The Introduction of the Galleass into the Venetian Fleet:

The Galleass, also called galeazze, was a naval ship first used in 1571 against the Ottoman Empire in the Battle of Lepatano.  The Galleass’s shape and design comes from earlier Venetian ships called galea grossa. The galea grossa, which in English means great galley, according to an academic paper from High Point University written by Andrew Tzavaras, is better than  the smaller, commonplace galley because the "standard galleys lacked cargo holds, devoting most of their decks to the oarsmen, great galleys offered a balance between speed, space, and security.”  The Galleass is similar to the galea grossa except that the Galleass is much larger and takes advantage of gunpowder.  The Galleass became one of the very first naval ships to implement cannons and explosives. As a result, the Galleass was very dominant in the Mediterranean and was successful at keeping the Ottoman Empire at bay with its impressive bombardment during the late 1500s. After defeating the Ottomans at battle, fame of the galleass spread throughout Europe. Lastly, The Galleass served as the basis for later ship models such as the frigate.  Source: Tzavarus, A. (n.d.). The Galleasses at Lepanto as a Reflection of the Sixteenth-Century Venetian Strategic Outlook [Scholarly project]. Retrieved from gjh.ojs.chass.ncsu.edu/index.php/Graduate/article/download/13/pdf_7 This picture is public domain because the picture is from A History of Naval Architecture which was published in 1851.

Associated Place(s)

Event date:

1571