• Book Beginning
  • Acknowledgments
  • Sources & Bibliography
  • Mary Ames Mitchell

The Carrack

By the late-1400s, Portuguese and Spanish shipbuilders were developing the next generation of sailing vessels known as carracks. There are as many definitions of a carrack as there are books about early shipping.

The Portuguese carrack was often referred to as a “round boat” and sometimes as a “supply ship.” In general, the design of a Portuguese carrack combined the old round-bottomed naos with the more advanced rigging of a caravel. Caravels were fast and agile and could handle the coast of Africa. But as the Portuguese and Spanish ventured farther out into the open ocean, and when they were away from civilization longer, they needed larger, sturdier ships. The carrack could hold more men and supplies than a caravel, could stay at sea for longer periods, and bring back more treasure.

Carracks sported three, sometimes four masts and a combination of square and lateen sails. They also had taller and larger forecastles and sterncastles than caravels. A long pointed pole called a bowsprit extended from – you guessed it – the bow, a strategic weapon of war when one ship wanted to ram another ship. Actually, the bowsprit was not meant to serve as a ramming rod but rather as an anchor point for the forestay, the part of the rigging that kept the mast from falling backward.

Here is a partial list of some of the carracks we are going to hear about:

  • In 1488 Bartolomeu Dias sailed in a carrack named the São Cristóvão when he rounded the Cape of Good Hope. She was piloted by Pêro de Alenquer.
  • Vasco da Gama sailed in a carrack from Lisbon to India in 1497 and 1498 – a round trip of over 27,000 miles. Her name was the São Gabriel [Saint Gabriel].
  • In 1497, John Cabot sailed in a carrack named the Matthew to Newfoundland.
  • In 1492, Christopher Columbus crossed the Ocean Sea in a carrack named the Santa Maria. The Pinta was also a carrack. The Nina was a caravel.

Christopher Columbus introduced the hammock, which he learned about from the American Indians. Until then, crew members slept on the wood decks. Hammocks were often hung four layers deep from the deckhead or the side of the ship.

A model of Vasco da Gama’s flagship São Gabriel [Saint Gabriel] is on display at the Dighton Rock Park Museum near Fall River, Massachusetts. The model was a gift to the museum from Portuguese Prime Minister, Admiral Pinheiro de Azevedo. [Please excuse the not-so-clear photograph of her.]

The placard next to the model states that Lisbon’s Maritime Museum workshop built this model in 1977 on a scale of 1:30. The actual São Gabriel was 85 feet long and carried 50 tons of cargo. Note the Order of Christ symbol on the sails. The placard by the model notes that the cross was unique because it was the “only one with extremities terminating in a 45-degree angle.”

Vasco da Gama belonged to the Order of São Tiago. He may not have displayed the cross from the Order of Christ on his first voyage to India. He joined the Order of Christ later in life.

Next article: Diogo Cão Reaches the Congo River

Contents

Welcome
Notes on Discussing Time
Knowledge Ancient World
Technology Migrates West
The Romans and Latin
Iberia, Brittania, Fall of Rome
Judaism
Christianity
600s The Rise of Islam
800s Christian Europe
County of Portugal

980s The Vikings
1000s Fight for Jerusalem
1143 Portugal’s Independence
1147 Second Crusade
1154 Al-Idrisi’s World Map
1170 Prince Madog of Wales
1187 Third to Fifth Crusades
1200s Mongolian Empire
The Silk Road
Herbs and Spices
Legend of Prester John
1271 Marco Polo
Volta do Mar
Mythical Atlantic Islands
Real Atlantic Islands
Ancient Texts Resurface
Through the Pillars of Hercules
Rise of Portuguese
The Order of Christ
Pedro and Inês
Black Death
1303 Knights Templar in America
14th Century Maps
Rihlas & Travelogues

Portugal, Castile, or England
The House of Avis
1400s Henry the Navigator
Age of Discovery Begins
Henry’s Navigation Center
Chinese Treasure Fleets
Royal Distractions
Cape Bojador
The Caravel
Tools for Navigation
The Astrolabe
1440s Beginning of Slave Trade
Western Land Sightings
1450 Fra Mauro Mappa Mundi
Claiming the Azores
Constantinople
Dinheiro – Portuguese Money
The Guinea Trade
Crossing the Equator
Polo & Toscanelli
Treaty of Alcáçovas-Toledo
The Carrack
Diogo Cão Reaches the Congo
The Rule of the Sun
Overland to Abyssinia
Christopher Columbus
Columbus’ Calculations
1480 Alonso Sanchez of Huelva

c1485 Columbus Leaves Portugal
1486 Pushing West from Azores
1487-88 Bartolomeu Dias
Portuguese Reach Calicut
1487 Columbus in Spain
Conquest of Granada
Columbus’ New Proposal
1492 Columbus’ 1st Voyage
Treaty of Tordesillas
1493 Columbus’ 2nd Voyage
Calculating Longitude
1495 King Manoel I
John Cabot
Nuremberg Connection
Cabot in England
1497-98
Cabot’s 1st & 2nd Voyages

1497-98 Vasco da Gama
Cabot’s Return
1498 Cabot’s 3rd Voyage
1498 Columbus’ 3rd Voyage
1499 William Weston
1499 The Corte-Reals
1500 Fernão Alvares Cabral
1502 Columbus’ 4th Voyage
Maps After Columbus
Loose Ends
Mysterious Dighton Rock

We invite your feedback. If you have any comments, suggestions, or corrections, please email them to Mary.
Please tell me to which page you are referring. Thanks.

©2015 Mary Ames Mitchell. All rights reserved.
Book Beginning | Acknowledgments | Sources & Bibliography | Mary Ames Mitchell

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