The Procurement of Oarsmen for French Galleys, 1660-1748

Abstract

THE architects of French naval expansion in the seventeenth century were deeply impressed with the importance of the oar-driven vessel. The galley was widely considered indispensable an instrument of war; it had played a central role in the naval history of the Mediterranean. Power and prestige were associated with the possession of galleys, and Mediterranean traditions of maritime pageantry and glory were inseparable from the oar. T'he French had only to look about them to see that every Mediterranean power of any consequence possessed at least a squadron of galleys. Spanish galleys in particular merited their attention, because Spain was the most formidable galley power on the Mediterranean littoral and a dangerous neighbor for France. Cardinal Richelieu's apprehensions about Spain led him to urge the construction of no less than thirty galleys.' Jean-Baptiste Colbert actually built such a fleet. His son the Marquis de Seignelay, succeeding him in the ministry, increased that fleet to over forty, for he was convinced, he said in I689, that the construction of galleys was as important for the Royal service that of vessels.2 Given the esteem in which the galley was held, the procurement of men to serve galley oars was important, and a naval problem probably reached its climax for the F'rench while Colbert and his son were at the helm in the Ministry of Marine. The evolution of this manpower procurement problem can be traced and reasonably well illustrated with the data drawn from archival sources in France. The story has two distinct facets, reflecting the fact that French galley oarsmen were ordinarily of two types, slaves and forgats. The slaves were purchased in the markets of Mediterranean Europe, hence there is a wealth of information about them and about their procurement in the correspondence of the French consuls who served commission buyers of slaves for the Corps des Galeres. On the other hand, the decisions and correspondence of French ministers and judicial officials can be used to throw light on the