AND SQUARE-RIGGED SHIPS (PART 1) Look at Mediterranean Lateen- and Square-Rigged Ships (Part 1)
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The International Journal of Nautical Archaeology (2008) 37.2: 347–359 doi: 10.1111/j.1095-9270.2008.00183.x ABlackwellF.NAUTICAL CASTRO Publishing ET ARCHAEOLOGY, AL.: LtdMEDITERRANEANQuantitative 37.2 LATEEN- AND SQUARE-RIGGED SHIPS (PART 1) Look at Mediterranean Lateen- and Square-Rigged Ships (Part 1) F. Castro Nautical Archaeology Program, Department of Anthropology, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843– 4352, USA N. Fonseca and T. Vacas Unit of Marine Technology and Engineering, Technical University of Lisbon, Instituto Superior Técnico, Av. Rovisco Pais, 1049–001 Lisboa, Portugal F. Ciciliot Società Savonese di Storia Patria, via Guidobono 38/3, 17100 Savona, Italy Modern-day engineering can be a useful tool to help understand the technological changes which led to the development of the three-masted ships of the modern age of sail, in the beginning of the 15th century. Recent finding and excavation of an increasing number of medieval shipwrecks offers the opportunity, and the authors propose to build a database with technical characteristics of late-medieval vessels in the hope of finding patterns that will help understand the relatively-quick techno- logical evolution of Mediterranean merchant craft of the 14th and 15th centuries. © 2008 The Authors Key words: Lateen rigging, square rigging, Mediterranean seafaring, sailing performance, technological change. t is difficult to explain technological change lateen sails in the Mediterranean during the first in shipbuilding history. Any particular ship- half of the 6th century, at least in some types of I design is the result of a number of human craft? What were the main advantages of this new and natural factors. Ship-construction is type of rig in each particular instance? The governed by the shipbuilder’s knowledge, skills, answers may lie in the reduction of the size of the tradition, and taste as well as the materials, average merchantman, and on a desire to improve tools, and technology available (Englert, 2000: 3). the vessel’s speed, perhaps due to the depression The purpose for which a ship is built must also in Western Europe that followed the barbarian be considered, and its means of propulsion invasions, which cause a sharp contraction in incorporated in the design. Often so many social, commerce and spread insecurity all over Europe. political, economical, technological, and even Jacques Le Goff wrote about the 6th century: ‘In symbolic factors play important roles in stimulating this impoverished, underfed, weakened world a these changes, that it is difficult to weigh their natural calamity succeeded in completing what importance as determinants of a particular the barbarians had begun. From AD 543 bubonic technological shift at any particular time. plague from the east ravaged Italy, Spain, and a Sometimes changes can be explained by the great part of Gaul for more than half a century’ development or adoption of a new technology, (2000: 32). Certain commerce routes endured but often the questions that arise are more complex. through to the later middle ages, along both For instance, why were square sails replaced by rivers and coasts. Since the Roman road system © 2008 The Authors. Journal Compilation © 2008 The Nautical Archaeology Society. Published by Blackwell Publishing Ltd. 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA. NAUTICAL ARCHAEOLOGY 37.2 was one of the first victims of the fall of the empire, the new invaders established themselves Planks on frames by choice in cities located along rivers and coasts Another shift in shipbuilding technology started (Le Goff, 2000: 25–9). Salt, wine, oil, and a around the time of the disappearance of square number of fine stuffs and spices were still sought sails from Mediterranean iconography. Since by these invaders, and had to be transported over the Bronze Age ships and boats had been built water in smaller merchant vessels. The reduction in the Mediterranean by joining the edges of of the size of merchantmen fits well with the the hull planks together, either aligned with change in their rigging: lateen sails are easy to wooden dowels and sewn together with vegetable handle if the vessels are small. fibres, or fastened with pegged mortise-and- But the truth is that we don’t know much tenon joints, or using hybrids of these two about this process of change. Information about techniques (Basch, 1972: 1–58). Frames were which ship-types first adopted lateen sails and generally inserted after the planking was which kept square sails is not available. It would assembled and tended to play a lesser structural be useful to know which routes were first ploughed role. Hull strength resided largely in the hull by the vessels that adopted the new lateen rig, and planking, and this type of construction is why. Considering the natural desire for security generally referred to as shell-first or shell-based of all merchants, one may be tempted to think construction. From the early-6th century that ships carrying expensive cargoes may have led onwards, however, the structural role of frames this technological innovation, rather than those seems to have increased incrementally, and by transporting, for instance, salt in bulk. It is not the 11th century frames were the main structural known which shipwrights implemented the required elements of at least one ship’s hull. When the constructional changes, how long and expensive Serçe Limanı ship was built, at the beginning of were the introductory periods and, perhaps more the 11th century, a number of its frames were important, how did shipwrights acquired the know- erected first, and planks were bent and nailed how needed to implement these changes. Where did over them (Steffy, 1982; 1994: 89). This type of the knowledge necessary to implement the new construction is known as skeleton-first or rigging reside, and how was it transferred, are skeleton-based construction, and is less interesting questions. And how easy was it for labour-intensive. captains and sailors to adapt to this new technology? It is generally assumed that demographic There are reasons to believe that both lateen and economic factors played a major role in and square rigs coexisted in the Mediterranean the adoption of this new, skeleton-first way throughout the Middle Ages. It is unlikely that of building ships. During the period of transition square sails—although almost completely absent from shell- to skeleton-based hulls, Europe from Mediterranean iconography from the first suffered a series of economic and demographic quarter of the 6th century to the mid-13th century— crises, following the fall of the Western Roman actually disappeared from the Mediterranean Empire (Le Goff, 2000: 3–36, 195–254). It is during this period (Bellabarba, 1999). For instance, highly probable that related socio-economic one of the authors, Furio Ciciliot, recently found factors led the shift both from shell- to skeleton- a published image showing a galley with a square based hull construction and from large square- sail dating to the 9th century (Cassagnes-Brouquet, rigged ships to smaller and faster lateeners. 2003: 28–9). Moreover, the introduction of the Latten-rigged ships were probably faster, and lateen sail in the Mediterranean was gradual and achieved better sailing angles to the wind. Could spanned a very long period. The appearance of a speed and manoeuvrability be two of the lateen sail in Mediterranean iconography dates to main reasons that made lateen sails apparently the 2nd century AD, and the disappearance of so popular in the early-medieval Mediterranean? the square rig to around AD 525 (Bass, 1972: These questions do not have simple answers, 154; Casson, 1994: 118). Be that as it may, the but have been formulated here in order to main question remains: how was this new frame the aim of this paper, which is to try to technology diffused among the Mediterranean understand technological change; in this case, world? Many of these questions are addressed in the transition from the two- (and three-) detail in the following article, by Mark Polzer, masted lateen-rigged Mediterranean traders of which deals with rigging arrangements in the the 14th century to the square-rigged, ocean- Ancient Mediterranean Sea. going ship. 348 © 2008 The Authors. Journal Compilation © 2008 The Nautical Archaeology Society F. CASTRO ET AL.: MEDITERRANEAN LATEEN- AND SQUARE-RIGGED SHIPS (PART 1) went to the high sea, and Guido thought he was Square sails and central rudders the winner. However, when the tide rose once Some time during the first decades of the 14th again, Grimaldi and his rowing galleys defeated century a new type of ship appeared in the the very large cocca of Guido’s fleet, which could Mediterranean. It was called cocca, like the not move as easily. northern cog after which it was built. The name The merchant galleys from Genoa and Venice had already shown up in Liguria in 1190 went on ploughing their traditional routes in the (cocius), and became common throughout the Mediterranean, into the Black Sea, and to the 13th century (Ciciliot, 2005: 143). When they North Atlantic ports for many decades, but it were first represented, in the early-14th century, seems that many of the larger two-masted lateeners, cocche were characterized by a round hull, a which carried most of the long-sea bulk trade round stempost, integrated castles, and a single around the Mediterranean, were replaced by the mast mounting a square sail. Soon after, during new cocche during the first decades of the 14th the first half of the 14th century, most vessels century. adopted a central rudder. Needless to say, The principal motives behind this technological unlike the northern cogs, these ships were built change are not completely clear. The economic with flush-laid planks fastened to pre-erected argument is a plausible one: commerce expanded frames, in the skeleton-based manner of the and the size of ships grew, making the square Mediterranean ships of their time.