Galiot should not be confused with Galleon.
A galiot, galliot or galiote, was a small galley boat propelled by sail or oars. There are three different types of naval galiots that sailed on different seas.
A galiote was a type of French flat-bottom river boat or barge and also a flat-bottomed boat with a simple sail for transporting wine.
Historically, a galiot was a type of ship with oars, also known as a half-galley, then, from the 17th century forward, a ship with sails and oars. As used by the Barbary pirates against the Republic of Venice, a galiot had two masts and about 16 pairs of oars. Warships of the type typically carried between two and ten cannons of small caliber, and between 50 and 150 men. It was a Barbary galiot, captained by Barbarossa I, that captured two Papal vessels in 1504.[1]
A galiot was a type of Dutch or German merchant ship of 20 to 400 tons (bm), similar to a ketch, with a rounded fore and aft like a fluyt. Galiots had nearly flat bottoms to sail in shallow waters. These ships were especially favoured for coastal navigation in the North and Baltic seas. To avoid excessive leeway, or leeward drift due to their flat bottoms, smaller vessels were usually fitted with leeboards. After 1830, a modernised type of galiot was developed that featured a sharper bow similar to a schooner. These vessels rarely had leeboards.[2]
A galiote (or galiot) was a French type of naval warship that might have two masts with lateen sails and a bank of oars. It might also be relatively small with only one mast, and be little more than a large chaloupe or launch.[3]
A galiote a bombes was a French term for a galiote armed with a mortar and functioning as a bomb vessel,[3] i.e., a vessel armed to shell coastal forts, towns, and the like.