Polacca
Type of ship used in the 17th-19th centuries
A polacca (or polacre) is a type of seventeenth- to nineteenth-century sailing vessel.
01Structure
The name is the feminine of "Polish" in the Italian language. The polacca was frequently seen in the Mediterranean. It had two or three single-pole masts, the three-masted vessels often with a lateen hoisted on the foremast (which was slanted forward to accommodate the large lateen yard) and a gaff or lateen on the mizzen mast. The mainmast was square-rigged after the European style.
02History
Special polaccas were used by Murat Reis, whose ships had lateen sails in front and fore-and-aft rig behind.
Some polacca pictures show what appears to be a ship-rigged vessel (sometimes with a lateen on the mizzen) with a galley-like hull and single-pole masts. Thus, the term "polacca" seems to refer primarily to the masting and possibly the hull type as opposed to the type of rig used for the sails. Two-masted polaccas were referred to as brig-polaccas with square sails on both masts. Three-masted polaccas were called ship-polaccas or polacca-settees.
Captain Jack Aubrey in HMS Sophie captures a French polacre laden with corn and general merchandise in Patrick O'Brian's first Aubrey-Maturin novel, Master and Commander (1969).
Mughal Empire
"Great Mogul" emperor's fleet of Polacca ships were harboured at seaports like Calicut and Pulicat, it was a fleet that controlled Cape Comorin.
Sources and credits
This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Polacca”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.
Images, from Wikimedia Commons:
- Sail plan xebec.svg by en:User:Casito, CC BY-SA 3.0
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