The galliass was more stable on the water than the galley, protected the rowers better and carried more guns; but, just on account of these advantages, it was less agile as its propelling force was limited by the restricted number of rowers. The galliass, like the galleys carried three masts furnished with lateen sails. These were very hard to work, so that in violent winds the large sails were replaced by others of smaller size. It is not astonishing that even the galliass should have been inferior to the broad-beamed ships. Furthermore, they were never numerous; at the end of the XVIth century, in the naval battle of the allied powers against the Turks at Lepanto, only six of them could be assembled. (~Jal~, _Archéologie Navale_, p. 394.) It is therefore very doubtful whether the invincible “Armada”, the famous fleet of 1588, included a division of twenty-two galliass; the greater part of these vessels were undoubtedly galleys. In the same way, there existed among the Ancients, beside the _naves longæ_, broad beamed ships which were used in the beginning solely for commerce and transportation. The invention of gunpowder, and still more the closing by the Turks of the old route to the Indies, at the end of the XVth century, made a change in this situation. From this time, trade moves toward the ocean; a new route to the Indies is sought and the New World is discovered. Then too, the nations of the North greedy for riches and no longer content with the Baltic Sea, take their chances toward the South. All these circumstances brought in a turning point for the history of the naval architecture of the Mediterranean. In spite of the efforts made to preserve the supremacy of the old types of ships, by building larger vessels with oars, such as the galliass etc., it was necessary to retreat, not only in Italy but also in Spain and Portugal before the more powerful fleets of the peoples of the North. Hence it can be said, in the order of the ideas already expressed in speaking of the battle of Zierikzee, which occurred in 1302, that the XIVth and XVth centuries saw the naval architecture of the Ocean make its way into the Mediterranean. On the other hand, the art of the Mediterranean was not without its influence on the former. It is not easy to reconstitute the types of ships inherent to the Mediterranean; indeed, but few data remain concerning these vessels. All that can be done is to refer to the contracts above mentioned of Louis IX. The first reliable information dates from a period subsequent to the middle ages, and notably from the XVIIth century. All the old drawings known at present leave something to be desired and are always out of proportion. The only conclusion to be drawn from them is that there were several kinds of boats.