Text 6a
COLONIAL EXPANSION
A
Pic. 14. The Galleon “Golden Hint” continued to build the hull by fastening the planking to a skeleton of keel and ribs. But they replaced the steering oars with a rudder in the stern. They also adopted the forecastle and sterncastle of the cog. Most important they changed the rig to gain more power and better maneuverability – and so developed the full-rigged ship.
The basic full-rigged ship, or square-rigger, had a mainmast in the middle of the ship, a foremast in the forward part, and a mizzenmast in the back part. The mainmast and the foremast each carried a big square sail and, above it, smaller square sail. The mizzenmast held a lateen sail. A pole that stuck out from the bow carried a small square sail. During the late 1400’s and 1500’s, such great explorers as Christopher Columbus, Vasco da Gama, Sir Francis Drake and Ferdinand Magellan used ships rigged in this way. The new three-masted ships were relatively small and had few comforts. Only the captain, other high-ranking officers and guests had cabins. The rest of the crew slept on the deck or in hammocks below deck. The hammock was an American Indian invention that Columbus brought back to Europe.
About the mid-1500’s, a type of sailing ship called the galleon appeared on the seas. Galleons were big vessels with lower forecastles than other ships and a high sterncastles that housed elaborate living quarters. The foremast and mainmast each carried two or three sails, and the mizzenmast carried one or two. On the biggest galleons, a second mizzenmast was added near the stern.
The galleons were the ideal ships for ocean navigation. The storm modes of navigation were provided with the extremely special form of the hull. At strengthening of a storm wind, the crew took in all sails and the vessel similarly to a weather vane left by a bow on a wave.
Galleons served as both warships and cargo vessels. Guns had been used aboard ships since about the mid-1300’s. But the galleons carried more and heavier guns. In 1588, the English and Spanish fleets fought one of the most famous sea battles in history. Both sides used galleons. But the English galleons were faster, more maneuverable and better armed. They helped defeat the Spanish fleet, though the Spaniards had called their fleet the Invincible Armada.
Spain, Portugal and other countries also used galleons for trading. Spain used them to bring back gold and silver from its possessions in the New World. These treasure ships became a favourite target of pirates who roved the Caribbean Sea.
Galleons were the first in a long row of vessels of this type. Sloops, brigs, barques, frigates, schooners, brigantines and barquentines, varying in size, hull contours and rig, soon began to furrow the seas and oceans, making this period (XVI – XVIII cent.) the Golden Age of Sailing ships.
For centuries, ships had served as both cargo vessels and warships. But by about the 1600’s, cannons had become so heavy that ships needed specially built hulls to carry the added weight. The design of warships and unarmed cargo vessels thus became, in time, greatly different.
In the 1600’s, trading companies in several European countries began to build merchant ships especially for trade with India and the Far East. These ships brought ivory, silks, spices and other products from India, China and the East Indies. The Portuguese controlled the trade with the Far East until about 1600, when England and the Netherlands began to compete. Then Denmark and France also moved in. East India companies in each country built their own ships, called East Indiamen. Although the Indiamen were designed as cargo carriers, they carried guns for defense against attacks by pirates and fleets of enemy countries.
The size of the East Indiamen grew steadily larger. In 1700, for example, most English Indiamen carried 360 t of cargo. By 1800, they carried about 1000 t.
The time of independent adventurous explorers was coming to the end. The era of passenger traveling began. New vessels had to appear.
Ex. 6. Answer the questions:
1. What ship became standard throughout Europe for about 300 years after 1400? 2. What important changes in shipbuilding design were made? 3. How was the basic full-rigger rigged? 4. What comforts were there on board of the first full-rigged vessels? 5. Why the galleons were the ideal ships for ocean navigation? 6. What famous sea battle could be called the battle of galleons? 7. Why Spanish and Portuguese ships were a favourite target of pirates? 8. Why did the design of warships and unarmed cargo vessels become greatly different? 9. What ships were called East Indiamen? 10. Were they warships or cargo carriers?
Ex. 7. Agree or disagree with the following statements. Give grounds to your answer:
1. The full-rigged ship is a combination of the cog with the lateen-rigged vessel. 2. A full-rigger is a ship having no less than three masts. 3. The shipbuilders soon rejected the full-rigger’s design because of its unreliability. 4. The ships of Columbus and Magellan were very comfortable in comparison with earlier vessels. 5. The galleons and other full-riggers appeared the ideal ships for ocean navigation. 6. The galleons served mainly as cargo vessels. 7. The Invincible Armada was crushed only by chance because both sides had ships of the same kind. 8. Spanish and Portuguese colonies in America were much richer than those of other European countries. 9. The difference in warships and cargo ships design appeared because of the growing size of marine cannons. 10. East Indiaman is a native settler of the East Indies.
Ex. 8. Translate into English:
1. Корабли с латинским вооружением были более легкими по сравнению с коггами. 2. Галион был стандартным судном для океанских путешествий в XV – XVI веках. 3. Фок, грот и бизань мачты несли на себе основное парусное вооружение 3-мачтового судна. 4. Подвесные койки, где спали экипажи парусных судов, были индейским изобретением. 5. При усилении шторма матросы убирали паруса, но корабль, благодаря особой форме корпуса, оставался носом к волне. 6. Галионы использовались как грузовые суда, перевозящие золото из европейских владений в Новом свете в порты Европы. 7. Корабли с ценным грузом всегда были излюбленной целью карибских пиратов.
Ex. 9. Define the main topic and idea of the text, split it into the logical parts, make up the plan of the text.
Ex. 10. Abstract the text.
Ex. 11. Read and translate the text: