Do you know what caravels are?

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

The ship of the caravel: history of origin and etymology

There are many options that explain the origin of this word. According to one of them, the name of these sailboats has Portuguese roots and comes from a diminutive version of the word caravo (sailing vessel). But the Italians believe that the ship of the caravel is so named because of its beauty and elegance, and its name comes from the fusion of two Italian words - cara (darling) and bella (babe). And there is a version about the Greek origin, according to which it comes from the word χαραβος (xerabos). From it arose the Latin carabus (wicker boat), well, the Russian word "ship". Of course, the Italian version - the most beautiful and pretty close in meaning, because the caravel - it's actually a very beautiful ship. Nevertheless, historians tend 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 maritime powers and the main geographical discoveries belonged to them, they naturally possessed the most powerful and developed flotillas. The bulk of the total number of ships of the Spanish flotilla before the 15th century were ships that were called "caravel" (see photo in the article). Therefore, we associate all the great discoveries of seafarers with them, although other sea sailfishes - caraca - were much more often involved in the distant travels of Christopher Columbus, Vasco da Gama, Magellan, etc. Admit that you hardly heard anything about caracles, whereas caravels always Were on hearing, and all thanks to their poetic name. Caravel! Beauty, do not say anything. They were two or three-mast vessels with a straight or oblique (Latin) sailing weapon. For those who want to know more in detail what caravels are, we can add that they had a special type of shell skin. So, if on other ships the so-called "overlapping" method was adopted, then these boards had to fit tightly to each other during the siding. In addition, the 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 elevated stern, thanks to which it was possible to swim with a tailwind. In the caravels, as a rule, there were 3 masts, and triangular sails were attached to inclined lines.

Among the flotilla of Christopher Columbus, such ships were "Ninja" and "Pinta", but the majestic "Santa Maria" belonged to a new generation of sailboats - caraca. In short, the caravel is a sailing vessel, which, thanks to its maneuverability, along with more sophisticated caracas, managed to swim to the shores of Novaya Zemlya. These ships, as a rule, were poorly armed. The small size of the decks did not allow artillery guns to be placed on them. Therefore, the only defense for them served as large muskets, which were located at the stern.

Perfection of caravels

Over time, the caravels began to improve. They have straight lines instead of skewed sails, and thanks to them the vessels became easier to manage when the wind was blowing. Columbus "Pinta" belonged to a new generation of caravels, and it had direct non-Latin sails, while in "Ninja" they were triangular, like the classic models that originally served as fishing targets.

Columbus before the crossing of the Atlantic from the Azores decided to replace the oblique sails on the "Ninja" straight. And I was not mistaken. If it were not for this, the caravel might not be able to get to the shores of America. So gradually came out of the consumption of sails of the Latin type. And if after that someone was asked what caravels are, then no one would have answered that they were vessels with oblique sailing gear.

Conclusion

There are many descriptions of these vessels in the sources, but there are almost no illustrations on which one can imagine what the caravels really were. Most of the paintings were made much later, when these sailboats had long since disappeared. Nevertheless, before us came the image of the caravel, performed in Lisbon in 1520. Thanks to him, our idea of this ship becomes more complete. In the picture is a two-masted caravel (pictured right) with an oblique sail. It is depicted on the retablo in the St. Petersburg's Tswervi. This is the importance of these ships in Portugal in the era of great geographical discoveries.