IONIAN OR CRETE GALLEY 16th Century

[aukepalmhof]

The “Galley” is one of the oldest ship types in the Mediterranean, and during the Middle Ages they built “galley” with one row of oars, every oar was rowed by more as one rower up to six people.
The 16th Century “galley” were used as war galleys, and the vessel depict on the stamp was also used as so.
The fighting deck was fitted out with throwing equipment, and manned by archers. The largest gathering of “galleys” was during the Battle of Lepanto on 07 October 1571 when 200 Christian galleys and 273 Turkish galleys met each other.
The galley depicts on this stamp, I believe the stamp design is made after a model, is stepped with two masts which carried lateen sails, and during battle the masts were lowered. Fitted out with a ram and when the ram hit a enemy ship the soldiers tried to board her.

The galleys did have a length from 40 to 50 metre, beam 5 metre and a depth 1.8metre.

She looks much like the image placed on this site of a galley from Malta of the 16th Century.

Greek 2012 0.78 Euro, sg?, scott?

Source: Various web-sites.