That day, the Muslim fleet, stationed in the Indian port of Diu, heard that the Portuguese fleet was approaching. The Christians had only 17 ships, so the Muslim sailors rowed confidently out to meet them.
But the Christian ships were all larger than the Muslim galleys. More important, they were a different type of ship entirely, the product of centuries of development, most of which had escaped the notice of the Muslims.
Trade between the countries of western Europe was to a very large extent waterborne. It followed the many navigable rivers; crossed inland seas like the Mediterranean and the Baltic, much rougher seas such as the North Sea and even went into the ferocious Atlantic. Commerce in the Dar es Islam was different. In the arid lands that made up the bulk of Islamic territory, trade mostly happened by caravan. Trade was done by boat in the islands of the East Indies, but most of that was short-range island-hopping. The long distance trade between India, Africa, and Arabia depended on trade winds. For half of the year the winds blew west, for the other half, east. The Arabs had developed a specialized kind of ship, the dhow, to take advantage of that environment. For centuries, warships of the Mediterranean powers, both Muslim and Christian, had been almost identical — versions of the galley. (See Chapter 4.) Galleys were almost useless for commerce and were totally useless for long-distance trading. Most of a galley was taken up by rowers, and rowers need food and water. So galleys had to make frequent stops to replenish their supplies and had no room for merchandise. For trade, the Europeans developed “round ships,”
ships much wider in relation to their length than galleys. They had no oars and no rowers, so they could hold more cargo. To move these vessels in the variable winds of the northern seas, the European sailors developed sails that let them proceed against the wind. Weather was a problem for European sailors, especially those in northern waters. The round ships had high sides, unlike galleys, which had to be low to accommodate the oars (a necessity in rough water), and they were heavily built, unlike galleys, which had to be light so the rowers could move them rapidly.
Pirates were another problem. In the late 13th and 14th centuries, new types of ships were developed. They were slimmer than the old round ships and much faster, but they were still strongly built and still capable of carrying a decent amount of cargo. They had high “castles” for and aft, where crossbowmen could be stationed. They also had crows’ nests on their masts where more crosssbowmen could stand ready to shoot any pirates. When cannons were invented, ship owners mounted them on their vessels. At first they were placed on the castles, but the weight of the guns made the ships unstable. At the beginning of the 16th century, ship builders began cutting gun ports in the hulls.
With these sturdy, all-weather ships, able to sail against the wind and stay at sea for months without touching land, the Portuguese began working their way around Africa. England and France were immersed in the Hundred Years War, and Spain was still trying to drive the Muslims back to Africa. The Portuguese had already driven the Muslims out of their country, and they were able to look for a new route to the East.
The Turks and Egyptians saw sails and tried to form a line to attack the infidels. Forming a line wasn’t easy on the lively Indian Ocean. Galleys were much better adapted to inland seas such as the Mediterranean and the Red Sea.
The galleys’ guns were loaded and their gunners ready. The musketeers made sure their matches were lighted, and the archers had nocked their arrows.
The Portuguese ships suddenly turned, presenting their sides to the advancing galleys. Then the broadsides began. The Portuguese cannons were heavier and outranged those of the Muslims. And the 17 Portuguese ships had more guns than the 200 Muslim galleys. Cannon balls ploughed through rows of rowers, leaving masses of gore, gory bodies and body parts. They smashed the hulls of the fragile galleys. It was more of a massacre than a battle. Shanbal, a contemporary Arab historian, gave an account of the battle that shows that the tendency to minimize your side’s losses and exaggerate the enemy’s is, by no means, modern:
Many on the Frankish side were slain, but eventually the Franks prevailed over the Muslims, and there befell a great slaughter of the Emir Husain’s soldiers, about 600 men, while the survivors fled to Diu. Nor did he [the Frank] depart until they had paid him much money.
Actually, the Muslim fleet was practically annihilated. The few surviving galleys ran themselves ashore and their crews fled toward Diu. Very few Portuguese were killed. The Muslims tried three more times to drive the Portuguese from the coast of Africa and India. Each time, it was galleys versus sailing ships. And each battle was a replay of Diu.
The introduction of the sailing warship changed warfare and changed the world. The galley suddenly became obsolete. Sailing ships that could travel to the far ends of the world and still outfight galleys replaced all oar-driven warships. There was one more big galley battle in the Mediterranean, at Lepanto, a couple of generations after Diu, but even there, Don Juan of Austria, the Christian admiral, used galleasses — big, heavily gunned ships — to break up the Turkish formation before the galleys clashed. The loss of the trade with the East began to weaken the Muslims, and the first Muslim casualty was Egypt. The Turks conquered the weakened sultanate on the Nile eight years after Diu.
Portugal thrived on the trade with the East. One of its India-bound ships made a navigational error and discovered Brazil, but before that a Genoese sailor convinced the king and queen of Spain that he could get to the Far East quicker by sailing west; Columbus made a mistake, but he discovered a whole new world.
Chapter 14
Guns That Roll: Mobile Artillery
Artillery, as we have seen, revolutionized siege warfare. The early siege guns, though, were far from ideal. They were so heavy that moving one of them was a major engineering project. Barrels were weak, especially those of bombards built of welded iron rods and hoops, so they couldn’t contain much pressure. Consequently their projectiles had low velocity. For lobbing one big stone ball after another at the same spot on a wall they were fine, but the rulers of France and Burgundy wanted more. Especially, they wanted more mobility.
The French and Burgundians engaged in an arms race beginning during the latter part of the Hundred Years War. The English, although they had introduced guns to that war at Crecy, didn’t bother to compete. They were convinced that their longbow was the master weapon. They were to regret that idea.
The new guns were all cast in bronze and could handle much higher pressures than the old bombards. Their barrels were much longer in proportion to the size of their projectiles. This not only increased accuracy, it gave the exploding powder more time to push the projectile, increasing the velocity. The wrought iron cannon balls were smaller than the stones shot from the bombards, but they were heavier in proportion to their size and much harder and tougher. They wouldn’t shatter on a stone wall as stone shot often did. The new guns were cast with lugs, called “trunnions,” on their barrels near the center of gravity. The guns swivelled on the trunnions so they could be elevated to hit targets at varying ranges. Most important, the guns were mounted on wheeled carriages so they could be easily moved.
The new French cannons brought an end to the Hundred Years War. The French were able to quickly concentrate their cannons against castles the English held, knock their walls down, and move to the next stronghold. But a couple of small engagements demonstrated that the French had a most potent field weapon as well as a wall-batterer.
At Formigny in 1450, French and English forces of equal size met. The English reaction was almost reflexive. Most of the knights dismounted and formed a wall of lance points. The infantry archers stepped forward, planted sharpened stakes to stop a cavalry charge, and strung their bows. All waited for the traditional French cavalry charge.
The French didn’t charge. They just hauled up their cannons and blasted the English away. At Castillon, three years later, an English army attacked a French force that was besieging an English stronghold. This time, the English were the attackers. The French had no longbows, but they had cannons. And they proved that cannons were as effective on the defensive as they were on the offensive. The English commander, John Talbot, was killed, and the Hundred Years War effectively ended soon afterwards. Later, mobile artillery was to prove its worth in
