Warships and Cargo Ships in Medieval Europe

Abstract

It is a commonplace in history of ship design that during 16th century Europeans developed two quite different vessel types, one for fighting and one for carrying goods. Each was so specialized that it was not advisable, and in many cases not feasible, to use them interchangeably. Once shipbuilders made distinction, two types were subject to separate development. As one work suggests, One type grew definitely into a mere carrier of merchandise, while other became a fighting-machine. . . The lightly armed Dutchfluit (see fig. 1), first built late in 16th century, is prime example cited of a cargo ship designed solely for moving goods and ignoring problems of defense. It has been said that the introduction of thefluyt marked first clear distinction between functions of warship and those of merchant packet.2 The implication is that cargo ships and warships were much same during middle ages and that ship designers and builders before 1600 were incapable of developing specialized vessels; that they were unsophisticated, blind to potential for improvement through specialization. In fact that impression is wrong. It ignores both presence in medieval Europe of a distinct separation between ships for fighting and ships for carrying goods and variety of designs which existed at all times within those two large categories. In early medieval Europe there were two distinct types of vessel built