The Maritime Museum of Montenegro implemented the project "Making a replica of a galley oar from the 16th century", as part of which it placed an imposing wooden galley oar, over 12 meters long, near the main city gate in Kotor.
The oar was made based on the detailed design of the Venetian oar "a scaloccio" from the 16th century, which was used on the most massive warships of the time - galleys that had a combined drive of oars and sails.
"With the implementation of this project, a small segment of the glorious maritime past of the city of Kotor has been revived. The size of the oars indicates the size of the galleys that the people of Kotor owned for a long period of time," the Maritime Museum announced.
The first mentions of Kotor galleys date back to the year 1155 until the period of Venetian rule, during which the commanders of the "supracomes" galleys were chosen from among the nobility by the Great and Small Council. The most famous among the Kotor galleys was certainly the galley "San Trifone di Cattaro" (Saint Trifone of Kotor) from the 16th century, which on October 7, 1571, under the command Jerome of Byzantium, participated in the famous Battle of Lepanto and in the most glorious way entered international military and naval history.
The sea was red with blood
On that day, near Lepanto (today's Naupaktos in Greece), the largest naval battle of ships with oars and sails in history took place, in which the Christian, so-called the fleet of the Holy League and the Islamic fleet of the Ottomans. Over 500 galleys and more than 150 thousand sailors and soldiers on ships participated on both sides, and Christians led by a noble Don Juan from Austria, they defeated the powerful Turkish fleet of admirals Ali-pasha. What a fierce fight it was, is confirmed by the fact that even around 90 percent of all the warships that sailed through the Mediterranean that day were found in one place.
After a decisive battle which, according to the chroniclers, left the sea red with blood, 83 percent of all Turkish ships and almost half of the soldiers and sailors on them were destroyed. 117 Turkish galleys were destroyed or captured, and the Turks had about 25 dead and 7,5 captured sailors, compared to 14 Christian galleys with 10 dead and 2,5 wounded soldiers. From the defeat suffered at Lepanto, the Turks as a naval power never recovered.
The Adriatic cities from Koper to Kotor equipped and sent into battle a total of eight of their galleys that fought in the fleet of the Holy League, composed of the warships of the Pope, Venice, Genoa and Spain. In the fleet of the Holy League there were about 88 thousand sailors and soldiers, and a total of 208 galleys from the Greek communes of Crete, Kefalonia, Lefkas and Corfu, galleys of the Adriatic communes, ships from Sicily, from Naples, Savoy galleys, warships of Genoa, Malta, Spain and 12 papal galleys.
Among them was the galley "Sveti Tripun Kotorski" with 175 crew members and the captain, Count Jeronimo Bizanti, and our warship stood out especially for the heroism of the crew and the skill of its commander. Namely, after the recklessness of part of the Genoese galleys led by the famous admiral Andre Doria who rowed away and sailed too far south, created a big hole on the southern wing of the fleet of the Holy League, the galley "Sveti Tripun Kotorski" together with the galleys of Rab and Trogir and a dozen other Venetian galleys, on their own initiative filled the gaping gap through which a third of the Turkish fleet tried to break through and the encirclement of the main force of the Holy League. Captains Jeronim Bizanti from Kotor decided to close that hole on their own initiative. Ivan Dominis from Rab and Kristofor Lucic from Trogir and their colleagues from Venice.
It was, however, a practically suicidal decision - they did succeed in stopping the Turkish advance and while the Turks were dealing with them, reinforcements arrived from the center for the Christians, but too late for some of our men. Because of their heroism, they paid a terrible price - the galley "Sveti Tripun Kotorski" was sunk, its entire crew led by captain Jeronimo Bizanti was killed, there were only a handful of survivors on the Rab galley, and about 160 dead on the Trogir galley. The sailors from Bokelje in particular amazed everyone with their heroism because the galley "Sveti Tripun Kotorski" withstood a simultaneous attack by as many as eight Turkish ships, and seven to eight Turks were killed for one dead sailor from Bokelje.
The officers and crew were from Kotor
Citizens of Kotor and its surroundings served on the Kotor galley: Kavča, Bogdašić, Lastva, Stoliv, Lušica, Krtola, Grblj. The officers on the ship were mostly from Kotor, first and foremost noblemen. "San Trifone di Cattaro" was a classic Venetian double-arched so-called galea sottile (thin, slender galley) with the so-called Fincat with the rudder. Those ships were made exclusively in the Venetian Arsenal in Venice, and the very method of their construction was considered a military secret.
"Galea sottile" had a standard displacement between 150 and 200 tons, a length of 40 to 50 meters, a hull width of five to six meters and a draft of about 1,5 meters, and a rowing platform width of six to eight meters. The maximum speed of the boat with alla sensile rowing was up to seven knots. The sottile galleys had from one to three masts, which were inclined towards the bow of the ship. On the bow, which was also used as a boarding bridge for the boarding maneuver of the opposing ship, there was also the main artillery armament of the galley in the form of one large cannon (canonne) of caliber between 52 and 55 pounds, two medium (aspids) of caliber up to 12 pounds and two small cannons (falconetti) of five to six pounds. The rest of the armament consisted of several smaller gun-guns (bombardels) distributed on the bow and stern of the ship. The cannon platform was covered by another platform on which during the battle there were soldiers - shooters who would board the enemy ship at the right moment. The guns of the galley could not be turned towards the target they were aiming at, but aiming was done by directing the entire ship, i.e. its bow, towards the opposing vessel.
In addition to being powered by oars (50 on each side of the ship), the galleys sailed on sails during favorable weather conditions. Therefore, they had one Latin sail on each mast, but as the galley's propulsion, it would be folded before the battle and the ship entered the maneuvering battle with other ships powered only by oars. The rowing platform of the galley, between 6 and 8 meters wide, was located above the hydrodynamic part of the hull of this ship. There was space for 50 benches on it, but two benches (one on each side) were missing, thus making room for a galley (focone) on one side of the galley, or for an auxiliary boat (skiff) on the other side of the ship. At the stern of the galley there was a space for the commander (sopracomite) and the helmsman. The space was covered with canvas. Between the rows of benches on the rowing platform along the longitudinal axis of the ship was a passage (corsia).
Engaged both prisoners and slaves
On each bench with one oar over 12 meters long, three oarsmen - galliots - would row. They were either free citizens of the Republic of Venice serving military service, who were paid for it, or more often prisoners who, due to various offenses, were sentenced to rowing service on the galleys where they were in chains, that is, slaves - captured enemy soldiers. Convicts serving their sentence, and slaves such as galliots were deprived of any rights while serving on the ship. To save weight and space, there were no cabins for the crew on the sottile galleys, and the space below the main deck was used as storage for food, water and weapons. When the galley was not sailing, the galliots would disassemble the benches and spread a large canvas in the form of a tent above the deck, and they slept and lived in the same place where they rowed.
The way of life on these warships was very difficult, so often many crew members died from epidemics or exhaustion and the monotonous diet. The Republic of Venice always paid the crews of these ships (unless they were convicted criminals or slaves) in advance, for a period of three to six months. The monthly salary of a galliot-rower was 6 livres, for archers, sailors and ship's master 20 livres, a parun (nostromo) would receive 45 livres, and a sopracomite (ship commander) 2.224 livres.
The galleys had two ways of rowing - alla sensile, the advantage of which is that the load of rowing is equal for each rower. However, since with this method of rowing, each of the three rowers on one bench works with one - their own oar and their arm movement is about 30 centimeters, alla sensille required great skill and training of the rowers. This could only be achieved by well-trained crews of free men who had to be paid for it.
Another way of rowing was alla scaloccio, where three rowers hold one oar at the same time, so the load of rowing is not equal, which is why it is necessary for the galliots to change places. The advantage of rowing alla scaloccio was that the rowers did not have to be trained, that is, that it could be done by prisoners or slaves who were not paid for service on the galleys.
Part of the working atmosphere and way of life of galliots can now be felt in Kotor by the general public by looking at a faithful replica of the 12-meter-long wooden oar that propelled galleons in the Middle Ages.
"By placing the oars of the galley, Kotor gets a new tourist attraction and recollection of an important part of the city's maritime history that has not been told enough until now. The replica of the oar is accompanied by an educational bilingual panel on which there is a short story about the Kotor galleys and their commanders, and which shows the way of rowing on the galleys from the 16th century," the Maritime Museum announced.
This project was realized thanks to the financial support of the Municipality of Kotor, i.e. Secretariat for Culture, Sports and Social Activities as part of the Program of Cultural Manifestations for 2022.
Posthumous recognition
The credibility of the contribution of the sopracomite Jerome of Byzantium is shown by a document issued in Corfu on December 26, 1571 by the commander-in-chief of the entire Venetian fleet, Sebastiano Veniero, on a posthumous recognition for "heroic fighting and behavior that should serve as an example to his descendants". On the same day, Venier sends a letter to the Doge of Venice in which he writes about the heroic attitude of the fallen Byzantius and emphasizes that if his heirs turn to the Doge to collect Jerome's outstanding claims, he recommends them as very deserving.
Galliot menu
Thanks to the preserved record of Luciano Santore, who was a prisoner (galiote) on one of the Venetian galleys sottile, today we know the menu (panatika) on those ships. The menu for prisoners and slaves in port, when the ship was in port, consisted of 500 grams of dry bread and one bowl of beans cooked without spices. In sailing, the panatika per rower consisted of 800 grams of bread and a bowl of beans with added oil and salt, every fourth day the rower would get one deciliter of wine, two days a week 120 grams of dried meat and 90 grams of cheese. Menu for soldiers and sailors: daily 620 grams of bread and 1 deciliter. wine, 120 grams of fat or 180 grams of meat and 90 grams of cheese. The crew could buy wine on board
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