Research Catalog

Title

Vanguard of empire : ships of exploration in the age of Columbus / Roger C. Smith.

Author

Smith, Roger C. (Roger Craig)

Publication

New York : Oxford University Press, ©1993.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

xii, 316 pages : illustrations, maps; 25 cm

Summary

This book presents a portrait of the small vessels invented and refined in the shipyards of Spain and Portugal half a millennium ago. The author focuses on the advances in maritime technology that made the European conquest of the New World possible. Shipwrights worked by trial and error to make ships that would travel faster and farther, carrying larger and larger cargoes. Pilots developed new methods of celestial navigation and learned the patterns of wind and sea currents. Long voyages taxed the physical and emotional well-being of the crew, requiring new methods of supply and sustenance. The author also explains how ships were built, outfitted, and manned, illustrating what life at sea was like in the late fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.

Subject

• Columbus, Christopher
• Geschichte 1450-1550
• Ships > Portugal > History
• Ships > Spain > History
• Discoveries in geography > History
• Discoveries in geography
• Ships
• Schiffbau
• Segelschiff
• Discoveries in geography > History
• Ships > Portugal > History
• Ships > Spain > History
• Navires à voiles > Portugal > 16e siècle
• Navires à voiles > Espagne > 16e siècle
• Construction navale > Espagne > Histoire > 16e siècle
• Construction navale > Portugal > Histoire > 16e siècle
• Bateaux > Espagne > Histoire
• Bateaux > Portugal > Histoire
• Découvertes géographiques > Histoire
• Portugal
• Spain

Genre/Form

History.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (p. 281-291) and indexes.

Contents

1 The Iberian Maritime States (starting p. 3) -- 2 Ships of Exploration and Discovery (starting p. 30) -- 3 Budding the Ship (starting p. 50) -- 4 Rigging the Ship (starting p. 94) -- 5 Outfitting the Ship (starting p. 117) -- 6 Manning and Provisioning the Ship (starting p. 134) -- 7 Arming the Ship (starting p. 148) -- 8 Literature Review (starting p. 171) -- 9 Conclusion (starting p. 206) -- Appendix A: Nautical Terms (starting p. 215) -- Appendix B: Spanish Nautical Terms (starting p. 225) -- Appendix C: Portuguese Nautical Terms (starting p. 237) -- Appendix D: Inventories of Nina and Santa Cruz (starting p. 239) / Denise C. Lakey -- Notes (starting p. 257) -- Bibliography (starting p. 281) -- Index of Persons and Places (starting p. 292) -- General Index (starting p. 301)

ISBN

• 0195073576
• 9780195073577

LCCN

91040929

OCLC

• ocm24699592
• 24699592
• SCSB-9538672

Owning Institutions

Princeton University Library