Remember which ships Columbus sailed to faraway India? For the first time, having heard the name of these sailing ships, you involuntarily exclaim: “How romantic! What are caravels? ” In fact, the name of these medieval ships has a very melodic sound, and in appearance they are very beautiful. Their wooden hulls were often decorated with rich carvings, and sails fluttering in the wind made them look like winged boats.
Caravel ship: history of origin and etymology
There are many options that explain the origin of the word. According to one of them, the name of these sailboats has Portuguese roots and comes from a diminutive of the word caravo (sailing ship). But the Italians believe that the caravel ship is named so because of its beauty and elegance, and its name comes from the merger of two Italian words - cara (sweet) and bella (beauty). And there is also a version of Greek origin, according to which it comes from the word χαραβος (ksarabos). From it came the Latin carabus (wicker boat), well, the Russian word "ship". Of course, the Italian version is the most beautiful and quite close in meaning, because the caravel is actually a very beautiful ship. Nevertheless, historians are inclined to believe that the word has precisely Greek roots.
What are caravels?
These ships were common in Western Europe in the 13-16th centuries. Since in those years, Spain and Portugal were considered the largest sea powers and the main geographical discoveries belonged to them, they naturally possessed the most powerful and developed fleets. The bulk of the total number of ships of the Spanish flotilla until the 15th century was made up of ships called “caravels” (see photo in the article). Therefore, we associate all the great discoveries of seafarers with them, although other sea sailing ships - karakki - were much more likely to take part in the distant voyages of Christopher Columbus, Vasco da Gama, Magellan, etc. were well-known, and all thanks to their poetic name. Caravel! Beauty, you will not say anything. They were two- or three-masted ships with direct or oblique (Latin) sailing weapons. For those who want to know in more detail what caravels are, we can add that they had a special type of casing. So, if the so-called “overlap” method was adopted on other vessels, then these sailboats laid the boards tightly to each other during lining. 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 raised stern, thanks to which it was possible to sail with a fair breeze. On the caravels, as a rule, there were 3 masts, and triangular sails were attached to inclined shafts.
Among the flotilla of Christopher Columbus, such ships were Nina and Pinta, but the magnificent Santa Maria belonged to the new generation of sailing ships - karakk. In a word, a caravel is a sailing ship, which, thanks to its maneuverability, along with more advanced karakas, managed to sail to the shores of Novaya Zemlya. These ships, as a rule, were weakly armed. The small size of the decks did not allow placing artillery guns on them. Therefore, the only protection for them was the large muskets, which were located at the stern.
Perfection of caravels
Over time, the caravels began to improve. Instead of slanting sails, they appeared straight, and thanks to them it became easier to operate vessels in fair winds. Columbus' Pinta "belonged to a new generation of caravels, and it had direct non-Latin sails, while the" Ninya "they were triangular, like the classic models that originally served for fishing purposes.
Columbus, before crossing the Atlantic at the Azores, decided to replace the slanting sails on the Ninh with straight ones. And I was not mistaken. After all, if not for this, then the caravel might not have been able to get to the shores of America. So gradually sails of the Latin type came out of consumption. And if after that someone was asked what caravels are, then no one would have answered that these are ships with oblique sailing equipment.
Conclusion
In the sources there are many descriptions of these ships, but there are almost no illustrations by which one can imagine what the caravels really were. Most of the paintings were made much later, when these sailboats were long out of use. Nevertheless, the image of a caravel, made in Lisbon in 1520, reached us. Thanks to him, our idea of this vessel becomes more complete. In the picture, a two-masted caravel (photo on the right) with a slanting sail. She is depicted on a retablo in the church of St. Avta. These ships were of great importance in Portugal during the era of great geographical discoveries.