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In lugnet.loc.pt, Bruce Schlickbernd writes:
> In lugnet.loc.pt, Pedro Silva writes:
>
> > All true... but I still believe that the concept behind the lateen sail
> > (triangle + rotation around mast) allowed travelling against the wind,
> > unlike square sails - better for back-winds (no pun intended).
> > And I'm not sure if ALL the sails in Niña were square... notice the front
> > and back, maybe there is one small triangle. But I honestly don't know, the
> > last time I saw a replica was in '92.
> > Besides, the hull of "Caravela", and square-rigged "Nau" and "Galeão" were
> > all of adapted arab design (maybe "dhow"?). Only later the English
> > introduced lighter hulls for their own ships, and sunk the Armada.
>
> I believe the mizzen mast was lateen rigged on the Nina, as on many ships
> until the gaff-rigged sail comes along (ahhh, the Armada Flagship, now
> available from Lego S@H). I love putting lateen sails on my Lego ships - I
> keep meaning to cut my own sails so I can get the proper size differential
> for a Xebec or Dhow.
>
> The Dhow was something of a double-ended affair, so I'm not sure that the
> Caravel hull shape was taken from it, though perhaps the carvel construction
> was (hull planks mounted flush edge-to-edge rather than overlapping
> (clinker) planks - for you less nautically-inclined readers).
There it is: influence, not copy. I'd say inspiration... :-)
> The English didn't really sink the Armada. They did what they had to do:
> disrupt the planned invasion, and not that much else. The ensuing storm
> took care of the Armada.
Yes, the storm *was* the main gun... but the fire-ships were also very
effective, at least in the morale issue.
The only real bugger in this whole story is that portuguese ships and crews
were forced to join the Armada, and Portugal had been an ally of England
prior to the Spanish takeover (in fact, the oldest one). It is distressing
to think those folks might have died fighting friends against their will -
so the storm could have been a minor tragedy, compared to the alternative fight.
Pedro (whose city owes its riches to the Brits)
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