Galleys of the 17th Century

Galleys of the 17th Century | SLICE

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Күн бұрын

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@SLICEDocumentary 19 күн бұрын

- SPECIAL THANKS - The 3D design and animations of the Fleur de Lis galley are the work of Bernard HUC. ZED Production would like to thank him for this brilliant achievement !

@saviourgarzia5165 4 жыл бұрын

Great and easy to understand the complexes of such a war machine. The Order of St. John during their tenure of the Maltese Islands (1530-1798) made great use of galleys built in France.

@cartesian_doubt6230 4 жыл бұрын

Not just in Malta but also in Rhodes. This is what brought both Mehmed II and Suleyman to Rhodes in the first place. The Knights were harassing Muslim ships.

@HyperboreanAnchovy44 Жыл бұрын

Very strange a seamingly well produced video could get the ram part so wrong. These ships did not have underwater rams as they did in antiquity. They had above water beaks, they would ram but the objective was to smash over that side of an enemy warship and use the beak as a ramp to board them.

@tonyz7216 Жыл бұрын

Interresting. Thanks

@jamesalexander958 3 ай бұрын

I thought ramming fell out of favor for the cannons. Imagine trying to ram a sailing ship with a gun deck that would be in position to rake you, sending cannon balls ripping through the galley's length

@HyperboreanAnchovy44 3 ай бұрын

@@jamesalexander958 ramming fell out of favor long before cannon were common. Ships became more strongly built in the medieval period making purpose built under water rams, like those of Ancient Greece, less effective. Oar powered ships became simply to large and to heavily built to get up to speed to ram effectively in the ancient fashion. Ramming still happened of course but the objective changed to smashing into the enemy to board them. In the renaissance sailing ships would often try to ram galleys since there higher freeboard and more mass let them simply capsize or swamp galleys.

@HyperboreanAnchovy44 3 ай бұрын

@@jamesalexander958 also a tactic of galleys was to hold there fire until they rammed into the side of an enemy galley and then let off a devastating close range salvo point blank before boarding. Truly savage warfare.

@jamesalexander958 3 ай бұрын

@@HyperboreanAnchovy44 thanks. I've been on a binge of age of sail history. The content is thin though

@dauntlesschicken9756 3 жыл бұрын

The most beautiful ships in my opinion

@coderonix4501 2 жыл бұрын

The ships were beautiful but the life for the average sailor and rower on board those ships must've been pretty horrid.

@grabs5357 2 жыл бұрын

Yes it was. Most of the rowers in Europe were prisoners or slaves. Instead of the death sentence or imprisonment, they would send people to the galley. Some prisoners would even hurt themselves so they wouldn't get the galley sentence since they'd be no use.

@AdSd100 3 жыл бұрын

These ships were not ramming the opponent.

@relpmat 3 жыл бұрын

2 Questions: 1. How did the gun crew fire those swivel guns on the side when there are this many oars and men in the way? 2. How did they evacuate the rowing slave and get the fighting men in position in the middle of combat when the deck is this crowded? I can just imagine the chaos. (I believe the oarsmen didn't double as fighting men correct?

@warreneckels4945 3 жыл бұрын

They generally did not evacuate the enslaved rowers, who were chained to their bench. Quite often they went down with the ship and were drowned. If a ship was stricken, there was a possibility that some of the enslaved rowers could be unchained. Those of the same religion as the victors might be freed, those of the same religion as the defeated would merely experience a change in masters, not necessarily for the better. A humane exception would be the Sultan at Lepanto, who ordered his Christian rowers under the bench, figuring that if he lost, it was Allah's doing.

@relpmat 3 жыл бұрын

@@warreneckels4945 okay but wouldn't they get in the way of the fighting when boarding or being boarded? The soldiers on the ship's just tried to work around them as cramp as it is?

@dolsopolar 3 жыл бұрын

@@relpmat i thinks oarsmen were pretty much like a sailor some slaves couldn't perform it as well as a well trained men And I'm pretty sure they were doubled as fighters as well

@relpmat 3 жыл бұрын

@@dolsopolar though I am not an expert in history. I am almost certain they didn't double up as fighters. The whole point of the galley way of rowing by putting up to 5 men on 1 oar is that they only need 1 experienced rower to control the oar while the others adds power. It is a highly inefficient way to row as every additional men on the oar have diminishing returns. However, it was more cost efficient as you don't pay slaves. Also if they were to double as fighting men they would have all been armed with weapons/armour and training while also having a high chance of mutiny and desertion in battle. So I doubt it.

@HaNsWiDjAjA 2 жыл бұрын

@@relpmat The issue on oarsmen doubling as fighters differed among the different Mediterranean powers. Venice was famous for using only free citizens as rowers, and these ciurni made excellent secondary fighters as long as they were not too tired from rowing. This also meant that Venetian galleys were mostly rowed "alla senzile", with just one man for every oar, which although requiring greater skill only achievable with well trained crews of free men also allowed for greater efficiency and stamina during a cruise. The Ottoman Turks also relied heavily on freemen as rowers, although their rowers were often conscripted villagers who were unlikely to join a fight. They also have their most important galleys manned by volunteer Arab rowers though, which make good light infantry like the Venetians. The Barbary pirates attached to the Ottomans generally had slaves rowing their bigger galleys, but their smaller galliots were often all rowed by fighting men. Spain, as well as her Italian client states and France, on the other hand relied the most on slave and convict rowers, who obviously could not be expected to fight. This meant that these western galleys were mostly rowed "alla scalocio", with multiple men per oar like shown in the video, which was less efficient over long periods of time and make them unsuitable for long cruise under oars. You can read more about it here: www.angelfire.com/ga4/guilmartin.com/Galley.html www.angelfire.com/ga4/guilmartin.com/Lepanto.html

@goyocasa3351 2 жыл бұрын

En siglo XVII, mi querido amigo, dudo que Portugal tuviese galeras en el Mediterráneo. Se ha olvidado usted de España, y en la batalla de Lepanto, reinando Felipe II, junto a otros pequeños estados, derrotó a los Otomanos, librando a Europa de una segura invasión. Fue la mayor batalla entre embarcaciones de este tipo, y España aportó el mayor número de estos barcos.

@mutiny_on_the_bounty 3 жыл бұрын

Correct me if I'm worn but wasn't the 17th century the (1600s)? The age of sail and canon. Pretty sure ramming was obsolete.

@crunchymix 2 жыл бұрын

I also wonder how they get close to the light cannon ship with more guns and range. This type of ship might use in a tight area where it needs high mobility to outmaneuver bigger ships and ram into a blind spot.

@GeraltofRivia22 2 жыл бұрын

Unrelated, but ramming actually made a comeback during the second half of the 19th century because of iron clads and just how resistant to cannon fire they were, and a one off incident during a battle between the Austrians and Italians.

@HaNsWiDjAjA 2 жыл бұрын

Yea they got the ramming part completely wrong. Ramming pretty much was out of the vogue by the Middle Ages, with galley battles being decided entirely by boarding actions. Later cannons came into the scene as well. Also yes by the 17th century galleys were very much secondary warships, used for coastal patrols, raids and as prestige vessels. The main fighting was done by sailing ships with guns.

@hugopontevedra 6 күн бұрын

good

@andywomack3414 2 жыл бұрын

I think it interesting that in antiquity, at least Greek and Roman, galleys were rowed by free men, paid and often in military service. In the Christian and Muslim world they were rowed by slaves, for the most part. At the battle of Lepanto, the Venetians used free men as rowers, a short-lived exception. During the battles some of the slaves rowing the Muslim ships were freed when those ships were captured, armed and used against their former masters.

@tommyworkslave3999 2 жыл бұрын

Thanks for providing the historical insight regarding slaves as rowers, etc. In the video it is stated that 255 men would be required to row. I would think that the number of slaves would be greater than the number of guards. An uprising would have been a hard thing to quell unless discipline was maintained strictly. The slaves must have been shackled with strong chains and the guards must have whipped them without mercy.

@fnansjy456 Жыл бұрын

Free rows was always ehe most common way of rowing in Venice I'm 1571 was no exception, maybe later it was all Prisoners or slave but at least till the late 16th centruy Venice prodomitly used free rowers

@andywomack3414 Жыл бұрын

@@fnansjy456 Venice was the exception at Lepanto. Shortly afterward even Venice was using slave rowers, at least I've been told by a history professor. By then the Caravels and other sail dominant vessels made expensive difficult to manage rowers unnecessary.

@Someone-by6jm 8 ай бұрын

Source that pre christian and pre Islamic Mediterranean used freemen?

@andywomack3414 8 ай бұрын

@@Someone-by6jmAs far as the Greeks, Thucydides, "The History of the Peloponnese War." As to the Romans, from "Wikipedia" "The bulk of a galley's crew was formed by the rowers, the remiges (sing. remex) or eretai (sing. eretēs) in Greek. Despite popular perceptions, the Roman fleet, and ancient fleets in general, relied throughout their existence on rowers of free status, and not on galley slaves. Slaves were employed only in times of pressing manpower demands or extreme emergency, and even then, they were freed first."

@bernardhuc5828 23 күн бұрын

Je trouve un peu étonnant de voir quelques unes de mes animations (les images de synthèse avec les galériens) avec votre signature en bas à gauche et à droite des images. Je souhaiterais que vous enleviez votre signature de ces séquences sinon je me verrais dans l'obligation de signaler à youtube une violation évidente des droits d'auteur. Et la suppression de votre vidéo !