From Lateen to Square Rig: The evolution of the Greek-owned merchant fleet and its ships in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries

Abstract

Between the middle of the eighteenth and the nineteenth centuries shipping became a major economic activity for many Ionian and Aegean communities. The growth of the merchant marine of the Ionians and Aegean Greeks under both Venetian and Ottoman sovereignty, and that of the kingdom of Greece after 1830, are examined in relation to shipping developments. A key element of this study is the analysis of the ship types that were employed by Greek shipowners over the period. The evolution of ship types helps us to understand the technical upgrade of the Greek merchant fleets and in parallel with their economic growth, their expansion to new routes and their specialization on certain trades and markets. As they made the transition from purely Mediterranean ship types to those influenced by those of western and northern Europe, seafarers improved the performance of their business and gathered important technical know-how. As a result they steadily integrated with the wider international maritime economy.

Keywords::

• Greek merchant fleet and shipowners
• ship types
• sailing ship technology evolution
• Ionian and Aegean shipping
• Mediterranean ports

Acknowledgements

I would like to express my gratitude to Prof. Antonis Anastasopoulos as well as to the reviewers of Mariner's Mirror for their valuable suggestions and the editing of this paper.

Notes

¹ Amphitrete Greek Maritime History, 1700–1821, ‘Pythagoras’ I, Research Programme, 2004–7, financed by the European Union and the Greek Ministry of Education, Department of History, Ionian University; Delis, ‘Ερμούπολη (Σύρος)’, ANR/Navigocorpus (2007–11), Corpus des itinéraires des navires de commerce, XVIIe–XIX e siècles, CMMC-CRBC-LARHRA.

² Katsiardi-Hering, ‘Αυστριακή πολιτική’, 445–537.

³ Harlaftis, ‘Eastern Invasion’, 237; Papakonstantinou, ‘Messolonghi’, 279.

⁴ Yannakopoulou, ‘Grèce, 53, 55–8.

⁵ Harlaftis, ‘“dei Greci”’, 402–8.

⁶ See the collection of engravings and paintings made by Mediterranean maritime artists like J. J. Baugean and Antoine Roux depicting several Mediterranean types of vessels among the many existing sources of iconographical evidence on this subject.

⁷ 1757 sketch that of a brigantine (square rigged both masts, no mainsail) captioned as ‘Checcia o sia Bregantin’. Watercolour from Venice dated 1801 has a checchia rigged as a brig; see Marzari ‘Adriatic’, 153, 161.

⁸ Livorno (7); Trieste (3); Fiume (1); North Africa (1)

⁹ Leon, ‘Eλληνική’, 31. This supposed 1764 list must have originated from a document sent from the Venetian Consul of Patras to Venice. This is in Archivio di Stato di Venezia, Cinque Savi della Mercanzia, Nuova Serie, Lettere, Busta 728, and dated 11 Nov. 1762, so the reference to the year 1764 is misleading.

¹⁰ Di Taranto, ‘marina’, 304; Triantafyllidou-Baladié, ‘Transport’, 24.

¹¹ Labat Saint Vincent, Malte, 379; Panzac, ‘Chio’, 18.

¹² Franceschi and Rieth, Voiles, 80; Di Taranto, ‘marina’, 305–6; Prins, ‘Mediterranean’, 95; Navigocorpus database.

¹³ Labat Saint Vincent, Malte, 380; Di Taranto, ‘marina’, 304–5, 308–9.

¹⁴ Caracciolo, Le port franc d'Ancône.

¹⁵ Hadjianargyros, Σπετσιωτικά, vol. 2, 54–68. Nikodemos, Υπόμνημα, 15–24, 39, 49.

¹⁶ Hadjianargyros, Σπετσιωτικά, vol. 2, 79.

¹⁷ Hadjianargyros, Σπετσιωτικά, vol. 2, 79.

¹⁸ Ibid; Papakonstantinou, ‘Θαλάσσιες και χερσαίες’, 262.

¹⁹ Delis, ‘Τυποi πλοίων’, 41–2.

²⁰ Amphitrete.

²¹ Harlaftis, ‘“dei Greci”’, 407–16.

²² Kriezis, Ιστορία της, 41, 60. Hadjianargyros, Σπετσιωτικά, vol. 2, 123.

²³ Delis, ‘Τυποi πλοίων’, 15–16.

²⁴ Carlo De Negri, Vele italiane, 49, 56.

²⁵ MacGregor, 1775–1815, 81–90, 136–49; ibid., 1815–1850, 49–59, 112–34.

²⁶ Amphitrete.

²⁷ Delis, ‘Τυπογία πλοίων’, 51–3.

²⁸ Ibid, 39-40; Hadjianargyros, Σπετσιωτικά, vol. 2, 121.

²⁹ Delis, ‘Τυπολογία πλοίων’, 39–40.

³⁰ Ibid., 30–32.

³¹ Echinard, à Marseille, 11.

³² Corrales, ‘Captains’, 208–16; Harlaftis, ‘“Eastern Invasion”’, 241–3.

³³ Kriezis, Ιστορία της, 29, 52. Hadjianargyros, Σπετσιωτικά, vol. 2, 121–2. Nikodemos, Υπόμνημα, 72-3; Exadaktylou-Bekiaroglou, ‘Μετακινήσεις’, 39–46.

³⁴ Kremmydas ‘Οικονομική Κρίση’, (1976), 16–33 and (2002) 71–84.

³⁵ Leon, ‘Ελληνική’, 44. Kremmydas ‘Οικονομική Κρίση’, (1976), 24.

³⁶ Piazza, ‘toscano’, 379; Anselmi, ‘navale’, 241; Muscat, ‘Maltese’, 241; Campodonico, ‘Genoese’, 170. MacGregor, 1775–1815, 136–49. French, ‘Merchant shipping’, 27.

³⁷ Hadjianargyros, Σπετσιωτικά, vol. 2, 121.

³⁸ Delis, ‘Shipbuilding’, 353–61; ibid, ‘Τυπολογία πλοίων’, 51; Harlaftis and Vlassopoulos, ‘Pontoporeia’.

³⁹ De Negri, Vele italiane, 51–2; Harland, Ships, 10–11.

⁴⁰ Delis, ‘Ναυπήγηση’, 104–5.

⁴¹ Unger, The Ship, 163–7, 183–4; Friel, ‘The Carrack’, 78. Pryor, ‘The Mediterranean’, 67–74; Casson, Ships & Seamanship, 229–58.

⁴² Delis, ‘Shipbuilding’, 364–65.

⁴³ Exadaktylou-Bekiaroglou, ‘Μετακινήσεις τεχνιτών’, 39–46.

⁴⁴ Delis, ‘Ερμούπολη (Σύρος)’, 244–5; Underhill, Deep-Water, 64–5; Mac Gregor, ‘The Wooden Sailing Ship’, 50; Sager, ‘The Port of St. John's’, 38.

Additional information

Apostolos Delis studied ancient history in the Universities of Siena and Bologna and maritime archaeology and history in the University of Bristol. He completed his PhD thesis in 2010 at the Ionian University. In 2010–11, he worked as postdoctoral researcher in the research project ANR/Navigocorpus in the Centre de la Méditerranée Moderne et Contemporaine, Université de Nice-Sophia Antipolis. He is currently a post-doctoral researcher in the Institute for Mediterranean Studies (IMS)/ Foundation for Research and Technology, Hellas (FORTH) in Crete. His research interests lie in the maritime economic and social history, history of technology of the sailing ship, the shipbuilding industry, port history and the institutions of shipping business.