Development , 1890. Some authors identify as galleasses the great galleys used by Venice during the
Second Ottoman–Venetian War, forming part of their fleet in the
Battle of Zonchio in 1499. These ships were described to be so advanced that the Ottomans could not replicate them yet, not even after capturing two in the
Battle of Modon and towing one to
Constantinople. Otherwise, the Mediterranean galleass is considered to have been probably conceived during the naval reforms of Cristoforo Canal, after the end of the
Third Ottoman-Venetian War in 1540. Also in the 1540s,
Álvaro de Bazán the Elder built a private fleet in
Biscay, including Atlantic galleasses like the 800-ton
Santa María and the 1200-ton
Santa María Magdalena, carrying 100 guns each. They were employed with great success in counter-privateering. Bazán also proposed to replace the sailing ships in the
Spanish treasure fleets with galleasses of 200-400 tons, which would again employ sails normally and switch to rows when necessary. The project was rejected by a mix of political and logistic problems, so he repurposed the ships to escort the existent fleets, similarly gaining renown for their performance and reliability. The first Venetian galleasses seem to have been built around 1550, reforming existent models of great galleys (
galea grossa) used to carry heavy loads for trade (
da mercato). They were built secretly in the Arsenal, but were never used for war due to the great fire at the Arsenal in 1569, which destroyed them before they could be launched.
Popularization Atlantic galleasses were also used in conjunction with carracks by
Álvaro de Bazán the Younger to fight off pirates and privateers in the Atlantic, since these usually employed carracks and other sailing ships themselves, which could be rendered easy prey for galleasses in conditions of little to no wind. However, with the end of the
Italian Wars in 1559, Bazán was eventually required to redirect his efforts to the Mediterranean, where
Ottomans and
Barbary corsairs mainly used quicker galleys and
galiots, leading him to replace his fleet by a similar squad of galleys. In 1561,
Pedro Menéndez de Avilés designed and built 230-ton Atlantic galleasses inspired by Bazán the Elder, which received the name of
galeones agalerados ("galleyed galleons"). He formed a fleet of twelve, nicknamed the "
Twelve Apostles", to protect the Spanish treasure fleets from French and English
pirates and
privateers, for which they exceeded expectations. However, their rows were eventually discarded as impractical when it was found out the ships would take water through the row-ports while rowing into the wind. Their cargo hold was also improved with an additional bridge. As a result, their model evolved into the
galeoncete, a fast, lighter galleon. Venice built a fleet of galleases again in 1564 by the hand of shipbuilder Francesco Bressan, using the hull of great galleasses which were added forecastles and aftcastles with heavier artillery. Their works were accelerated in 1567 with the worsening risk of an open war against the Ottoman Empire. The
Grand Duchy of Tuscany also built two galleasses in preparation, although they lacked quality and were not fielded. The Turks did not try to engage them directly, but ordered to divide his line and sail around the galleases, opting to continue his advance and clash with the rest of the Christian fleet. The galleasses were left out of the battle, as the wind worsened their unmaneuverability and the chaos of the fight prevented them to fire from afar without hitting the Christian ships, but their contribution had already cemented the victory of the Holy League. After the battle, John of Austria congratulated Duodo for his role in the battle. After Don John wrote to King
Philip II praising the ships, the monarch immediately ordered to build their own Mediterranean galleasses in his Italian shipards, intending that the Holy League could hopefully gather up to twenty of them. Galleasses therefore featured at both sides of the
Ottoman-Venetian War of 1645–1669. By the
Morean War, the increasingly reduced Venetian navy invested mainly its resources in galleasses over lighter galleys.
Charles Thomson wrote Venice was still using galleasses during his visit to the
Venetian Arsenal in 1732, although noting they were the last western nation to do so. ==See also==