Sail
OARS, SAILS AND GUNS: THE ENGLISH AND WAR AT SEA, c.1200–c.1500 Part II
A multi-deck Carrack had three masts with the different sails: to the foresail: and mainmasts (by the first and by the second) – straight lines, and on the last third mizzensail to mast there was the slanting Latin sail, which facilitated maneuvering. The patrolmen or pointers were located on the mastheads with the reserve armament. Light naval gun of 1492.…
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French Navy in America
The French fleet of 1757 as depicted by Captain Pierre Bouchard de la Broquerie. The ships are (from left to right) La Marquise de Vaudreuil, La Hurault, La Louise and Le Victor. In 1685, La Barre, Frontenac’s successor, had a barque built at Cataraqui, which was named Le General Little…
Mediterranean Lords and Merchants 13-14th Centuries
By the end of the thirteenth century Catalan ships had a good reputation for safety and reliability; if a merchant was in search of a ship in, say, Palermo on which to load his goods, he knew he would do well to choose a Catalan vessel, such as the substantial…
Battle of Cape Ortegal
Bringing Home the Prizes – aftermath of the battle by Francis Sartorius Although the storm that followed the battle of Trafalgar, coupled with Collingwood’s aversion to anchoring on the evening of 21 October, left his ships with only four prizes to be escorted to Gibraltar, it was not long before…
THE 64-GUN SHIP
LYON, 64 GUNS LAUNCH’D AT PORTSMOUTH 3RD SEPTEMBER 1781. Typical of the last generation of 64s, Lion (as it was usually spelt) was one of many of these small two-deckers built to make up battlefleet numbers during the dangerous days of the American Revolutionary War when Britain faced all the…
Battle of Pulo Aura
The Battle of Pulo Aura off Malacca during the Napoleonic Wars. The Warley, launched in 1796, was a 1475-ton East Indiaman and one of the East India Company’s larger and more famous vessels. She made nine voyages to the East between 1796 and 1816, most direct to China. In 1804…
Knights of Malta Naval Activity – The Eighteenth Century
Views of two actions of the navy of the Order, early eighteenth century. The period following 1723 has been described by historians of the Order of St John as one of naval decline. For all its prevalence, that view is founded on a primal ignorance of the area most relevant…