships.html
Standard Catalan galley and barca (late 13th century)
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“An
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length (108 oar galley): 39.5m
beam: 4.6m (maximum), 3m at waterline
draft: 1.5 m
freeboard: .55m
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“The workhorse of the fleet was the
barca, which was a large boat or ship's
barge with 18 to 22 oars. These barges
could be attached to a 120 oared galley
or operate alone. They were sometimes
used for scouting, but mainly served to
transport supplies, men or even siege
engines. They operated with the fleet or
in coast waters and were generally not
sent on missions in the open sea. “
length: 12.4 m
beam: 2.1 m
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painted tablita of a standard galley
for Mediterranean fleets. This type of
vessel had only a low forecastle and
carried between 104 and 112 oars, 108
oared vessels being the most common.
They … were used for virtually every type
of duty.”
Lawrence Mott
http://websrv5.sdu.dk/mott/warsicilianvespers/warofthevespers/fleetships.html
Medieval Arsenal (Barcelona)
• “One of the best examples of a
medieval naval arsenal still in
existence is the Museu Maritím at
Barcelona. Typical of the arsenals
of the period, it is made of a
series of long sheds under which
the galleys could be stored and
repaired. The arsenal at Barcelona
was first mentioned in 1255 and
from then it was continually
expanded and modified into the
18th century. Muntaner in his
chronicle believed the proper
arsenal should be able to house
20 galleys. The sheds were
important, not only for protecting
the shipwrights and workers, but
also for preventing fresh water
collecting in the vessels which
could lead to dry rot.”
• Lawrence Mott
http://websrv5.sdu.dk/mott/warsic
ilianvespers/warofthevespers/arse
nals.html
• Flemish galley,1445
• Length on the deck: 121.06 feet
• Breadth 20.11 feet
• Height 9.0 feet
• The Book of Michael of Rhodes
• http://dibinst.mit.edu/DIBNER/Rhodes
/life_writing.html
Lepanto 1571
(galley warfare in the age of the gun)
Medieval cogs (late 13th century)
• “To illustrate the quickly increasing size
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of the ships we can look at the
Hanseatic notes in the Lübecker
Zollrolle of 1227. The ships were
divided in three classes:
Under 5 lasten (under 10 tons)
5-12 lasten (10-24 tons)
More than 12 lasten (more than 24
tons)
In a similar document from 1358 there
were two classes:
Under 60 lasten (- 120 tons)
More than 60 lasten (120 tons)”
From website by Per Åkesson, January 1999
www.abc.se/~pa/mar/cog.htm
Dudszus, Henriot, Krumley : Das grosse Buch der
Schiffstypen, Transpress VEB Verlag, Berlin 1987
,
Battle of Sluys Coin depicting cog warship
(1340)
Naos and Carracks (15th and early 16th Centuries)
• A carrack or nao was a
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three- or four-masted
sailing ship developed in
the Mediterranean in the
fifteenth century.
Characteristics:
– high rounded stern with an
aftercastle and a
forecastle;
– a bowsprit at the stem;
– square-rigging on the
foremast and mainmast;
and lateen-rigging on the
mizzenmast.
The Battle of Sluys (1340)
late 14th century and 15th century ms depictions
Naval Battles (late 15th-century manuscripts)
• Pintle-and-
gudgeon
rudder of the
Hanseatic
league flagship
Adler von
Lübeck (15671581), the
largest ship in
the world at its
time
The Mary Rose
(built 1509-11; sunk 1545)
• The Mary Rose was an
English warship, one of
the earliest designed to
fire its cannons broadside
– Ordnance: 78 guns (91
after an upgrade in 1536).
– Displacement: 500 tons
(700 tons after 1536)
– Dimensions: 38.5 m long
and 11.7 m abeam
– Crew complement: 200
sailors, 185 soldiers, and
30 gunners.