venice’s maritime empire in the early modern period 211
until the removal of the Uskok corsairs from Segna (Senj) in 1618; several
other galleys, including the galee di condannati (with their own capitano),
patrolled the central Adriatic; 7 to 12 galleys, based at Corfu, defended the
area around the Ionian Islands, under the command of the Capitano del
Golfo; and up to eight galleys had the task of defending the area around
Crete and Cerigo. Corfu also served as the headquarters of the Provveditore
Generale dell’Armata, the chief commander of the navy in peacetime. A
reserve fleet, comprising 50 ship hulls, whose number was raised to 100 in
1545, was kept in the Venetian Arsenal, to be commissioned in wartime.328
During the war of the 1530s the navy comprised 100 light galleys (galee
sottili) and 12 big ones (galee grosse), whereas during the Cyprus war, the
navy numbered 130 light galleys and nine galeasses. In later centuries, for
example, during the War of Morea, the navy was smaller, and it relied less
on light galleys and more on big galleasses (galeazze, navi di linea), which
by then had developed into more effective war machines.329
Every trireme needed at least 160 rowers and every galleass about 300
of them. Other seamen, of course, were also necessary to operate these
ships. Consequently, to man a navy of the size that Venice kept during
the Cyprus War, about 30,000 rowers and other seamen were necessary.
In order to recruit them, Venice depended on four, and later five, human
reservoirs: Venice and its immediate surrounding (the Dogado); the over-
seas empire; the terraferma; voluntary recruits originating from various
parts, not necessarily Venetian territories; and, from 1540 onward, crimi-
nals (condannati) condemned to row in the navy in a separate squadron.
When the prospects of war seemed real enough, a Capitano Generale da
Mar was elected as commander in chief and the reserve fleet and con-
scripts (the zontaroli) were put to sea.330 When in office, in many respects
the Capitano Generale da Mar was also considered as a supreme governor
of the Dominante’s overseas territories.
By the late 15th century, Dalmatians, Albanians (or Montenegrins), and
Greeks constituted the majority of the navy’s crews. According to Alberto
Tenenti, before the Cyprus War the greater part of the fleet crews was still
composed of salaried crew members who joined the navy out of their own
free will (volontari, buonavoglia), mostly Greeks and Dalmatians. Yet when
328 Maurice Aymard, in Storia di Venezia, vol. 12 (1991): Il mare, ed Alberto Tenenti and
Ugo Tucci, p. 439.
329 Pezzolo, “Stato, guerra e finanza,” p. 74.
330 Hale, “Part II: 1509–1617,” pp. 444–45; Pezzolo, “Stato, guerra e finanza,” p. 74. During
wartime, the Provveditore dell’armata became second-in-command.