ves.

[Illustration: STAGES IN BUILDING A GALLEY.

(_Jurien de la Graviere._)]

[Illustration: PLAN AND SECTIONS OF A GALLEY.

(_Jurien de la Graviere._)]

[Illustration: _Caique._ _Canoe._

HOLD OF A GALLEY.

(_Jurien de la Graviere._)]

The galley is the type of all these vessels, and those who are curious
about the minutest details of building and equipping galleys need only
consult Master Joseph Furttenbach's _Architectura Navalis: Das ist,
Von dem Schiff-Gebaw, auf dem Meer und Seekusten zu gebrauchen_,
printed in the town of Ulm, in the Holy Roman Empire, by Jonam Saurn,
in 1629. Any one could construct a galley from the numerous plans and
elevations and sections and finished views (some of which are here
reproduced) in this interesting and precise work.[55] Furttenbach is
an enthusiastic admirer of a ship's beauties, and he had seen all
varieties; for his trade took him to Venice, where he had a
galleasse,[56] and he had doubtless viewed many a Corsair
fleet, since he could remember the battle of Lepanto and the death of
Ochiali. His zeal runs clean away with him when he describes a
_stolo_, or great flagship (_capitanea galea_) of Malta in her pomp
and dignity and lordliness, as she rides the seas to the rhythmical
beat of her many oars, or "easies" with every blade suspended
motionless above the waves like the wings of a poised falcon. A galley
such as this is "a princely, nay, a royal and imperial _vassello di
remo_," and much the most suitable, he adds, for the uses of peace and
of war in the Mediterranean Sea. A galley may be 180 or 190 spans
long--Furttenbach measures a ship by _palmi_, which varied from nine
to ten inches in different places in Italy,--say 150 feet, the length
of an old seventy-four frigate, but with hardly a fifth of its cubit
contents--and its greatest beam is 25 spans broad. The one engraved on
p. 37 is evidently an admiral's galley of the Knights of Malta. She
carries two masts--the _albero maestro_ or mainmast, and the
_trinchetto_, or foremast, each with a great lateen sail. The Genoese
and Venetians set the models of these vessels, and the Italian terms
were generally used in all European navigation till the northern
nations took the lead in sailing ships. These sails are often clewed
up, however, for the mariner of the sixteenth century was
ill-practised in the art of tacking, and very fearful of losing sight
of land for long, so that unless he had a wind fair astern he