Ships of the Spanish Main

Usage examples of galleons.

From the walls of the castillo, it could be seen that all the town was aboil as the four galleons sailed in from the sea.

Calle Embarcadero, Don Esteban drew up his guards and gentlemen in ranks and waited patiently, trying to ignore heat and sweat and insects while the four huge, elegant, high-masted galleons slowly maneuvered themselves about the cramped harbor in search of anchorages that suited their masters.

Marc, your ship will be sailing in company with a brace of merchant galleons from this port to Anfa Antiqua, there to be joined by other ships, which then will sail by the most direct route north to Irland, the Kingdom of Munster, to be more exact.

Stripped as the castillo now lay of the smaller-caliber, more accurate long gunsprobably by the present lord of Gijon, the grand duke, so that he could mount them on his heterogeneous fleetthe fortification could return nothing more than arquebus fire so long as the galleons stayed within the harbor basin.

The third horseman did not arrive until the four galleons were already dropping anchor within the Gijon harbor basin.

The well-drilled crews handled the galleys with aplomb, scooting around the huge, high-sided, cumbersome galleons like so many waterbugs, discharging their breechloaders again and again to fearsome effect into their unmissable targets, while the return fire howled and hummed uselessly high over their heads.

Then, while his line-of-battle ships and armed merchant vessels trailed the foreign ships just out of the range of the long guns, a dozen small, speedy galleys issued from out certain creek mouths and immediately engaged two of the four-masted galleons that composed the van of the fleet.

There will be three large shipstwo three-masted galleons and one four-mastedso there should not be overmuch crowding on the voyage.

One of the leading galleons blew up, and the captain of the surviving sloop thinks that that galleon was the Turkish ship.

French, though not representing the French Crown, at least not openlydispatched to the west a number of heavily armed, heavily manned large galleons to cruise for prizes of opportunity, mount raids on coastal and riverine settlements, and suchlike.

Papal fleetfive or six big galleons, at the least, with numerous smaller sail in companyare bearing in from the west, clearly bound for Gijon-port.

With even four galleons, I can forget repairing and refining that woebegone collection of hulks down in the harbor and get to the holy business of crusading on enemy soil.

They had lain off the harbor mouth as long as they thought they could without arousing wonder or suspicion while vainly awaiting the prearranged signals that would reassure them that the squat castillo had fallen to the galloglaiches, but now they simply sailed into Gijon-port, leaving the other galleon and the carracks to guard their rear and perhaps keep the castillo gunners so busy dodging balls and stone shards that the four galleons might emerge intact after doing their work in the harbor basin.

Down on Calle Embarcadero, Don Esteban drew up his guards and gentlemen in ranks and waited patiently, trying to ignore heat and sweat and insects while the four huge, elegant, high-masted galleons slowly maneuvered themselves about the cramped harbor in search of anchorages that suited their masters.

All four galleons thundered forth four broadsides, sending red-hot shot from every gun that would bear into ships, docks, wharves, quays, warehouses, stacks of supplies, and dry-dock facilities.