Gunpowder and Galleys: Changing Technology and Mediterranean Warfare at Sea in the 16th Century, Revised Edition

Interspersing topical chapters with chronological ones, Guilmartin (history and early modern European history, Ohio State U.) explores how the Mediterranean system of armed conflict at sea operated over the course of the 16th century. Among his findings is that the war galley held it own against the broadside sailing vessel into the 1580s; and the because of the characteristics of black powder and early modern naval ordinance, there was no direct relationship between a cannon's barrel length and its maximum effective range. The 1974 first edition was published by Cambridge University Press. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com) Introduction Jiddah, 1517 The Mahanians' fallacy Prevesa, 1538 The Mediterranean system of warfare at sea: geographic origins and operational characteristics William Towerson's fight off the Guinea coast, 1557 The Mediterranean system of naval warfare: physical, economic and social limitations Djerba, 1560 The weapons of sixteenth-century warfare at sea Malta, 1565 The galley Lepanto, 1571 The decline of the Mediterranean system of warfare at sea: technological change, social and economic causes and effects Appendix 1. The development and tactical employment of individual firearms in the sixteenth century Appendix 2. The external and internal ballistics of sixteenth-century cannon Appendix 3. The design and construction of bronze cannon in the sixteenth century Appendix 4. Computation of the speed of sixteenth-century galleys under oars Appendix 5. The oficiales, soldiers and oarsmen carried aboard sixteenth-century Spanish galleys Appendix 6. The classification and arrangement of ordnance on sixteenth-century galleys