The Mediterranean Navies
Since the Mediterranean had known extensive seaborne commerce and naval warfare on a fairly large scale both in ancient times and in the period before AD 1000, it is not surprising that the idea of a centrally provided facility for the building and maintenance of ships mainly intended for war, was well accepted during our period. The derivation of the term ‘arsenal’, (usually in this region meaning shipyard rather than munitions or arms store) from the Arabic dar al-sina’a meaning ‘house of work’ is widely accepted. It is also often suggested that the earliest dockyards originated in the areas conquered by the Arabs in the seventh century. More probably the Byzantine facilities at Clysma and Alexandria were taken over by their Arab conquerors but the term they used spread throughout the area because of the power of their navy at this period. Certainly in papyrus letters from this date and into the ninth century there are many references to some sort of docking facilities available to ships in many ports on the Egyptian and Syrian coasts. Damietta was fortified and the anchorages at Acre and Tyre were protected by chains.
There were also, of course, dockyards or ship building and repair facilities in the later Byzantine Empire particularly in the immediate vicinity of Constantinople itself.
By the late eleventh century the Byzantine authorities seem to have relied largely on the Venetians to provide the naval element in their forces. Lewis and Runyan attribute much of the later failure of the Greeks to maintain their hold on the Empire in the face of the expanding power of the Latin West to their reliance on Italian mercenary ships and crews. We should, however, be careful of overstating the extent of the decline of Greek seafaring skills. Michael Paleologus rebuilt and fortified the dockyard at Kondoskalion after the restoration of the Greek Empire. Even if the navy of the Empire was of little strategic importance compared with its land forces in the period before the fall of Constantinople, the shipyards and the shipwrights in the neighbourhood of the city were subsequently of great value to the victorious Ottomans. It is these yards and these skilled workmen who are usually credited with providing the expertise which allowed the emergence of the Sultan as a major player in war at sea by the 1470s. Bayazid I had, however, begun the building of dockyard facilities for the Ottoman fleet at Gallipoli in 1390, which by 1397 could provide a safe anchorage for about 60 ships with adjoining storehouses. After the fall of Constantinople, Mahomet II probably took over the former Genoese galley repair yard on the Golden Horn which was developed in the sixteenth century into the major Ottoman naval base. The only important shipbuilding facility established by a Muslim ruler in the period of the Crusades is that built in the early thirteenth century by Ala al-Din Kayqubad in Alanya on the south-west coast of Anatolia. This seems to have had facilities for at least five galleys with ship-sheds and a fortified entrance.
Martino da Canal, in his chronicle written between 1262–75, links the first intervention by the Venetian state in shipbuilding with the contract concluded by the republic with would-be crusaders in 1204. Concina found mention of an ‘arsana’ at Venice in 1206 but it is clear that for much of the thirteenth century the building of all types of ships took place in many small yards all over the city. The building of galleys in particular was not confined to a state-run yard. By the end of the century, however, when Venice was engaged in a bitter naval war with Genoa, the need to build and equip large numbers of vessels suitable for use in war was urgent. There were also difficulties in ensuring adequate supplies of timber of the right type and quality, hemp for cordage and sailcloth. In 1302 the
Arsenale was placed on a much firmer footing by the Doge and Council with a monopoly of the building of galleys. It was closely associated with the neighbouring Tana, a ropewalk dedicated to supplying the needs of the galleys built in the
Arsenale. A ‘house of canvas’ a sail loft where canvas was also made followed between 1304–7. At this date it was not, of course, the complex organisation that so impressed its later visitors but it had a dedicated skilled workforce the
Arsenalotti, who lived in the area immediately surrounding the
Arsenale itself and thus formed a distinct elite group among the artisans of Venice. In the early fourteenth century c.1325, the original basin of the
Darsena Arsenale Vecchio was linked to the much more extensive, newly built
Darsena Arsenale Nuovo.It was planned that at least 25 should be kept ready to put to sea. In the immediate aftermath of the loss of Negroponte in 1470, when the Venetians were very alarmed by the number of ships that the Turks could put to sea, the Arsenale was again enlarged. The
Darsena Nuovissima was built with a full range of covered
berths and auxiliary buildings.
As well as controlling the building of galleys, whether intended for war or for trade, as a state monopoly, the Serenissima as the Venetian republic was known, was also aware of the need to ensure constant supplies of the raw materials needed in the shipyards. Timber had always come for both the communal and private boatyards from the so-called ‘imperial’ (communal) forests in Istria and Dalmatia. In 1464 the Senate set up the
Provveditori sopra le legne e boschi whose duty was to ensure the supply of timber, especially oak,for the Arsenale. Certain forests were reserved for its use especially near Trevigno. Later on in the sixteenth century this was further developed with the specialist cultivation of trees to produce knees, the shaped curved timbers needed for the frames to support deck timbers. In the same way, at the end of the fifteenth century, the government of Venice intervened to control the supply of hemp for the Tana. This had largely been grown around Bologna but in 1476 Michele di Budrio was lured from Bologna to teach the inhabitants of Montagnana on the Venetian terra firma the best way to grow the crop. The bulk of this, once the cultivation was established, was then destined for the workshops of the Tana.
Apart from the extensive facilities in Venice itself the republic also established repair yards, supply depots and even shipbuilding yards in its colonies in the Adriatic and eastern Mediterranean.
All were generally known as ‘arsenale’ even if on a much smaller scale. The most important was that at Candia which was capable of building galleys from scratch and which had increasing importance in the fifteenth century in the face of the growing threat of Turkish seapower. The others including those at Corfu, Zante, Zara and Retimo held supplies and could perform repairs. In the same way there are references to facilities known by some variant of ‘arsenal’, (
arsene, drassanes, tarsianatus, tersana) in many other Mediterranean ports.port. There were certainly yards of this kind in Sicily, at Palermo and Messina. That at Messina which may have had as many as ten galley sheds, was used by Charles of Anjou in the later thirteenth century when he pursued an active policy of galley building both here and at Marseille. In Pisa some sort of communal facility seems to have existed. The earliest mention of a ‘tersana’ dates from 1200 with officials from the
Opera della Tersana in charge of the yard and the building of galleys.
In Genoa the galleys were owned ‘by the managers of their mercantile voyages’ and hired by the government when needed for naval expeditions, while in Venice the galleys were owned by the state and ‘rented for mercantile uses when they were not needed for war’. (...) These were, however, private activities with the comune being involved only in the building of the Molo to provide more shelter for ships at the eastern end of the bay. Near the Molo the comune also built the Loggia Sancti Marci where all galley arrivals were recorded. Within the arm of the Molo the
darsena davanti S. Marco was set up around 1276, but this was a small enclosed anchorage not a shipyard nor did it have any association with war galleys. Shortly afterwards, at the other end of the bay at Porta dei Vacca another darsena was established largely for the use of wine ships. Adjacent to this, by the end of the fifteenth century, was an area known as the Arsenale which did include storehouses for marine stores and which by the end of the sixteenth century had moved on to build galleys for the state. At our period, however the Arsenale was ‘a mere physical space not an organisation. Ships were built in Genoa and all along the Ligurian coast especially at Savona, Sestri Levante and Sampierdarena but by private individuals not by the state.
In the territories of Aragon, Catalonia and Majorca, the earliest mention of an arsenal dates from 1149 found in a charter of Tortosa. In Majorca some sort of shipyard existed from Moorish times, as was also the case in many of the ports on the Andalusian coast.The centre of naval and maritime activity in our period was undoubtedly the city of Barcelona. The arsenal there first appears in a document in 1243. In 1328 the custom dues from trade with the Mamluks of Egypt were assigned to the support of this facility. This implies a degree of support by the crown but later references give the impression that the shipyard was a joint enterprise between the crown and the city authorities. It is certainly the case that it had no monopoly over ship construction. Galleys and other vessels, which might be used for war, were built all along the coast wherever there was a suitable harbour at places like Blanes and San Feliu. The fifteenth century archives of the crown of Aragon contain three volumes of galley inventories from 1421–71 which give full details of the value and nature of the vessels and their equipment. These galleys were valued when on loan by the
General de Cathalunya to various citizens of Barcelona. It was not unusual for state owned vessels to be hired to merchants at this period but the process does imply that there was also a continuing state involvement in some form of galley base where these vessels could be prepared to go to sea and where supplies could be stored. From Valencia there is some evidence of co-operation between the royal and civic authorities in the provision of port and dockyard facilities for ships used in a war-like manner. An arsenal had first been established outside the town walls at Villanova del Grau in 1284 but no permanent squadron of royal ships was based there. Galleys prepared for war were sought in time of need, usually being merchant galleys with increased numbers of armed men on board. These galleys were financed by the city and the generalidad acting in concert. This method of providing for the defence of the city and its commerce, most often from the activities of corsairs and pirates changed somewhat in the fifteenth century. The bailo granted licences to shipmasters from Valencia and nearby ports to pursue pirates but between 1456–60 the city owned a galley of its own for the same purposes.22 We must suppose that this galley was kept in repair and supplied with the necessary munitions and other stores at the public expense. This would not require, however, separate facilities from those used by trading ships and galleys.
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