Carrack
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robot Adding: [[is:Karkari]]
[[Image:Eertvelt, Santa Maria.jpg|thumb|200px|''The [[Santa Maria (ship)|Santa Maria]] at anchor'' by [[Andries van Eertvelt]], painted c. 1628 shows the famous '''carrack''' of [[Christopher Columbus]]]]
A '''carrack''' or '''nau''' was a three- or four-[[Mast (sailing)|masted]] [[sailing]] ship developed in the [[Mediterranean]] in the 15th century by the [[Portugal|Portuguese]]. It had a high rounded [[stern]] with an [[aftcastle]] and a [[forecastle]] and [[bowsprit]] at the stem. It was [[square-rigged]] on the [[foremast]] and [[mainmast]] and [[lateen]]-[[rigging|rigged]] on the [[mizzenmast]].
Carracks were one of the first proper [[ocean]]-going ships in [[Europe]]; large enough to be stable in heavy seas, and roomy enough to carry provisions for long voyages. They were the ships in which the [[Portugal|Portuguese]] and the [[Spain|Spanish]] explored the world in the 15th and 16th centuries. In [[Portuguese language|Portuguese]] this type was called ''nau'', while in Spanish it is called ''carraca'' or ''nao'' (both of which meant simply "ship"). In French it was '''caraque''', '''caravelle''' or '''nef'''.
== Early origins ==
The word ''carrack'' is usually traced back through the medieval European languages to the [[Arabic language|Arabic]], and thence to the [[Greek language|Greek]] {{Polytonic|κέρκουρος}} (''kerkouros'') meaning approximately "[[lighter (barge)]]" (literally, "shorn tail", a possible reference to the ship's flat stern). Its attestation in Greek literature is distributed in two closely related lobes. The first distribution lobe, or area, associates it with certain light and fast merchantmen found near [[Cyprus]] and [[Corfu]]. The second is an extensive attestation in the [[Oxyrhynchus]] corpus, where it seems most frequently to describe the Nile barges of the [[Ptolemaic]] [[pharaoh]]s. Both of these usages may lead back through the [[Phoenician languages|Phoenician]] to the [[Akkadian language|Akkadian]] ''kalakku'', which denotes a type of river barge. The Akkadian term is assumed to be derived from a [[Sumerian language|Sumerian]] antecedent.<ref>[http://jis.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/citation/2/1/78 Sumerian antecedent]</ref> A modern reflex of the word is found in [[Arabic language|Arabic]] and [[Turkish language|Turkish]] ''kelek'' "raft; riverboat".<ref>Gong, Y. "kalakku: Überlegungen zur Mannigfaltigkeit der Darstellungsweisen desselben Begriffs in der Keilschrift anhand des Beispiels kalakku", ''Journal of Ancient Civilizations'', 5, 1990, 9-24.</ref>
The ''kalakku'' was a barge with goatskin or bladder floats, which might measure up to 15 m in a square or rectangular form, and which, in its later manifestations, was capable of being poled, dragged, rowed, or even sailed up the Tigris or the Euphrates.<ref>[http://www.jameswbell.com/a008thetigrisriver.html Sailing a ''kelek'']</ref>
The European ''carrack'' may have resulted from a fusion of this design, or that of the Phoenician lighter, with that of the [[Germanic peoples|Germanic]] [[longship]] when the latter diffused into the Mediterranean.
==Advantages==
[[Image:Carrack-Dubrovnik6107.jpg|thumb|200px|Replica in [[Croatia]]]]
The carrack was the choice high seas beast of burden and has been described as the "perfected transport ship"{{Fact|date=December 2007}}.
* it offered the space for crew, provisions and also cargo.
* they were virtually impregnable to attack from small craft, which was often a problem in the [[East Indies]].
* their ability to carry cargo and provisions made them independent of ports ''en route'', and so they had a longer range using the most efficient route.
* the combination of four sails allowed for a fair degree of flexibility - the large square sails provided propulsion, but were reduced in size during storms. The smaller sails at bow and stern allowed for maneuvering, and the lateen sails allowed for sailing across the wind.
* the stable deck allowed for placement of guns, thus making the vessel an effective gun platform. This fact would greatly assist the Portuguese in convincing non-compliant rulers like the [[Zamorin|Samoothiri Raja]] in Asia.
However, the large superstructures of these ships made them prone to toppling in strong winds.
[[Image:NanbanCarrack.jpg|thumb|200px|A Portuguese "[[Nanban]]" carrack in [[Nagasaki, Nagasaki|Nagasaki]], [[Japan]], 17th century.]]
==Famous carracks==
* ''[[Great Michael]]'', a Scottish ship, at one time the largest in Europe.
* ''[[Mary Rose]]'' and ''[[Henri Grâce à Dieu]]'' — commissioned by [[Henry VIII of England|Henry VIII]] - English military carracks like these were often called [[great ship]]s.
* ''[[Grace Dieu (ship)|Grace Dieu]]'' — commissioned by [[Henry V of England|Henry V]]
* ''[[Santa Anna (ship)|Santa Anna]]'' — a particularly modern design commissioned by the [[Knights Hospitaller]] in 1522 and sometimes hailed as the first armoured ship.
* ''[[Madre de Deus]]'' — which was seized by the [[Royal Navy|Navy Royal]] off [[Flores Island (Azores)|Flores Island]] in 1592 with an enormously valuable cargo.
* [[Santa Catarina (ship)|''Santa Catarina'']] — which was seized by the [[Dutch East India Company]] off [[Singapore]] in 1603.
* [[Santa María (ship)|''Santa María'']] — in which [[Christopher Columbus]] made his voyage in 1492.
* [[Santo Antonio (ship)|''Santo António'']] or ''St. Anthony'', the personal property of King John of [[Portugal]], wrecked off [[Gunwalloe]] Bay in 1527, the salvage of whose cargo almost led to a war between Britain and Portugal.
* [[Victoria (ship)|''Victoria'']] — the first ship to circumnavigate the globe, from 1519 to 1522. Five Spanish naos left the port of [[Seville]] on [[11 August]] [[1519]] with 243 men. Only the nao ''Victoria'', commanded by Captains [[Ferdinand Magellan]] and [[Juan Sebastián Elcano]], and with only 18 survivors, came back to the same port on [[8 September]] [[1522]].
==Carracks in Asia==
From around 1515, Portugal had trade exchanges with [[Goa]] in [[India]], consisting in 3 to 4 carracks leaving [[Lisbon]] with silver to purchase cotton and spices in India. Out of these, only one carrack went on to China in order to purchase silk, also in exchange for Portuguese silver.
From the time of the acquisition of [[Macau]] in 1557, and their formal recognition as trade partners by the Chinese, the Portuguese Crown started to regulate trade to [[Japan]], by selling to the highest bidder the annual "Captaincy" to Japan, in effect conferring exclusive trading rights for a single carrack bound for Japan every year. That trade continued with few interruptions until 1638, when it was prohibited on the ground that the ships were smuggling priests into Japan.
During the 16th century the carrack developed into the [[galleon]].
==Additional reading==
* Kirsch, Peter, ''The Galleon'' (1990), Conway Maritime Press, ISBN 0-85177-546-2
==External links==
{{commonscat|Carrack (ship)}}
{{Wiktionary}}
* [http://www.greatgridlock.net/Sqrigg/squrig2.html The Development of the Full-Rigged Ship From the Carrack to the Full-Rigger]
==References==
<references/>
{{Sailing vessels and rigs}}
[[Category:Ship types]]
[[Category:Merchant ships]]
[[Category:Exploration ships]]
[[cs:Karaka]]
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