Galleon

The galleon was a large, multi-decked sailing ship developed by European maritime powers, principally Spain and Portugal, from the sixteenth century onward, combining the cargo capacity needed for long transoceanic voyages with sufficient armament to serve as a warship, and became the characteristic vessel of European overseas empire and naval warfare for roughly two centuries. Spanish treasure galleons carried silver and goods from the Americas and the Philippines across the Atlantic and Pacific in heavily escorted convoys, making them frequent targets of English, Dutch and French privateers and a central feature of the era's colonial rivalries. The galleon's high forecastle and sterncastle, useful for boarding actions and defense against boarding, gradually gave way over the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries to lower, more weatherly hull designs as naval architecture prioritized broadside gunnery over close-quarters fighting, a shift reflected in England's development of the racebuilt galleon under Elizabeth I that helped repel the Spanish Armada in 1588. The galleon's basic hull form and rigging directly influenced the ship-of-the-line designs that would dominate naval warfare through the age of sail.