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HISTORY OF TECHNOLOGY, TECHNOLOGY, OBJECTS AROUND US
Caravel. History of invention and production
Directory / The history of technology, technology, objects around us A caravel is a type of sailing vessel common in Europe, especially in Portugal and Spain, in the second half of the XNUMXth - early XNUMXth centuries. One of the first and most famous type of ships from which the era of the Great Geographical Discoveries began. The era of the great geographical discoveries was one of the turning points in the history of mankind. In just a few decades, the boundaries of the world known to man have expanded unprecedentedly. Europeans made contact with distant, previously unknown peoples, discovered many new lands, and hitherto unknown continents and oceans appeared on their maps. It is clear that the great geographical discoveries were caused by a wide variety of political, social and economic reasons. However, not the last role was played here by the outstanding technical achievements of the Middle Ages in nautical business.
In order for sailors to be able to venture on distant expeditions, they had to have at their disposal fast, durable and roomy ships. It is known that the caravel became such a vessel, the very name of which became synonymous with the era of geographical discoveries. All the outstanding expeditions of this time: the voyages of Columbus across the Atlantic Ocean (starting from 1492), the voyage of Vasco da Gama around Africa and across the Indian Ocean (in 1497-1498), the voyages of Cabral (in 1500) and Amerigo Vespucci ( in 1498-1502), as well as the unprecedented round-the-world trip of Magellan (in 1519-1522) were made on caravels. These ships, as it were, absorbed all the best that the art of shipbuilding and navigation managed to accumulate over the previous centuries. Comparing the typical ships of the beginning and end of the Middle Ages, one can immediately note their main difference: if at the end of antiquity a sea vessel was predominantly oared, and the sail played only an auxiliary role, then at the beginning of the new time the vessel became exclusively sailing and completely lost oars. Above all, the creative thought of medieval masters worked on the development and improvement of the sailing armament of the ship. (This, however, does not mean at all that large rowing ships - galleys - disappeared completely. No, galleys were widely used (mainly as warships) as early as the first quarter of the XNUMXth century, but structurally they differed very little from those samples that were created in antiquity. The first change in the sailing equipment of Mediterranean ships concerned the shape of the sail itself: a triangular or oblique sail replaced the rectangular sail that was widespread in the old days. This sail, called "Latin", was borrowed by Europeans from the Arabs. However, the Arabs themselves were hardly its inventors, since the oblique sail has been used by the navigators of the Indian Ocean since ancient times. At first, when the ship was armed with a triangular sail, the front end of the yard was pulled up to the stem (the bow of the ship); the yard was attached to the mast in its lower third and not at a right angle, but obliquely. The angle of inclination of the yard, depending on the strength and direction of the wind, could be changed. Later, they also abandoned the long inclined yard, and began to raise the hafel up on a short mast (a special yard, fixed obliquely at the rear of the mast (behind it) and lifted up the mast). The upper luff of the oblique sail was attached to the gaff. The use of a slanting sail immediately made the ship easier to steer, as he could feel the breath of even the lightest breeze. The second change concerned the number of sails. Already in late antiquity, in addition to the mast with the main sail, a second mast with a bow sail, the artemon, appeared. The invention of Artemon was a major step forward in navigation, because thanks to him it became possible to walk not only with a fair, but also with a side wind, which was completely impossible before. However, these two improvements could not seriously affect the design of ships. Well known from ancient times, the galley continued to be the main type of vessel throughout the early Middle Ages. The next important changes in shipbuilding took place during the era of the Crusades. At this time, the rapid flowering of the Mediterranean and Baltic trade began. It became unprofitable to maintain ships with a large number of rowers. Merchants increasingly preferred sailing ships. The main types of transport vessels in the XNUMXth-XNUMXth centuries were the nave and cog, and the cog was used in the north by the peoples of the Baltic states, and the nave in the south - by the peoples of the Mediterranean. Both naves and coggs were very capacious vessels. Their appearance was the beginning of the transition from oar-sailing ships to purely sailing ones.
The sailing armament of the nave was rapidly improved. First, the front mast with the artemon was replaced with a beam strongly inclined towards the bow, protruding ahead of the stem - a bowsprit, and on both - the bow and main masts - triangular sails were placed. Since it was possible to increase the speed of the vessel primarily by increasing the total area of \uXNUMXb\uXNUMXbthe sails, in the XNUMXth century, to accommodate additional sails, they began to install first two, and then three and even four masts. On a two-masted ship, the front mast was placed in the middle of the ship and had a height equal to approximately the length of the keel, and the rear was located at the aft end of the keel. Each mast was equipped with a triangular rake sail. The length of the yard of the front mast was equal to the length of the keel, on the back it was shorter. The installation of the stern mast led to a decrease in water pressure on the rudder, which occurs when the vessel bears away under the action of the bow sail. Thanks to this, the ship has become more manoeuvrable. Meanwhile, the rectangular sail continued to be used in northern Europe. It was difficult to maintain a sail with such a large surface. Gradually, the main sail began to lengthen from below. At the same time, reefs appeared - ties threaded through the sail, with the help of which it was possible to change the area of \uXNUMXb\uXNUMXbthe sail (reef it). The competition between the straight and oblique sails ended in the end with the fact that both sails began to be used, since the direct sail was indispensable in strong tailwinds, and the second one took well weak side and head winds. The combination of straight and slanting sails was achieved at the same time high speed and good maneuverability of the vessel. Various concepts of sailing rigging were combined in the type of three-masted nave. Its front mast - the foremast - carried a straight sail, the area of \uXNUMXb\uXNUMXbwhich was only a third of the surface of the mainsail - a direct sail on the second main mast. The third was the mizzen mast, carrying a sail on a slanting yardarm, called, like the mast, a mizzen. (On a four-masted ship, the rear mast was called a benaventur mast and also carried a latin sail.) Such equipment made it possible to use a large sail - a mainsail - to set the ship in motion. Due to the power of the wind with the help of smaller sails, it was possible to maneuver. Such three-masted ships were common already in the XII century. In the second half of the XNUMXth century, sails were crushed. Above the grotto they put a smaller sail - topsail. Replacing one sail with several reduced the danger to the ship during a storm and made it easier to manage them. Smaller sails could be steered by a smaller crew. A further innovation in sailing equipment was a blind sail over a bowsprit. With the increase in sailing weapons, a significant load began to be placed on the masts, so they began to be strengthened to the sides with special gear - shrouds and forduns. In the second half of the XNUMXth century, the shrouds were equipped with bleachers, which began to play the role of rope ladders, reinforced between the shrouds. The art of sailing with a headwind and a crosswind was mastered at the beginning of the early Middle Ages. With the help of sheets - cables attached to the lower edges of the sails, one or the other end of the sail was pulled, turned it, and the wind drove the ship in the right direction. When the wind blew aft, it hit the sails perpendicularly and acted on them with full force. In this case, the sails were set across the ship. If the wind did not quite coincide with the course of the vessel, it blew from behind, but somewhat at an angle, the sails were left in the same position (across the vessel). In this case, the force of the blowing wind actually split into two - one acted perpendicular to the sail, as in the first case, and moved the ship forward, the other slid along the sail and therefore did not act on it. The steeper was the direction of the wind to the course of the ship, the smaller was the component that moved the ship forward. In the case when the wind blew directly into the side of the ship, that is, perpendicular to the course of the ship, the plane of the sails was somewhat turned towards the wind so that it made an acute angle with it. Then the force of the wind again decomposed into two components: one moved the ship forward, and the other acted on board the ship. But now the transverse component fell not only on the hull, but also on the sails. If the ship had a round shape, it would always move in the direction of a right angle to the sails, but since the ship's hull was oblong, forward movement and sideways movement were far from being equal to each other. The resistance to sideward movement was incomparably greater than to forward movement, due to the large length of the underwater part, and the forward movement resistance was very small. Therefore, the ship moved in the right direction to a much greater extent than drifted (drifted) to the side. Thus, turning the sails towards the wind, it was possible to go in the right direction not only with a side wind, but also, up to a certain point, with a side wind. If the wind was blowing almost or directly towards the ship, it was no longer possible to decompose the wind in the manner described above due to the strong lateral component. In this case, the ship had to tack: the sails were set so that the ship moved forward and to the left, then forward and to the right, having the wind now from the right, then from the left, and sailed forward in a zigzag pattern along a broken line, parts of which are more or less sharp angles with wind direction. However, it still moved more along the course than deviated from it. From all that has been said, it becomes clear that sailing at the end of the Middle Ages became a great and complex art. Simultaneously with the sails, the rudder was being improved. At first, in the aft part of the nave, on both sides, there were holes for short oars with wide blades, by which the ship was controlled. In the XIII century, the steering oar began to be located not on the starboard side, but directly behind the stern. It was a necessary measure. While they sailed only with a fair wind, the side oar fully met its purpose. But when navigators mastered the technique of navigation with side winds, serious complications arose. Under the influence of these winds, the ship's hull tilted in the direction of the application of the wind load. If the ship rolled to the port side, the steering oar came out of the water, but if it rolled to the right, the oar, on the contrary, went so deep into the water that the helmsman could not budge it. The steering oar located behind the stern was no longer subjected to the action of pitching and regularly performed its functions. A steering wheel resembling a modern one first appeared at the beginning of the XNUMXth century. It consisted of a blade, or feather, connected to a shaft, on which a handle was put on - a tiller. The tiller was located perpendicular to the pole at the height of the upper deck. At first, the steering wheel turned directly behind the tiller. Subsequently, a steering wheel was invented, on the drum of which cables attached to the tiller were wound. Thanks to the use of gears, the effort to shift the rudder was greatly facilitated. For many centuries, the ship's hull boards were overlapped on top of each other. By the end of the 1459th century in the Mediterranean, they began to use flat sheathing, when the belts of the sheathing boards were adjacent to each other with their side faces flush. This assembly method made it possible to reduce the resistance of the hull when moving in water. In addition, it was easier to ensure the tightness of the joints and fasten the cladding boards to the frames. Through Portugal and Spain, this method became known in France, and in the middle of the XNUMXth century it was adopted by the Dutch from Breton shipbuilders. In XNUMX, the first ship of this design appeared in the Baltic. In England, ships with smooth planking began to be built only from the beginning of the XNUMXth century. All ships with such fastening of the skin in common parlance began to be called "caravels" from the Italian cara bella ("beautiful form"). It can be concluded that caravels as a special type of ships (like a schooner, barque or frigate) in the strict sense of the word never existed. This notion has always been somewhat vague. Until the XNUMXth century, small deckless ships were called caravels. At the time of Columbus, they were already much larger. By the way, the nave could be called a caravel if it had a smooth lining. Apparently, this was exactly the case with the most famous caravel - the flagship of Columbus "Santa Maria", which the admiral himself called nao (nave). According to Pantero-Panther, the caravel is "a very light and fast ship. It is relatively small, it has four masts..." At the same time, the caravel was a very strong and spacious ship. The usual for the caravel were high sides with a deep deflection of the deck in the middle of the ship and excellent sailing equipment. At first, only Latin sails were put on them, but in the time of Columbus, direct sails began to become more widespread, which, with a fair wind, made it possible to achieve greater speed. When choosing ships for his first expedition, Columbus deliberately chose the caravel, although he could have found larger ships. "Santa Maria" had a displacement of about 130 tons. The height of the main mast was 28 meters. She carried four sails: foresail, mainsail, mizzen and blind. The other two ships of Columbus - "Pinta" and "Nina" were caravels of small tonnage, from among the ships providing coastal transportation. Later, the ships of Columbus served as a model for other explorers who went to unknown lands. According to their model, they began to build many similar ships, designed primarily for ocean voyages and the discovery of new lands. Author: Ryzhov K.V.
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