What Was a Carrack and Why Was It Important?
The carrack was the great ocean-going ship of the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. A direct ancestor of the galleon, the carrack carried the Portuguese and Spanish fleets on the first transatlantic voyages to the Americas and the first European sea voyages to India. To understand the great voyages of the Age of Exploration, you have to understand the carrack. The standard references are Richard Unger’s The Ship in the Medieval Economy, 600–1600 (1980) and Ships on Maps: Pictures of Power (2010), and John Guilmartin’s Gunpowder and Galleons (2003) for the military side. Lawrence Mott’s The Development of the Rudder (1997) covers one of the key technical features.
The carrack is sometimes dismissed as a clumsy transitional type between the caravel and the galleon, and the comparison is partly fair. The galleon was sleeker, more heavily armed, and more seaworthy. But the carrack was the ship that made the first generation of European oceanic expansion possible, and its role in the Carreira da Índia and the Spanish Carrera de Indias made it the vessel that built the Iberian empires. Understanding the carrack is therefore necessary for understanding the era.
The Carrack in General
A carrack was a large, multi-decked sailing ship, typically 400 to 1,000 tons burden in its largest forms, with a high, bulky hull, a deep keel, and a powerful combination of square and lateen sails. The carrack had its roots in the Mediterranean shipbuilding tradition of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, and it evolved into a distinct type in the late fifteenth century as European shipbuilders sought vessels capable of carrying heavy cargoes, large crews, and substantial armament across the world’s oceans. For a broader treatment of the ships of the Age of Exploration, see our cluster on caravels, carracks, and galleons.
Structure and Rigging
A typical carrack had three or four masts. The foremast and mainmast were square-rigged, carrying large rectangular sails suitable for running before the wind. The mizzenmast, and sometimes a fourth mast (the bonaventure), were lateen-rigged, carrying triangular sails that could be trimmed to sail closer to the wind. The combination of square and lateen sails gave the carrack a versatile rig, capable of making use of wind from many directions, although it was less maneuverable than a smaller caravel. The high forecastle and sterncastle of the carrack were characteristic features, providing elevated fighting platforms and accommodation for officers and important passengers.
Armament
Carracks carried substantial armament. The hull was pierced with gun ports on one or two decks, allowing the ship to carry heavy cannons in broadside batteries. The towering forecastle and sterncastle were also armed with smaller guns, and the ship could be defended by archers and soldiers stationed on the upper decks. The armament of the carrack made it a formidable warship as well as a merchant vessel, and carracks were the principal armed vessels of the Portuguese and Spanish fleets during the early Age of Exploration. For the context of the great naval conflicts in which carracks were used, see our page on the Spanish Empire in the Americas.
The Carrack in the Great Voyages
The carrack was the workhorse of the great transoceanic voyages of the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. Columbus’s flagship Santa María, on his 1492 voyage to the Bahamas, was a small carrack of about 130 tons. Vasco da Gama’s flagships on his 1497 voyage to India, the São Gabriel and the São Rafael, were carracks of about 170 tons. The small size of these ships, compared to the great carracks of the early sixteenth century, reflects the cautious approach of the early Portuguese voyages. By the 1510s and 1520s, carracks of 1,000 tons or more were common on the route to India. For the story of the voyages themselves, see our pages on Christopher Columbus and Vasco da Gama.
The Carrack in the Portuguese Carreira da Índia
After Vasco da Gama’s voyage opened the sea route to India in 1498, the Portuguese established an annual fleet system, the Carreira da Índia, to carry spices and other Asian goods from Goa to Lisbon. The Carreira was organized as a convoy of carracks, sailing together for mutual protection against European rivals and local powers. The largest and most famous of the Carreira carracks were the Flor do Mar (lost in a storm in 1511 with a legendary cargo of Malaccan spoils) and the Madre de Deus (captured by an English fleet off the Azores in 1592 with a cargo so rich that it became legendary in its own right). The Madre de Deus, an exceptionally large carrack of perhaps 1,000 to 1,600 tons, was one of the largest ships in the world in the late sixteenth century, and her capture gave English merchants and shipbuilders a clear view of the grandeur of Portuguese ship design.
Why the Carrack Was Important
The carrack was important for three reasons. First, it made the great transoceanic voyages possible. Before the carrack, European ships were too small, too fragile, or too dependent on coastal waters to undertake voyages of thousands of miles across open ocean. The carrack, with its large cargo capacity, substantial armament, and powerful rig, was the first European ship type that could reliably make such voyages. Without the carrack, the voyages of Columbus, da Gama, Magellan, and their successors would have been much more difficult, and might not have been possible at all. The relationship between the carrack and the broader story of the era is treated in our pillar page on ships, navigation, and technology.
Second, the carrack was the principal instrument of European naval power in the early sixteenth century. The Portuguese carracks of the Carreira da Índia established Portuguese control of the Indian Ocean trade; the Spanish carracks of the Carrera de Indias carried the wealth of the Americas across the Atlantic; and the carracks of the English and French navies contested this Iberian dominance. The carrack was the ship that built the overseas empires of the era. The economic context of these empires is explored on our trade routes and commerce pillar.
Third, the carrack was a major step in the evolution of European ship design. From the carrack descended the galleon, and from the galleon descended the great ships of the line of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The deep keel, the multi-masted rig, the broadside armament, and the high sterncastle of the carrack became the standard features of European warships for centuries. To see how the carrack compared with other types, see our page on how caravels differed from galleons.
The Decline of the Carrack
The carrack’s reign at the top of European shipbuilding was relatively brief. By the mid-sixteenth century, the type was being supplanted by the galleon, a sleeker and more heavily armed vessel. The galleon’s lower hull, longer gun decks, and more effective rig made it more seaworthy, more maneuverable, and more dangerous in combat. The transition was gradual, and carracks were built and used well into the sixteenth century, but by 1580 the galleon had become the standard warship and armed merchant of the European navies. The last great carracks were the Madre de Deus and her Portuguese contemporaries of the 1580s and 1590s. For the broader story of this transition, see our cluster on ships of the Age of Exploration.
The Carrack’s Legacy
Although the carrack was eventually supplanted by the galleon, its influence persisted. The galleon retained many features of the carrack — the multi-masted rig, the broadside armament, the high sterncastle — and the ships of the line of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries were direct descendants. The carrack also shaped the history of European exploration, trade, and empire. The voyages that opened the sea route to Asia, the conquest of the Americas, the establishment of the Portuguese and Spanish trading empires — all were from the carrack and the people who sailed her. The carrack made the modern world possible.