A carrack was a three- or four-masted sailing ship developed in the 15th
century by the Genoese for use in commerce. They were widely used by
Europe's 15th-century maritime powers, from the Mediterranean to northwest
Europe, although each region had models of slightly different design. The
Portuguese and the Spanish used them for oceanic travel and to explore the world.
With linguistic variation, these ships were called: caracca or nao in the
Genoese dialect and in Castillian Spanish; nau in Portuguese; caraque or
nef in French. The name ‘carrack’ probably derives from the Arab Harraqa,
a type of ship that first appeared along the shores of the Tigris and Euphrates
rivers roughly during the 9th century. Carracks were ocean-going ships: large
enough to be stable in heavy seas, and roomy enough to carry provisions for
long voyages. They were usually square-rigged on the foremast and
mainmast and lateen-rigged on the mizzenmast. They had a high rounded
stern with large aftcastle, forecastle and bowsprit at the stem. As the
forerunner of the great ships of the age of sail, the carrack was one of the most
influential ship designs in history; while ships became more specialized, the
basic design remained unchanged throughout this time period.
Origins By the Late Middle Ages the cog, and
cog-like square-rigged vessels, were widely used along the coasts of Europe,
in the Baltic, and also in the Mediterranean. Given the conditions of
the Mediterranean, but not exclusively restricted to it, galley type vessels
were extensively used there, as were various two masted vessels, including
the caravels with their lateen sails. These and similar ship types were
familiar to Portuguese navigators and shipwrights. As the Portuguese gradually
extended their explorations and trade ever further south along Africa's
Atlantic coast during the 15th century they needed a larger and more advanced
ship for their long oceanic adventures. Gradually, they developed their own
models of oceanic carracks, generalizing their use in the end of the century for
inter-oceanic travel. In addition to the average tonnage naus, were also built
some large naus in the reign of John II, but being only widespread after the turn
of the century. The Portuguese carracks were usually very large ships for their
time, and having the future large naus of the India run and of the China and
Japan trade, also other new types of design.
The origin of the word carrack is usually traced back through the medieval
European languages to the Arabic, and from thence to the Greek κέρκουρος
meaning approximately "lighter". Its attestation in Greek literature is
distributed in two closely related lobes. The first distribution lobe, or
area, associates it with certain light and fast merchantmen found near Cyprus
and Corfu. The second is an extensive attestation in the Oxyrhynchus corpus,
where it seems most frequently to describe the Nile barges of the
Ptolemaic pharaohs. Both of these usages may lead back through the Phoenician to
the Akkadian kalakku, which denotes a type of river barge. The Akkadian term
is assumed to be derived from a Sumerian antecedent. Sumerian antecedent A modern
reflex of the word is found in Arabic and Turkish kelek "raft; riverboat".
from a fusion and modification of aspects of the ship types they knew
operating in both the Atlantic and Mediterranean and a new, more advanced
form of sail rigging that allowed much improved sailing characteristics in the
heavy winds and waves of the Atlantic ocean.
A typical three-masted carrack such as the São Gabriel had six sails: bowsprit,
foresail, mizzen, spritsail, and two topsails.
Carracks in Asia From around 1515, Portugal had trade
exchanges with Goa in Portuguese India, consisting of 3 to 4 carracks leaving
Lisbon with silver to purchase cotton and spices in India. Out of these, only
one carrack went on to Ming China in order to purchase silk, also in exchange
for Portuguese silver. From the time of the acquisition of
Macau in 1557, and their formal recognition as trade partners by the
Chinese, the Portuguese Crown started to regulate trade to Japan, by selling to
the highest bidder the annual "Captaincy" to Japan, in effect
conferring exclusive trading rights for a single carrack bound for Japan every
year. That trade continued with few interruptions until 1638, when it was
prohibited on the grounds that the ships were smuggling priests into Japan.
In the middle of the 16th century the first galleons were developed from the
carrack. The galleon design came to replace that of the carrack although
carracks were still in use as late as the early 17th century.
Famous carracks Santa María, in which Christopher
Columbus made his first voyage to America in 1492.
São Gabriel, flagship of Vasco da Gama, in the 1497 Portuguese expedition from
Europe to India by circumnavigating Africa.
Flor do Mar or Frol de la Mar, as it was called, served over nine years in the
Indian Ocean, sinking in 1512 with Afonso de Albuquerque after the conquest
of Malacca with a huge booty, making it one of the mythical lost treasures.
Victoria, the first ship in history to circumnavigate the globe, and the only
survivor of the Spanish expedition. La Dauphine, Verrazzano's ship to
explore the Atlantic coast of North America in 1524.
Grande Hermine, in which Jacques Cartier first navigated the Saint Lawrence River
in 1535. The first European ship to sail on this river past the Gulf.
Santo António, or St. Anthony, the personal property of King John III of
Portugal, wrecked off Gunwalloe Bay in 1527, the salvage of whose cargo almost
led to a war between England and Portugal.
Great Michael, a Scottish ship, at one time the largest in Europe.
Mary Rose, Henri Grâce à Dieu and Peter Pomegranate, built during the reign of
Henry VIII — English military carracks like these were often called great
ships. Grace Dieu, commissioned by Henry V. One
of the largest ships in the world at the time, she was one of the very first
ships to be armed with cannons. Santa Catarina do Monte Sinai, a war
ship built in India by the Portuguese Santa Anna, a particularly modern design
commissioned by the Knights Hospitaller in 1522 and sometimes hailed as the
first armoured ship. Madre de Deus, which was seized by the
Royal Navy off Flores Island. Built in Lisbon during 1589, she was the world`s
largest ship. She was stolen by the English in 1592 with an enormously
valuable cargo from the East Indies that is still considered as the
second-largest treasure ever found. She was supposedly renamed and used as an
English ship from thence onward. Santa Catarina, Portuguese carrack which
was seized by the Dutch East India Company off Singapore in 1603.
Nossa Senhora da Graça, Portuguese carrack sunk in a Japanese attack near
Nagasaki in 1610 Peter von Danzig, ship of the Hanseatic
League in 1460s-1470s. See also
Medieval ships Portuguese India Armadas
References ^ Konstam, A.. The History of
Shipwrecks. New York: Lyons Press. pp. 77–79. ISBN 1-58574-620-7.
^ Gong, Y. "kalakku: Überlegungen zur Mannigfaltigkeit der Darstellungsweisen
desselben Begriffs in der Keilschrift anhand des Beispiels kalakku". Journal
of Ancient Civilizations 5: 9–24. ISSN 1004-9371.
Further reading Kirsch, Peter. The Galleon. Conway
Maritime Press. ISBN 0-85177-546-2. Nair, V. Sankaran. Kerala Coast: A Byway
in History.. Trivandrum: Folio. ISBN 978-81-906028-1-5.
External links The Development of the Square-Rigged
Ship: from the carrack to the full-rigger
Computer modeling of a Portuguese carrack