15 AMAZING Medieval Ships

the medieval period marked a massive increase in ship building Nations around the world competed to build the most advanced ships that were stronger and faster than ever before join me I'm counting down the top 15 most amazing medieval ships starting with number 15 the droman for centuries the byzantines possessed one of the mightiest Maritime Empires on the planet and the droman was an integral part of their Navy was active from around the 5th to the 12th centuries their look changed throughout the centuries although they were generally fit with a set of ores an above-water spur and triangular sails however after years of activity they were eventually replaced with an Italian style Galley number 14 The Hulk not to be confused with the green superhero the Hulk may just be the most mysterious medieval ship out there while we do know that it applied its trade in northern Europe we've never found an intact example now if historic documents are to be believed they had Square sails castles at each end and were used extensively by the htic league however their exact shape and form has been lost to history number 13 the Binger likely developed in Southwestern France to assist in whale hunting the Ballinger was a medieval ship that was popular in fishing commerce between the 13th and 16th centuries equipped with either ores sails or both depending on the situation they had a shallow draft allowing them to navigate all sorts of waterways they were also commonly used in Close Quarter fighting and troop transport making them an important part of England's Royal Navy number 12 the asaar skip considered by many to be the oldest surviving ship on the planet the asaar skip was found in 1933 by a farmer who was draining a wet Meadow on his land along the river Gutta in Sweden while the ship was in exceptionally rough shape upon further investigation it was determined to be a viking Nar from the 9th century if you'd like to see it yourself you can visit it at the Guttenberg Museum in Sweden number 11 the Dao across the Middle East East Africa and India the Dao is a ship that had a longl lasting impact likely originating sometime between 600 BCE and 600 CE they're characterized by a sharp triangular sail a sharp bow and a long thin Hull throughout the Middle Ages the Somali spread the concept of The Da through trade even bringing it to the court of the Chinese emperor Young Lee in 1414 in fact the da continues to be in use today which in my opinion is a testament to his great design number 10 The Galley while many of the ships on this list had careers that spanned across oceans The Galley was a ship that generally stayed within the confines of the Atlantic Ocean present in some shape or form since the times of the ancient Egyptians galys were large ships that relied mostly on the power of ormen to get from place to place often as much as three decks High GS were some of the fastest and most maneuverable ships of the era in turn this made them a popular ship for Warfare and many great medieval Powers built up fleets of them to go against their Rivals they would make use of their Rams grappling bows and missiles to bring down enemy ships and by the end of the Middle Ages guns began to be mounted aboard however despite their early prowess GSS had some fatal flaws ultimately they were an unstable vessel meaning that while they were great in the calm Waters of the Mediterranean they would easily capsize on the open ocean their dependence on ores rather than their masts also made them unsuitable for long ocean voyages ensuring that they rarely ventured beyond the Waters of the English Channel and northwest Africa however while their commercial significance declined over time they were still kept around due to their reliability after all while bolts with sails would stall the or powerered Galley would get to its destination at a predictable time while still having a strong onboard defense this made GS a popular transport option for both High valued Goods and religious pilgrims hoping to reach holy sights safely they also saw continued use in Warfare in fact in 1571 they were the primary vessel used in the famous battle of lanto and they still saw some use in Naval engagements into the early end of the 18th century ultimately they stuck around until the early 19th century and in my eyes G are easily some of the most iconic ships to ever set sail number nine the canoe across North America the most well-used boat during the Middle Ages was the canoe while versions of canoes can be found across the world the Renditions most common in North America began as simple Dugout canoes made of a single log and progressed into becoming wider ships and made of multiple trees and parts these Cano would generally have each side come to a point or slightly curl upwards while the inside would be Hollow and propelled with the help of ores the design was not only fast and suitable for navigating tight waterways but also extremely lightweight allowing those who use them to carry them over long distances of forest while traveling from one Waterway to another even after Europeans began to colonize North America during the age of Discovery they would adopt the canoes for themselves and for centuries fur Traders traveling through the remote forested areas would have a canoe as a crucial part of their setup now while several old canoes have been found North America's oldest may just be the lake minetonka canoe hailing from a lake in the US state of Minnesota The Story Goes that in 1934 a family was building a dock on the shore of Lake minat tonka's North arm when severe drought dropped the lake below normal water levels one of the dock posts hit what family members thought was a log but upon further investigation they uncovered what was a well-preserved Dugout canoe entirely covered in the lake silt and mud for years it bounced around museums and was believed to be 2 to 300 years old however in 2014 the Western hpen County Pioneer Association received a $9,000 Grant in order to conduct a radiocarbon testing the results were incredible rather than just be a few hundred years old the canoe was determined to date back to sometime between 10:25 and 1165 this puts it squarely within the time of the medieval period and makes it one of the oldest canoe fins to date number eight the Cog the htic league was one of the most powerful trade and political organizations of the Middle Ages and the Cog has a lot to do with its ascendants first developed by the Germans around the 10th Century they first appeared as simple Dugout log boats from there they developed until by the end of the 12th century they took on what we understand them to be today a bulbous single masted cargo ship with a square sail stern rudder and a flat bottom it was one of the most versatile cargo ships of the area first and foremost though it could hold a relatively large amount of cargo despite using a small crew making it well suited for trade up and down the Rin River and the North Sea it also had a very shallow draft allowing it to be used in shallow water however if necessary it was robust enough to take on the high seas now these cogs would take on different sizes and at their structural Peak they could be about 25 M long about 8 m wide and 5 m high this would have made them able to carry up to 100 tons of cargo and in turn this made travel over water with these ships far more efficient than land travel if Duty called cogs could also be used as warships and it wasn't uncommon for superstructures or castles to be added to each end of the ship for the purposes of Defense this in turn made the htic league and any other powers with the fleet of them dangerous on the water however cogs certainly had their limitations due to their lack of AAL they had limited navigability and were highly dependent on favorable winds to function furthermore their size restrictions made them less than ideal for very long trips and soon other forms of ships began to replace them despite this the Cog has a special history for Sailors in northern Europe and in 1962 a very impressive example of one from the tail end of the Middle Ages was recovered it's known as the Breman Cog it was found in the wesser river in 1962 and it was likely on the large side as far as cogs go while it was the best preserved example around for decades in 2022 and even better and similarly large example was found near the harbor of Talon in Estonia to date these two ships are in museums in their respective countries although I just hope that even better examples of this historic ship continue to be uncovered moving on to number seven the Carrick while cogs and caravels were the most advanced ships in Europe for much of the Middle Ages the very tail end of the era led to the creation of a love child of the two known as the Carrick it exploded onto the scene in the Navies of both Portugal and Spain in the 14th and 15th centuries while it first saw use around the Mediterranean for trade purposes it was soon put to work transporting goods and enslaved people across the Atlantic making it the first widely used ship in the Triangular Trade between Africa the Americas and Europe of course this begs the question why did the Carrick get so popular so quickly well the answer lies in its incredible design on one hand it took the effective sail structure of caravels and added to it now generally speaking cars would have three to four sails often mixing both the square sails common on cogs and the Triangular sails on common caravels this allowed them to take full advantage of ocean winds making them efficient despite their large size now that size of course was reminiscent of the northern European C HS however Carrick would go a step further by having larger cargo holds they were also relatively short in size which increased their stability in wavy Seas while its castle-like super structures for accommodation and defense allowed them to engage in Naval Warfare if need be now it should be noted that the carracks weren't perfect after all they weren't all that fast and often sometimes caravels would accompany them on voyages their large superst structures and short size also made them topheavy and hindered maneuverability yet despite all the drawbacks the Carrick soon became the ship of choice for major voyages and once the Middle Ages came to a close they were consistently moving goods between Europe and major Trade Centers such as India and Indonesia in fact Carrick were on hand for the Voyages of Christopher Columbus Vasco deama and mellan and as such some of the most famous and most impactful boats in human history were cars however despite their usefulness by the Renaissance they were more or less replicated with far larger and more seaworthy gallions marking an end to their Stellar Naval Legacy number six the caravel of all the types of medieval ship the one that really led the transition from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance was the caravel you see in the early 15th century Prince Henry the Navigator of Portugal began looking to Africa to expand his trade networks in order to accomplish this goal he assembled a team of expert cartographers Navigators astronomists and ship designers to create the ideal vessel for exploring the high seas the end result was the caravel co-opted by an earlier Portuguese ship that was first used for fishing and cargo transport in the 1200s the caravel was a medium-sized ship with a low draft and triangular sails in contrast to many of its contemporaries it used a Rudder mounted on a Stern post rather than a sid mounted steering or and was revolutionary because it could sail Against the Wind at incredible speeds its small size and low draft were critical as it allowed the ship to be operated with a small crew while navigating all types of of Waters by the 1430s caraval had become common across northern Europe and it was the most common ship in Portugal and Spain during the 15th century however it was in 1492 that the ship design really made a name for itself when Christopher Columbus used two of them in his voyage to America known as the nenina and the Pinta they accompanied the larger and slower carck known as the Santa Maria on its Journey to the Caribbean while it was difficult to recruit Sailors after all caravels were considered to be riskier on the rough Seas of the Ocean than carck by recruiting some prisoners in exchange for lighter sentences they were able to fill the ranks of both ships yet despite later versions improving on the design by adding a square sale the caravel didn't last forever the ship's one main downside is that it could only carry very limited quantities of cargo and crew making it less than ideal for when the Portuguese began to open up the Asian spice trade as a result during the Renaissance the design was enlarged altered and ultimately replaced by that of larger ships such as the Carrick and gallion in order to maximize the profits trade number five the contiki while it is impossible to know if the contiki existed it's an interesting thought experiment as to what ship technology might have been like in South America during the Middle Ages see the contiki was a concept it was created by Explorer and Anthropologist Thor hll his hypothesis was simple that Polynesia was not settled by oceanians but by Sailors coming from South America basing his belief off the idea that there seems to be some genetic mixing between Polynesians and South Americans in 1947 he created a raft using technology available at the time to argue that it was possible for South Americans to reach Hawaii now the idea behind the ship was that it would have to drift to Hawaii rather than be navigated there after all it was believed at the time that it would have been impossible for the South Americans to use their existing technology to navigate to the islands funded by private loans alongside equipment donations from the US Army hired do in a small small team constructed their raft using materials such as Balsa logs pine wood Banana Leaf thatch and bamboo stems with the design being based off the indigenous style as recorded in illustrations by Spanish conquistadors when doing so he used no metal in the construction and after loading off the raft with supplies he made his way towards Hawaii after 101 days of travel over 6,900 km of ocean the raft smashed into a reef in French Polynesia while this meant that H doll did not reach his desired location it did prove that it would have been possible for South Americans to reach Polynesia during the Middle Ages however it should be noted that despite this being a possibility H doll's work has more or less been ignored by modern anthropologists this is because modern evidence seems to suggest that it was Polynesians who traveled to South America rather than it being the other way around the most glaring piece of evidence going against higher doll's hypothesis though is that the languages of those in Oceania are related to the indigenous groups of Australia and Southeast Asia rather than those of the Americas to top this off it appears that the people of Oceania have relatively Advanced ships that made the movement to different Islands possible and as such there's a good possibility that trade and intermarriage happened between the Polynesians and South Americans and it was likely due to poonian sailing to the Americas rather than it being the other way around yet while H doll's findings may have been more or less discredited his journey aboard the hypothetical pre-colombian craft is still really cool number four the burl Lin if you were to take a time machine to Scotland and the West Hees in the Middle Ages you would have seen the Berlin plying its trade it's a type of ship developed in Scotland it was likely made with the help of both British and Viking influences in fact the name Berlin derives from the Norse word Baron gear meaning ship of boards however overtime changes were made to the ship that caused it to depart from its foreign Origins and take on a more Scottish character now in terms of design the Berlin was a ship that made use of both a single large Square sail and set of ores with a smaller vessel having as few as 12 and larger ones having as many as 40 it was also a clinker built that's to say it used a method of boat building in which the edges of Hull planks overlap each other when ship Builders wanted to create a larger boat shorter planks could be joined end to end creating a longer Plank and by extension a longer finished product when possible tough enduring oak wood was used however in areas like the outer herdes which lack Timber inferior Woods such as inner Ys imported from the mainland would often be employed the end result of this design and construction was pretty impressive Swift maneuverable and in many cases exquisitely carved they had many uses while cargo and troop transport was Chief among them the historic record seems to suggest they were most commonly used as warships fighting in skirmishes between the bickering plans in the area despite this violent use the ship was technically not well suited for the job after all the Berlin was far too light to Bear a cannon and instead tended to be used for raiding rather than sea battles the unfortunate reality with it is that despite being present in the herdan Seas from the 12th until the 17th centures we've yet to find any preserved examples of this incredible ship this is because unlike Viking long ships which were used in burial mounds the lack of Timber in Scotland meant that when a galley was decommissioned its wood planks were reused while the rest of it was burned for fuel thankfully though by using the historical record we've been able to make reasonably faithful modern interpretations one of the most impressive impressive is the iok built in 1991 it was based on representations of Berlin's and west highland sculpture however despite its good seagoing performance and stunning looks critics believe that its high vertical Stern is not accurate and that a typical Berlin would have been longer and larger yet while it may not be perfect the ship stands as a testament to the strengths of Scottish ship building number three the osberg ship of all the Viking ships around today the osberg ship is considered by many to be the most well preserved The Story Goes that after a strange piece of wood was discovered in 1903 on a farm in Southeastern Norway Professor Gabriel gustofson of the University of Oslo was called in to investigate after paying the landowner 12,000 Norwegian croner or about 1,300 bucks for the land which at the time was a considerable sum his team got to work and in 1904 he uncovered an elaborate burial mound upon further investigation this mound was found to have the skeletons of two women several animals and a series of beautiful objects such as wooden Slavs embroidered textiles and of course the osberg ship because the mound had been covered with blue clay stones and turf from the local marshin the oak Ash Pine and uwood used to make the ship has remained in a remarkably well-preserved State however all this clay stone and turf was both a blessing and a curse after all it was so heavy that it also managed to crush the boat's contents while not adequately preserving much of the ship in response all of the water loged wood that remained had to be dried out before being used to reconstruct the ship once this was all said and done the ship was assembled and put on display in 1926 as part of the inaugural exhibit of the Viking ship museum at the University of Oslo given the fact that it consisted more than 90% of the original Timber it is in remarkable condition despite this repairs have consistently had to be made for example in the 1950s the ship was Co with an artificial resin and in the 1990s major repairs began after it was discovered that the Alum treatment had not penetrated deep enough into the wood to remove all the water this led to a protracted restoration effort and as of now the ship is not on display however the plan is for it to be open to the public by 2026 number two Chinese junks of all the ships on this list the one that stands apart for truly standing the test of time is the Chinese junk its most interesting feature is its roughly square-faced full Batten sails for those of you that aren't well versed in ship lingo Batten Sails are sales that incorporate bamboo spines forc stability these were important because they not only sectioned the sail protecting from small rips and tears but were linked in such a way so Sailors could adjust the sails from the deck setting them apart from other ships where Sailors had to climb the mass to complete that task now beyond the cool sailes the Chinese junks were also made of lightweight woods they had flat bottoms and as a result had a very shallow draft that allowed it to Glide quickly and effortlessly across even the shallowest of water now what makes the Chinese junk incredible is it's not just well-designed but also longlived after all Jun first appeared in China during the Han Dynasty about 2,000 years ago they were mostly used for fishing trade and commerce over time their design improved to make them more robust and able to take on longer voyages although it was in the Middle Ages that they began to take on a more military role under the leadership of a certain Admiral Jen the Imperial Ming navies sailed to India Arabia and even as far as Africa's Cape of Good Hope trading in Ivory and spices and establishing diplomatic ties with the foreigners along the way in fact at its peak Zen ha's Armada had 30,000 Sailors and over 300 ships many of which were Chinese junks however of these junks a nine masted treasure ship was the most legendary measuring it at 120 M long and 45 M wide it was the largest recorded junk in human history once the Middle Ages came to a close the Chinese junk continued to set sail however it faced some Rough Waters After All In rather abrupt move from the mid 15th to the early 16th century the entire Imperial fleet was burned down and all Maritime trade was banned thankfully the knowledge and traditions of ship building were not lost forever and over time China's Naval capabilities were redeveloped however this unfortunately proved to be too little too late after all by the time of the Opium Wars even super sized junks fitted with cannons were no match for the massive ships of the British royal Navy thankfully though it didn't lead to the junks to M that's because despite not having the same economic and Military significance today Chinese junks can still be found in Harbors across Asia number one the canar in the early middle ages one of the world's most advanced ships was most certainly the canar or Nar hailing from Scandinavia it played a pivotal role in the expansion and trade of the Vikings yet to understand the canar we first need to look at its predecessor the long ship you see when the Vikings first landed on the shores of England in 793 to conduct a raid on the monastery at Linden far they were making use of the long ship these were long narrow and light ships with a shallow draft designed for Speed and were so shallow they could be used in waters that were as little as 1 meter deep they were able to land on beaches with ease and were lightweight enough to be carried over land they were also pretty fast thanks to the fact Sailors would use ores that covered almost the entire length of the Longboat and as they developed they would become increasingly Stout and include sails that they could take on ocean sailing now while the long ship could be used in the ocean the reality is that it could carry very little cargo and were still vulnerable to large waves this became a problem as the Vikings began to expand not just into the Mediterranean and North Seas but also began to colonize new far away areas such as the Pharaoh shetlands ores herdes Iceland Greenland and briefly Canada in order to have the supplies necessary to make these long trips work the canar was developed beier and containing more freeboards than its lighter cousin the canal relied more on its sale than the two to four ores it carried to Aid in maneuvering and despite being a rather basic setup a skilled Viking captain could read the sun stars and currents they could successfully sail a canar across the North Atlantic and to the new world they also had far more storage space allowing them to not only bring back more booty from raids but also bring Goods with it to sell to the people they encountered on their travels however despite being a step up from the Long Boat one problem that remained was shelter after all despite traveling for days on end Sailors on a canar had nothing to protect themselves from the elements forcing them to huddle up and deal with whatever weather came their way it's also worth noting that much of our understanding surrounding the canar was aided by a pretty incredible Discovery you see in 1962 an excavation began off the coast of Denmark the ship being excavated had been sitting in shallow water for centuries according to Legend it was none other than the ship of Queen Margaret the of Denmark which is believed to have sunk in the 15th century however the excavation proved that Queen Margaret had nothing to do with the wreckage rather the site contained five Viking ships this excavation became the first discovery of a canar and upon further study it was discovered that the ships had been filled with rocks and sunk on purpose to block the passageway off from Intruders today all five of the ships reside at the Viking ship Museum in rock Kilda Denmark thanks for watching Everybody I'll see you next time thank you to our channel members

Channel: Top Fives

Views: 171,708

Keywords: ship, ships, medieval, history

Id: diVOSysdSpE

Length: 24min 29sec (1469 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 24 2024