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A galleass (Italian galeazza, Spanish galeaza) was a warship of the Renaissance that combined the sails and armament of a galleon or carrack with the propulsion and maneuverability of the oared galley.^[1][2] While never quite matching up to the full expectations for its design, the galleass was widely employed by the navies of the Republic of Venice and the Spanish Empire during the 16th and 17th centuries.^[3]

Distinct types of galleasses were developed concurrently under vastly different needs. Mediterranean galleasses were invented by Venice during the Ottoman–Venetian wars with the aim to overpower galley fleets, a model also adopted by Spain and other nations after their notable role in the Battle of Lepanto. In comparison, Atlantic galleasses were designed by Spain to outmaneuver sailing ships and protect their treasure fleets, eventually evolving into oarless galleons and frigates.

Mediterranean galleasses were higher, larger and wider than regular galleys. They also differed in not having as high a length to beam ratio as the galleys, being limited to 1:5 compared to their 1:7. They had up to 32 oars, each worked by up to five men. They usually had three masts, and unlike galleys, proper forecastles and an aftcastles.^[4] Although fundamentally slower than regular galleys, much effort was made in Venice to make galleasses as fast as possible to compete with them. The gun deck usually ran over the rowers’ heads, but there are also pictures showing the opposite arrangement.

Galleasses usually carried more sails than galleys and had far more firepower.^[5] Compared to galleys, which only fielded a handful of guns on their prows and none on their broadsides, a galleass’ artillery could carry 30-50 pieces of different sizes. Galleasses were also way more stable in rough seas due to their larger dimensions and higher freeboard. However, their reduced speed and maneuverability meant they had to be supported by lighter galleys, which would tow them to assist their movement.^[4]

Atlantic galleasses (galeaza atlántica or cantábrica) were developed in parallel by Spain. They were crosses between galleys and galleons meant to be used in Atlantic Ocean, where they could hunt down sailing ships.^[6] Unlike Mediterranean models, Atlantic galleasses were designed primarily to move by sail, and would only deploy their rows to strategically turn or sprint. This allowed them a better maneuverability than purely sailing ships, while the increased size also allowed for superior firepower compared to Mediterranean galleasses.^[7] A similar but smaller model was the galizabra, which combined traits of both a galley and a zabra.^[8]

Some authors identify as galleasses the great galleys used by Venice during the Second Ottoman–Venetian War, forming part of their fleet in the Battle of Zonchio in 1499.^[9][10] These ships were described to be so advanced that the Ottomans could not replicate them yet, not even after capturing two in the Battle of Modon and towing one to Constantinople.^[11] Otherwise, the Mediterranean galleass is considered to have been probably conceived during the naval reforms of Cristoforo Canal, after the end of the Third Ottoman-Venetian War in 1540.^[12]

Also in the 1540s, Álvaro de Bazán the Elder built a private fleet in Biscay, including Atlantic galleasses like the 800-ton Santa María and the 1200-ton Santa María Magdalena, carrying 100 guns each. They were employed with great success in counter-privateering.^[7][13] Bazán also proposed to replace the sailing ships in the Spanish treasure fleets with galleasses of 200-400 tons, which would again employ sails normally and switch to rows when necessary. The project was rejected by a mix of political and logistic problems, so he repurposed the ships to escort the existent fleets, similarly gaining renown for their performance and reliability.^[14]

The first Venetian galleasses seem to have been built around 1550, reforming existent models of great galleys (galea grossa) used to carry heavy loads for trade (da mercato).^[4] They were built secretly in the Arsenal, but were never used for war due to the great fire at the Arsenal in 1569, which destroyed them before they could be launched.^[15]

Atlantic galleasses were also used in conjunction with carracks by Álvaro de Bazán the Younger to fight off pirates and privateers in the Atlantic, since these usually employed carracks and other sailing ships themselves, which could be rendered easy prey for galleasses in conditions of little to no wind.^[2] However, with the end of the Italian Wars in 1559, Bazán was eventually required to redirect his efforts to the Mediterranean, where Ottomans and Barbary corsairs mainly used quicker galleys and galiots, leading him to replace his fleet by a similar squad of galleys.^[2]

In 1561, Pedro Menéndez de Avilés designed and built 230-ton Atlantic galleasses inspired by Bazán the Elder, which received the name of galeones agalerados (“galleyed galleons”). He formed a fleet of twelve, nicknamed the “Twelve Apostles“, to protect the Spanish treasure fleets from French and English pirates and privateers, for which they exceeded expectations. However, their rows were eventually discarded as impractical when it was found out the ships would take water through the row-ports while rowing into the wind. Their cargo hold was also improved with an additional bridge. As a result, their model evolved into the galeoncete, a fast, lighter galleon.^[16]

Venice built a fleet of galleases again in 1564 by the hand of shipbuilder Francesco Bressan, using the hull of great galleasses which were added forecastles and aftcastles with heavier artillery. Their works were accelerated in 1567 with the worsening risk of an open war against the Ottoman Empire. The Grand Duchy of Tuscany also built two galleasses in preparation, although they were not fielded.^[4]

By 1571, Venice had twelve operational galleass, six of which were integrated in the fleet of the Holy League, under the command of Francesco Duodo. They would have their first in the Battle of Lepanto in 1971, where the Holy League’s fleet under John of Austria would face the Ottoman armada of Müezzinzade Ali Pasha.^[4]

Their performance in Lepanto was mixed but still impressive. Due to contrary winds, the galleasses struggled to move towards their place in the vanguard, requiring to be towed by galleys into position. However, once there, their mass and firepower stunned the Ottomans, breaking the force of their attack.^[17][18] The Turks did not try to engage them directly, but ordered to divide his line and sail around the galleases, opting to continue his advance and clash with the rest of the Christian fleet.^[19] The galleasses were left out of the battle, as the wind worsened their unmaneuverability and the chaos of the fight prevented them to fire from afar without hitting the Christian ships,^[19] but their contribution had already cemented the victory for the Holy League.^[20]

After the battle, John of Austria congratulated Duodo for his role in the battle. After Don John wrote to King Philip II praising the ships, the monarch immediately ordered to build their own Mediterranean galleasses in his Italian shipards, intending that the Holy League could hopefully gather up to twenty of them.^[4] Bazán the Younger organized their construction in Naples in 1572.^[21] Venice similarly considered their ships a success, although admiral Giacomo Foscarini cautioned against including them in all operations, believing they would only encumber the fleet against an enemy who could not be forced or goaded into a frontal battle.^[4]

In 1577, shipbuilder Cristóbal de Barros complemented Avilés’ fleet with bigger models and galleons, designed to serve as flagships.^[16] However, Atlantic galleasses were falling out of favor and gradually evolving into galleons altogether. While powerful and versátiles, vessels combining both sails and rows in the ocean were proving too complicated and expensive to build, especially compared to the new models of exclusively sailing ships. In 1580, Bazán the Younger and Barros accorded the new design of galleon, which would become predominant in the Spanish navy.^[16]

In an unusual reversal of this evolution, two Mediterranean galleasses built in Naples, the Capitana and the Patrona, were adaped to the Atlantic by fitting them with full rigging. They participated successfully in the conquest of the Azores in 1583 by Bazán the Younger, forming part of a division of twelve galleys, which possibly towed them if required. These galleys also towed the landing craft.^[4] Meanwhile, Alonso de Bazán built the first two galizabras in Lisboa the following year, the 200-ton Julia and Augusta. Upon discovering they were too large to move quickly by rowing, he focused on increasing their toughness instead and rebuilt them in the form galeoncetes with oars.^[22] In 1586, two other adapted galleasses, probably the Capitana and the Patrona again, were deployed again to escort the Spanish treasure fleet to Cartagena de Indias from possible attacks from English corsair Francis Drake.^[4]

Several of these models were all part of the Spanish Armada in 1588, which featured eight galleons built by Bazán and Barros, the two galeoncetes built by Alonso and four 500-ton galleasses from Naples: the San Lorenzo, the Napolitana, the Zúñiga and the Girona, commanded all by Hugo de Moncada.^[23] However, the galleasses were insufficiently supported. In his original plans for the Armada, Bazán had pushed to have as many as 40 galleys in the fleet, but upon being refused, he asked at least eight of them so they could support the galleasses in pairs, which was refused again; only four galleys, which were also found out to be structurally past their primes, accompanied the fleet eventually.^[4]

The four galleasses turned unsuitable as they were.^[23] With 50 guns, 300 soldiers and sailors, and 300 rowers, they were formidable ships, forming part of the front-line of fighting ships, but also too cumbersome and overcrewed, and their rudders proved defective.^[21][24] Without the required number and quality of galleys to support them, especially in the wild weather that befell the Armada, they could barely perform the duties they were best at, like capitalizing on any calm, rescuing Spanish stragglers or cut-off stray English ships.^[4][25] After the Battle of Gravelines, the San Lorenzo and Girona were wrecked, with only the other two making it back safely to Spain.^[26] The Julia and Augusta, in turn, proved seaworthy enough to survive the fiasco.^[23]

After the failure of the Spanish Armada, Philip II ordered to solve the design flaws on the galleasses, with Alonso de Bazán working on reinforcing the rudders in 1589. Two other Mediterranean galleasses built in Naples were added to the Atlantic armada in 1590.^[4] Also, after the victory over the English Armada the same year, ten more galizabras were built.^[27] In September, four galleasses and several galizabras were part of the fleet taken by Sancho Pardo Donlebún to carry the squad of Juan del Águila to Blavet. Although the galleasses helped conquering Blavet by bombarding the harbor from the sea, two of them wrecked in the way home, which definitely ended the service of galleasses adapted for the Atlantic.^[4] Conversely, galizabras had proved their usefulness repeatedly, so they continued being produced and successfully fielded for coastal defense and escort of fleets, taking part in the capture of Richard Hawkins in the Pacific in 1594.^[27]

Galizabras, increasingly known by the name of frigates, lasted in service until being phased out after the beginning of the 17th century.^[27] By contrast, the Mediterranean, with its less dangerous weather and more fickle winds, galleasses continued to be in use as auxiliaries to galleys for a long time.^[28] In 1615, Pedro Téllez-Girón, Duke of Osuna built four heavy galleasses in Sicily in preparation of an Ottoman attack.^[29] However, events like the Battle of Cape Gelidonya, where six privateer vessels also owned by Osuna defeated a much larger Ottoman galley fleet, proved the value of sailing ships in the Mediterranean and initiated the general decline of rowing ships of any kind.^[28] One year later, the Venetian armada deployed six galleasses against Osuna’s galleon fleet the Battle of Ragusa, with little success.^[30]

Despite these failures, the Venetian navy continued fielding galleasses, not only out of strategical custom, but also due to the political prestige achieved by those ships in Lepanto. They also improved their design so they could be significantly faster and nimbler. Around this time, the Ottoman Empire finally adopted galleases under the name mahona or mahons (from Arabic mahun, meaning boat).^[4][31] Galleasses therefore featured at both sides of the Ottoman-Venetian War of 1645–1669.^[32] By the Morean War, the increasingly reduced Venetian navy invested mainly in galleasses over lighter galleys.^[33] Charles Thomson wrote Venice was still using galleasses during his visit to the Venetian Arsenal in 1732, although noting they were the last western nation to do so.^[34]

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• Anderson, Roger Charles (1952). Naval wars in the Levant, 1559-1853. Princeton University Press.
• Cordero, Javier; Hernández, Ricardo (2011). Operación Gran Armada. Díaz de Santos. ISBN 9788499699653.
• Fernández Duro, Cesáreo (1895). Armada Española, desde la unión de los reinos de Castilla y Aragón, tomo I. Instituto de Historia Naval.
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