A galiot, galliot or galiote, was a small

galley A galley is a type of ship optimised for propulsion by oars. Galleys were historically used for naval warfare, warfare, Maritime transport, trade, and piracy mostly in the seas surrounding Europe. It developed in the Mediterranean world during ...

boat propelled by sail or oars. There are three different types of naval galiots that sailed on different seas. A ''galiote'' was a type of French flat-bottom river

boat A boat is a watercraft of a large range of types and sizes, but generally smaller than a ship, which is distinguished by its larger size or capacity, its shape, or its ability to carry boats. Small boats are typically used on inland waterways s ...

barge A barge is typically a flat-bottomed boat, flat-bottomed vessel which does not have its own means of mechanical propulsion. Original use was on inland waterways, while modern use is on both inland and ocean, marine water environments. The firs ...

and also a flat-bottomed boat with a simple sail for transporting wine.

Naval vessels

* Mediterranean (16th–17th centuries) : Historically, a galiot was a type of ship with oars, also known as a half-galley, then, from the 17th century forward, a ship with sails and oars. As used by the

Barbary pirates The Barbary corsairs, Barbary pirates, Ottoman corsairs, or naval mujahideen (in Muslim sources) were mainly Muslim corsairs and privateers who operated from the largely independent Barbary states. This area was known in Europe as the Barba ...

against the

Republic of Venice The Republic of Venice, officially the Most Serene Republic of Venice and traditionally known as La Serenissima, was a sovereign state and Maritime republics, maritime republic with its capital in Venice. Founded, according to tradition, in 697 ...

, a galiot had two masts and about 16 pairs of oars. Warships of the type typically carried between two and ten

cannon A cannon is a large-caliber gun classified as a type of artillery, which usually launches a projectile using explosive chemical propellant. Gunpowder ("black powder") was the primary propellant before the invention of smokeless powder during th ...

s of small caliber, and between 50 and 150 men. It was a Barbary galiot, captained by Barbarossa I, that captured two Papal vessels in 1504. * North Sea (17th–19th centuries) : A galiot was a type of Dutch or German merchant ship of 20 to 400 tons ( bm), similar to a

ketch A ketch is a two- masted sailboat whose mainmast is taller than the mizzen mast (or aft-mast), and whose mizzen mast is stepped forward of the rudder post. The mizzen mast stepped forward of the rudder post is what distinguishes the ketch f ...

, with a rounded fore and aft like a fluyt. Galiots had nearly flat bottoms to sail in shallow waters. These ships were especially favoured for coastal navigation in the

North North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating Direction (geometry), direction or geography. Etymology T ...

and Baltic seas. To avoid excessive leeway, or

leeward In geography and seamanship, windward () and leeward () are directions relative to the wind. Windward is ''upwind'' from the point of reference, i.e., towards the direction from which the wind is coming; leeward is ''downwind'' from the point o ...

drift due to their flat bottoms, smaller vessels were usually fitted with

leeboard A leeboard is a form of pivoting keel used largely by sailboats, very often in lieu of a fixed keel. Typically mounted in pairs on each side of a hull, leeboards function much like a centreboard, allowing shallow-draft craft to ply waters ...

s. After 1830, a modernised type of galiot was developed that featured a sharper bow similar to a

schooner A schooner ( ) is a type of sailing ship, sailing vessel defined by its Rig (sailing), rig: fore-and-aft rigged on all of two or more Mast (sailing), masts and, in the case of a two-masted schooner, the foremast generally being shorter than t ...

. These vessels rarely had leeboards. * Naval ships (17th–19th centuries) : A galiote (or galiot) was a French type of naval warship that might have two masts with

lateen A lateen (from French ''latine'', meaning "Latin") or latin-rig is a triangular sail set on a long Yard (sailing) , yard mounted at an angle on the mast (sailing) , mast, and running in a fore-and-aft direction. The Settee (sail), settee can be ...

sails and a bank of oars. It might also be relatively small with only one mast, and be little more than a large ''chaloupe'' or launch.Winfield and Roberts (2015), p. 41. :: A ''galiote a bombes'' was a French term for a galiote armed with a mortar and functioning as a

bomb vessel A bomb vessel, bomb ship, bomb ketch, or simply bomb was a type of wooden sailing naval ship. Its primary armament was not cannons (Naval long gun, long guns or carronades) – although bomb vessels carried a few cannons for self-defence – but ...

, i.e., a vessel armed to

shell Shell may refer to: Architecture and design * Shell (structure), a thin structure ** Concrete shell, a thin shell of concrete, usually with no interior columns or exterior buttresses Science Biology * Seashell, a hard outer layer of a marine ani ...

coastal forts, towns, and the like.

Canal and river boats

Scute transportant du vin sur la Loire XVIIIe s

* A galiote was a horse-drawn barge pulled along canals or rivers banks, which were popular in France from the mid-17th century through the 19th century. * A galiote, or ''scute'', also was a type of flat-bottomed boat with a simple sail that traveled French rivers transporting wine in the Anjou region as far as Les Ponts-de-Cé.Poitrineau (1989), pp. 21–26.

Citations

General and cited references

* Carse, Philip (1959). ''The Age of Piracy''. Hale. * * Poitrineau, Abel (1989). ''La Loire – les peuples du fleuve''. Ed. Horvath, Saint-Etienne. * Winfield, Rif & Stephen S. Roberts (2015). ''French Warships in the Age of Sail 1786–1861: Design Construction, Careers and Fates''. Seaforth Publishing. .

External links

Pictures of a 1738 Baltic Sea galiot model
��High resolution photos {{Authority control Age of Sail ships Pirate ships Sailboat types Sailing ship types Ship types Tall ships Galleys

Naval vessels

Canal and river boats

See also

Citations

General and cited references

External links