Caravel

A caravel is a small sailing ship developed from Iberian fishing craft of Galicia and Atlantic Andalusia in the thirteenth century and refined by Portuguese shipbuilders in the mid to late fifteenth century under the patronage of Prince Henry the Navigator. Rigged with lateen sails alone, or with a mix of lateen and square sails, and built with a high length-to-beam ratio of roughly 3.5 to 1 on a hull typically 12 to 18 meters long and carrying 50 to 60 tons, caravels sailed exceptionally well to windward and were prized for speed and maneuverability, though their narrow hulls left them poor cargo carriers. The type became the characteristic ship of the Portuguese and Spanish Age of Discovery, used by explorers including Bartolomeu Dias, and two of Christopher Columbus's three ships on his 1492 voyage, the Pinta and the Nina, were caravels, though the Nina was later re-rigged with square sails for better performance in the Atlantic. As European maritime trade demanded greater cargo capacity, caravels were gradually superseded by the larger carrack and later the galleon.