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Cathead question

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  • Member since
    October 2003
  • From: Canada
Cathead question
Posted by sharkbait on Saturday, September 24, 2016 2:30 PM

someone posted this on a FB site.

I know nothing on this subject.

Any help?

 

Could any of you fine folk please enlighten me as to whether Spanish merchant galleons circa 1550 had catheads or something like (and what they might've been called)? I've been looking around and not finding anything pre-1620, but if they didn't have them before then, what did they do to secure the anchor?

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  • Member since
    April 2016
Posted by Staale S on Saturday, September 24, 2016 3:31 PM

A somewhat tricky question, this. Original models and plans are close to non-existent (at least as far as mostly intact and unrestored ones go) so we are at the mercy of the vagaries of artists.

It does seem that a cathead or similar arrangement was not strictly necessary, as they are conspicuously absent in many drawings and other illustrations. Something might be improvised with block and tackle from the foreyard, perhaps, although the cathead seem to have been much more practical once invented! Matthew Baker shows catheads in at least one of his images of English galleons, ca 1586, but they are missing in other pictures in his manuscript. Some ships seem to have had a simple cross-beam running straight across the platform of the head, ahead of the beakhead bulkhead, used in raising the anchor, you can see this even in the 1600s.

  • Member since
    November 2005
  • From: Formerly Bryan, now Arlington, Texas
Posted by CapnMac82 on Sunday, September 25, 2016 8:06 PM

It's an interesting question from a complicated era.  Somewhat complicated by the lack of records of what actually happened.

Merchantment plying the trade in the new world probably had to anchor while goods were loaded and unloaded.  The places to trade would be, could be, chosen for being protected and having easy (good) holding.  So, great heavy anchors might not be needed.

The ships plyingtrade to the old world could expect to tie up to piers and quays to load and unload goods.  They only needed anchors en extremis, having sought shelter from storms or the like.  The anchor required there would be the anchor they had.

 

And, since the vesslels were smallish, there would be an inclination to carry as little groud tackle as possible.  Every ounce of excess ground tackle was an ounce of cargo not carried.

 

I'd speculate that some form of fish spar would have been much preferred for the limited anchoring needed.  A figure-8 lashish at the foremast, then a topping lift with a luff or guntackle to fetch the anchor would be simple enough to rig and use, in those times it was.

  • Member since
    April 2016
Posted by Staale S on Monday, September 26, 2016 4:26 AM

Not sure I agree here. Galleons were very substantial ships and most illustrations show a plethora of anchors, two large ones per side seems to have been quite common.

 

  • Member since
    November 2005
  • From: Formerly Bryan, now Arlington, Texas
Posted by CapnMac82 on Thursday, September 29, 2016 9:59 PM

The fighting galleons, for sure.  But the question was on merchant galleons.

Which is probably a mish-mash of terminology, what with gallega, galleas, and the like, many aliterated into English, and then from a time before standardized spelling.  So, yes, a difficult time for us to now plumb for "for certain" answers.

  • Member since
    April 2016
Posted by Staale S on Friday, September 30, 2016 3:34 AM

I suspect that the difference between a "fighting" and a "merchant" galleon was largely the flag it happened to be flying at any given time :) Even the trading galleons tended to be armed to the teeth. Times were rough. Anyway, a galleon was not a small vessel and would need proper ground-tackle.

 

  • Member since
    November 2005
  • From: Formerly Bryan, now Arlington, Texas
Posted by CapnMac82 on Saturday, October 1, 2016 4:14 AM

Well, see, right now our respective opinions rest on different interpretations of just what a "galleon" is.

In modern English, that term might as well be bateau (ballaou) given that is it present applied to a number of ships without a great deal of precision.  Which is understandable since the sources for modern usage date back to before precision in terminology and in spelling.  So, needs must, as the expression goes.

The Portugese had a number of trading vessels, many of which are now called galleons, this despite their ranging in size from about Santa Maria zie to full-blown flagships.

The term spans several empires and a few centuries, so it certainly harder to pin down thatn, say, "clipper."

But, it remains a fascinating discussion.

  • Member since
    May 2003
  • From: Greenville, NC
Posted by jtilley on Saturday, October 1, 2016 5:21 AM

 

Regarding the definition of “galleon” – My go-to source on such matters is the twelve-volume Conway’s History of the Ship series. It’s the most thorough and up-to-date (late eighties/early nineties) work on the subject, with articles written by some of the best true scholars in the field.
 
The glossary in the relevant Conway volume, Cogs, Caravels and Galleons: The Sailing Ship, 1000-1650,  defines “Galleon” as follows: “Sea-going ship of the sixteenth century or later, characterized by a relatively high length-to-breadth ratio, a long beak under the bowsprit, and a crescent profile rising somewhat higher at the stern than at the forecastle. Compared to carracks, (q.v.), the lines of the galleon were finer, the superstructure lower, and under sail both speed and handling were superior. Galleons were usually heavily armed, though they were not necessarily specialist warships. The term came to be closely associated with the Iberian powers, so that by the seventeenth century almost any large Spanish ship could be described as a galleon”
 
That works for me. In other words, the term came to be used so generally that it was almost meaningless.
 
The good, reliable primary sources on sixteenth- and seventeenth-century galleons can just about be counted on the fingers of one hand. Questions about such details as how they handled their anchors unfortunately just don’t have solid answers.

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