Santa Anna (ship)
Santa Anna was an early 16th Century carrack of the Knights Hospitaller. The war ship was celebrated for its many modern features. While some authors view its lead sheathed hull as an early form of ironclad,[1] others regard it primarily as a means to improve its watertightness.[2]
Career
Santa Anna was launched in Nice on 21 December 1522,[2] one day before the Knights Hospitaller surrendered at the siege of Rhodes (1522) under honorable terms.
The underwater hull of Santa Anna was completely sheathed with lead plates. Above the waterline two of the six decks of the ship were also armoured with lead plates, which were fastened by bronze nails to the wooden ship hull. Santa Anna was designed to accommodate 500 marines besides the sailors and it featured below-deck large cabins and messes for its officers. The carrack housed a forge, where three weapon smithes could do maintenance work at sea. The ship even called several ovens and a windmill its own, in order to provide the crew with fresh bread. The ship also featured a garden on board with flowers hanging down from the stern gallery in boxes.[1]
In 1531, the Santa Anna routed on its own an Ottoman squadron of 25 ships.[3] One year later, the carrack took part in the expedition against the Peloponnese under the command of Andrea Doria, during which Koroni, Patras and the Turkish fortresses protecting the entry to the Gulf of Corinth were seized.[3] In 1535 Santa Anna fought in the successful campaign of the Spanish fleet under Charles V against Tunis, where the Spaniards managed to capture over 100 ships of the Maghrebinian corsairs.[4] Its firepower contributed significantly in the assault on the fortress La Goulette which controlled the entry to the harbour.[3]
Temporarily, the carrack was also employed as a wheat freighter, with an impressive capacity of up to 900 tons.[1] Only eighteen years after its launch, Santa Anna was decommissioned in 1540 on the order of grandmaster Juan d’Omedes.[2]
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Jochen Brennecke: Geschichte der Schiffahrt, Künzelsau 1986 (2nd. ed.), p.138
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 La Santa Anna
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Helmut Pemsel: "Seeherrschaft. Eine maritime Weltgeschichte von den Anfängen bis 1850", Bd. 1, Bernard & Graefe Verlag, ISBN 3-89350-711-6, p.144ff.
- ↑ Jochen Brennecke: Geschichte der Schiffahrt, Künzelsau 1986 (2nd. ed.), p.144
Further reading
- Jochen Brennecke: Geschichte der Schiffahrt (1986) Künzelsau (2nd. ed.) ISBN 3-89393-176-7, p.138 & 144
- Helmut Pemsel: Seeherrschaft. Eine maritime Weltgeschichte von den Anfängen bis 1850, Vol. 1, Bernard & Graefe Verlag, ISBN 3-89350-711-6, p.144ff.
See also
External links
- La Santa Anna (French)
