The Catalan navy was the navy from the Principality of Catalonia. It encompassed the Catalan ships, Catalan admirals and Catalan crew, that were under the direct or indirect orders of the counts of Barcelona (i.e. the kings of Aragon, and later the kings of Spain) and represented a reality recognized throughout the Mediterranean from its origins in the 9th century, as stated by Einhard in Annales regni Francorum (), until Ferdinand the Catholic. In later times, ships built and manned on the Catalan coast, even, some of them, under the authority of non-Catalan kings, such as the kings of Naples, staged some important events.
Similarly, the navies of the kingdoms of Mallorca and Valencia had their own entity and can be studied separately.
Fame of the Catalan navy The modern generic designation "Navy of the King of Aragon" is inexact and not very descriptive of medieval reality,Bentley, Jerry H.Andrea Brancaleone. because until Ferdinand the Catholic, the galleys of the Crown of Aragon were Catalan, Valencian or Majorcan. They were often owned by local institutions (Generalitat, municipalities, etc.). Sometimes they were privately owned, or brought into the service of the king.Antonio de Herrera.Fernando Patxot y Ferrer. For quite a long time, the fame of the Catalan army was recognized by many writers:
... "Galea vogia III hommini per bancho ogi, et have XXVIII et XXVIIII banchi. Le fuste vogano dui remi per bancho, et queste sonno de più qualitate de longeçe, ad beneplacitum XII, XVI, XX, XXIIII etc... Et realmente quisto modo de galee ando aptissimamente la nation Catallana et sondo aptissimi allo governo de quelle, perché le altre nationi armano solamente alli bisogni, et li Catalani al continuo fando lo misterio, et ciascheduno ne sa in parte et li Catallani in totum." De navigatione.... Benedetto Cotrugli.,Benedetto Cotrugli. De Navigatione. (Transcripció de Piero Falchetta.
... "Y assí hallamos que, en galeras, los catalanes han hecho más cosas buenas que ningunas otras nasciones, por donde resulta el refrán: 'Que si en galera se haze cosa buena, el capitán á de ser catalán'." Libro tercero de la Crónica de la ínclita y coronada ciudad de Valencia..... Martí de Viciana., ... "In the Galley row III men per bench, and have XXVIII and XXVIIII bench. In the Lembus row two oars per bench, and these are the most qualified of length, and beneplacit XII, XVI, XX, XXIIII etc... And really this type of galleys are very aptly by the Catalan Nation and are most apt for the government of them, because the other nations arm only to the needs, and the Catalan are armed continuously making the mystery, and what everyone knows partially, the Catalans know totally." De navigatione... Benedetto Cotrugli.,
... "And so we find that, in galleys, the Catalans have done more good things than any other nation, hence the saying: 'If a good thing is done in a galley, the captain must be Catalan.'" Third Book of the Chronicle of the illustrious and crowned city of Valencia.. Martí de Viciana.,
Book of the Consulate of the Sea
The Book of the Consulate of the Sea, a Catalonian compendium of Mediterranean maritime law, has an appendix entitled "Ordinations of all Ships who will arm themselves to go to choirs, and of all navies that are faciper sea". The summary note indicates the positions and functions appropriate to the service, as can be seen from its list by subject:
An appendix is the Penal Ordinances for the service of the Navy, made up of 39 articles bearing this heading: "King Peter chapters on maritime facts and acts" (King Peter chapters on the maritime facts and actions) promulgated in Barcelona by royal order in 1430 and which were issued by three notable sailors from Barcelona: Bernat de Cabrera, Jaume Boscà and Joan Llompart.
Catalan Galleys
The Catalan galley (formerly galea) was a type of ship powered by oars and the wind. Depending on the purpose, it could serve as a warship or as trade ship. It was mentioned in the 13th century by Corominas in his Diccionario crítico etimológico de la lengua castellana, who references a Catalan galley in the year 1120 AD (100 years earlier than all neighboring countries).Joan Corominas.Josep Balari i Jovany.
The Catalans were building Catalan galleys at least as early of the 12th century, using them for wars with maritime republics or for trade at most Mediterranean ports, guaranteeing trade routes with Catalan consulates.
Their use declined from the seventeenth century onward, when they were progressively replaced by sailboats. They became defunct in the late eighteenth century.Nicolas (rev) Aubin.
Captain's galley The captain's galley was a large galley, accompanied by a subtle, or light, squad of galleys and rowing logs. They regulated their fleet subordination, rewards, punishments, dangers, and profits. The men-in -arms constituted the admiral's guard. In combat, they never had to leave helpless, until they died. Their ordinary armament was the already mentioned crossbowmen, except what the admiral ordered. They were appropriate people for boarding, and they fought on all occasions; his prize was a quarter of the loot, apart from what the admiral could promise. The most desired prey was the cape's armor and all that the enemies wore at the time of the boarding, since once this was accomplished, they prescribed their rights. All the armed people were directly commanded by the so-called constable.
Combat On board the Catalan galleys, the battles with other galleys were resolved only on boarding, in which the crews faced each other and, from the 16th century onwards, with arquebus fire. Sometimes the oarsmen also joined the fight.
Compared to the medium-sized galleons, which had twelve to twenty guns of greater caliber and range, the galleys had a fragile structure that was not very resistant to enemy fire, with a maximum of five guns at the bow. In combat the low structure of the galleys was overwhelmed by the high edges of the galleons, while their crew fired from the higher decks.
The crossbowmen "in table" Crossbowmen were the most important offensive forces aboard a traditional galley. And they coexisted for many years with the arquebussers and artillerymen. Ramon Muntaner was a supporter of professional crossbowmen, only recruited to act as crossbowmen (crossbowmen hired on the table to be agreed; hence the name "on board").Ramón Muntaner.Ángel San Martín.
It was mandatory that every sailor with crossbowman duties in the galleys, had to have two crossbows with two feet and another one with a strap (that had a strap to arm it), three hundred pins, a steel helmet, a stitching (it could be the union of weight and point: heavy-point) or breastplate and sword or saber. The same armament had to be carried by crossbowmen ex officio in smaller ships.
The galleys were the same. Normal galleys only carried two rowers per bank: a dovecote and a postic. The galleys with third parties went with a third rower in each bank: the thirdol. They were faster but the number of professional crossbowmen was smaller. Some foreign scholars translated (without justification or success) the "table" by a type of castle or protection reinforcement that only the Catalan galleys had.Charles D Stanton.
Catalan tartanes
Tartane in English and in most European languages (although in some it changes to tartana or tartan ) is a small Mediterranean Latin sail boat (or bow-stern rig ) used between the 16th and 19th centuries. The different tartanes were used as couriers, for cabotage, as fishing boats, and as warships. In their more than three hundred years of history, they had different designs, different numbers of masts and even varied sailing gear.
Low on board, the tartanes measured between 16 and 20 metres, with a mast perpendicular to the keel planted in the middle, in which a Latin sail (master sail) and a jib called the polacia were hoisted. There are many cases of mizzen candle tartanes and other cases without mizzen candle.
José Veitia Linaje (1670) refers to the tartanes as levantisco tide, being used in navigation to the Indies. In the work Norte de la Contratación (Seville, 1672), he points out that: "Tartanes... of Latin sails, lifting of levantisks... but it is necessary to allow them 3 or 4 sailors from foreigners ("levantisks") for the sails, because the Spaniards do not understand their maneuver"..." (referring to the maneuver of the Latin sails). Veitia was the Official Judge of the Royal Audience of the Casa de Contratación de las Indias.José Manuel Domínguez Vicente; Real Compañía de Impresores y Libreros del Reino (Madrid) Ilustración y continuación a la Curia filípica: trátase del comercio maritimo y tócanse muchas qüestiones del derecho publico... : Tomo tercero. en la imprenta de don Gerónimo Ortega e hijos de Ibarra, 1790, p. 68–. Reinforcing this fact, the Bulletin de la Société de géographie explains that "a 14-year-old boy practical of a Catalan tartane, at that age had already made the trip to Havana three times".
Origin
There is a reference to tartane as a boat in 1313 in Catalonia, in which the king of Roussillon and Mallorca commanded: "do not wish to fish in the sea for the lord king ab tartans".Bernard Alart, Inventario de la Lengua catalana (Documentos del Rosellón)
Tartanes were present in the Western Mediterranean from the Middle Ages until the advent of the steam bous,LA TARTANA CHIOGGIOTTA, Mario Marzari especially in Occitania where these boats were traditional along the Languedoc, Catalonia and Provence coastsTipología de los aparejos latinos en Pierre Blasi for fishing and cabotage throughout the Mediterranean. By extension the same name was also given to fishing nets.
Towards the 16th century there is news of a single deck tartane with three small masts in Provence (France).Tartanes // Diccionario Enciclopédico Brockhaus y Efron: в 86 т. (82 т. и 4 доп.). — СПб., 1890—1907. Regarding its military use, one of the first mentions of the tartane in the 17th century is found in the 1614 book, Pantero-Pantera "el Armata Navale", where there is an explanation of the maneuvers of the tartanes of the French navy.
Etymology On the origin of the name, there are several sources that refer to the Occitan tartane (a bird of prey), being in Catalan tartana, and .
According to studies on the basis of linguistic and literary analysis, the origin of the tartanes would be the coasts of the Gulf of León (Roussillon in 1313) where they were initially of smaller dimensions. The word is present in several languages, and some authors claim that it comes from the Arabic taridah which means ship.Patrimoine maritime et fluvial – Label BIP .
But it is accepted by Corominas and others who defend that its etymology is Occitan by loan of the meaning, since the same Tartane word also designates the common buzzard or other birds of prey, and its origin would be onomatopoeic by imitating the cry of the bird when hunting.Etimología dentro del /lexicx.jsp?GECART=0131473
Images of tartanes Jean Jouve in the album Plans of all ships sailing the Mediterranean Sea (in French, Dessins de tous les Bâtiments qui Naviguent sur la Méditerranée) from 1679, shows these four images of single-mast tartanes:
Bilge pump on Catalan ships
In the high Middle Ages there does not seem to be any reference of any kind.
In pre-modern times there are some refs:
In 1460, Miquel de Gualbes, from Barcelona, commissioned the master of Azuela de Mataró, Luis Pou, among other things: "... two beautiful round shafts for two horns, which are beautiful, from lonch and grux, to the sanity of the master finger".José Mª Madurell i Marimón. The "two shafts" characterize the suction-impeller type pump. In an inventory of the shipyards of Barcelona in 1467 you can read: "a sgotar horn". Some verses from the poem Luigi Pulci "Il morgante maggiore" 1487 speak of how: "la tromba aggottava".