Nao
The Nao (from Latin navis "ship", cf. port. Navio ; also referred to as Nau ) is a historical type of ship. It refers to a two- or three-masted two- or three-masted vessel, similar in shape to the cog and caravel , but larger and heavier, and was developed by the Portuguese and Spaniards over a long period of time.
Origin and characteristics
The development of the Nao was influenced by the types of ships used in the Italian Mediterranean Sea, by Portuguese and Catalan coastal sailors and especially by the north-west French Nef , the preferred transport ship of the Crusaders in the 11th and 12th centuries. In the 14th century the Nao mostly sailed as a two-master, then as a three-masted ship.
Naos are narrower and shorter than cogs and have a less favorable hull shape, which they compensate for with the planks laid next to one another ( crawler construction ) and a continuous hull . They were also considerably lighter and cheaper to build.
The Nao was often seen as the carrack , the most important type of sailing ship in the Mediterranean at the end of the Middle Ages at the beginning of the modern era . For example, Dudszus and Köpcke refer in their “Big Book of Ship Types” to the Portuguese master shipbuilder F. Oliveira , who already emphasized in the middle of the 15th century that Portuguese carracks, Portuguese-Spanish naos or naves and the holk or hulk of the Hanseatic League and Northern Europe were very similar ships.
The ship model of a "Catalan Nau" (around 1450) in the Rotterdam Naval Museum is an important testimony to the development of this type of ship. The Santa Maria was according to the records of Christopher Columbus to the type of ship by a Nao. The flagship Vasco da Gamas , the São Gabriel (120 t), as well as the last remaining Victoria Magellans were also Naos.
Finds from Naos
- Bom Jesus , discovered off the coast of Namibia in 2008 and sunk in 1533, was a Nao.
- The wreckage discovered in September 2018 off the coast of Portugal in the mouth of the Tagus , near Lisbon, is assigned to the ship type Nao and presumably sank towards the end of the 16th century.
- As early as 1994, a ship from the early 17th century was found in the same region, which was also of the Nao type.
literature
- Alfred Dudszus, Alfred Köpcke: The big book of ship types. Ships, boats, rafts under oars and sails, steamers, motor ships, marine technology . Weltbild, Augsburg 1995, 380 pp.
- Heinrich Winter: The Catalan Nao of 1450. Robert Loef Verlag, Burg b. Magdeburg 1956.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Wreck of the India fleet discovered near Lisbon orf.at, 23 September 2018, accessed 23 September 2018.
- ↑ 400 year old shipwreck discovered in Portugal (September 25, 2018)