Sail

Cortes’ March to Tenochtitlan I

History Sail Spain 13 Min Read

Hernán Cortés Cortés burns his boats OCTOBER 23, 1518. After offering command of this latest enterprise to various individuals, Velazquez selects a 34-year-old alcalde or magistrate at Santiago de Cuba named Hernan Cortés. It is Velazquez’s intent for Cortés to secure a foothold in this new territory to await the governor’s arrival with a main body; yet Velazquez is soon…

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Naval History Sail Shipbuilding 20 Min Read

Power struggles around the Baltic Sea

Excavations in the major Nordic Viking towns of Hedeby, also known as Haithabu (in Schleswig), and Birka (near Stockholm), and at other sites have revealed an extensive trade in the Viking Age from the Baltic region and further down towards the Black Sea along the many river systems. Novgorod in…

Japan Sail Weapons 6 Min Read

Japanese adoption of Portuguese muskets

The Japanese landing on Busan   Japanese arquebuses of the Edo era. These types of firearms were used by Japanese soldiers during Hideyoshi’s invasions The advances in guns there with the Japanese adoption of Portuguese muskets through Hideyoshi’s invasions of Korea in the 1590s. Although guns were widely available in…

BEFORE LEPANTO I

A galley which Ottoman Sultans used at inshore waters. Built at the end of the 16th century. Length: 40 m; Width: 5.70 m. It is reportedly the only original galley in the world. (Maritime Museum, Istanbul). On August 14, 1571, a gigantic ship’s pennant of silk damask passed through the…

Navies Sail 8 Min Read

The Last Majestic Sailing in Company

A second group of warships followed some 12km behind the vanguard with the battleship Kongo at its heart. She was surrounded by an inner ring of heavy ships – the battleship Haruna and the heavy cruisers Chikuma, Kumano, Suzuya and Tone, with the light cruiser Yahagi fulfilling the same role…

British Naval Piracy Sail 4 Min Read

Corsairing [English] Operations in the Mediterranean

In addition to traditional corsairing operations in the Mediterranean, several new ones were sponsored in the late sixteenth and the early seventeenth century by Christian states such as Spain, Tuscany, Sicily and Monaco. These states also licensed additional vessels to sail as temporary corsairs under their protection, usually as wartime…

Navies Sail 8 Min Read

To Leyte Gulf

  Sailing towards Leyte Gulf from left to right CA Chikuma, BB Nagato, BC Haruna, BC Kongo and CA Tone. # Toyoda readied his various forces on 20 October for the decisive action to come. Setting dawn of 25 October 1944 as ‘X-Day’, he ordered Kurita and Vice- Admiral Shoji…

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The Sea Peoples

Invasions by the mysterious Sea Peoples in the 12th century BC not only devastated the…

The Steam Powered Warships

‘It was at this same (1897 Fleet Review at Spithead) Review that a wonderful little…

The Saxon Fleet Keeps Sailing, 1066

In 1066, Harold of England put the Saxon fleet to sea to deter an assault…

NAVAL WARFARE IN EUROPE, 1500-1600

A painting by Agostino Tassi or Buonamico (1565-1644) shows a ship under construction at the…