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The Mary Rose/Polly Dodger: Carrack of the Line
When one thinks of the great ships used in shipping and exploration, only the Carrack comes to mind. These full-rigged ships of three-to-five masts were the first to incorporate castle structures into the hull.
Of course, Christopher Columbus' diminutive flagship Santa Maria remains undoubtedly the world's most famous carrack, one has to remember that during this age of exploration, many great explorers and pyrates used these ships. Magellan, for example, had an all-carrack fleet with which he set to circumnavigate the globe in 1519. The spacious vessels offered room for a large crew and provisions -- as well as for cargo to be brought back home.
This 80 foot vessel could carry around 100 pirates mounting 10 cannons and a cargo space about twice as big as the sloop. Her main sail could be fitted with either square sails that were best in quartering wind, or fore-and-aft sails for sailing windward. This ship was the clear choice for battle or combat rather than the quick, hit and run type piracy tactics that were practiced with the sloops and schooners.
Keep in mind that most pyrates could not build a ship to order like the merchants and military did. They had to be opportunists and having looted a ship, the pirates would either burn the vessel, let it go on it's way, set it adrift, or take the ship over for their own use. Most pirate ships were no more then captured vessels taken as prizes and then altered to suit the pirates needs.
Henry VIII's early shipbuilding programme culminated with the massive Henry Grace ˆ Dieu of 1500 tons. While the Mary Rose was smaller, initially rated at 600 tons, she remained the second most powerful ship in the fleet and a favourite of the king. She was considered to be a fine sailing ship, operating in the Channel to keep up links with the last English possessions around Calais. She was a carrack, equipped to fight at close range.
As built, the Mary Rose was intended to close with her enemies, fire her guns, come alongside to allow the soldiers she was carrying to board the enemy ship, supported by a hail of arrows, darts and quick-lime, and to capture it by hand-to-hand fighting. Aside from the use of small guns, little had changed in the design of warships since Edward III's victory at Sluys in 1340. The only heavy guns were mounted low in the stern, and were mainly used to bombard shore positions.
As the rigging developed with more mast and sails, also the size of carracks increased. Giant 16th Century warships such as the Portuguese Santa Catarina do Monte Sinai or Henry VIII's (the creator of the Royal Navy) regal namesake Henry Grace a Dieu (1514) -- more "commonly" known as "Great Harry" -- and obviously, The Mary Rose were examples of such, almost lavish, undertakings that the new technology allowed. The latters, with their bronze cannons on several decks and their flat sterns, were, despite the towering castles, prototypes for the future's gun-armed galleons.
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