Mediterranean Galley System

The Mediterranean galley system was the long-running culture of oared warship navies that persisted from antiquity into the seventeenth century, sustained by Venice, Genoa, Spain, the Papacy, and the Ottoman Empire. The galley’s shallow draft, ram and later bow guns, and ability to move in calms suited the enclosed sea’s coastal warfare and the seasonal sailing year. The Venetian Arsenal mass-produced galleys on standardized frames. Lepanto on 7 October 1571 was the last great fleet action fought primarily by oared galleys before the sailing ship of the line displaced them.