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A carrack was a three- or four-masted sailing ship developed in the 15th century by the Genoese for use in commerce. They were widely used by Europe's 15th-century maritime powers, from the Mediterranean to northwest Europe, although each region had models of slightly different design. The Portuguese and the Spanish used them for oceanic travel and to explore the world. With linguistic variation, these ships were called: ''caracca'' or ''nao'' in the Genoese dialect and in Castillian Spanish; ''nau'' in Portuguese; ''caraque'' or ''nef'' in French. The name ‘carrack’ probably derives from the Arab ''Harraqa'', a type of ship that first appeared along the shores of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers roughly during the 9th century. Carracks were ocean-going ships: large enough to be stable in heavy seas, and roomy enough to carry provisions for long voyages. They were usually square-rigged on the foremast and mainmast and lateen-rigged on the mizzenmast. They had a high rounded stern with large aftcastle, forecastle and bowsprit at the stem. As the forerunner of the great ships of the age of sail, the carrack was one of the most influential ship designs in history; while ships became more specialized, the basic design remained unchanged throughout this time period. == Origins == By the Late Middle Ages the cog, and cog-like square-rigged vessels, were widely used along the coasts of Europe, in the Baltic, and also in the Mediterranean. Given the conditions of the Mediterranean, but not exclusively restricted to it, galley type vessels were extensively used there, as were various two masted vessels, including the caravels with their lateen sails. These and similar ship types were familiar to Portuguese navigators and shipwrights. As the Portuguese gradually extended their explorations and trade ever further south along Africa's Atlantic coast during the 15th century they needed a larger and more advanced ship for their long oceanic adventures. Gradually, they developed their own models of oceanic carracks, generalizing their use in the end of the century for inter-oceanic travel. In addition to the average tonnage naus, were also built some large naus (carracks) in the reign of John II, but being only widespread after the turn of the century. The Portuguese carracks were usually very large ships for their time (often over 1000 tons), and having the future large naus of the India run and of the China and Japan trade, also other new types of design. The origin of the word ''carrack'' is usually traced back through the medieval European languages to the Arabic, and from thence to the Greek (''kerkouros'') meaning approximately "lighter (barge)" (literally, "shorn tail", a possible reference to the ship's flat stern). Its attestation in Greek literature is distributed in two closely related lobes. The first distribution lobe, or area, associates it with certain light and fast merchantmen found near Cyprus and Corfu. The second is an extensive attestation in the Oxyrhynchus corpus, where it seems most frequently to describe the Nile barges of the Ptolemaic pharaohs. Both of these usages may lead back through the Phoenician to the Akkadian ''kalakku'', which denotes a type of river barge. The Akkadian term is assumed to be derived from a Sumerian antecedent. (Sumerian antecedent ) A modern reflex of the word is found in Arabic and Turkish ''kelek'' "raft; riverboat". from a fusion and modification of aspects of the ship types they knew operating in both the Atlantic and Mediterranean and a new, more advanced form of sail rigging that allowed much improved sailing characteristics in the heavy winds and waves of the Atlantic ocean. A typical three-masted carrack such as the ''São Gabriel'' had six sails: bowsprit, foresail, mizzen, spritsail, and two topsails. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Carrack」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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