GALLEY (OF. galee, galie, It. galea, from ML. galea, ga MGk.-yaXea,galea,yaXala,galaia, galley). The name generally applied to vessels using sails and oars. The ships of the ancients were practically all of,this character, hence they are generally spoken of as galleys. A bas-relief at Thebes represents a naval victory gained by the Egyptians over the East Indians about B.C. 1400. The vessels shown have oars and sails, and the Egyptians had figureheads of metal in the shape of a lion's head. Herodotus says that the Egyp tian war galleys had soldiers on board as the fighting force, archers and sling-men being sta tioned on the raised platforms at bow and stern, while pikes, spears, javelins, battle-axes, fal chions, swords, and other weapOns were kept in convenient places for use in boarding or repelling boarders. The sail was square and carried on a yard on the single mast. The Egyptians never were such hold navigators as the Phcenicians, and their vessels were probably inferior in sea-going qualities to the Phoenician ships. After having been for centuries masters of the seas, the Phceni cians became subject to Egypt, and in rt.c. 610, by order of the Egyptian King, Necho, a Phoeni cian expedition is said to have circumnavigated Africa. The advantages possessed by a war ves sel propelled by oars over one at the mercy of the winds was early realized, and to attain the great est possible speed the number of banks of oars. was increased to two, three, four, and five. The increase beyond three seems to have resulted in very little gain, and the trireme remained for many centuries the standard type of war galley of the first class. In merchant sails Rimed the principal motive device, and oars were auxiliary; in war galleys the reverse was the case.
The more modern galley appeared after sail power had begun to assert its supremacy as the propelling force of sea-going vessels. Its de velopment reached its highest point at the end of the sixteenth century, Lepanto being the last great sea fight in which the galley appeared as the most powerful type of war-ship. These vessels carried firearms, guns, and small arms, and had fairly good sail-power as well as oars. During the Middle Ages the oars of galleys were largely manned by infidel prisoners and criminals, and in France convicts were used in the large boats working about the arsenals until recent times. Row-galleys, fitted as gunboats, were extensively used during the Napoleonic wars in operations, and caused much trouble to the British fleet. Like all galleys designed especially for oar propulsion, they were long and narrow, the length being seven or eight times the beam, and they were, therefore, very fast. In the British Navy the term galley is applied to the captain's boat, or gig, and other similar boats built for speed under oars. For further information, consult: Duemichen, Die Flotte einer agyptien Koenigin, etc. (Leipzig, 1868), Eng. trans., Fleet of an Egyptian Queen; Rawlinson, Ancient Monarchies. (London, 1862-76) ; Parker, Fleets of the World: The Galley Period (New York, 1877) ; Chabas, Etudes sur l'antiquite historique (Paris, 1873) ; Jal, Archeologie navale (Paris, 1840) ; Bouet Willaumez, Batailles de terre et de mer (Paris, 1855). See SHIPS.