Venice is, first and foremost, a city upon the sea and a place whose fate has always been intertwined with the ocean. Throughout the roughly 2000 years that this 200 square-mile lagoon has been settled, the ocean has been a protective wall of water, provided fish to eat, and salt to trade. The sea was so important to Venetians that for centuries they would symbolically hold a marriage ceremony between itself and the sea on a yearly basis, consummating it with a gold ring flung into the sea by the Doge, or head of state until Napoleon conquered Venice in 1797. After Italian unification under Garibaldi in the late 19th century the Italian Navy revived this custom as each ship that went to sea was ‘married’ to the sea with an oversized ring.
Venice’s existence has always required knowledge of boats capable of handling the ocean. For most of her history these were galleons that were essentially large ocean rowboats. They were the primary mode of trade, transportation and war. Although she lacked her own land and forests, Venice ensured through her dealings that she would always be supplied with wood. To maintain her power, she constructed nearly a thousand years ago a massive facility of wet and dry docks, supply depots, magazines, oar makers and foundries so well-managed that they could keep 16,000 men employed and build a galley, assembly-line style, in a few hours. The sight was so impressive that Dante described it in his “Inferno.” This place was referred to by the Arabic word Dar Sina’a, House of Construction. In the Venetian dialect it was eventually turned into l’Arsenal. Hence the English word ‘arsenal.’
These boats did have sails good for traveling downwind, however this was secondary to oar power as the majority of the time (especially in war) when speed and maneuverability were key, rowing was the only practical locomotion that would do. Venetian war and merchant galleons were essentially the same, save the merchants’ extra width of beam to accommodate cargo. Each had crews of 150 to 200 oarsmen rowing in banks of three oarsmen to a bench. Each oar was close to 30 feet long and weighed up to 123 lbs. Sometimes one oar had grips for three oarsmen. In this case only one skilled oarsman was needed as he guided this massive oar – really more of a tree trunk called an oar – with the strength of three and saved Venice money, a key endeavor for the merchant-minded republic. Such huge crews were, in spite of popular myth, crewed by well-paid free men who were allowed to trade what they could bring with them duty-free. The large crews also made them nearly invulnerable to all but the most dedicated and well-financed pirates. It was only in the 16th century that Venice and many other nations decided to make rowing a punishment.
Venice never went to sea unless it would bring money, goods, or the influence to gain those back to Venice. If God and glory were rolled into that, then all the better. For over 1000 years her deft use of these massive ocean rowboats allowed her to control trade and influence all over the Mediterranean, into the Black Sea and up through England. Although in our case, I think if we meet our fundraising goals and cross the Atlantic in record time we might be just as satisfied.
Note: For most of this History I have to thank the Naval Museum in Venice and John Julius Norwich’s “A History of Venice;” a dense yet fun summation of the endless intrigue and drama that makes up Venetian history through its start 2000 years ago, through its fall in 1797. [Greg adds:] Here’s John Julius Norwich on Venice & it’s tourists.