Naval Architecture (History)

Occasionally the archaeological ship reconstructor is fortunate enough to encounter the remains of a vessel on which shipwrights' design marks have been preserved. La Belle (1684) has the most extensive and complete set of such marks documented to date. The distinguishing features of the distribution, number, and placement of La Belle's surmarks associate it with a graphic design system of "geometric fairing with diagonals," which was in use in French shipbuilding in the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

Section I of this essay presents the archaeological and documentary evidence that supports the conclusion that a graphic design system of "geometric fairing with diagonals" was used in La Belle's construction. It also discusses how and which specific measurements were applied to the reconstructed design procedures to regenerate La Belle's archaeologically documented hull shape.

Section II examines whether La Belle's design system was a completely new invention or whether it was developed from existing concepts of ship design. It will be argued that this system actually expanded on the basic concepts of Mediterranean moulding—a non-graphic design system of geometric fairing that was in use in European shipbuilding for centuries prior to La Belle's construction—in the process of adapting them to the methods of orthographic drawing.

Книга посвящена истории становления российского военно-морского флота при Петре I и приурочена к открытию выставки «Как царь Петр море полюбил», которая прошла в МГОМЗ с 25 мая по 10 сентября 2017 г.
The book was published for the exhibition “How did tsar Peter love in the sea” that was in Kolomenskoe Museum (25/05-10/09) and was devoted to history of the Russian Navy in the age of Peter the Great.

Riksäpplet deals with a shipwreck that has a neglected position in the grand narrative of the history of the Swedish navy. The story of its destiny and the missing accounts in scholarly and popular works in history says something about heritage processes within Swedish maritime archaeology.
On 5 June 1676 Riksäpplet came loose and adrift from its moorings outside Dalarö Sea fortress. The hull struck a rock and sank. The loss was considered both ignominious and embarrassing and the ship’s fate has been overlooked in all major history books. The rock onto which Riksäpplet sank was named ‘Äpplet’ after the incident, and the wreck itself has become an integrated component of the underwater seascape. As a consequence the wreckage has never enjoyed a proper ‘discovery’ or undergone documentation under the sensational forms that many other famous shipwrecks have, even though they have sunk in more inconvenient places.
In Eriksson’s study the official handling of Riksäpplet’s wrecked body is compared to the more wellknown ships Kronan and Svärdet, which both sank during battle only days before. Eriksson draws on different motifs and driving forces behind the study of naval wrecks from the period from his comparison, and the differences are discussed. Riksäpplet has never achieved a prominent position with the romanticising works of history that honour the national heroes and their deeds which are associated with this era of the Swedish Empire. The first half of the book thus sets out to unpack the ideas that have led to the relative disinterest in Riksäpplet in comparison to other shipwrecks.
The second half of the book sets out to analyse Riksäpplet from a specific archaeological perspective, with focus on the ship as material culture. Eriksson’s departure is to explore the relatively low budget fieldwork that has been done at the wreck site. He the combines those facts with a survey of the artefacts recovered from the wreck, of which all are kept in museum archives and private collections. This, in addition to his studies of preserved written correspondence concerning the construction of the ship, has brought new insights into seventeenth-century shipbuilding and how the balance between the global political superpowers affected this trade. In this context Riksäpplet has great potential to show how military alliances are materialized through ships’ architecture.

The writings that most closely belong to the discipline of history, and in particular the history of shipbuilding, are papers containing arguments quite different from each other, or very informative or very specialized. The scientist is often embarrassed in reading these books because they are written from a humanistic, and they are not scientific-technical papers, sometimes they are complemented with mathematical formulas and diagrams written in obsolete languages, designed to discern the paths of history passed, and adjacent to a discipline that looks to the near future and not in the past, a history too often forgotten. The Scientia navalis or Naval Science, which Leonhard Euler (1707 - 1783) was a teacher and somewhat precursor, from time immemorial languishing on the shelves of libraries, neglected by scholars. This occurred because the discipline has come to self-awareness, especially in the contemporary age, when, following the example of the Galilean revolution, the community of surveyors and scholars of mechanics oriented his attention to the problems of shipbuilding and vessel operations, which at first seemed disciplines entrusted only to the skill of the shipwright, carpenters and the Masters and Shipmasters on board ships, as well as to the wisdom of tradition. History, however, is a fascinating and fruitful field of study for some guidance because by understanding what has been achieved in the past, has been able to establish a more consistent definition of science and technology to be used in applied in the design and construction. Even for shipbuilding, in fact, the sedimentation of knowledge of the past passed down orally by the shipwright to their students and then taught in the schools of Naval Engineering in France scrolls and founded by Jean- Baptiste Colbert (1619 - 1683) Secretary of the French Navy in the seventeenth century, has been able to point the way to address and solve static and structural problems, but also those related to material behaviour and then, thanks to the Enlightenment of the eighteenth century, those relating to navigation and manoeuvring of vessels. Only in this way it was possible to achieve those goals of technical and technological developments that have allowed the massive shipbuilding industry in the nineteenth century, following the same “logic” that guided the ancient builders and shipwrights, thus obtaining accurate and effective design and construction solutions.

Not a paper so much as an image this time. These drawings depict the quarter galleries of the frigate L'Indien, built by Arie Staats en Co. in Amsterdam in 1778-1780. Later renamed South Carolina, this was the largest warship to fly American colors in the revolutionary war. I came across this image when looking for late 18th C. drawings of Dutch Indiamen. There are good sources for the contracting and building of the ship in various Dutch archives, so this is something I am working out in a decent article. If you have any suggestions for places to submit an article on the building and export of warships in the late 18th C. Dutch Republic, do let me know!

""En Filipo II y el Arte de la Guerra tendremos la oportunidad de conocer en profundidad a uno de los más grandes reyes de la antigua Macedonia. Gracias a su habilidad como estratega, diplomático, político y soldado, heredó un reino pobre, débil y acosado por innumerables enemigos y lo transformó en el más poderoso de toda Grecia.

A lo largo de sus páginas podremos conocer la historia del reino Macedonio, desde sus orígenes míticos hasta la formación de un imperio, de la mano del que, a la postre, se convertiría en el padre del mítico Alejandro Magno y en el forjador de un nuevo ejército que cambiaria el devenir de la guerra en la Antigüedad. Filipo II fue el creador de la falange macedonia, formación que se demostraría como inigualable en el campo de batalla y que reportaría incontables victorias sobre poderosos enemigos, como los ilirios, los tesalios, los tracios, los beocios o los atenienses. Pero no sólo eso, logró integrar en el campo de batalla a la infantería y a la caballería para emplearlos en nuevas formaciones tácticas: armó a sus soldados con las míticas sarissas y apreció como pocos las posibilidades militares que la maquinaria de guerra podía proporcionarle, siendo el mecenas de numerosos avances en este campo. Soñó con conquistar el Imperio persa, cuando ya había logrado lo que nadie antes fue capaz: el control de Grecia.

Sólo la muerte le arrebató esa hazaña, pero sentó las bases de lo que más tarde conseguiría su propio hijo. Su figura levantó tanto odios como pasiones; se le conocía como mujeriego y bebedor, pero también por su habilidad para la oratoria, por sus astucia, determinación y valor. Siempre luchó en primera línea junto a sus soldados y nunca permitió que éstos le llamaran rey, sino solo "General".

Longtemps ignorée, on reconnaît aujourd’hui
l’existence d’une tradition de construction
navale propre à la côte méditerranéenne de
la péninsule Ibérique. Plusieurs épaves en
témoignent et mettent en évidence une forte
influence punico-phénicienne.

This article discusses several minor refinements to Titanic's design based on experience with some specific riveted joints on Olympic (similar changes were then incorporated into Olympic and Britannic).  It is a greatly expanded version of an article originally made available on the Titanic Research & Modelling Association (TRMA) website in 2005, which published information about these changes for the first time.  This expanded article appeared in the British Titanic Society journal Atlantic Daily Bulletin in December 2019.

Manuel Vicente Nunes is without doubt, one of the most important shipbuilders of Portuguese 18th century Naval History, regarding the several aspects that marked his life and work. On one hand, he is the perfect example of the changes in the shipbuilder’s social status, and the gradual rise from mere Carpenter to the rank of First constructor. On the other hand, his work is guided by a particular design, which was at the base of warships construction in Portugal and in Brazil, and distinct from most of European 18th-century naval production, despite the widespread trend to uniformity

À l’époque de la Renaissance, la construction navale méditerranéenne, en particulier celle des États italiens, était réputée pour sa qualité. Mais elle reste encore aujourd’hui largement méconnue en raison de sources écrites ténues associée à la rareté de la documentation archéologique. La découverte des épaves de la Mortella dans la baie de Saint-Florent (Haute-Corse), en 2005-2006, et la fouille de l’une d’entre elles, Mortella III, entre 2010 et 2019, contribuent à combler ces lacunes. Identifiés comme les vestiges de navires marchands italiens, leur étude permet un éclairage inédit sur une culture technique d’une grande richesse dont l’influence sur l’ensemble de l’architecture navale européenne a été très importante.

L’objectif principal de cette étude archéologique est d’identifier les «empreintes techniques» et les «marqueurs architecturaux» susceptibles de contribuer à une première approche de cette construction navale méditerranéenne du début de la période moderne, à travers sa composante italienne. L’analyse est basée sur des comparaisons avec des données archéologiques provenant d’autres épaves de la période ainsi que de sources écrites. Enfin, la recherche documentaire qui a relié les épaves de la Mortella à leur histoire, celle de «navi» génoises coulées pendant les guerres d’Italie de 1527, permet une mise en relation originale de l’étude archéologique avec la recherche historique.

When working on a conservation assessment of the Revolutionary War gunboat Philadelphia for the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History, Peter Fix and I had the opportunity to closely examine the remains of the vessel. The Philadelphia has been on display at the museum for almost fifty years and has been studied thoroughly; therefore, we were not expecting to make any new archaeological discoveries. To our surprise, we found a variety of previously undocumented carpenter’s marks scribed into the timbers by the original builders in 1776. 

During our preliminary survey, we discovered eight types of marks and one construction feature relating to the vessel’s design...

Presentation made during the Third International Congress of Eurasian Maritime History - Istanbul, 10/05/2018

The last quarter of the 17th century witnessed the transformation of the Ottoman navy from an oared into a sailing battlefleet. That mutation had happened under visionary and able seamen, first and foremost Mezzo Morto Hüseyin Pasha and his immediate successors. By that time, sailing warships, which were products of the West European maritime powers, were already standardized into well regulated classes. However, the Ottoman navy was an institution which served in very different strategic conditions. As a result, despite the inevitable technology transfer from Western Europe to initiate the building of sailing warships, Ottoman warship design rapidly differentiated from their Western counterparts in many crucial respects. This differentiation also found its way in terminology as well; and the Ottoman navy developed its idiosyncratic classification system. Unfortunately, even the current level of completed research from the available Ottoman archival material is not satisfactory to present a clear cut definition of that terminology. Another important problem encountered in the study of Ottoman naval technology is, the question of standardized designs and building practices in the age of sail. Ottoman archives do not yield any clear orders, regulations or set of plans for the standardization of shipbuilding before the reforms of Selim III. Fortunately, archives of foreign countries which had intense contact with the Ottomans at sea -chiefly Venice, Russia, Malta and France- yield a significant amount of both written and visual material which help us to fill the gaps in our knowledge. This presentation aims to offer a new and clear cut classification of Ottoman navy warships before Selim III and argues that well before the Nizam-ı Cedid era; more or less standardization was achieved in the Ottoman naval shipbuilding.

A survey of naval power at the beginning of the steam era giving brief details of the major warships of all navies with some introductory remarks on each. Notes on the data appear after the bibliography. Third edition with new material on the Battle of Navarino. As reprinted in 2017 (with minor revisions).

During the period of activity of Ole Judichær (1690-1727), sources in the form of lines plans, ship models and construction documentation are preserved in the Danish National Archives and the Royal Danish Naval Museum. While some of these sources have been studied in other contexts, they have not been studied in conjunction. Using as study case the model of Prinz Wilhelm, the first ship to have been officially designed by Judichær, in conjunction with sources in form of lines plans and historical documents, and applying archaeological methodologies, an explorative study of the construction and design of a Danish warship at the end of the 17th century is possible.

Domenica 15 maggio 2022, ore 17.30 Parco di Villa Molaroni, Pesaro
Zrinka Podhraški Čizmek presenterà il volume Navigli adriatici fra le due sponde nel Settecento, Quaderno n. 24 della collana „Rerum maritimarum”
Apertura mostra "Tipologie navali dell’Adriatico nei secoli dell’età moderna" a cura di Maria Lucia De Nicolò, Luigi Divari, Zrinka Podhraški Čizmek
15.5.2022-28.8.2022


In questa edizione vengono presentati tutti i tipi ed elementi distintivi dei navigli menzionati nei primi tre volumi dei Regesti marittimi croati (RMC I-III) che comprendono circa 16.000 documenti riguardanti, tra l’altro, i velieri in uso nell’Adriatico durante il Settecento. Lo studio espone 18.536 menzioni di bastimenti classificati in 79 termini diversi messi a confronto rispetto l’etimologia e caratteristiche peculiari di ogni natante (quali stazza, attrezzatura velica, uso e quant’altro). L’analisi dimostra che i piccoli paroni preferivano velieri più piccoli, dalla portata fra le 20 e 300 t, essendo più veloci e manovrabili con buone capacità di navigazione. Si trattava innanzitutto del trabaccolo con il 14,55% di presenza nei documenti, poi della tartana (11,49%), del pielego (8,06%), della polacca (6,23%), della marciliana (6,18%), della feluca (5,10%), della barca (4,86%), della checcia (2,21%) e della brazzera (2,01%). I velieri minori, ovvero piccoli e medi, di portata inferiore alle 300 t, rappresentavano perfino il 70,82% di tutti i bastimenti nominati, mentre i velieri maggiori, di portata superiore alle 310 t, fra cui le grandi navi/nave ovvero vascelli (15,33%) ed i fregatoni (4,36%) avevano mantenuto il 20,65% del traffico marittimo, soprattutto verso le Isole Ionie ed altri porti mediterranei. Tramite l’analisi comparata delle loro caratteristiche e peculiarità è stato dimostrato che fra i porti delle coste orientali e occidentali dell’Adriatico nel Settecento vi era un intenso commercio quotidiano e che tale traffico era caratterizzato da un forte dinamismo del piccolo e medio ceto imprenditoriale che è riuscito ad imporsi sia nel commercio marittimo che nella costruzione navale che ha interessato ambo le coste adriatiche.


Predstavljanje knjige: Jadranski brodovi između dviju obala u osamnaestom stoljeću. Povijesno-ikonografski pregled

Ovaj povijesno-ikonografski pregled prikazuje sve vrste i glavne karakteristike brodova koji se spominju u prva tri sveska Hrvatskih pomorskih regesta. RMC I–III obuhvaćaju oko 16.000 dokumenata koji se, između ostaloga, odnose na jedrenjake koji su plovili Jadranom i Mediteranom u XVIII. stoljeću. Studija prikazuje 18.536 spomena plovila klasificiranih u 79 različitih naziva koji se uspoređuju s obzirom na njihovu etimologiju i razna obilježja poput nosivosti, jedrilja i namjene. Analiza pokazuje kako su vlasnici brodova radije koristili manje brodove (nosivosti do 300 tona), dobrih maritimnih svojstava, a čiji je brz utovar i istovar išao u prilog ubrzanu ritmu toga stoljeća. Brod koji se najčešće spominje jest trabakul sa svega 14,55% prisutnosti u dokumentima, zatim tartana (11,49%), pelig (8,06%), pulaka (6,23%), marsilijana (6,18%), filjuga (5,10%), barca (4,86%), keč (2,21%) i bracera (2,01%). Čak 70,82% sveukupno navedenih brodova odnosilo se na plovila srednje i manje nosivosti (do 300 t), dok se 20,65% sveukupnoga prometa, izvanjadranskog, mediteranskog (prema Jonskim otocima i dalje) te prema sjevernim morima, odnosio na brodove veće nosivosti (iznad 310 tona) među kojima su nave i vašeli (15,33%) te fregaduni (4,36%). Komparativnom analizom njihovih karakteristika i posebnosti pokazano je da je između luka istočne i zapadne obale Jadrana u osamnaestom stoljeću postojala intenzivna dnevna trgovina čija je glavna značajka bila nevjerojatna dinamičnost maloga i srednjeg poduzetništva koje se uspjelo etablirati kako u pomorskoj trgovini, tako i u brodogradnji, ostavivši golem utjecaj na obje jadranske obale.


Book launch: Adriatic ships between the two shores in the eighteenth century. A historical and iconographic review

This historical and iconographic review outlines all the types and main characteristics of the sailers mentioned in the first three volumes of the Croatian Maritime Regesta (RMC I-III). These three volumes include around 16,000 documents which, among other things, present the sailing ships used in the Adriatic during the eighteenth century. The analysis shows 18,536 mentions of ships classified under 79 different names (types), and compares them with respect to etymology and characteristics such as DWT, sailing equipment, purpose. The analysis demonstrates that small shipowners preferred lighter sailing ships with a DWT of up to 300 t, being faster and more maneuverable with good navigation skills. The dominant type of ship was trabaccolo, which accounts for 14.55% of mentions in the documents, followed by tartane (11.49%), pielego (8.06%), polacre (6.23%), marciliana (6.18%), felucca (5.10%), barca (4.86%), ketch (2.21%), and brazzera (2.01%). Small and medium ships with a DWT of up to 300 t account for 70.82% of all the mentioned sailers. Larger sailing ships, with a DWT over 310 t, including navas/vessels (15.33%) and frigatoons (4.36%), maintained 20.65% of maritime traffic, especially towards the Ionian Islands and other Mediterranean ports. The comparative analysis of their characteristics and peculiarities has indicated that intense daily trade was taking place between the ports of the Eastern and Western coasts of the Adriatic in the eighteenth century, and that this traffic was characterized by a strong dynamism of the small and middle entrepreneurial class which established themselves both in maritime trade and in shipbuilding, and thus left an enormous impact on both Adriatic coasts.

Evidence for Ancient Egyptian boatbuilding during the Late Period (664-332 BC) is very scarce and thus the description of Herodotus (“Histories” II.96, c.450 BC) of the local Egyptian boat called “baris” is of great interest. Different translations of this fragment caused much debate. Excavations by the European Institute of Underwater Archaeology in Egypt allowed locating over sixty shipwrecks in the harbour area and channels of the submerged city of Thonis-Heracleion and at least eighteen of them are dated to the Late Period. The construction of shipwreck 17 has been studied during three excavation seasons (2009-2011) and it shows many parallels with the description of Herodotus. This ressemblance starts with the construction material and continues with both longitudinal and transversal structure of the ship as well as with its steering and propulsion system. Shipwreck 17 provides new data that allows not only to consider in detail the construction of this ship but also to propose some general conclusions on the constructional principles and methods characteristic to the Late Period many of which remain unique to the Ancient Egyptian boatbuilding tradition. A three-dimensional modeling of this ship gives an opportunity to make an estimate of its technical characteristics.

Much has been written on the use of lead and copper sheathing in post mediaeval shipbuilding, yet evidence for such hull protection by Dutch shipwrights in the 17th and 18th centuries has received little attention. A discussion of the archaeological and historical evidence pertaining to the application of copper and lead sheathing by the Dutch long-distance trading companies outlines the argument for the innovative character, experimental use—on ships’ hulls—and standardization—on sternposts—as early as 1602. Archaeological evidence presented mainly comes from the Dutch East Indiamen Nassau (1606), Mauritius (1609), Batavia (1629), Vergulde Draak (1656), and Buitenzorg (1760).

HERITAGE. A Millennium ago, communities of outcasts rejected for obscure reasons appeared in Gascony and Navarra. They were known as Agots or Cagots. Reasons of such an exclusion have been in discussion for more than 500 years and are still debated today. We believe these outcasts could have Scandinavian ancestors.

The many surprising features of Ancient Greek temples are understood as a matter of course if we interpret that temples originated in real warships, not metaphoric ones, overturned and stored upon supports; there are enough ethnographic parallels for such a practice. As well as certain references in literary sources and in vocabulary, the definitive argument that supports this claim is the comparison between penteconters from the Geometric period and Doric and Ionic temples: the shape of the whole entablature, the window aspect of metopes, the shields hanging on the architrave, the longitudinal light curvature, the size of the temples and the distribution of their interior, its axial symmetry, the creation of peristasis, the number and distribution of columns, the placement of sculptures and the main worship statue, etc. The principal statue comes from the sacred anchor, which would be used as a projectile in the naval battles in the Aegean Sea for centuries before the invention of the ram; this practice can be traced in many heroic legends. Greek temples are more than buildings: they are sculptures in stone of beached ships which proclaim the Greeks’ familiarity with the sea and their mastery of it. In other words, their thalassocracy.

In 1997, the existence of a manuscript dealing with navigation and shipbuilding in the Mediterranean in the 16th century was revealed in the United States at a Christie's auction.Four years later, in 2001, the contents of this document entitled "Il Carteggiatore" (The Cartographer) by Nicolò Sagri (1538-1571) were made available to researchers after being donated to the James Ford Bell Library at the University of Minnesota.
In the context of the paucity of documentation on Mediterranean shipbuilding, and given the key role played by Mediterranean technical culture in early modern Europe, Nicolò Sagri's treatise makes a very useful contribution to our knowledge.
The aim of this chapter is to offer an analysis and interpretation of Sagri's text dealing with the shipbuilding of the nave, the typical Mediterranean merchant ship of the time. It then aims to compare it with the Iberian shipbuilding tradition and, finally, it seeks to highlight and explain the methods used by Sagri to calculate its tonnage.

The essay aims at retracing the tactical evolution in the english approach to naval warfare from the foundation of a standing Navy Royal by king Henry VIII, through the 1588 Armada Campaign and the 1652-54 First Anglo-Dutch War, until the Stuart Restoration and the Fighting Instructions issued on the eve of the Second Anglo-Dutch War in 1665. Special attention is devoted to the process of formalization of the line ahead, in an attempt to identify the historical and intellectual foundations of this tactical formation destined to radically influence naval cinematics in the Age of Sail. Despite a well-known body of primary sources devoid of any significant new archival discovery, a fresh interpretation of such records – often fragmentary and puzzling – capable of benefitting from the results of the most recent scholarship, is much needed in order to achieve a better understanding of the broad features of naval warfare, its limits and possibilites, during the period ideally comprised between the Armada Campaign and the battle of Trafalgar.

"""Ship 17 of Thonis-Hercaleion is the first vessel from the submerged city of Heracleion-Thonis in Egypt yet excavated. The peculiar constructional features of this ship, which dates to the Late Period (664–332 BC), allow us to argue for a new type of construction that finds parallels in Herodotus’ description of a Nilotic freighter called baris (History, 2.96, c.450 BC). The aim of this article is to present the main characteristics of this construction without going too far into technical details.
Keywords: Maritime archaeology, Ancient shipbuilding, Ancient shipwrecks, Naval architecture (History), Late Period in Egypt, Herodotus."""

MA Thesis in Maritime History (Faculty of Letters, Lisbon University FLUL, 2014) - revised version

The present thesis Shipwrecks of the “Carreira da Índia” (1595-1623) – Sources
for the Study in Portuguese Maritime History deals with factors which caused losses of
ships of the Carreira da Índia which linked the European metropolis Lisbon with its
Goa based Estado da Índia between 1595 and 1623. Although Portuguese-Asiatic
shipping was formally separated from the Habsburg Empire during the Union of the
Two Iberian Crowns (1580-1640), the European policies of the Spanish Kings,
especially towards the United Provinces and the Netherlands had its influence and
effects on the Portuguese side.
Shipwrecks, either on the outward bound or homeward bound voyages had
occurred for various reasons since the early days of the Carreira da Índia yet the
emergence of the two private European Companies, the Dutch United East India
Company (founded in 1602) and the British East India Company (founded in 1600)
were a new momentum by which’s characteristics of concurrence and struggle for
supremacy of the European-Asiatic spice trade, losses of Portuguese ships were caused
by planned and executed military operations as well.
Focusing on the geographical region of the Mozambique Channel in which the
losses have taken place, the thesis combines a historiographical approach with records
of underwater archaeology analyzing questions related to the political environment and
planed military operations in which shipwrecks have occurred as well as causes of
shipwrecks observing ship building and design modifications and effects related to
economic patterns such as the monetary flows of the Portuguese outward bound
shipping during the period of observation.

Naufragios da Careira da Índia (1595-1623)

This paper is devoted to the debatable issue of presence versus absence of a keel in the construction of Egyptian ships of the dynastic period. It analyses ship representations and models dating to the 18th-20th dynasties of the New Kingdom that can serve as evidence for the introduction of a keel in Egyptian shipbuilding, and introduces new archaeological material that sheds more light on the question.

In the XVII century, when one of the naval culture development center was focused mainly in the Mediterranean area, disciplines such as geometry, mathematics, static and hydrodynamics had not yet been studied and early naval architecture treatises were still influenced by empirical and descriptive knowledge typical of an oral rather than a scientific tradition. Precisely is in this context that, in 1626, that Joseph Furttenbach (1591-1667) published Architectura Navalis in Ulm. In his treatise he provides a summary of technical descriptions and a detailed account of the construction of sailing boats, according to the Italian way of building, based on direct observation of shipyards. Furttenbach relies on geometric drawings and a metric system of proportions to describe these techniques. Exactly for this reason, the Architectura Navalis is considered one of the first shipbuilding treaties, and it has been used as a model for many authors of the seventeenth and early eighteenth century.

SUMMARY: The 84-gun ship Riksäpplet was one of the first ships in Sweden built under supervision of the newly recruited English master. In 1676, the ship came adrift, struck a rock and sank. In 2015 a minor field survey of the wreck was undertaken. An inventory of finds recovered from the wreck in various museum collections and in private hands has been compiled and the preserved correspondence from the construction of the ship has been re-examined. This material has provided new insights regarding the peculiarities and special architecture of Riksäpplet.

After many years of analyzing only the architectural defenses so called alla moderna of the venetian military power, this paper look at the sea power of the Serenissima and at her naval bases (with the Arsenale at first) as the main defenses of the land and of the sea routes of the italian Adriatic republic from XV to XVIII century.

The brief description of the Nilotic freighter called baris by Herodotus has long been recognized as being very important for the study of Egyptian shipbuilding in general and for that of the Late Period in particular. New archaeological finds from Thonis-Heracleion help better understanding this rare document. The text of Herodotus turns out to be very precise in spite of the originality of the described boatbuilding technique. Sharing the conviction of A.B.Lloyd that the narrative of Herodotus comes from an eye-witness, S.Vinson wrote: 
“Without wishing to make great claims for or against Herodotus’ Book II as a whole, there is one thing I feel able to claim, and in fact wish to stress: that the description of Egyptian boat construction which is to be found in Chapt. 96 of Herodotus’ Book II is the description of an eye-witness.” 
The new archaeological material discussed in this article further supports this conclusion, to which I would like to adhere without any reservation.

El presente estudio tiene el propósito de analizar la política industrial desarrollada por la monarquía hispánica para la producción de buques de guerra durante un largo siglo XVIII comprendido entre 1670 y 1834. Su hipótesis fundamental es que una de las claves para completar nuestro conocimiento sobre la naturaleza de los sistemas administrativos de la construcción naval es la relación del Estado y la iniciativa empresarial con la mano de obra especializada, encuadrada en el marco normativo de la Matrícula de Mar. Esta línea interpretativa intersecta con el debate historiográfico dedicado a la alternativa asiento/administración directa como clave para comprender la importancia de la construcción naval en el proceso de construcción del Estado moderno. La conexión se encuentra en que la tendencia legislativa de la corona consistió, primero, en militarizar la mano de obra especializada por medio de la inclusión en la matrícula y, posteriormente, en concentrar los contratos de construcción naval exclusivamente en individuos matriculados. Esto representa una diferencia estructural entre el contratista de principios del siglo XVIII, encargado de una multiplicidad de procesos productivos, y aquél de finales de la centuria, responsable únicamente de la movilización y
administración de una mano de obra previamente militarizada. De manera paralela, este estudio busca integrar la dimensión asiática de la construcción naval española, no de manera tangencial, sino como un componente fundamental y prioritario del reformismo borbónico en las industrias estratégicas.

In the 1970s, off the west coast of Sicily, a wreck was discovered with apparent links to the battle at the Egadi Islands between the Punics and the Romans. The preserved section of the ship included Punic language characters that suggest the origin of the vessel as Punic. The wreck was excavated in several campaigns. Honor Frost, the director of this project presented in 1981 the final publication of the excavation in  which the wreck is described as a warship. The discovery of a "sister ship“ close by seemed to support Frost’s thesis as the bow of the ship had both a Punic character, as well as remains of a wooden structure, which Frost interpreted as a battering ram. The interpretation, as well as the function of the ram of the so-called "sister ship“ are controversial. In this article, the supportive arguments of the warship thesis will be examined and an alternative function of the bow construction of the "sister ship“ is presented.

Nesta Edição:
Memórias de uma Guerra: A primeira invasão holandesa na Capitania da Paraíba (1631)
Leandro Vilar

Forçamento do Passo de Humaitá: Um estudo sobre as asserções que os documentos oficiais exibem
Aldeir Isael Faxina Barros

A Marcha paraguaia sobre o Rio Grande do Sul [1865]
Wagner Cardoso Jardim

Livro em Destaque
Os sonâmbulos: como eclodiu a Primeira Guerra Mundial, de Christopher Clark

Anais do Primeiro Encontro de História Antiga e Medieval

Resumen. El objetivo del presente estudio es comprender la etapa formativa de la industria de la construcción naval española en Asia, a partir de la percepción oficial acerca de la riqueza y la utilidad de los recursos madereros existentes en las islas Filipinas, así como de los mecanismos desarrollados para la movilización de recursos, humanos y forestales, durante este período formativo, y sus consecuencias sociales y políticas. Se propone también confrontar la legislación promulgada para normar la movilización de mano de obra para el uso de recursos forestales, los testimonios al respecto de la calidad y utilidad náutica de los distintos tipos de maderas y, finalmente, las manifestaciones de la tensión generada por la construcción naval entre las instituciones constitutivas del orden colonial en Filipinas durante el siglo XVI y la primera mitad del siglo XVII. Palabras clave: maderas, construcción naval, sureste asiático, Filipinas, encomienda.

Abstract. The purpose of this study is to understand the formation of the Spanish shipbuilding industry in the south Pacific during the sixteenth century. It deals with early Spanish assesments of the timber resources of the Philippines; the shipbuilding expertise of the local populations; their ability to produce essential manufactures, and the importance of the Spanish access to the SouthEast Asian intertional market. It also seeks to explain the social consequences of forced labour, and the negative impact it seemed to have in the official perception of the quality of Philippine shipbuilding timbers. It also examines the legislation issued by the crown to deal with these problems, and its interaction with the Spanish religious orders established in the islands during the first half of the seventeenth century.

In 1744, the Venetian sea captain Gerolamo Maria Balbi (1693– 1761) presented the Senate with a project to build a galea alla ponentina (" galley of Western design ") that would join the Venetian fleet based in Corfu. The Senate approved Balbi's project hoping that the galley of new design would restore Venice's maritime reputation after the losses of the war against the Ottomans in 1718. The construction of the galley by the Venetian shipwright Giovan Battista Fausto lasted more than two years and was sent to Corfu in 1746. However, the newly built galley proved to be unseaworthy due to its faulty design and was sent back to Venice where it lay abandoned in the Arsenal until its dismissal in 1753. This article discusses Balbi's galley, which offers a unique glimpse into the technical experimentation in ship design in the Arsenal during the last decades of the Republic of Venice.