how did captains plot their course on galleons

How did early explorers navigate their ships?

The earliest navigation methods involved observing landmarks or watching the direction of the sun and stars. Few ancient sailors ventured out into the open sea. Instead, they sailed within sight of land in order to navigate. When that was impossible, ancient sailors watched constellations to mark their position.

How did early navigators determine their longitude?

With the lunar distance method, mariners could determine their longitude accurately. Once chronometer production was established in the late 18th century, the use of the chronometer for accurate determination of longitude was a viable alternative. Chronometers replaced lunars in wide usage by the late 19th century.

How did ships navigate in the 1500s?

A typical sixteenth-century compass consisted of a large magnetized needle fastened to the underside of a circular card on which the several directions were drawn. The compass rose, as it was sometimes called, usually had thirty-two points 11.25 degrees apart - north, north by east, north by northeast, and so on.

How did they navigate ships?

When the sun set at night, sailors used the stars to navigate. Stars move across the sky from east to west, and some stars, called rise and set stars, begin and end their nightly path below the horizon. Sailors determined their heading by watching the movement of the stars the same way they watched the sun's movement.

How did pirates navigate 400 years ago?

Pirates would work out their longitude by seeing which direction was north and then guessing how far they had travelled east or west. Pirates made compasses at sea by stroking a needle against a naturally magnetic rock called a lodestone. Having a compass helped, but the most useful of all was a sea chart.

How do sailors know where they are at sea?

1:436:19How did early Sailors navigate the Oceans? - YouTubeYouTubeStart of suggested clipEnd of suggested clipFortunately there is one star in the night sky that does not appear to move it's called polaris theMoreFortunately there is one star in the night sky that does not appear to move it's called polaris the north star the easiest method for finding the north star is by finding the plow. An easy to identify

What is bigger than a galleon?

The Frigate is a large warship which, unlike the larger Galleons, is built for speed and maneuverability.

How far can a galleon travel in a day?

With an average distance of approximately 3,000 miles, this equates to a range of about 100 to 140 miles per day, or an average speed over the ground of about 4 to 6 knots.

Why did sailors have to scrub the deck?

They did not have cleaning supplies and were not allowed on the top deck very often where crews were working, Duffus said. Sailors swabbed the deck — and not just to keep it clean. The saltwater helped keep down mildew on the wooden boards and kept them swollen to reduce leaks.

How did ships sail at night?

At night, seamen sleep in hammocks slung between beams or at least, half of them do. The crew is divided into two “watches” (teams). One watch sails the ship from 8pm to midnight, then sleeps for four hours while the other watch works. Tomorrow, the two watches swap over their duties.

How did the sailors repair their ship when it was first attacked by winds?

Answer: Wooden sailing ships had carpenter walks around the hills where the carpenters could access shot holes under water. Supplied with cone shaped plugs of various sizes which could be hammered into shot holes, he and his mates would make quick repairs. Damaged stakes would then be reinforced with baulks of wood.

How did the Vikings navigate at sea?

They looked at the colour of the sea, the way the waves were moving and the way the wind was blowing. They looked out for birds and could smell if they were near land. It's very unlikely that they had a compass, although some Vikings may have used an instrument called a sun-shadow board to help them navigate.

How was longitude determined?

In principle, you could tell your longitude by observing the angle between the Moon and a particular star then consulting an almanac, which catalogued the time at Greenwich based on the position of a range of celestial objects. And then your longitude can be determined by comparing Greenwich time with your local time.

How did people calculate longitude?

The survey used a combination of triangulation and astronomical observations, with the satellites of Jupiter used to determine longitude. By 1684, sufficient data had been obtained to show that previous maps of France had a major longitude error, showing the Atlantic coast too far to the west.

How did they figure out latitude and longitude?

The Phoenicians in 600 B.C. used the heavens to calculate latitude — as did the Polynesians in A.D. 400. Through the centuries, devices such as the gnomon and Arabian kamal were designed to measure the height of the sun and stars, and thereby determine the latitude.

Who Discovered How do you measure longitude?

Hipparchus, a Greek astronomer (190–120 BC), was the first to specify location using latitude and longitude as co-ordinates. He proposed a zero meridian passing through Rhodes.

What inspired the galleon?

In essence, it can be surmised that the galleon design was inspired by the combination of both the maneuverability of caravels and the hefty nature of carracks, bolstered by the millennia-old tradition of shipbuilding along the Mediterranean coast.

What was the Galleon?

1) The Development of the Galleon –. A Portuguese Caravel. Source: Nautarch. According to historian Angus Konstam, the early 16th century was a period of innovation for ship designs, with the adoption of better sailing rigs and onboard artillery systems.

How many guns did the Spanish galleon carry?

For example, in the Spanish Armada, the 700-850 toneladas galleons carried around 30-40 guns (divided between canones, culebrinas, and other smaller guns), while the largest 1,000- toneladas ones carried 50 guns. Similarly, the smaller 500- toneladas varieties carried 24 guns, while the even tinier 300- toneladas galleons carried around 20 guns. In terms of placements, the largest guns were carried as stern chasers, while the others, divided between the two broadsides, were arranged along a long gundeck.

How many guns did the Toneladas carry?

Similarly, the smaller 500- toneladas varieties carried 24 guns, while the even tinier 300- toneladas galleons carried around 20 guns. In terms of placements, the largest guns were carried as stern chasers, while the others, divided between the two broadsides, were arranged along a long gundeck.

Why were the Royal Galleons smaller than the Spanish?

Essentially, this translated to a Spanish crown’s near monopoly on the transatlantic trade route that not only covered coins and ingots of silver and gold but also a wealth of other valuable items like emeralds and pearls. Consequently, many of these treasure-carrying Royal Galleons were designed to be smaller and less-armed than their continental cousins. The reduction in their war-capability possibly also reflects how the Spaniards faced little to no opposition on their maritime trade routes, especially during the period between the 1590s till 1620s.

How many tons of galleons were there in 1570?

Source: History.com. By the 1570s, the size of the Spanish galleon was increased even further to average capacities of around 500 tons . And by 1588 AD, when the Spanish Armada arguably was at its peak, the crown boasted three humongous 1,000-ton galleons accompanied by eight 800 ton galleons and eight 600 ton galleons.

Why did the Spanish use galleons as weapons?

To that end, the early galleons, while refined in their design, tended to serve as armed platforms that could provide supporting fire and resultant smoke – the latter being used for the masked maneuvers while boarding enemy ships.

What was the Galleon at War?

The Galleon at War. For most of the 16 th century, the Spanish clung to an old-fashioned model of naval warfare in which most of the damage was done through boarding actions. Guns were used just for preliminary bombardments and few shots were fired compared with some other navies.

What was the importance of the Galleons following the Armada?

Following the Armada, more emphasis was put on gunnery. Galleons carried a fearsome weight of guns and could devastate enemy ships. But mismanagement led to repeated disasters against better-led fleets such as those of the Dutch.

Why were Spanish galleons important?

Emerging in the mid-16 th century, the Spanish galleon quickly became hugely important both to naval warfare and to securing civilian trade from the Americas.

Where is the Spanish Galleon shipwreck?

19th-century engraving depicts a Spanish Galleon shipwreck at Port-Na Spaniagh, 1588. Lacada Point and the Spanish Rocks are in the background.

What was the Spanish galleon?

The Spanish galleon was a deadly weapon that helped ensure Spain’s place as a leading world power. But any weapon was only as effective as the men wielding it, and the rise of British and Dutch naval power was made possible by Spanish commanders who failed to capitalize on the galleon’s potential.

When was the first galleon built?

The first galleon can arguably be dated to as early as 1517, but it was in the 1530s that the design and its name became common. With a mix of sails, high aftcastle, low forecastle, and ports in its sides from which cannons could fire, it could handle trans-Atlantic voyages as well as fierce sea battles. It, therefore, filled a vital role ...

How were royal sailors paid?

They were paid in installments at specific stages of the work, before handing the ships over to the crown once completed. Royal officials would then arrange for the ships to be outfitted and decorated as ready to sail.

Who taught the Ionian sailors to navigate the Little Bear constellation?

The philosopher Thales of Miletos, as the Alexandrian poet Kallimachos recorded, taught Ionian sailors to navigate by the Little Bear constellation fully 600 years before the birth of Christ: Now to Miletos he steered his course. That was the teaching of old Thales.

How did the first seafarers navigate?

The first seafarers kept in sight of land. That was the first trick of navigation—follow the coast. To find an old fishing ground or the way through a shoal, one could line up landmarks, such as a near rock against a distant point on land; doing that in two directions at once gave a more or less precise geometric location on the surface of the sea. Sounding using a lead and line also helped. "When you get 11 fathoms and ooze on the lead, you are a day's journey out from Alexandria," wrote Herodotus in the fourth century B.C. The Greeks even learned to navigate from one island to the next in their archipelago, a Greek word meaning "preëminent sea." They may have followed clouds, which form over land, or odors, which can carry far out to sea.

What did the Polynesians study?

Like Eskimos study the snow, the Polynesians watched the waves, whose direction and type relinquished useful navigational secrets. They followed the faint gleam cast on the horizon by tiny islets still out of sight below the rim of the world. Seafarers of the Marshall Islands built elaborate maps out of palm twigs and cowrie shells. These ingenious charts, which exist today only in museums, denoted everything from the position of islands to the prevailing direction of the swell.

How did charts help sailors?

Charts have aided mariners ever since the Alexandrian astronomer Ptolemy created the first world atlas in the second century A.D. The redoubtable Ptolemy even plotted latitude and longitude lines on his atlas's 27 maps, though the farther one got from the known world centered on the Mediterranean, the dangerously less reliable they became. Even before Ptolemy, there were sailing directions—the Greeks called them periplus or "circumnavigation"—that were compiled from information collected from sailors far and wide. One of these, The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, a document written in the first century by a Greek merchant living in Alexandria, described trading routes as far east as India. By the 10th century, Italian-made portolans supplied detailed directions, distances, depths, and coastal descriptions, and by the 13th century, sea maps with scale and bearings began to appear.

What challenges did the open sea face?

Among the many challenges, as implied in this classic line by Horace, that faced those who ventured onto the open sea was navigation . In the millennia before the 18th-century English clockmaker John Harrison invented a chronometer that enabled sailors to accurately determine their longitude—the last major hurdle in accurate location-finding at sea—how could mariners possibly know where they were, or where they were going, in the vast emptiness? Well, find their way they did, using a host of ingenious methods.

How did the Norsemen navigate?

The Norsemen had to have other navigational means at their disposal, for in summer the stars effectively do not appear for months on end in the high latitudes. One method they relied on was watching the behavior of birds. A sailor wondering which way land lay could do worse than spying an auk flying past. If the beak of this seabird is full, sea dogs know, it's heading towards its rookery; if empty, it's heading out to sea to fill that beak. One of the first Norwegian sailors to hazard the voyage to Iceland was a man known as Raven-Floki for his habit of keeping ravens aboard his vessel. When he thought he was nearing land, Raven-Floki released the ravens, which he had deliberately starved. Often as not, they flew "as the crow flies" directly toward land, which Raven-Floki would reach simply by following their lead.

What did the Greeks learn?

The Greeks even learned to navigate from one island to the next in their archipelago, a Greek word meaning "preëminent sea.". They may have followed clouds, which form over land, or odors, which can carry far out to sea.

Where is the Captain's collection of pearls?

They are housed in the main lounge of the Nautilus along with Nemo's collection of pearls, corals, seashells, and other marine items, all gathered with his own hands.

Who is the narrator of Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas?

Nemo's characteristics are largely presented through the observations of Professor Pierre Aronnax, narrator of Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas. At their first meeting, the professor remarks: "Whether this individual was thirty-five or fifty years of age, I couldn't tell." He goes on to describe Nemo as a tall, self-contained man with a straight nose, broad brow, and wide-set eyes—"certainly the most wonderful physical specimen I'd ever met up with." In The Mysterious Island, the captain is in his late sixties and sports a long white beard.

Where did Captain Nemo come from?

Origin. Bundelkund, India. Captain Nemo ( / ˈniːmoʊ /, later identified as an East Indian, Prince Dakkar) is a fictional character created by the French novelist Jules Verne (1828–1905). Nemo appears in two of Verne's science-fiction classics, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas (1870) and The Mysterious Island (1875).

Who conducts the underwater funeral?

Captain Nemo and the crew of the Nautilus conduct an underwater funeral.

The Evolution of The Galleon

Shipbuilding

Armaments

Operation

Life Onboard A Galleon

• Galleons were crowded full of soldiers, sailors, gunners, officers, and other crew and passengers. Space was at a premium. Most of those onboard slept crammed in together either below or on deck. The most senior officers got private cabins, while others of rank gained some privacy by setting up curtains or wooden screens. The crew worked in three w...

See more on warhistoryonline.com

The Galleon at War