15 AMAZING Medieval Ships

The

medieval

period marked a massive increase in shipbuilding. Nations around the world competed to build the most advanced

ships

that were stronger and faster than ever before. Join me. I am counting the 15 most incredible

medieval

ships

starting with number 15, the droman for For centuries the Byzantines possessed one of the most powerful maritime empires on the planet and the droman was an integral part of their Navy it was active around the 5th to the 12th century its Appearance changed over the centuries, although they were generally fitted with a set of ore and overwater rams and triangular sails, however after years of activity they were eventually replaced by an Italian style number 14 galley.

Hulk, not to be confused with the green superhero, Hulk may be the most mysterious medieval ship in existence, although we know that he applied his trade in Northern Europe, we have never found an intact example now, if historical documents are to be believed. They had square sail castles at each end and were used extensively by the htic league, however their exact shape has been lost to history. number 13 The Binger was probably developed in southwestern France to assist in whaling The Ballinger was a medieval ship that was popular in the fishing trade between the 13th and 16th centuries equipped with ore sails or both, depending on the situation They had a shallow draft that allowed them to navigate all types of waterways, they were also commonly used in hand-to-hand combat and troop transport, making them an important part of England's 12th Royal Navy. the asaar ship considered by many to be the oldest surviving ship on the planet. 1933 by a farmer who was draining a wet meadow on his land along the Gutta River in Sweden while the ship was in exceptionally difficult conditions.

Upon further investigation, it was determined that she was a 9th century Viking Nar if you want to look at it. you can visit it yourself at the Guttenberg Museum in Sweden number 11 the Dao throughout the Middle East Africa and India the Dao is a ship that had a lasting impact probably originating sometime between 600 BC. C. and 600 AD. During the Middle Ages, Somalis spread the concept of Da through trade, even bringing it to the court of Chinese Emperor Young Lee in 1414, in fact the da continues to be used today, which in my opinion is a testament to her great number 10 design The Galley, while many of the ships on this list had careers that stretched across oceans.

The Galley was a ship that generally remained within the boundaries of the Atlantic Ocean present in some form since the In the time of the ancient Egyptians, the galys were large ships that relied primarily on the power of the ormen to get from one place to another, often up to three decks. The High GS were some of the fastest and most maneuverable boats of the time, which in turn made them a popular boat. ships for war and many great medieval powers built fleets of them to go against their rivals, they used their battering rams, bows and missiles to shoot down enemy ships and, at the end of the Middle Ages, cannons began to be mounted on board, however Although their initial GSS exploits had some fatal flaws, they were ultimately an unstable ship, meaning that while they were excellent in the calm waters of the Mediterranean, they easily capsized in the open sea.

Their reliance on minerals rather than their masts also made them unsuitable for long ocean navigation. voyages that ensured they rarely ventured beyond the waters of the English Channel and northwest Africa; However, although their commercial importance decreased over time, they were still preserved due to their reliability, after all, while the bolts with sails stopped the motorized galley or reached their destination. at a predictable time and at the same time with strong defense on board, this made the GS a popular transportation option for both high-value goods and religious pilgrims hoping to reach holy sites safely. They also saw continued use in warfare; in fact in 1571 they were the main ship used in the famous battle of lanto and still saw some use in naval engagements until the early 18th century, eventually remaining until the early 19th century and in my opinion the G's are easily some of the most iconic ships that have ever set sail as number nine.

Canoeing across North America The most widely used vessel during the Middle Ages was the canoe, while versions of canoes can be found throughout the world. The most common versions in North America started out as simple Dugout canoes made from a single log and progressed to becoming wider. Boats and made of multiple trees and parts, these Cano would generally have each side pointed or slightly curved upwards, while the interior would be hollow and propelled with the help of minerals. The design was not only fast and suitable for navigating narrow channels, but also. Extremely lightweight, allowing those who use them to transport them over long distances in the forest while traveling from one canal to another, Even after Europeans began colonizing North America during the Age of Discovery, they adopted canoes to They themselves and for centuries fur traders traveling through the remote forested areas would have had a canoe as a crucial part of their setup now, while several ancient canoes have been found.

The oldest in North America may simply be the Lake Minetonka canoe from a lake in the US state of Minnesota. The story goes that in 1934 a family was building a dock on the shore of the north arm of Lake Minat Tonka when a severe drought caused the lake to drop below normal water levels. One of the dock posts hit what family members thought was a log, but upon further investigation they discovered what was a well-preserved Dugout canoe. Completely covered in lake silt and mud for years, it bounced around museums and was believed to be between 2 and 300 years old;

However, in 2014, the Western Hpen County Pioneer Association received a $9,000 grant to conduct a radiocarbon test. The results were incredible instead of At only a few hundred years old, the canoe was determined to date to sometime between 10:25 and 1165, placing it squarely within the medieval era and making it one of the fins oldest canoe to date number eight, the Cog the htic. The League was one of the most powerful commercial and political organizations of the Middle Ages and the Cog has a lot to do with its ascendants, first developed by the Germans around the 10th century. They first appeared as simple Dugout log ships, From there they developed until the end of the 12th century they adopted what we understand today as a single-masted bulbous cargo ship with a square-rigged stern rudder and a flat bottom.

It was one of the most versatile cargo ships in the area, first and foremost, although it could hold a relatively large amount of cargo despite using a small crew, making it well suited for trade along the Rhine River and the North Sea. She also had a very shallow draft which allowed her to be used in shallow water; However, if necessary, it was robust enough to On the high seas now these gears would take different sizes and at their structural peak they could be about 25 M long, about 8 m wide and 5 m high, which would have allowed to carry up to 100 tons of cargo and, in turn, This made travel over water with these ships much more efficient than travel on land if Duty, the so-called gears, could also be used as warships and it was not It was rare that superstructures or castles were added to each end of the ship for defense purposes. in turn made the htic league and any other power with its fleet dangerous in the water;

However, the gears certainly had their limitations due to their lack of AAL, they had limited seaworthiness and relied heavily on favorable winds to operate, plus their size restrictions made them less than ideal for very long voyages and soon other Ship forms began to replace them Despite this, the Cog has a special history for sailors in northern Europe and in 1962 a very impressive example of one from the late Middle Ages was recovered. as the Breman Cog, it was found in the River Wesser in 1962 and was probably large as far as gears go, while it was the best preserved example for decades in 2022 and an even better and similarly large example was found near the harbour. of Talon in Estonia to date, these two ships are in museums in their respective countries, although I only hope that even better examples of this historic ship continue to be discovered, moving on to number seven, the Carrick, while the cogs and caravels were the most advanced ships in Europe.

For much of the Middle Ages, the end of the era led to the creation of a beloved son of the two known as Carrick. Bursting onto the scene in the Portuguese and Spanish Navies in the 14th and 15th centuries, while first used throughout the Mediterranean for commercial purposes, it was soon put to work transporting goods and enslaved people across the Atlantic, making it It became the first ship widely used in the triangular trade between Africa, America and Europe. Of course, this begs the question of why the Carrick became so popular, so quickly, the answer lies in its incredible design, on the one hand, it took the effective sail structure of the caravels and added to it that now, generally speaking, The cars would have three to four sails, often mixing both the common square sails on the gears and the triangular sails. in ordinary caravels, this allowed them to take full advantage of the ocean winds, making them efficient despite their large size, now that size, of course, was reminiscent of the C HS of northern Europe;

However, Carrick would go a step further by having larger cargo holds, they were also relatively short. in size, which increased her stability in rolling seas, while her super castle-like structures for accommodation and defense allowed her to engage in Naval Warfare if necessary. Now it should be noted that the carracks were not perfect after all, they were not that fast and often sometimes caravels accompanied them on voyages, their superst large structures and small size also made them very heavy and made their maneuverability difficult; However, despite all the drawbacks, the Carrick soon became the ship of choice for important voyages and once the Middle Ages came to an end.

In fact, Carrick was present on the voyages of Christopher Columbus Basque deama and mellan and, as such, some of the most famous and impressive ships in human history were automobiles, however, despite their usefulness in the Renaissance it was more or less replicated with much larger and seaworthy chevrons, marking the end of his Star Naval Legacy number six, the caravel of all medieval ship types, the one that really led the transition from the Middle Ages to the Middle Ages . Renaissance was the caravel seen in the early 15th century. Prince Henry, the Navigator of Portugal, began looking to Africa to expand his trade networks.

To achieve this goal he brought together a team of expert cartographers, navigators, astronomers and ship designers to create the ideal ship for exploring the high seas. The end result was the caravel co-opted by an earlier Portuguese ship that was first used for fishing and cargo transport in the 1200s. The caravel was a medium-sized ship with a shallow draft and triangular sails in contrast to many of its contemporaries used a rudder mounted on a stern post instead of a side-mounted steering and It was revolutionary because it could sail against the wind at incredible speeds. Its small size and shallow draft were critical as they allowed the ship to be operated with a small crew while sailing through all types of waters by the 1430s it had become common throughout northern Europe and was the most common ship in Portugal and Spain during the 15th century;

However, it was in 1492 that the ship's design really made a name for itself when Christopher Columbus used two of them on his voyage to America, known as the Nenina and the Pinta, they accompanied the larger and slower ship known as the Santa María in their voyage to the Caribbean, while it was difficult to recruit sailors after all caravels were considered riskier. In the rough seas of the ocean Carck, by recruiting some prisoners in exchange for lighter sentences, was able to fill the ranks of both ships, but although later versions improved the design by adding a square vent, the caravel did not last to always.

A main disadvantage is that it could only carry very limited quantities of cargo and crew, making it less than ideal for when the Portuguese began to open up trade inAsian spices. As a result, during the Renaissance the design was expanded, modified and eventually replaced by that of larger ships such as the Carrick and the Gallion to maximize profits trade the number five contiki, although it is impossible to know if the contiki existed. It's an interesting thought experiment on what ship technology might have been like in South America during the Middle Ages. seeing the contiki was a concept created by explorer and anthropologist Thor.

His hypothesis was simple that Polynesia was not populated by oceanic people but by sailors from South America, basing his belief on the idea that there seems to be some genetic mixing between Polynesians and South Americans. In 1947 he created a raft using the technology available in that country. time to argue that it was possible for South Americans to reach Hawaii. Now the idea behind the ship was that it would have to drift to Hawaii after all instead of sailing there. He believed at the time that it would have been impossible for the South Americans to use their existing technology to sail to the islands funded by private loans along with donations of contracted US Army equipment.

A small team built their raft using raft-like materials. pine wood trunks, banana leaf straw and bamboo stems with a design based on the indigenous style recorded in the illustrations of the Spanish conquistadors. In doing so, he used no metal in the construction and after loading the raft with supplies he headed towards Hawaii afterwards. 101 days of travel across 6,900 kilometers of ocean, the raft crashed into a reef in French Polynesia. While this meant that H Doll did not reach the desired location, it did demonstrate that it would have been possible for South Americans to reach Polynesia during the Middle Ages. ;

However, it should be noted that despite being a possibility, H Doll's work has been more or less ignored by modern anthropologists, this is because modern evidence seems to suggest that it was the Polynesians who traveled to South America. South instead of the other way around. However, the most obvious evidence that goes against the higher wrists hypothesis is that the languages ​​of those in Oceania are related to the indigenous groups of Australia and Southeast Asia rather than those of the Americas, to make matters worse, it seems that the people of Oceania have relatively advanced ships that made movement to different islands possible and as such there is a good possibility that trade and intermarriage happened between the Polynesians and South Americans and was probably due to Poonian navigation towards the Americas and not the other way around, although H Doll's findings may have been more or less discredited, his journey aboard the hypothetical pre-Columbian ship is still really cool number four, burl Lin, if you took a time machine to Scotland and to the west of Hees in the Middle Ages, you would have seen Berlin plying its trade.

It is a type of boat developed in Scotland. It was probably made with the help of both. British and Viking influences, in fact, the name Berlin derives from the Norse word Baron Gear which means plank ship, however, over time changes were made to the ship that made it move away from its foreign origins and now acquire a character more Scottish in terms of design. Berlin was a ship that made use of both a single large square sail and a set of ore, with the smallest ship having as few as 12 and the largest having up to 40. It was also built from clinker, i.e. it used a boat method. building in which the edges of the hull planks overlap each other when builders wanted to create a larger ship, shorter planks could be joined end to end creating a longer plank and, by extension, a longer finished product When possible, strong and durable oak wood was used, however, in some areas Like outdoor herds lacking wood, inferior woods would often be employed, such as interior Ys imported from the mainland, the end result of this Design and construction was quite impressive.

Fast, maneuverable and in many cases exquisitely carved, they had many uses, while transporting cargo and troops was chief among them, the historical record seems to suggest that they were most commonly used as warships fighting in skirmishes between the plans in dispute in the area. Despite this violent use, the ship was technically unsuitable for the job - after all, the Berlin was too light to support it. a cannon and instead tended to be used for raids rather than naval battles, the unfortunate reality is that despite being present in the Herdan Seas from the 12th to the 17th century, we have yet to find any preserved examples of this incredible ship. because unlike the long Viking ships that were used in burial mounds, the lack of wood in Scotland meant that when a galley was dismantled, its wooden planks were reused while the rest was burned as fuel, fortunately, although using the log historically we have been able to make reasonably faithful modern interpretations, one of the most impressive is the iok built in 1991, it was based on representations of sculpture from Berlin and the Western Highlands;

However, despite its good seagoing performance and impressive appearance, critics believe that its high vertical stern is inaccurate and that a typical Berlin would have been longer and larger, although it may not be perfect, the ship is a testament to the strengths of scottish shipbuilding number three the osberg ship of all the viking ships in existence today many consider the osberg ship to be The most well-preserved story goes that after a strange piece of wood was discovered In 1903 on a farm in southeastern Norway, Professor Gabriel Gustofson of the University of Oslo was called in to investigate after paying the landowner 12,000 Norwegian crowns or about $1,300 for the land which at the time was a considerable sum, his team set to work and in 1904 discovered an elaborate burial mound.

Upon further investigation, it was discovered that this mound had the skeletons of two women, several animals, and a number of beautiful objects, such as wooden Slavic embroidery. textiles and, of course, Osberg's ship, because the mound had been covered with blue clay stones and grass from the local swamp. The oak, ash, pine and uwood used to build the ship have been preserved in a remarkably well preserved state, yet all this clay and turf stone. It was both a blessing and a curse after all, it was so heavy that it also managed to crush the contents of the ship without properly preserving much of the ship, in response all the water-soaked wood that was left had to be dried before being used to rebuild.

The ship, when all that was said and done, the ship was assembled and displayed in 1926 as part of the inaugural exhibition of the Viking ship museum at the University of Oslo, as it was composed of more than 90% of the original wood. She is in excellent condition despite this, repairs have had to be made constantly; For example, in the 1950s the ship was coated with an artificial resin and in the 1990s major repairs began after it was discovered that the alum treatment had not penetrated deep enough into the wood to remove all the water. , this led to a lengthy restoration effort and for now the ship is not on display, however the plan is for it to be open to the public by 2026, the second Chinese junk of all the ships on this list, the one that is standing.

Aside from really standing the test of time is the Chinese scrap, its most interesting feature being its roughly square faced full Batten sails for those of you who are not well versed in naval jargon. Batten candles are sales that incorporate bamboo spines for added stability. important because not only did they section the sail protecting it from small rips and tears, but they were attached in such a way that sailors could adjust the sails from the deck, which differentiated them from other ships where sailors had to climb the mass to complete that task now beyond the Cool Sails, Chinese junks were also made of lightweight woods, had flat bottoms and, as a result, had a very shallow draft that allowed them to glide quickly and effortlessly in even the shallowest of waters.

Now what makes Chinese junks

amazing

is that it's not just okay. -designed but also long-lived, after all, Jun first appeared in China during the Han dynasty about 2,000 years ago. They were mainly used for the fishing trade. Over time, their design improved to make them more robust and capable of longer voyages, although in the Middle Ages they began to take on a more military role under the leadership of a certain Admiral Jen, the Ming imperial navies sailed to India. , Arabia and even as far as Africa's Cape of Good Hope, trading in ivory and spices and establishing diplomatic relations with foreigners along the way, in fact, at its peak, the Zen Navy had 30,000 sailors and more than 300 ships, many of which were Chinese junks;

However, of these junks, a nine-masted treasure ship was the most legendary and measured 120 M long and 45 M wide. The largest junk in recorded human history, once the Middle Ages came to an end, the Chinese junk continued to set sail, however, it faced turbulent waters after all. In a rather abrupt move from the mid-15th century to the early 16th century, the entire imperial fleet was burned. and all maritime trade was banned, fortunately, the knowledge and traditions of shipbuilding were not lost forever and, over time, China's naval capabilities were redeveloped; However, unfortunately, this turned out to be too little too late, after all, at the time of the Opium Wars, even large junks were installed. with cannons were no match for the huge ships of the British Royal Navy, fortunately, although it did not take the junks to M, that is because, despite not having the same economic and military importance, today they can still be find Chinese junks in Asia's number one ports. the canar in the early middle ages one of the most advanced ships in the world was undoubtedly the canar or Nar from Scandinavia, it played a fundamental role in the expansion and trade of the Vikings, but to understand the canar we must first look at its predecessor.

The long ship seen when the Vikings first landed on the shores of England in 793 to raid Linden Monastery. They were making use of the long boat. These were long, narrow, light ships with a shallow draft, designed for speed and were so shallow that they could be used in water as deep as 1 meter. They could land on beaches with ease and were light enough to be transported over land. They were also quite fast thanks to the fact that the sailors used minerals that covered almost the entire length of the Longboat and as they were developed they would become increasingly robust and would include sails that could carry sailing in the ocean now, while the longboat could be used in the ocean, the reality is that it could carry very little load and still Vulnerable to large waves, this became a problem when the Vikings began to expand not only into the Mediterranean and the North Sea, but also began to colonize new distant areas, such as the Pharaoh's Shetlands, Iceland, Greenland and briefly Canada, to have the necessary supplies.

To make these long voyages work, the canar was developed stronger and contained more freeboard than its lighter cousin, the canal depended more on its sale than on the two or four minerals it carried to aid in maneuvers and, despite being A fairly basic setup, a skilled Viking captain could read the sun, stars and currents, they could successfully sail a canar across the North Atlantic and into the new world, they also had much more storage space, allowing them not only bringing more loot from raids, but also bringing goods to sell to people. They encountered on their travels, however, despite being one step ahead of the Long Boat, one problem that persisted was shelter after all, despite traveling for days on end.

Sailors on a canar had nothing to protect them from the elements that forced them to hunker down and deal with whatever. The weather came, it is also worth noting that much of our understanding of the canar was helped by a rather incredible discovery seen in 1962, an excavation began off the coast of Denmark, the ship being excavated had been in waters shallow for centuries, according to legend. It was none other than the ship of Queen Margaret of Denmark, which is believed to have sunk in the 15th century. However, the excavation showed that Queen Margaret had nothing to do with the wreck, but rather that the siteIt contained five Viking ships.

This excavation became the first discovery. of a canar and after a more detailed study it was discovered that the ships had been filled with rocks and sunk on purpose to block the passage of the Intruders. Today, all five ships reside in the Viking Ship Museum in Rock Kilda Denmark. Thanks for watching everyone. See you next time thanks to our channel members.