Vanguard of empire: 15th- and 16th-century Iberian ship technology in the Age of Discovery

The critical role of maritime technology in the Age of Exploration and Discovery has been acknowledged by most medieval and renaissance historians. Elements of cosmography and geography, combined with advances in nautical instruments and ship design, were the cornerstones of the economic and religious impetus for European overseas expansion. Yet, experts in the evolution of seafaring know very little about the ways in which Iberian cultures built, armed, manned, and provisioned oceangoing vehicles that permanently joined independent corners of the globe for the first time.;Shipwrights of the period worked by rule of thumb rather than from ship's lines, which were developed later as a result of the need for larger cargo vessels to accommodate colonial commerce. Weapons systems designed for the battlefield were only just beginning to be adapted for seagoing duty through trial and error. Methods of coastal and celestial navigation changed as pilots confronted the open sea and passed into unfamiliar orbital realms. Long-range voyages presented new problems of supply and sustenance, taxing the physical and emotional well-being of exploration crews.;Portuguese and Spanish narratives of voyages in the Age of Discovery describe geographical conquests, cultural confrontations, and commercial acquisitions. Seldom do they provide technical information about the world of ships, rigging, hardware, and arms--a seagoing microcosm so familiar to sailors then, yet so unfamiliar to us today. Yet it is possible from the study of fragmentary literary, iconographic, and archaeological sources to reconstruct specific components of the technology that carried medieval mariners into a maritime renaissance. This dissertation provides an overview of the Iberian maritime states, then combines the earliest manuscripts and printed works on the building, rigging, and outfitting of Iberian vessels with details gleaned from archaeological excavations of 15th- and 16th-century shipwrecks to assemble a portrait of the construction and preparation of a small exploratory ship that sailed into the unknown half a millennium ago.