Venetian navy

It was the premier navy in the Mediterranean Sea for many centuries between the medieval and early modern periods, providing Venice with control and influence over trade and politics far in excess of the republic's size and population.

Driven at first by a rivalry with the Byzantine Empire, and later the maritime republics of Pisa and Genoa for primacy over trade with the Levant, the Venetian navy was at times technically innovative and yet operationally conservative.

Giving shelter to refugees fleeing Hunnic invaders in the 6th century, Venice grew in the Venetian Lagoon in the northern Adriatic.

In the event of hostilities ships and crews were taken up from trade to reinforce the war fleet, being dispersed back to the pursuit of commerce on the ending of the emergency.

Towards the end of the 9th century there appeared the main instrument of Venetian power: In addition a number of other types of ships are mentioned in the Chronicles, With these ships, Venice fought alongside the Byzantines against the Arabs, Franks and Normans, winning by the year 1000 dominance of the Adriatic, subjugating the Narentines and taking control of Dalmatia, the first domain in what would become Venice's Stato da Màr.

With this move, control of the galleys also passed into public ownership, private citizens being limited to chartering freightage aboard the vessels that undertook the muda trade convoys.

[citation needed] The 13th century opened with overseas conquest and an expansion of the Stato da Màr, giving the Venetian a chain of bases, outposts and colonies across the trade routes to the Levant.

Additionally, the desire to maintain mastery of newly conquered seas and a growing conflict with the maritime republics of Genoa and Pisa led to Venice keeping a larger fleet under arms for longer.

With this naval force, Venice imposed its authority on the Adriatic, which it regarded as its own, patrolling, inspecting all ships passing, and attacking those it considered hostile.

At the Battle of Curzola in 1298, Venice suffered a major defeat at the hands of the Genoese navy, which saw the loss of 83 galleys out of a fleet of 95, 7,000 men killed[1] and another 7,000 captured.

[2] The Venetians, who were already using gunpowder siege weapons on land, mounted small bombards to many of their galleys during the battle to keep the Genoese force cordoned off in Chioggia.

Thus, despite the mounting Ottoman threat in the Balkans, the continuing rivalry with Genoa, and the simultaneous expansion of Venetian holdings in the southern Balkans (including Argos and Nauplia, Durazzo, and Monemvasia) the size of the "guard fleet" or "Squadron of the Gulf" mobilized each year was much reduced: instead of the usual ten galleys, in 1385 only four were mobilized, and of these two in Crete rather than Venice, since the colonies were obliged to cover the maintenance of galleys out of their own pockets, rather than the state treasury.

[5] In the immediate aftermath of the crushing Ottoman victory at Nicopolis, the Venetians instructed the captains of the Squadron of the Gulf to assist beleaguered Constantinople.

The Venetian ships were instructed to co-operate with the Genoese fleets operating in the area under Marshal Boucicault, although the customary distrust of the two maritime republics still meant that they pursued their own agendas and eyed each other's military and diplomatic moves warily.

[6] Nevertheless, Venice's policy in this period was ambivalent: while it strengthened its overseas garrisons, it avoided an open rupture with the Sultan, and sought to negotiate with him, indeed allowing its local colonies to make their own deals with regional Turkish potentates.

[8] A new chapter for Venice and the Venetian navy opened in 1453, with the Fall of Constantinople and the beginning in earnest of the Ottoman–Venetian wars, a centuries long confrontation with the Ottoman Empire.

To oversee the efficient supply and administration of such a force required an extensive organisational effort, leading to the creation of the office of the Magistrato alla milizia da mar "commissioner of naval forces" responsible for the construction and maintenance of ships and cannon, provision of hardtack and other ship's stores, weapons and gunpowder, recruitment of crews and the management of finances.

The use of the galee sforzate was always quite limited in the Venetian navy and did not fit into the normal order of battle of the fleet, instead such ships were formed into a separate flotilla under the command of the so-called Governatore dei condannati "Governor of the condemned".

The 17th century was marked by the loss and the gains of series of overseas possessions; Venice found itself fighting the twenty five year long Cretan War (1645–1669), also known as the "War of Candia", which saw a Venetian expeditionary fleet outside the gates of Istanbul, the former Constantinople, but ended with the loss of Venice's last and most important Eastern Mediterranean possession, the Kingdom of Candia (now Crete).

The large scale adoption of the galleon by Venice was prompted by her experience with sailing ships chartered from the English and Dutch against the forces of Habsburg Spain and the Ottomans.

[15] The high cost of renting foreign ships, which were not even purpose-built warships, demonstrated the need for a state-owned fleet, a project pressed forward particularly by admiral Lazzaro Mocenigo.

For the same reason, an even higher post, that of Capitano Straordinario delle Navi ('Captain Extraordinary of the Sailing Ships') was created during the last Ottoman–Venetian war, but this was a wartime appointment only.

[27] Pay was not very high in the merchant galleys—some 8–9 lire per month for an oarsman at the turn of the 16th century—but each crewman had the right to carry a set amount of merchandise on board the ship free of taxes or fares, allowing them to make considerable profits through what was in effect legalized smuggling.

Demand for a place aboard such ships was so high that legislation had to be introduced repeatedly to combat the practice of sailors paying kickbacks to their captains so that they would be selected.

[33] Up to the mid-16th century, naval matters were supervised by the five-member board of the savi agli ordini, but gradually a more complex and professional administration was built up.

[34] The technical administration was exercised by the College of the Sea Militia (Colleggio della Milizia da Mar), a body analogous to the British Admiralty.