What is it? Galleon or galleass?

[Tom L.]

I lifted this from a Wikipedia page on the Battle of Zonchio, and it purports to be the Turkish Commander's flagship.

However...

That battle was fought in 1499, but this representation sports features that are 16th-17th century, and to my eyes make the accuracy of the painting very, very suspect.

More interesting are the hybrid features that it displays, the familiar beakhead of a galleon in conjunction with the ram of a galley, square sails on the mizzen and bonaventure masts, bowsprit topsail, the double tiered stern galleries...a fascinating painting, and I have to ask:

Despite what I titled the file when I saved it, would you call this ship a galleass, or would you call it a galleon?

[OftenRong]

Clearly - it has permanent 'sweeps' (oars) along the side, while it's hard to tell what the beam/length proportions are, it's probably a Galleass. The type varied a great deal during the era, and as the Galleon is actually a later type...

It's possible the date is wrong since the design looks too "modern" for 1499. Look more like it belongs in the late 16th century around the time of the Spanish Armada...

[chuck]

The number of oars on the sides make them galleasses. Wood cut from before 17th century are almost always fanciful, depicting types of ships familiar to the wood cutter for effect rather than the type of ship appropriate to the era for accuracy. In this type of wood cuts you would find the same Galleasses wood cut in Greek and Roman fleets as well as Turkish fleets, or the same woodcut of a notional city serving as Hamburg, Jerusalum, Constantinople, and capitol of the great Kahn.