latter part of the 13th century, the number of benches on each side
seems to have run from twenty-five to twenty-eight, at least as I
interpret Sanudo’s calculations. The 100-oared vessels often mentioned
(_e.g._ by _Muntaner_, p. 419) were probably two-banked vessels with
twenty-five benches to a side.
[Illustration]
The galleys were very narrow, only 15½ feet in beam.[9] But to give
room for the play of the oars and the passage of the fighting-men, &c.,
this width was largely augmented by an _opera-morta_, or outrigger
deck, projecting much beyond the ship’s sides and supported by timber
brackets.[10] I do not find it stated how great this projection was in
the mediæval galleys, but in those of the 17th century it was _on each
side_ as much as ²⁄₉ths of the true beam. And if it was as great in the
13th-century galleys the total width between the false gunnels would be
about 22¼ feet.
In the centre line of the deck ran, the whole length of the vessel, a
raised gangway called the _corsia_, for passage clear of the oars.
The benches were arranged as in this diagram. The part of the
bench next the gunnel was at right angles to it, but the other
two-thirds of the bench were thrown forward obliquely. _a_, _b_, _c_,
indicate the position of the three rowers. The shortest oar _a_ was
called _Terlicchio_, the middle one _b Posticcio_, the long oar _c
Piamero_.[11]
I do not find any information as to how the oars worked on the gunnels.
The Siena fresco (see p. _35_) appears to show them attached by loops
and pins, which is the usual practice in boats of the Mediterranean
now. In the cut from D. Tintoretto (p. _37_) the groups of oars
protrude through regular ports in the bulwarks, but this probably
represents the use of a later day. In any case the oars of each bench
must have worked in very close proximity. Sanudo states the length of
the galleys of his time (1300–1320) as 117 feet. This was doubtless
length of _keel_, for that is specified (“_da ruoda a ruoda_”) in
other Venetian measurements, but the whole oar space could scarcely
have been so much, and with twenty-eight benches to a side there
could not have been more than 4 feet gunnel-space to each bench. And
as one of the objects of the grouping of the oars was to allow room
between the benches for the action of cross-bowmen, &c., it is plain
that the rowlock space for the three oars must have been very much
compressed.[12]
[Illustration: Galley-Fight, from a Mediæval Fresco at Siena. (See p.
_36_.)]
The rowers were divided into three classes, with graduated pay.
The highest class, who pulled the poop or stroke oars, were called
_Portolati_; those at the bow, called _Prodieri_, formed the second
class.[13]
Some elucidation of the arrangements that we have tried to describe
will be found in our cuts. That at p. _35_ is from a drawing, by the
aid of a very imperfect photograph, of part of one of the frescoes
of Spinello Aretini in the Municipal Palace at Siena, representing a
victory of the Venetians over the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa’s fleet,
commanded by his son Otho, in 1176; but no doubt the galleys, &c., are
of the artist’s own age, the middle of the 14th century.[14] In this
we see plainly the projecting _opera-morta_, and the rowers sitting two
to a bench, each with his oar, for these are two-banked. We can also
discern the Latin rudder on the quarter. (See this volume, p. 119.) In
a picture in the Uffizj, at Florence, of about the same date, by Pietro
Laurato (it is in the corridor near the entrance), may be seen a small
figure of a galley with the oars also very distinctly coupled.[15]
Casoni has engraved, after Cristoforo Canale, a pictorial plan of a
Venetian trireme of the 16th century, which shows the arrangement of
the oars in _triplets_ very plainly.
The following cut has been sketched from an engraving of a picture by
Domenico Tintoretto in the Doge’s palace, representing, I believe,
the same action (real or imaginary) as Spinello’s fresco, but with
the costume and construction of a later date. It shows, however, very
plainly, the projecting _opera-morta_ and the arrangement of the oars
in fours, issuing through row-ports in high bulwarks.
[Illustration: Part of a Sea Fight, after Dom. Tintoretto.]
[Sidenote: Fighting Arrangements.]