Real (galley)
{{Short description|16th century Spanish galley}}
{{More citations needed|date=December 2015}}
| {{Infobox ship begin
| infobox caption = | display title = ital }} {{Infobox ship image | Ship image = Barcelona Museu Maritim Galera Real 06.jpg | Ship image size = | Ship caption = Scale model in Barcelona Maritime Museum. | image alt = }} {{Infobox ship career | Hide header = | Ship country = | Ship flag = | Ship name = | Ship owner = | Ship ordered = | Ship builder = Barcelona Royal Shipyard | Ship original cost = | Ship laid down = | Ship launched = 1568 | Ship acquired = | Ship commissioned = | Ship decommissioned = | Ship in service = | Ship out of service = | Ship renamed = | Ship stricken = | Ship reinstated = | Ship honours = | Ship honors = | Ship captured = | Ship fate = | Ship notes = }} {{Infobox ship characteristics | Hide header = | Header caption = | Ship class = Galley | Ship tons burthen = | Ship length = {{cvt|60|m|ft}} | Ship beam = {{cvt|6.2|m|ft}} | Ship draught = | Ship draft = | Ship hold depth = | Ship propulsion = | Ship sail plan = | Ship complement = | Ship armament = | Ship notes = }} |
{{lang|es|Real}} (Spanish for "Royal") was a Spanish galley and the flagship of Don John of Austria in the Battle of Lepanto in 1571.
Construction
{{lang|es|Real}} was built in Barcelona at the Royal Shipyard in 1568 and was the largest galley of its time.{{Cite web|last=Nichols|first=Adam|title=OARED GALLEYS – THE STORY OF LA REAL: PART 2 – Corsairs & Captives|date=29 May 2018 |url=http://corsairsandcaptivesblog.com/oared-galleys-the-story-of-la-real-part-2/|access-date=2021-07-11|language=en-US}} {{lang|es|Real}} was usually the designation of the flagship in a particular Spanish fleet and was not necessarily the actual name of the ship. {{lang|es|Almirante}} ("admiral") was the designation of the ship of the 2nd in command, and others with a specific command function were {{lang|es|patrona/padrona}} and {{lang|es|lanterna}}.
The galley was {{convert|60|m}} long and {{convert|6.2|m}} wide, had two masts and weighed 237 tons empty. It was equipped with three heavy and six light artillery pieces, was propelled by a total of 290 rowers, and, in addition, carried some 400 sailors and soldiers at Lepanto. 50 men were posted on the upper deck of the forecastle, 50 on the midship ramp, another 50 each along the sides at the bow, 50 each on the skiff and oven platforms, 50 on the firing steps along the sides near the stern, and 50 more on the stern platform behind the huge battle flag. To help move and maneuver the huge ship, it was pushed from the rear during the battle by two other galleys.
=Decoration=
Befitting a royal flagship to be shown before Spain's former rivals of Venice and the Papacy, it was luxuriously ornamented and painted in the red and gold colors of Spain.{{Citation needed|date=February 2022|reason=In 1568, they would be the colors of Aragon, wouldn't they?}} Its poop was elaborately carved and painted with numerous sculptures, bas-reliefs, paintings, and other embellishments, most of them evoking religious and humanistic inspirational themes.
Giovanni Battista Castello {{lang|it|il Bergamasco}} did the first sketch for the decoration under the orders of Francisco Hurtado de Mendoza, Count of Monteagudo.
After his death in 1569, the humanist Juan de Mal de Lara developed the program.
In Seville, the decoration was performed by the sculptor Juan Bautista Vázquez and the architect Benvenuto Tortello.
Mal de Lara's program featured Hercules, Betis (the personification of the river Guadalquivir), Jason and the Argonauts, personifications of virtues, and other mythological allegories alluding to and advising John of Austria as captain for his half-brother Philip II of Spain.{{cite journal |last1=Édouard |first1=Sylvène |title=Argo, la galera real de Don Juan de Austria en Lepanto |journal=RS |url=https://www.patrimonionacional.es/sites/default/files/argo_la_galera_real.pdf |access-date=15 February 2022 |trans-title=Argo, Don John of Austria's Royal Galley at Lepanto |publisher=Patrimonio Nacional |language=es-ES |translator-last=Real Rodríguez|translator-first=Cecilia}}
Naval service
The Battle of Lepanto in 1571 saw Juan of Austria's fleet of the Holy League, an alliance of Christian powers of the Mediterranean, decisively defeat an Ottoman fleet under Grand Admiral ({{lang|tr|Kaptan-ı Derya}}) Müezzinzade Ali Pasha.
{{lang|es|Real}} and the Turkish galley {{lang|tr|Sultana}}, Ali Pasha's flagship, engaged in direct deck-to-deck combat very soon after the start of the battle. {{lang|tr|Sultana}} was boarded and after about one hour of bloody fighting, with reinforcements being supplied to both ships by supporting galleys of the two respective fleets, captured. Ali Pasha was wounded by musket fire, fell to the deck, and was beheaded by a Spanish soldier. His head was displayed on a pike, severely affecting the morale of his troops. {{lang|es|Real}} captured the "Great Flag of the Caliphs" and became a symbol of the victory at Lepanto.
Legacy
In 1971, to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the battle, a replica of {{lang|es|La Real}} was built under the direction of José María Martínez-Hidalgo y Terán and displayed in the Barcelona Maritime Museum where it can be viewed today.
Gallery
File:Replica of the Real, the flagship of Don Juan of Austria at the Battle of Lepanto, 1571, Museu Maritim, Barcelona (9) (31142245236).jpg|Bow view of the replica in the Museu Marítim de Barcelona.
File:Galley deck (5042862874).jpg|Rowing deck.
File:J23 531 »La Real«, Laderaum.jpg|View of the hold.
File:Stern chamber in spanish galley La Real.jpg|The stern chamber.
File:Museu Maritim fg01.jpg|Stern view.
See also
- {{Commons category-inline|Real (ship, 1568)}}
References
{{Reflist}}
Further reading
- {{cite book |last=Currey |first=E. Hamilton |title=Sea-Wolves of the Mediterranean |url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.173046 |publisher=John Murray |date=1910}}
- {{cite book |last=Bicheno |first=Hugh |title=Crescent and Cross: The Battle of Lepanto 1571 |publisher=Phoenix |date=2003 |isbn=1-84212-753-5}}
{{World's largest wooden ships}}
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