User:Mcapdevila/Catalan Navy

The Catalan navy - with Catalan ships, Catalan admirals and Catalan crews (not counting the xurma) - under the direct or indirect orders of the counts of Barcelona represented a reality recognized throughout the Mediterranean from its origins to Ferdinand the Catholic. In later times, ships built and manned on the Catalan coasts, under the authority of non-Catalan kings, starred in some important events.

Catalan galley of Admiral Galceran de Requesens and Joan de Soler. See him tow his panescalm boat. * The xurma is with terçols, with three rowers on each bench each with their oar. There is a clear separation of the oars into groups of three. * The number of oars and the proportion of the figures are incorrect.

Catalan-style galleon (small galley). Icon of St. John Chrysostom of Chimolos.

In a similar way, the navies of the kingdoms of Mallorca and Valencia had their own entity and can be studied in a particular way.

Previous summary
Side view of a tarida enabled for the transport of horses.

A navy is based on the ships, the people who command the flocks, the crews, the weapons and the way they all act following the instructions of the ruling political authority.


 * Boats.
 * The general study should take into account the number of ships built, their characteristics, manufacturing cost, maintenance costs, operating costs, life of each ship, ...
 * At the time of wooden boats, it had to be cut a few years before, in order to be able to treat and dry it properly. An efficient navy demands foresight and organization.
 * Campaign managers.
 * A flock is ruled by an admiral and eventually by a sub-admiral. Each ship (galley, ship or similar) has a captain and other officers (skipper, shipwreck, committee, ...).
 * Crew
 * Maneuvering a ship requires a certain number of sailors and grooms (young apprentices)
 * Warriors
 * On a warship anyone can fight but it is convenient and frequent to have on board specialized warriors (e.g. crossbowmen) with good defensive and offensive weapons.
 * Remers.
 * In rowing boats there must be a significant number of rowers (voluntary or forced).
 * Weapons.
 * The weapons of a warship can be general or individual. The general weapons of medieval galleys were camper crossbows and later gunpowder-based artillery pieces.

Approach to the article
The article follows a chronological exposition of specific facts. Indicating, in each case, the points indicated above: number of ships, responsible persons and other details.

Background
A navy of a certain entity does not improvise or come out of nowhere. Before the outbreak of the conquest of Mallorca, there are some naval events that show the existence of warships based - and perhaps built - on the Catalan coast.

Battle of Mallorca (813)
Territorial domains. In 814.

The Battle of Mallorca was a battle fought, and won, by the flock of Ermenguer d'Empúries in 813, in the waters of Mallorca , against the Saracen fleet , which had just ravaged Corsica. The count surreptitiously waited in Mallorca for the Muslim navy and the victory was settled with the capture of eight ships and the release of five hundred Corsican captives.

The reference to the battle is found in several Frankish chronicles, but all of them reproduce, with small variations, the work of the courtier of Charlemagne, Einhard , Annales regni Francorum (ca. 830), which recounts the facts as follows:

Sunyer II of Empúries-Rosselló (891)
The 891 prepared an expedition between commercial and pirate against the Saracens sending a fleet of fifteen vessels that arrived at Shell, close to Almeria , finishing everything with a truce that lasted the first decades of the century  x.

Pisano-Catalan crusade
Taifa of Dénia around 1037.

The Pisan-Catalan Crusade in the Balearic Islands, which at the time was a Muslim taifa , consisted of an expedition in retaliation for acts of piracy committed by the Muslims who inhabited it, carried out by Ramon Berenguer III and its allies, in 1114. Founded in a treaty of 1113 between the Republic of Pisa and the Count of Barcelona, it aimed to snatch the island from the Muslims and prevent the attack and obstruction of the convoys and ships of Christian merchants who in in those days they sailed the Mediterranean Sea. Although Mallorca was once again in Muslim power, it served to establish the foundations of the future Catalan naval power and to strengthen trade contacts in the Mediterranean.

Ramon Berenguer the Great (1116)
According to a biography of Bishop Oleguer of Barcelona, ​​Ramon Berenguer the Great traveled to Rome with a large flock making stops in Genoa and Pisa, signing diplomatic treaties.

Gorabs (1120)
In an agreement between Ramon Berenguer III and the mayor of Lleida, gorabs are mentioned, ships interpreted as caravels.

Consolidated Catalan navy
Although Ramon Berenguer the Great already had an important navy, the event that consolidated the Catalan naval power was the conquest of Mallorca.

Conquest of Mallorca (1229)
Conquest of Mallorca by James I

The conquest of Mallorca began with a major naval operation. The general facts are well known and easy to consult. There are some not-so-disclosed individuals that should be taken into account.


 * Once the conquest was approved, the king entrusted the organization of the flock to Ramon de Plegamans. This makes galleys, tarides and other firewood. Make a biscuit and stock flour and flour, oats and salted fish.
 * The types of ship mentioned in the expedition were: galleys, galleons, firewood, corces, breezes or burries, ships and tarides.
 * There was a code of light signals between ships with shielded lighthouses in order to avoid their vision from Mallorca.
 * The flock suffered a storm. The king's galley rejected the demand for a spare rudder.

Coastal Carriages (1230)
This sailor of Genoese origin and extreme privateer commanded the rear of the flock of the conquest of Mallorca. In 1230 King James appointed him first admiral of Catalonia and Mallorca.

Barcelona Shipyards
In 1243 there is a Certificate of James I to refer to the western limits of the Ribera using for the first time the word Drassanes.

At the beginning of the thirteenth century, ships were already built outside the walls between the Cagadell and Montjuïc torrents , on land where James the Conqueror forbade the construction of new houses and ordered the demolition of existing ones.

During the reign of Peter the Great between 1275 and 1285, the conquest of Sicily and the Crusade against the Crown of Aragon had led to the need for a space for the conservation and maintenance of royal flocks and the construction of the shipyards began, which consisted of a large walled rectangular building that was open on the sea side framing a large uncovered central courtyard, capable of accommodating sixteen galleys  with four towers in their angles, two of which still exist. From the construction of the new walls in the century xiv, the shipyards installed at the foot of the mountain of Montjuïc become the only ones in the city.

War of Sicily (1282-1289)

 * 1282. Battle of the Counts
 * 1283. Appointment of Roger de Llúria as admiral of the (sic) “kingdom of Catalonia and Sicily”.
 * Battle of Nicotena (1282)
 * Battle of Malta (1283)
 * Naval battle of Sant Feliu de Guíxols (1285)

Considerations of Ramon Muntaner
In addition to his military affairs, Ramon Muntaner was an attentive observer of reality and an expert adviser on naval warfare.


 * He advised the regular establishment of four shipyards. Those of Barcelona and Valencia by necessity (as the most important cities) and those of Tortosa and Cullera for their location and strategic conditions. Thus, with 25 galleys at each base, the king would have 100 galleys always ready. In addition, as they are river ports, the 50 galleys of Tortosa and Cullera could be armed in secret.

Cover of a galley. The bow is on the left. Three rowers can row on each bench. But it is possible to dispense with the third rower (terçol).


 * Muntaner was a defender of galleys with crossbowmen "on the table", professional crossbowmen enlisted as crossbowmen and without the obligation to row. This involved a galley with two rowers (each with his oar) per bench, leaving the place of the stern vacant. Galleys with three rowers per bench (dovecote, postic and terçol) were faster but had occasional crossbowmen (terçols acted as crossbowmen) less skilled than professionals.


 * In chapter 272 (CCLXXII) of his chronicle, Ramon Muntaner included a sermon in verse with military advice on the passage to Sardinia . As for the naval forces Muntaner recommended a flock of 100 galleys (80 with table crossbows and 20 light galleys with terçols). Finally the flock consisted of 60 galleys without any fast galleys.

Ramon Llull and the Bellator Rex (1292)
The importance of Ramon Llull as a naval theorist is remarkable and should be remembered.


 * His writings on navigation (leaving aside the lost Book of Navigation ) demonstrate how to sail out of esteem for the ships of his time. A military flock must know for sure its position.
 * In the works on the recovery of the Holy Land he exposes the need for a naval navy: the Catalan navy.

Galleon of Barcelona (1292)
A letter from Jaume el Just to Sancho IV of Castile mentions an armed "galleon" in Barcelona to transmit news and bring the two-month pay for two Catalan galleys ceded to Castile.


 * The reference indicates 1299, a wrong year.
 * The galleon indicated in the letter is the oldest reference in Spanish. It was a small, fast boat, with sails and oars. Probably very similar to a galiota or sagetia.

Naval battle of Cagliari (1325)
On December 29, the fleet of Francesc Carròs and Cruïlles defeated the relief fleet of 24 galleys of Gaspar Doria , which began the attack with five Genoese galleys and two pisanes the ship of Carròs, while the rest of the fleet remained in the rear.

Arriving at Carròs's ship, he dropped anchor and, taking the vanguard by surprise, captured five Genoese galleys and three pisans, while the rest of the attacking galleys fled and Doria escaped by swimming (or by boat). of panescalm).


 * A technical detail mentioned by several authors later gave it Muratori, quoting the poem "De proeliis Tusciae" (from Raynerius of Grancia). If you need to believe what the author wrote, the huts of the Catalan galleys were higher than the huts of enemy galleys.

Coca Sant Climent (1331)
Model of the Mataró cake, at the Museum of the History of Catalonia, Barcelona. The Sant Climent cake must have looked similar

The coca Sant Climent was a large coca, armed in 1331 by thirteen citizens of Barcelona to fight and defend themselves from the Genoese (enemies of Catalonia at that time). (See Catalan-Genoese War (1330-1336) ). The coca had been built in Genoa and captured by Admiral Galzeran Marquet. The city of Barcelona bought it and returned it to Marquet to fight against the Genoese, according to a contract with the aforementioned union of thirteen citizens.

Although the sizes are not known, the coca Sant Climent was intended for 500 armed crew.

From the same period and later there are scaffolds of considerable dimensions similar to the coca Sant Climent. For example the ships of the battle of Ponça of Alfonso the Magnanimous : Magnana, Lomellina, Calva ...

Naval battle of the Bosphorus (1352)
Peter the Ceremonious appointed Ponç de Santa Pau captain of the flock, of thirty galleys, in March 1351. The army left the Catalan Brick October and went, stopping at Cagliari, in Messina , where he joined twenty Venetian galleys commanded by Panerazio Giustinian , and already on the way to Constantinople there they joined fourteen more Venetian galleys and four Valencian galleys led by Bernat de Ripoll.

The army defeated the alliance led by the Genoese Paganino Doria night of February 13 of 1352 amid a very violent storm, with many casualties because of the indecision of Admiral Venetian and inexperience those waters of Catalan.

Naval battle of Port del Comte (1353)
In 1353 Bernat II of Cabrera commanded a flock of 46 galleys that had gathered in Menorca, sailing from Maó on August 18 , arriving in Alghero on August 25, where they met with 20 Venetian galleys commanded by Nicolò Pisani. A Genoese fleet of 60 galleys commanded by Antonio Grimaldi intended to attack the two fleets separately.

Fleet Bernat II of Cabrera and Nicola Pisano, driven by wind sirocco , defeated the 27 of August of 1353 in Genoa to Port del Comte , the outskirts of Alghero.

Francesc de Perellós (1356)
As Admiral of the King of France during the Hundred Years' War, after nine galleys launched and armed by Bonanat Descoll and Guillem Morey in Barcelona, an expedition to England, and arrived in Sanlúcar de Barrameda in search. of victuals, and while the Crown of Aragon was at war with the Republic of Genoa, it attacked two Genoese ships, provoking the intervention of Peter I of Castile, who required Perellós to abandon his prey; and as he did not, he complained to Peter the Ceremonious, who also ignored him, and pursued Perellós with some galleys to Tavira , but could not catch him, and in revenge he burned the goods of the Catalans in Seville.


 * Francesc de Perellós was admiral of France between 1368-1369, with the name of François de Perilleux (egg of Perillos).
 * The flock that sailed from Barcelona consisted of eight galleys and a galleon - according to French sources - on arrival in France.
 * War of the Two Pears
 * Naval battle of Barcelona (1359)

Peter the Ceremonious (1356)
According to a decree of 1351, he ordered that all documents relating to naval activities be written in Catalan.

26 of February of 1356 promulgated Ordinances on certain rules that must have in the armaments of particular privateers.

He signed an agreement with the city of Barcelona to put a roof on the shipyards. Theoretically the roof had to include tin plates. In the previous concord of 1378 the councilors speak to the king of "your Daraçana". Later, in 1390, in the expansion project to accommodate 30 galleys, the designation was "the Daraçana of Barcelona". Without changing the royal ownership there seems to be a demonstration that the moral and de facto ownership of the shipyards belonged to those who paid for the works and maintenance.

Francesc Eiximenis (1379-1392)
Francesc Eiximenis in the Twelfth of the Christian spoke of naval warfare and the discipline and order that must be observed in ships. As for the measurement of time he wrote the following:


 * Chapter CCCXXXIII (333) deals with naval warfare and sets out several interesting concepts.
 * Indicates the need to accurately name the various combat sites on the deck of a ship. And remember the Catalan custom of calling the right side (starboard) "Santa Maria band" and the left band (port) "Sant Jordi band".

Detail of the Strozzi Table. Ships returning to Naples after the Battle of Ischia (1465).


 * Wound healing in combat.


 * Artillery. Indicates the need for bombers and crossbows.

Alfonso the Magnanimous (1416-1458)

 * Siege of Boniface (1420)
 * Naval battle of Ponça (1435)
 * The military expeditions of Alfonso the Magnanimous are well documented and have been the subject of very detailed studies. The financing and organization of the campaigns can be consulted in the attached reference. Especially naval operations.
 * Many details of the armament of the expedition of Sicily (1433) can be consulted in the Diary of Melcior Miralles who wrote several chapters on the subject (especially "Of the artillery that the lord king carried in the ships and galleys of Catalonia", page 183). Miralles specifies that the preparation of the entire flock and the manufacture of all weapons are done in the city of Barcelona.
 * 1433. The flock of Alfonso the Magnanimous who sailed for Sicily loaded 200,000 units of primitive "hand grenades" in Barcelona.


 * 1420. Siege of Boniface by the flock of Alfonso the Magnanimous. Mention is made of "hand grenades", called "shotguns" or "shotguns", which fired lead bullets.

Benedetto Cotrugli. De Navigatione (1464-65).
'De Navigatione Liber' 1464.

Benedetto Cotrugli was the author of a book of navigation ( "De navigatione" ; Naples 1464) which was never published, but which is preserved in manuscript form. It is a work that can be consulted in a digitized transcription by Piero Falchetta [1]. The original manuscript can also be read for free (Beinecke MS 557 Manuscript, Yale University Library, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library).

Ferdinand the Catholic (1479-1516)

 * January 12, 1489. Pragmatics against corsairs that eliminated Catalan corsairs.
 * June 30, 1498. Certificate of Zaragoza authorizing the heart, without any limit, to the Basque shipowners.

Charles V (1516-1556)
In 1528 Emperor Charles signed a Royal Order expressing his desire to urgently build 50 galleys in Barcelona and decreeing some special measures to supply the necessary wood in the mountains of Catalonia and Aragon. These extraordinary measures were not necessary in the traditional Catalan system and were contrary to some laws of the country. Ten months later the milestone was reached and the wood needed to build 37 galleys arrived in Tortosa. The person in charge, Jaume Ferrer, passed the accounts to the rational Master Francesc Gralla who approved and archived them.


 * Day of Tunis (1535)

Philip II of Castile (1556 - 1598)

 * Battle of Lepanto (1571).
 * Royal Loss
 * Catalan participation in Lepanto was very important. In Sant Feliu de Guíxols alone there were eighty officers.
 * Invincible Navy
 * Hug de Montcada i Gralla
 * News of the defeat and comment in the Diary of the Generalitat de Catalunya.


 * La Girona
 * La Juliana

García Álvarez de Toledo y Pimentel-Osorio (1558)
At the time of Charles I he was Captain General of the Sea (1544). Already as Viceroy of Catalonia he declared the burning of entire forests of the Principality with the excuse of ending the bandits (1561). An unfavorable measure for shipbuilding. In 1562 he imposed Biscayan masters of this in the shipyards of Barcelona. In the new position of viceroy of Sicily he imposed Genoese craftsmen to make six galleys urgently (1565).

1607-1617
During this period, only 14 galleys were built in the Barcelona shipyards.

Naval battle of Barcelona (1714)
A brief description of this battle can be found in one of the works of the historian Mateu Bruguera i Lladó. A flock of war from England intended to block maritime access to the besieged city anchored in the waters of Barcelona.