GW

The Bretonnian Navy

The Ports:

Brionne in the south is separated from Estalia only by the width of the Brienne estuary. The Duke of Brionne�s fleet is the smallest of the three fleets, although it is still large, and employs many caravels for coastal patrols. Traders from Tilea, Estalia, and Araby often sail here as it is the southernmost of the Bretonnian ports and thus closest to their own lands.

Bordeleax is the largest city, and the largest port, in Bretonnia and is served by the largest fleet in the land. This is the 'blue water' fleet, with many carracks capable of taking Bretonnian power across the Great Ocean, as is suitable for a port that welcomes traders from Lustria and Ulthuan, and even more distant lands.

L'Anguille on the north coast faces a somewhat different threat from the ports on the west. Here, the raiders are most likely to be Norscan longboats - oar-driven vessels capable of travelling directly into the wind. Thus the fleet of L'Anguille employs galleasses alongside the more conventional sailing ships in order to bring these opponents to battle.

In days past, the Duke of Mousillon used to keep a fleet in that port. However, all that can now be found there now are guard ships, generally small carracks or caravels from Bordeleaux, anchored at the river mouth or offshore to complete the ring of castles that surrounds this accursed city.

The Ships:

There are three principle ships used by the Bretonnian fleets: the caravel, the carrack and the galleass. A fourth category, the great ship, is a larger form of the carrack but is often treated separately.

1. The Caravel.

The caravel is a small, manoeuvrable ship, originally of Tilean design. Caravels normally have lengths of around 50 - 80 feet, length to beam ratios of 3 - 7, and burthens of under 100 t. While Tilean caravel's tend to be 2-masted, lateen-rigged vessels, Bretonnian caravel's, adapted for the Great Ocean, tend to be 3-masted with the fore and main masts square-rigged and a lateen mizzen.

Due to its manoeuvrability, the caravel can be sailed close inshore and up rivers, and its design enables it to beach where there is no established harbour. This makes it very useful for military expeditions, both as a scout and as a landing craft. The caravel's speed also makes it useful as a messenger, but its small size makes it unsuitable for fleet actions.

2. The Carrack

The carrack is larger than the caravel but shares similar rigging, being three masted with square sails on the fore and main masts and a lateen sail on the mizzen. It is normally 60 - 120 feet in length, with a length to beam ratio of around 3 and a burthen of 100 - 400 t. However, the principal distinguishing feature of the carrack is that it is equipped with two fighting castles at the stem and stern, marking it out as a warship. The stem of the ship is drawn up to form the base of the forecastle, which overhangs the front of the ship to allow rocks and other objects to be dropped on the enemy during boarding actions, while the aftercastle is built upon the quarterdeck. These serve as defensive redoubts during boarding actions, and also act as fire-platforms for archers and war machines.

However, the carrack has limitations - its high sides that are so useful in battle catch the wind easily, making it considerably harder to manoeuvre than the caravel, and its deeper draught means it cannot go into the shallower waters that the caravel can explore.

3. The Great Ship

The great ship is, in truth, a large carrack. It is 120 - 200 feet in length with a slightly larger length/beam ratio, reflecting its primarily military use, and a displacement of 400 - 1000 t. The castles at either end are scaled similarly to the rest of the ship, and form formidable redoubts - and catch a great deal of wind! In order to stabilise the ship, an additional lateen-rigged mast - the bonaventure - is often added behind the mizzen.

These huge vessels form the flagships of Bretonnian fleets and their castles, which can be up to 50' tall, tower over the smaller ships around them. This is the ultimate evolution of 'taking a castle to sea' - naval warefare the Bretonnian way!

4. The Galleass

The galleass is a large galley, equipped with both sails and oars and with fore and after-castles similar to the carrack�s. They are normally equipped with three masts but are thinner for their length than pure sailing ships, while being less slender and deeper of draught than pure galleys. In Bretonnia, the 'bretonnian' rig of square fore and main with a lateen mizzen is generally used, but the �tilean� rig of all-lateen sails can sometimes be seen. These ships are particularly useful against the rowed longships of the Norscan raiders, which otherwise could escape engagement by rowing directly into the wind where the sailing ships of the navy could not follow. This form of ship is therefore found mainly in the fleet of L'Anguille, with much only a few in Bordeleaux and Brionne.

Some historical notes:

All of the ships are taken from European navies of the 15th century, at the end of the medieval period. They are contemporary with knightly battles on land such as Agincourt or Bosworth Field. This seems to me the period of ship design that fits in best with the Bretonnian character, while allowing ships capable of sailing as far as Lustria.

Navigation would be somewhat simpler for Bretonnians than for 15th century Europeans. By this time in Europe, latitude could be determine fairly accurately using quadrants (the sextant being a later development), but fixing longitude had to wait until the development of accurate sea-going clocks at the end of the 18th century. However, the dwarfs would be able to supply Bretonnia with accurate timepieces, enabling Bretonnian ships to know their position accurately save on the most overcast of days.

The cannon came into use on ships in the 14th century, only a couple of decades after its first land-use in Europe. Do Bretonnian ships carry cannon? That is a question that has sparked much debate, but until the 16th century we can be certain that the main form of marine warfare consisted of closing and boarding, and prior to this any cannon would have been on the weather deck or on the 'castles', not on a gun-deck with gunports cut into the hull. While the Empire may use 16th century ships equipped with great broadsides of cannon, this is not the Bretonnian way.

The caravel was developed in Portugal in the early 15th century and was used both for trade and for a number of voyages of discovery. The caravel redonda - the square-rigged version - is reputed to have been developed by Columbus as more suitable for the Atlantic.

Caravels of the European explorers (dimensions are hull length x beam x depth from keel to deck - even those that are 'known' are only approximate and are, in most cases, estimates by historians):

The carrack was developed in northern Europe in the early 15th century and was used, alongside the caravel, on many voyages of discovery, particularly those longer voyages on which larger ships were wanted such as da Gama's trip to India or Magellan�s circumnavigation.

Carracks of the European explorers:

The larger carracks that I call great ships developed alongside their smaller relatives in the early 15th century. By the end of that century, they were being fitted with broadsides of cannon on their weather decks, and by the early 16th century gunports were being cut in their hulls. However, the high castles made them unstable gunnery platforms, leading to the evolution of the galleon in the second half of the 16th century. The largest early carrack, Henry V�s Grace Dieu, turned out to be almost unsailable and appears to have made only one voyage in her life.

Great Ships from European history:

The galleass evolved from the galley in the 14th or 15th century and were used until the 17th century. Their most famous use was in the Battle of Lepanto (1571) where the six Venetian galleasses helped secure victory for the 'Holy Alliance' over the Ottoman Empire. However, their usage was not confined to the Mediterranean; at least four galeasses were included in the Spanish Armada in 1588, including the Zuniga, the Girona, and the San Lorenzo.