Original scientific paper
What Ships Transported King Andria’s II Crusaders in 1217?
Krešimir Kužić
Abstract
In an article divided into seven section: War Campaigns, Transport by Ships, Development of Ships, Andria’s Campaign, Contracted Ships, Iconography, The Split Harbour, supported by numerous evidence, a hypothesis is put forward concerning the kind of ships which transported the crusaders of the Hungarian and Croatian king Andria. The crusades were the pinnacle of the organizational, and not only military, skills of Medieval European feudal society. In direct association with them we see the development of maritime merchant republics, primarily Genova and Venice. This enabled the Crusade military officers to use, from the Third campaign in 1189, sea routes for the transport of troops to their destination in the Levant. The vigorous growth of maritime trade brought about the development of ships and ship-building although the sudden abandonment of a particular type of ship or its mode of construction never took place. The characteristic merchant ship of the time was the “nava”, a stocky, belly-like ship with two decks and two masts equipped with Latin sails. During the 12th century its capacity was 200t while later examples reach up to 500t. Its subclass was a ship for the transportation of horses called after the French huissier or in Italian usciere. The Hungarian and Croatian king Andria II collected his army in the summer of 1217 and arrived with it in the city of Split. Ships which he had partially rented from Venice, partially from Ancona, Zadar and other cities on the Adriatic awaited him there. The contract stipulated the capacities of the ships from 143 to 238t. Going by the evidence of the earlier, Fourth campaign in 1202, these ships were “navas” and huissiers. Although it is not listed, other ships could have been “barkozis” and “banzonis” because such ships, although smaller then the navas, were used in maritime trade with the Levant. They are mentioned in numerous documents of the coastal cities of Zadar, Split and Dubrovnik as well as by the chroniclers of the time. A number of drawings of these ships have been preserved in Croatia, the best being the one from Vrbuška on the island of Krk – probably depicting a “nava” or a larger “barcusium”. The Split harbor of the time was very suitable for loading such a large number of people and military machines because it had a solidly constructed pier with sea depths which allowed the putting to shore of large ships. Relying on calculations a possible number of around 20 larger “navas” and around 30 other types of ships was reached with which, sailing out at the end of September, king Andria transported his crusaders to Akon.
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
12074
URI
Publication date:
17.8.2004.
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