Do you know what caravels are? The meaning of the word caravel New explanatory dictionary of the Russian language, T. F. Efremova

On long voyages on caravels, the crews were larger than usual due to the high mortality rate among crew members. “Spare” ones were needed. This post describes how Columbus's caravels were prepared for long journeys.

A copy of the Niña, one of Columbus's caravels. Built in 1988 in Bahia (Brazil)
15th century technologies were used during construction
Photo: Mike Baird, 2008, California

We have already learned what advantages the caravel acquired thanks to lateen sails, shallow draft, and great maneuverability. But this was not enough for long trips into unknown waters.

The long journey required large quantities of drinking water. And for this it was necessary to either scout out in advance the sources of fresh water on the shore available along the route, or have the required supply of drinking water with you.

A long voyage, as we noted above, was accompanied by high mortality among crew members for a variety of reasons, which required the presence of reserve crew members in comparison with the usual regular crew members.

Unfavorable external conditions during a long voyage in unknown waters, unexpected weather conditions, and limited geographical knowledge placed very special demands on the seamanship of the caravel crew members. There shouldn't be random people there.

1. Model of the Niña caravel, as it looked at the beginning of Columbus’s first expedition

And finally, the design of the caravel, of course, required taking into account the travel route. If voyages along the western coast of Africa were quite successfully accomplished on Portuguese caravels with only lateen sails - caravela latina, then crossing the Indian Ocean and going to the American shores, and what not, going to the Canary Islands, required a change in rigging. They began to install straight sails on the foremast, and then on the mainmast, retaining the lateen sails only on the stern masts. The caravel turned, as we wrote above, into caravela redonda, and it was precisely this kind of caravel that the Spaniards began to use, following the Portuguese. But the use of this or that rigging was not a frozen dogma for the sailors. Thus, two caravels of Columbus's expedition, Niña and Pinta, during the journey, repeatedly changed the type of sailing rig on the bow masts from Latin to straight and back. At the beginning of the voyage, during a stop in the Canary Islands, Niña was refitted from a caravel Latina

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to the caravel redonda

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We can see that a low foremast was added and straight sails were placed on it, as well as on the mainmast. All re-equipment work took, as we know from Columbus's diaries, about one week. Subsequently, the diaries do not note any problems with Niña’s sails; moreover, she went on a second voyage.
It is now difficult for us to reconstruct in detail the design of the hull of the first research caravels. In Spain, a system for measuring the hull of a ship and its carrying capacity was developed only under Philip II (reigned 1556-1598). Only from this era do we receive documentary data on the ship timber used, the size and tonnage of ships. It should be noted, by the way, that Spanish shipbuilding documents of that time continued to use Portuguese units of measurement: dedos (1.83 cm), palmos (25.67 cm) and rumos (1.54 m).

To understand the design of the first caravels, let's turn to other options available to maritime historians. In maritime archeology there is a method of obtaining data about objects of the past, which involves comparing them with modern traditional objects that have retained the main features of their ancient ancestors. So, in relation to ancient caravels with lateen sails, the modern heir is considered to be a type of Arabian dhow - sambuk (سنبوك) (or sambuca, as this ship is also called).

4. Photograph of sambuca taken in 1938. Exhibition in Kuwait 1998.

The Naval Museum at Greenwich has a wonderful model of a sambuca that was used by pearl divers and fishermen in the Persian Gulf.

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On each side there were six rowlocks for oars, which indicates that it was a sailing and rowing vessel. Although the oars were used, it seems, only during pearl fishing: cables were attached to their blades, which insured the fishermen during the dive and allowed them to rest between dives.

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What interested me most in the Sambuca design was the flat transom stern.

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In ancient descriptions of the first caravels it is noted that their stern was flat. However, in the drawings of that era it is not always possible to see the view of the stern of the ship, which leads to difficulties in classifying the ships shown in a particular image. However, more questions are raised by works when ships that have a clearly round rather than flat stern are called caravels. Let us consider, as an example, images of caravels from the famous work of Duarte de Armas (an associate of King Manuel I of Portugal) “The Book of Fortresses” (Livro das fortalezas situadas no extremo de Portugal e Castela por Duarte de Armas, escudeiro da Casa do rei D. Manuel I). Its creation dates back to the period between 1495 and 1521, sometimes tied to a specific date of 1510. The book depicts with great care the fortresses on the borders of Portugal with the kingdom of Castile. Let's look, for example, at the view of the Valence fortress, located on the Minho River. At that time the river was quite navigable and on it we see several large seagoing ships.

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Let's take a closer look at the group of three ships in the foreground

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One of them, the larger one, belongs to the nava type (nave, karakka) and at the moment we will not be distracted by it. As for the remaining two, they are usually classified as caravels. Low profile, lack of bow superstructure, two masts with lateen sails - typical lateen caravels. The forward mast is located far from the bow, as if leaving room for the possible installation of another mast in the bow. How it was done on another ship from the same engraving, from its right side

10.

Here, not only is a foremast with a straight sail installed, but a straight sail is also installed on the mainmast, and an additional mizzen mast is installed in the stern - that is, we see the transformation of a Latin caravel into a Redonda caravel.

However, at the moment we will be interested in the ship from the first group, located in its center. We clearly see that its stern is not flat, but round, like a galley. This casts doubt on the legitimacy of classifying this ship as a caravel, as is done in almost all works that study these images. Or should this ship be distinguished as an independent subspecies of caravels, distinguished by its design and seaworthiness.

Caravel (nao)- a ship widely known in the history of navigation. On such ships Christopher Columbus And Vasco da Gama crossed the ocean. The seaworthiness of the caravel, compared to the ships that existed at that time, was significantly higher. Their speed reached 14-15 knots. According to one 15th century sailor “the caravels maneuvered perfectly, turning to the wind with one side or the other, as if they had oars”. Of particular importance was the lightness and maneuverability of caravels in ocean voyages off unknown and poorly surveyed shores.

It is noteworthy that the contemporaries of Columbus and da Gama did not distinguish between caravels and carracks, calling both of them by the word "nao" which simply meant "ship", implying a vessel capable of long sea voyages.

Initially, caravels were light single-deck ships with a displacement of 50-70 tons, a length of 20-30 meters, with three or four masts and lateen sails. Relatively high masts and the presence of a bowsprit made it possible to double the sail area, which naturally affected the increase in speed. The lateen sails on the slanting yards of the main and mizzen masts allowed the ships to sail steeply to the wind. Only the foremast carried a quadrangular straight sail. The design of the caravel's hull was also successfully solved. With a keel length to maximum width ratio of 3:1, the caravels had good sailing - an extremely important quality considering that they had to withstand fierce Atlantic storms. The plating of this ship was not built up, like tiles on the roof of a house, as they did before, but smoothly: one board close to the other. And although this method of plating was known before, nevertheless, the merit of its invention is attributed to a shipbuilder from Brittany named Julian, who called this method " carvel", or " kraveel" The name of the casing later became the name of the type of ship - caravel.

In the second half of the 15th century, the original type of caravels changed significantly. Caravels with straight sails appeared, which were placed on the foremast and mainmast in two tiers. The lateen sail remained only on the mizzen. In the 16th century, they abandoned the hull cross braces, which were installed on top of the outer skin of the side to help the internal frames. These bars slowed down the ship's progress and created splashes in the rough seas. In addition, the hull structure was not strong enough in stormy weather, and sometimes ship crews had to hold it together at sea by tightening the hull with cables. The sailors were constantly busy with repairs - replacing hull boards, caulking seams, repairing rigging and sails, etc.

Do you remember what ships Columbus sailed on to distant India? For the first time, hearing the name of these sailboats, you involuntarily exclaim: “How romantic! What are caravels? In fact, the name of these medieval ships has a very melodic sound, and they are very beautiful in appearance. Their wooden hulls were often decorated with rich carvings, and the sails fluttering in the wind made them look like winged boats.

Caravel ship: history of origin and etymology

There are many options explaining the origin of this word. According to one of them, the name of these sailing ships has Portuguese roots and comes from the diminutive version of the word caravo (sailing ship). But the Italians believe that the caravel ship was named so due to its beauty and elegance, and its name comes from the merger of two Italian words - cara (sweetheart) and bella (beauty). And there is also a version of Greek origin, according to which it comes from the word χαραβος (sarabos). From it came the Latin carabus (wicker boat), as well as the Russian word “ship”. Of course, the Italian version is the most beautiful and quite close in meaning, because a caravel is actually a very beautiful ship. However, historians tend to believe that the word has Greek roots.

What are caravels?

These ships were common in the 13th-16th centuries. Since in those years Spain and Portugal were considered the largest maritime powers and the main ones belonged to them, they naturally had the most powerful and developed flotillas. The bulk of the total number of ships of the Spanish flotilla until the 15th century were ships called “caravel” (see photo in the article). Therefore, we associate all the great discoveries of sailors with them, although other sea sailing ships - carracks - much more often participated in the long journeys of Christopher Columbus, Vasco da Gama, Magellan and others. Admit that you have heard practically nothing about carracks, while caravels have always were well known, and all thanks to their poetic name. Caravel! Beauty, you can't say anything. They were two- or three-masted ships with straight or oblique (latin) sails. For those who want to know in more detail what caravels are, we can add that they had a special type of hull plating. So, if on other ships the so-called “overlap” method was adopted, then on these sailing ships the planks were laid tightly to each other when sheathing. In addition, a distinctive feature of these ships was a certain ratio of the length of the ship to its width (4:1), the presence of a single deck and a raised stern, thanks to which it was possible to sail with a tailwind. Caravels, as a rule, had 3 masts, and triangular sails were attached to inclined yards.

The first European ships to cross the Atlantic and discover the New World in 1492 were the ships of Christopher Columbus. The Pinta and Niña caravels, each with a displacement of 60 tons, had good seaworthiness.

"Nina" carried triangular lateen sails, and "Pinta" - straight ones.

Subsequently, the same ones will be installed on Ninya.

The third ship of the flotilla, the notorious Santa Maria, was not a caravel, it was a hundred-ton carrack. These were the leading ships of their time, and the records they set are still admired by sailors. Admiral Columbus's flotilla was strong and resilient, which cannot be said about the crew.

Caravel "Nina"

After thirty days on the high seas, a mutiny began to brew. It seemed crazy to swim any further. To reassure the sailors, the captain promised to turn back if they did not see land within the next three days. Columbus was an experienced navigator and saw that there were signs that land was nearby. Algae became more and more common, flocks of birds landed on the masts, and on the night of October 11-12, the ships finally reached the long-awaited shore.

Following Columbus, the Spanish conquistadors - conquerors and colonizers - rushed to the shores of the New World. Half a century later, all of Mexico, Central America and even part of South America were in the possession of Spain. The Spaniards imposed a strict monopoly on trade with the New World. However, already in the first quarter of the 16th century. England and France decided to reshape the world in their own way. Pirates played a huge role in the struggle for maritime dominance, taking to the high seas with the knowledge and blessing of the highest persons of their states.

Perhaps the most cruel and successful corsair can be called Francis Drake. Having personal scores to settle with the Spaniards, Captain Drake created a small squadron and made his first raid on the Caribbean coast. Plundering Spanish cities and capturing treasure ships, the pirate generously shared his booty with the English treasury. It is not surprising that Queen Elizabeth gave him official permission to actively interfere with Spanish trade in the Pacific. Elizabeth's expectations were justified: the pirate voyage of 1577-1580. brought Drake 4700% of net profit, the lion's share of which, of course, was received by the Queen of England. Not out of simple curiosity, but by force of circumstances, fleeing the pursuit of Spanish ships, Drake made his second trip around the world, after Magellan.

Drake sailed on the Pelican, which was later renamed the Golden Hind by the corsair for its speed. However, despite the name change, the pelican painted on the stern and the sculpture of this bird on the bow remained unchanged attributes of Drake's ship.

"Golden Hind" - the famous ship of Francis Drake

The legendary “Golden Hind” was a small 18-gun ship about 18 m long. The hull, made of hard wood, was very durable, and the three-masted sailing rig met the latest trends of the era. Two cannons were placed on the deck. Three light falconettes were installed there, placed on special swivels. They fired at enemy ships, and in case of boarding they turned them around and could shoot along the deck.

In the 15th century The word “sappope” (cannon) began to be used to describe an artillery piece of any type and size. The smallest of them were falconets, muskets (gradually turned into hand guns) and ship bombardels, which fired stone or iron cannonballs. Small-caliber guns were placed on the bulwarks and held by rotating forks - swivels. Heavy kartauns and long-barreled large-caliber culverins were placed on the lower deck to give greater stability to the vessel. Gradually, cannon barrels began to be cast along with trunnions - cylindrical protrusions that made it possible to aim the gun in a vertical plane.

Galion "Amsterdam"

By the middle of the 16th century. the term “carrack” falls out of use, and large sailing ships with three or four masts begin to be called simply “ship*.” A variety of naves of those times were Portuguese and French caravels, as well as Spanish talions. The seas at that time were dominated by large sailing ships with various caliber artillery. Increasing the sail area made them more maneuverable and easier to control. One such sailboat was raised from the bottom of the River Hamble. According to experts, the found sailing ship is none other than the famous “Great Harry” of the English king Henry VIII, built in 1514. Probably, “Harry” was the last large ship with a displacement of 1000 tons, which was sheathed using wooden dowels.

French pinnace. XVII century

Old technologies gradually became a thing of the past, and in the 16th century. In the north of Europe, a new type of sailing ship appeared - a three-masted pinnace with a displacement of 100-150 tons. Subsequently, the displacement of these ships increased to 800 tons. Pinnaces were used mainly as cargo ships, and therefore were armed with only 8-10 guns.

The Portuguese galleon, which was willingly borrowed by the Spaniards, British and French, had much in common with the pinnace and became the basis of all strong European fleets by the end of the century.
A special feature of the galleon was its sharp hull, the length of which along the keel (about 40 m) was almost four times greater than its width. The heavy aft superstructure, characteristic of the karakka, was replaced by a narrow and high one, accommodating up to seven decks, which housed the captain’s cabin, a powder magazine - a hook chamber and storage rooms. 50-80 guns mounted on two battery decks fired at the enemy through the ports. The ram on the bow soon lost its combat significance, and a latrine decorated with a figurehead was installed in this place. At the stern there were one or two galleries, which later began to be glassed.
Three sails were usually raised on the main and foremasts. The mizzen and bonaventure masts had slanting lateen sails. Another straight sail was pulled on the bow, which received the amusing name “artemon”. Due to the high sides and bulky superstructures, the galleons were heavy and clumsy.
The crew, as befits a large warship with a displacement of 500-1400 tons at that time, reached 200 people. Often, galleons delivered settlers to America, and sailed back, filling their holds to the brim with jewelry - a tasty bait for numerous pirates, from whose all-seeing eyes it seemed impossible to escape.

"Niña", "Pint", "Santa Maria " - the names of the legendary ships of Christopher Columbus's first expedition to the shores of the New World have become firmly entrenched in history and are included in all encyclopedias and school geography textbooks.

After the political and economic issues of organizing an overseas expedition had been resolved (on April 17, 1492, the highest go-ahead was finally given and funds were found), the time had come to equip the ships and look for a crew.

So, first of all - the courts. What ships could withstand ocean voyages? How many of them are necessary and sufficient? One ship was clearly not enough for such a dangerous and long voyage - the risk was too great. Secondly, one ship cannot bring a large amount of “boot” - gold, silver, spices, silks, incense and other things (which Columbus and his creditors primarily counted on) to cover expenses and recoup the enterprise. Let us remember that Columbus was going to “discover” Japan and China, and not America at all. Two ships are better. Four is unreasonably expensive. But three is just right. And every good thing from Chipangu And Chinas, (Japan and China) will have something to bring back, and the probabilistic resistance to return is higher than on two ships. Of all the possible types of ships for the voyage, Columbus chose caravels.

What is a caravel

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Origin of the name "caravel"

caravel – lat. / caravela - port . / carabela - hisp ./ caravella - it ./

It can be assumed that the wordcaravelahas a Latin base and is formed from two roots, wherevelameans sail, and cara - Expensive. Moreover, both in Latin and Italian. That is, it turns out expensive sailboat, valuable sailboat(Or something like that).

By the way, our word ship was borrowed precisely from the word caravel

See for yourself: / his. / carabela = ship

Typical caravel design

Light single-deck vessel. Displacement 50-100 tons, length 15-25 meters, lateen sails on slanting yards grotto-masts and mizzen-masts allowed ships to sail steeply into the wind. Only foresail- the mast, as a rule, carried a straight sail. The ship's hull had a keel length to width ratio of approximately 3:1, which gave good stability in the open sea. The caravels did not have a special place for artillery, so they were not used in military affairs. All weapons are several medium and small cannons in the aft superstructure and on the forecastle.

What speed did the caravels develop?

Caravels allowed a maximum speed of 12-14 knots (1 knot = 1 mph; 1 nautical mile ~ 1800 meters) or approximately 20 km/h in land measurement. Thus, with a favorable wind, a caravel could cover 200-300 km in a day.

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The distance from the Canary Islands to the Bahamas is just over six thousand kilometers. Traveled by Columbus in 36 days. Thus, on average, Columbus’s caravels covered a distance of ~180 km per day.

Seaworthiness of the caravel

Caravels had 2-3 (sometimes 4) masts, structures fore- And grotto- masts made it possible to change slanting lateen sails to straight lines and vice versa. ", BGCOLOR, "#ffffff", FONTCOLOR, "#333333", BORDERCOLOR, "Silver", WIDTH, "100%", FADEIN, 100, FADEOUT, 100)"> When steep close-hauled, (that is, almost a headwind) and while exploring the coast they maneuvered with lateen sails. With a tailwind on the open sea, straight sails gave greater acceleration. Caravels could come close to the shore, and at the same time feel confident in the open sea. Thanks to all these qualities, it was caravels that became the main ships of sea expeditions at the initial stage of the Age of Great Geographical Discovery. After all, it was on caravels that Bartolomeu Dias, Vasco da Gama, Christopher Columbus and Ferdinand Magellan made their famous breakthroughs into the unknown.

caravel

Caravels appeared in the 12th century and lasted until about the mid-16th century, when they were replaced by more advanced types of ships. And the caravel itself, after changing the equipment, replacing triangular sails with trapezoidal ones, and also changing the shape of the hull, was transformed into schooner.

It is known for certain that not a single drawing or drawing of at least one of the ships of Columbus’s first expedition has survived. And no one knows what “Nina”, “Pinta” and “Santa Maria” actually looked like. Researchers have tried to reconstruct their appearance and design from indirect evidence and verbal descriptions. Therefore, everything you read below is speculative descriptions of ships, autumn 1492.

"Santa Maria" - the flagship ship of the Columbus expedition

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The flagship ship of Christopher Columbus's flotilla. Strictly speaking, the Santa Maria was not a caravel. It was a three-masted karakka(or in Spanish style nao)- a type of cargo ship, approximately 22-25 meters long, 7-8 meters wide, with a displacement of about 120 tons. This single-deck ship could carry up to 40 crew and passengers. The sailing rig of the Santa Maria consisted of five straight sails and a slanting sail on a mizzen mast. The depth of the hold is about 3 meters. In the aft part there was a two-tier superstructure with cabins for management and storage rooms for everything necessary, on the forecastle there was a triangular platform and possibly another superstructure. The Santa Maria's armament consisted of several different-caliber cannons that fired stone cannonballs. ", BGCOLOR, "#ffffff", FONTCOLOR, "#333333", BORDERCOLOR, "Silver", WIDTH, "100%", FADEIN, 100, FADEOUT, 100)">
It is known that the Santa Maria crashed on Christmas Day 1492 off the coast of Haiti. The wreck of the ship was used to build a fortified settlement, founded in this place on January 6, 1493. Columbus named the settlement simply “La Navidad” - “Christmas”.

TO ", BGCOLOR, "#ffffff", FONTCOLOR, "#333333", BORDERCOLOR, "Silver", WIDTH, "100%", FADEIN, 100, FADEOUT, 100)"> As you already know, not a single authentic image of the ships of Columbus’s first expedition has survived. However, in 1892, in preparation for the celebration of the 400th anniversary of Columbus's voyage, a supposed replica of the Santa Maria was built. In the 20th century, a number of life-size models and floating replicas of the Santa Maria were made, some of them being of the “nao” type, and some made as caravels. Columbus himself in his journal spoke of the Santa Maria as both a carrack and a caravel. Obviously, there was no strict boundary between the carrack and the caravel.

What did the Pinta caravel look like?

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The least details are known about the Pinta, the second largest ship in the flotilla. Most likely, it was a typical caravel of medium size and parameters, with a displacement of 70-90 tons, could carry one straight sail on the foremast and main mast, and a slant on the mizzen.

What was it like?caravel "Nina"

The real name of this ship was "Santa Clara", and "Niña" was just a nickname for the caravel, either from the Spanish word for "baby" or from the name of the owner, Juan Niño. ", BGCOLOR, "#ffffff", FONTCOLOR, "#333333", BORDERCOLOR, "Silver", WIDTH, "100%", FADEIN, 100, FADEOUT, 100)"> About this caravel we have reached some descriptive information that is floating around on the Internet, and which should be treated like any unconfirmed information. So: according to some information, the length of the vessel is 17 meters, width - 5.5 meters, draft about 2 meters, displacement - 100 tons, crew 40 people; according to other sources, the Niña had a displacement of 40-60 tons, all 3 masts had oblique sails. During the expedition, Columbus made a stop in the Canary Islands to carry out repair work on the Pinta, and on the Niña at that time the oblique sails were replaced with the same straight ones as on the Pinta.

« Niña“- “Santa Clara” also took part in Columbus’s second expedition and then went there again, in 1499 to the island of Haiti on her own, as a private person. According to everyone, it is Columbus's favorite ship.

Marine terms used in the text:

Latin sail

The shape is a right triangle. ", BGCOLOR, "#ffffff", FONTCOLOR, "#333333", BORDERCOLOR, "Silver", WIDTH, "100%", FADEIN, 100, FADEOUT, 100)"> The luff (hypotenuse) is attached to an inclined yard, the front or lower end of which reaches the deck. In the Middle Ages, the lateen sail became widespread due to the ability of a ship with such a sail to sail very steeply to the wind. Moreover, the driving force in this case was not the wind itself, but wing lift, like an airplane, only the wing, that is, the sail, was located not horizontally, but vertically.

Karakka = nao- just a large sailing ship, larger than a caravel. The front sails are straight, the rear sails are oblique.

Foremast- the first mast from the bow of the ship.

Mainmast- the second mast from the bow of the ship.

Mizzen mast– rear mast on 3-4 mast ships with an oblique sail for maneuvers.

Displacement – the amount of water displaced by a floating vessel.

Tank- part of the upper deck from the bow to the first mast.

Beidewind– a course at which the angle between the direction of the wind and the direction of movement of the vessel is less than 90°. The thrust of a sail when close-hauled is entirely determined by the “lifting force”.

Shkatorina– any edge of the sail.

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Schooner Schooner - a type of sailing ship that has at least two masts and slanting sails on all masts. Has many varieties. It was the main ship of pirates of the Caribbean and the American coast in the 16th and 17th centuries.

Travelers of the Age of Great Geographical Discovery

Russian travelers and pioneers