Vessels at last provided for the expedition. called caravels, described, or rather, from the drawings of the period, delineated as open and without deck in the centre, rising to a considerable height at the bow and stern, with forecastles and cabins for the accommodation of the crew. The third vessel, according to the testimony of Peter Martyr, the learned contemporary of Columbus, was decked throughout. The only reason alleged for employing vessels without decks, or open in the waist, on so hazardous a voyage, was, that from their smallness, Columbus might be enabled to run close to the shore, and to enter shallow waters and harbours, advantages which, he thought, overweighed the danger of an ocean navigation, about which he was comparatively careless. More likely they were really chosen because larger vessels could not readily be obtained at Palos.
Their size and character. But though the size and construction of her vessels were thus accommodated to the short and easy voyages along the coast which they were accustomed to perform, Spain possessed many larger. One hundred and fifty years before the time of Columbus, mention is made in an edict issued by Pedro IV. (1354) of Catalonian merchant ships of two and three decks, and from 8,000 to 12,000 quintals burden.[1] Again, in 1419, Alphonso of Aragon hired several merchant ships to transport artillery and horses, &c., from Barcelona to Italy, two of which carried one hundred and twenty horses each. Mention is also made of a Venetian vessel of 700 tons arriving, in 1463, at Barcelona, from England, laden with wheat, and of a Castilian ship which, in 1497, conveyed to that port a cargo of 12,000 quintals burden. In fact, then as now,
- ↑ Capmany, vol. v. p. 58.
