Fusta
The Fusta or Fuste (English also foist and galliot , Turkish kalita , Italian galiota ) was a narrow, light, agile and fast ship with a shallow draft, which was propelled by both oars and a latin sail . It was basically a small galley . The number of oars ranged from 12 to 18 on each side, and each oar was moved by two men. As far as possible, the sail was used for longer journeys, also to save energy, while the oars were used especially in combat and when entering and leaving ports and anchorages. Even smaller was the Galeote , often only one man per belt rowed in. However, in the marine literature of the Mediterranean, the two terms Fusta and Galeote are often used synonymously.
The Fusta was the preferred ship of the North African corsairs from Salé and the barbarian states . Because of her speed over short attack and combat distances, her agility, her wind independence, and her ability to operate in shallow waters due to the shallow draft (important for hiding in small bays from a surprise attack on passing ships) she was ideal for Suitable for piracy and naval warfare in the Mediterranean. If the rowers were not prisoners of war slaves , they provided an additional combat team to board and conquer enemy ships.
With Fustas the Barbarossa brothers, Baba Arudsch and Khair ad-Din , conquered the North African coastal cities, from which the barbarian states of Algiers , Tunis and Tripoli emerged . With Fustas they transported thousands of Muslims from Spain to North Africa after the fall of Granada . And with Fustas, they and their comrades and successors like Turgut Reis and Uludsch Ali spread fear and terror in the Mediterranean in the 16th and 17th centuries.
literature
- Hugh Bicheno: Crescent and Cross. The Battle of Lepanto 1571 (= A Phoenix Paperback ). Phoenix, London 2004, ISBN 1-84212-753-5 .
- Svat Soucek: The Ottomans and Their Rivals, Galleys and Galleons, Portolan Charts and Isolarii. In: Svat Soucek: Piri Reis & Turkish Mapmaking after Columbus. The Khalili Portolan Atlas (= Studies in the Khalili Collection. Vol. 2). 2nd edition. The Nour Foundation in Association with Azmimuth and Oxford University Press, London 1996, ISBN 0-19-727501-X , pp. 10-33.