page_title: Portuguese India Armadas
section_title: Ships
hierarchical_section_title: Portuguese India Armadas / Logistics of the Armadas / Ships
caption_attribution_description: Português: Caravela Vera Cruz a entrar no Porto de Pipas, festas São Joaninas, 2008, Angra do Heroísmo, ilha Terceira, Açores
context_page_description: The Portuguese India Armadas were the fleets of ships, organized by the crown of the Kingdom of Portugal and dispatched on an annual basis from Portugal to India, principally to Portuguese Goa and other colonies such as Damaon. These armadas undertook the Carreira da Índia, following the sea route around the Cape of Good Hope first opened up by Vasco da Gama in 1497–1499.
context_section_description: The ships of an India armada were typically carracks (naus), with sizes that grew over time. The first carracks were modest ships, rarely exceeding 100-tonnes, carrying only up to 40–60 men, e.g. the São Gabriel of Gama's 1497 fleet, one of the largest of the time, was only 120t. But this was quickly increased as the India run got underway. In the 1500 Cabral armada, the largest carracks, Cabral's flagship and the El-Rei, are reported to have been somewhere between 240t and 300t. The Flor de la Mar, built in 1502, was a 400t nau, while at least one of the naus of the Albuquerque armada of 1503 is reported to have been as large as 600t. The rapid doubling and tripling of the size of Portuguese carracks in a few years reflected the needs of the India runs. The rate of increase tapered off thereafter. For much of the remainder of the 16th century, the average carrack on the India run was probably around 400t.
  In the 1550s, during the reign of John III, a few 900t behemoths were built for India runs, in the hope that larger ships would provide economies of scale. The experiment turned out poorly. Not only was the cost of outfitting such a large ship disproportionately high, they proved unmaneouverable and unseaworthy, particularly in the treacherous waters of the Mozambique Channel. Three of the new behemoths were quickly lost on the southern African coast – the São João (900t, built 1550, wrecked 1552), the São Bento (900t, built 1551, wrecked 1554) and the largest of them all, the Nossa Senhora da Graça (1,000t, built 1556, wrecked 1559).
  These kind of losses prompted King Sebastian to issue an ordinance in 1570 setting the upper limit to the size of India naus at 450t.  Nonetheless, after the Iberian Union of 1580, this regulation would be ignored and shipbuilders, probably urged on by merchants hoping to turn around more cargo on every trip, pushed for larger ships. The size of India naus accelerated again, averaging 600t in the 1580–1600 period, with several spectacularly large naus of 1500t or greater making their appearance in the 1590s.
  If the lesson was not quite learned then, it was certainly learned in August, 1592, when English privateer Sir John Burroughs (alt. Burrows, Burgh) the Madre de Deus in the waters around the Azores islands (see Battle of Flores). The Madre de Deus, built in 1589, was a 1600t carrack, with seven decks and a crew of around 600. It was the largest Portuguese ship to go on an India run. The great carrack, under the command of Fernão de Mendonça Furtado, was returning from Cochin with a full cargo when it was captured by Burrough. The value of the treasure and cargo taken on this single ship is estimated to have been equivalent to half the entire treasury of the English crown. The loss of so much cargo in one swoop confirmed, once again, the folly of building such gigantic ships. The carracks built for the India run returned to their smaller ideal size after the turn of the century.
  In the early Carreira da India, the carracks were usually accompanied by smaller caravels (caravelas), averaging 50t–70t (rarely reaching 100t), and capable of holding 20–30 men at most. Whether lateen-rigged (latina) or square-rigged (redonda), these shallow-drafted, nimble vessels had a myriad of uses. Caravels served as forward lamp, scouts and fighting ships of the convoy. Caravels on the India run were often destined to remain overseas for coastal patrol duty, rather than return with the main fleet.
  In the course of the 16th century, caravels were gradually phased out in favor of a new escort/fighting ship, the galleon (galeão), which could range anywhere between 100t and 1000t. Based on the design of the carrack, but slenderer and lower, with forecastle diminished or removed to make way for its famous 'beak', the galleon became the principal fighting ship of the India fleet. It was not as nimble as the caravel, but could be mounted with much more cannon, thus packing a bigger punch. With the introduction of the galleon, carracks became almost exclusively cargo ships (which is why they were pushed to such 
caption: Modern replica of a lateen-rigged caravel
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