 STANPA
The gondola is the most well-known boat in the world: even people who have never been to Venice can immediately recognize its unique shape, the metal bow decoration (fèro ) and for the distinctive Venetian rowing style (voga alla veneziana).
Like all the other lagoon boats the gondola has a flat bottom which allows it to float in very shallow water. The most important characteristic of the gondola is its longitudinal asymmetry: the keel is not straight but curves towards the right so that the gondola lists to the right. This counterbalances the push of the single oar which would tend to direct the boat to the left.
But how was the gondola ‘born’? There was no inventor nor designer: the boat that we see gliding in the Venetian canals was developed through the centuries with gradual and imperceptible variations.
Some curious facts: the gondola weighs about 400 kg, is built using eight different types of wood; the degree of curvature is based on the weight of the gondolier.
Before being used exclusively for tourism, the gondola made use of a removable cabin called a felse for use in the winter or during the night. It came with a door and sliding windows with Venetian blinds and curtains, a mirror and a charcoal burner. The felse was used to protect the passengers from the cold and from prying eyes.
Various other boats belong to the gondola family, these include:
- The Gondolino da regata: a fast boat which is difficult to row, it is used exclusively in the Historic Regatta (Regata Storica). The gondolino made its first appearance (in its modern form) in 1825.
The shape of the gondolino is based on that of the gondola, and its current measurements are: overall length 10.5 m, overall width 1.1 m, keel width 0.65 m, height at mid-length 0.36 m, weight approx. 160 kg.
- Barchéta a cóa de gàmbaro: a particular type of gondola with the bow stem stretched forwards and upper sides flared outwards. Instead of the normal metal bow decoration (fèro) it had a downward-pointing metal curl.
The only example of a boat of this kind can be seen at the Maritime Museum (Museo Storico Navale) in Venice.
- Barchèta a massòche: a variation of the classic gondola of which there is only one example conserved at the Museo Storico Navale in Venice. It was less slender and less asymmetrical than the better-known gondola, and was used to transport passengers across the lagoon, for postal services, hospitals, funerals, prisons, etc. It was called the barchèta a massòche (massòche means mallet) due to the shape of its extremities. It was also called barchèta da paràda, gondola lagunar, barchéta da fresco.
Now barchèta a massòche refers to the gondola ferries which cross the Grand Canal.
- Mussìn: boat for two or four oars which was very light, similar to the gondolino but with the bow boom inclined forwards without the metal decoration (fèro). Until a few years ago, it was used as the leading boat in the Regata Storica.
- Disdotona: boat for processions with eighteen (disdòto in Venetian dialect) oarsmen from which it derives its name. The first disdotona was built in 1903, the type used today in 1973. It is 18 m long and can be taken apart into three sections for ease of storage and transport.
Sàndolo: the most commonly used boat of the lagoon. It varies from 5 to 9 m in length, has flat sides, a straight bow stem inclined forwards with a straight-cut stern.
The many variations of this boat are to adapt it to many uses: fishing (sàndolo a la ciosòta, sandolo buranèlo, sàndolo sampieròto), for recreation and regattas (mascaréta, pupparìn), hunting, carrying passengers, and so on.
Sàndolo da s'ciòpo o S'ciopón: small boat about 5.25 m long, 1 m wide and 30 cm high.
It was used by the inhabitants of the estuary to hunt ducks using a technique called col s’ciopòn. The hunter followed the game around the lagoons in this light boat rowing with two crossed oars, threw bait from the sàndolo and using a small oar called a pénola (feather) or palina (small spade) he closed in on the ducks, shooting them with a large (3 m-long) type of musket or s’ciopo (from which the boat gets its name).
Sàndolo da barcariòl: used in Venice to transport tourists, painted black and equipped with parécio (that is chairs, a central divan, gilded horses on the sides, etc.), it is easily mistaken for a gondola by tourists, and serves the same function.
Nowadays a space is cut from the stern deck for the insertion of an off-board motor used for longer excursions.
Batèla buranela: Venetian transport boat with the straight-cut stern and the bow stem curved and extended forwards like that of the tòpo. With a solid and economical construction, it is still used to transport building materials. The oarsmen stand over the bow and stern decks leaving the central space free for the load. It derives from the more ancient batèla a còa de gàmbaro.
Caorlìna: a beautiful lagoon boat with rounded, symmetrical stern and bow and half-moon stems with vertical ends, parallel sides, with a large capacity but retaining its elegance.
Few examples of traditionally-built caorlìne have been conserved, but there are many reconstructions for recreation and regattas made in marine ply-wood.
The caorlìna can be used both with oars (up to 6 oarsmen) and sails. It was used for transport and for fishing a seràgia, in which case a low cabin for the fishermen (camaròto) was built into the stern.
Since 1951 the caorlìne have been used for the Venetian Historic Regatta with a crew of 6 oarsmen. It is 9 m long, 1.56 metres wide, with a bottom width of 0.56 m, and a mid-length height of 0.56 m. It weighs approx. 380 kg.
Peàta: also piatta; this was the most important transport boat for the city canals in Venice. Similar to the caorlìna, but larger and less slender, it was designed to obtain the maximum cargo capacity. The peate were built with half-moon stems (the later versions had a sraight stern stem), with the hull almost parallel, with a flat bottom and with two covers at the extremities with a hatch and two bitts each.
It was built in various sizes which ranged from 100 to 250, 400, and over 800 hundredweight. It was usually propelled by two oarsmen who used the fórcole or the simpler vogarìssi; the stern oarsman kept the boat on course moving the rudder with his feet.
In the narrower canals, the oarsmen propelled the boat by a form of punting (paràndo - a technique also used for the bùrci), in which the oar is pushed into the canal bottom, the oarsman places the top of the oar against his shoulder, walking backwards along the side of the boat. The boat was always (literally) pitch-black, the only decoration being two white circles (bóli) or two white bands (catelàne) painted on the bow and the stern.
Many large boats were used in the river traffic which terminated in the lagoon. This river traffic brought all the goods from the neighbouring regions and returned with products bought in Venice.
The most famous of these boats is the bùrcio or bùrchio. It had no bow stem, but the flat bottom was raised at the bow to deck level with a curvature (levadùra). At the stern the sides joined vertically level with the rudder. The central body remained nearly parallel for the entire length of the two holds. The straght sides were slightly spànti, that is flared outwards. The extremeties of the boat not destined for cargo had decks which formed cabins reserved for the owner and his family (at the stern) and the crew (at the bow). In the centre, between the two bulkheads of the holds, an interspace served as access to the bilge and for other onboard work. The bùrcio had two masts which could be folded when passing under bridges, and each mast on which a sail al terzo was hoisted.
To return upriver, the alsàna was used, that is, the boat was pulled by horses,or - when there were no horses - by the crew.
The capacity varied from 800 to 2.500 hundredweight, while the maximum dimensions were: length 35 m, width 7 m, height 2/2.20 m and draught when fully loaded 1.80/2.10 m.
The rascóna was another large boat which was widely used on rivers and in the lagoon up until this century to transport grain and crops. The rascóna came in a number of types which varied in capacity from 15 to 200 tons. The largest had the following dimensions: length 30 m, width 7 m, immersion when empty 0.42 m, when fully loaded 1.80 m.
It had very high, pointed ends, straight very flared sides with two masts with sails al terzo. It was a very archaic-looking boat, similar to Egyptian river boats, especially due to the two lateral rudders manoeuvred with a pole by the helmsman who sat, as in a carriage, at the extremity of the stern so as to have an unrestricted view of the cargo. The last rascóne were used during the first years of this century.
The Bragòsso was the most commonly-used fishing-boat in the northern Adriatic for most of the nineteenth century and the first half of the twentieth century. Until the advent of the motor, with which the bragòsso tried to co-exist for a while, it proved to be perfect for fishing in this area which is characterized by shallow waters, moderate winds and a calm sea. It measured from 9 to 16 metres, with a width a quarter of its length, with a flat bottom with a slight longitudinal sheer which became more pronounced at the stern and bow.
The stern was squared, the bow rounded, with the stems curved in a vertical half-moon. The sides were perpendicular in the higher part, becoming more curved towards the bottom where they joined forming an edge. The bragòsso had no rakes and a large uncluttered deck used to rearrange the nets and sorting the catch. The width of the bottom, which was constant for nearly the entire length of the boat, considerably reduced the draught (about 45 cm for 10 tons), a useful feature in the northern Adriatic with its shallow and sandy coasts and frequently silted-up ports. To counteract the leeway in the bowline tack, the surface area of the rudder was greatly increased which, being over 4 metres high, reached well below the bottom of the boat, and could be raised or lowered according to the available depth. It was raised and lowered on long metal runners like a normal centreboard.
The bragòsso was low, completely decked, with no structures on deck, with two main hatches and two smaller hatches at the bow. It had two masts, the main mast strictly at a third of the length of the boat, and the foremast at about 3/4 from the stern, inclined forwards about 10/15 degrees, without fixed rigging apart from a shroud (sàrcia) on the left. It had two trapezoidal sails called al terzo for the point of the spar on which the halliard was rigged.
The Tòpo is a lagoon and coastal boat with a flat bottom, and varies from 6 to 14 m in length. It has rounded sides and a rounded stern with a vertical stem and the bow extended forwards.
There are many variations of this boat which can be decked or left open depending on how and where it is used. Also known as batello a pìsso, mùsso or musséto, topéto, tòpo mistieréto, tòpo venessiàn, batèlo col filo. It was used for transport and fishing, both with oars and sail. Nowadays it is motorized (mototopo) or with a straight-cut stern, and is the most widely-used transport boat in the lagoon.
Trabàcolo: well-known transport boat about twenty metres long, with two masts and bowsprit, widely used in all areas of the northern Adriatic. It was built following the classic rules of naval construction with timbers on a keel, unlike the other similar-sized boats of the same area which were built with a flat bottom (bragòsso, tartàna, etc.).
The trabàcolo was rigged with sails (vele al terzo) which, starting from the aft sail, were gradually replaced with gaff sails with fixed rigging in steel wire with ratlines on the shrouds. It was fully-shaped and folded back when not in use and thin and flared in operation.
It had a straight stern stem with a sliding rudder, a curved bow stem which curved back in the top part, surmounted with a carved sheepskin (known as a perùca, pelizón, or scùfia). Another characteristic of the trabàcolo are the two large carved and painted eyes on the sides of the bow stem (not to be confused with the hawse-holes positioned below).
Without doubt it was a descendent of the small cargo vessels such as the cocca veneta, and was used to transport building materials such as wood and stone between Yugoslavia and Italy. A smaller version, the barchétto, was used in Romagna for fishing. The few surviving examples of the trabacolo are used for recreation.
The large historic ships which made the Serenissima Republic so powerful deserve a chapter of their own. They were divided into two categories, round ships and narrow ships. The former, characterized by their bulging shape, were destined for sailing with goods which were not particularly valuable; the cocche venete belong to this family. The latter, the famous galleys (galee), were used for the spice trade, for transporting precious goods and as battleships.
The Galère (galleys) were propelled both by oars and imposing lateen sails. The oarsmen were initially made up of free men who were paid for each voyage, but then, due to the lack of volunteers, prisoners were used who were condemned to row for the duration of their prison term. Living conditions were terrible: more than two hundred men had to eat, sleep and excrete on a narrow bench shared by other three or five companions. It was said that the hygenic conditions were so bad that before the galleys were sighted, they could be smelt.
The hull of the galèra was about 40m long with a width varying between 5 and 8m, it thus had a very high length/width ratio similar to the gondola. Another characteristic of the galleys were the sides which were so low that, to avoid capsizing, a rule was introduced to have sides of at least two Venetian feet (69.6 cm) on a fully-loaded 40m-long ship! It is difficult to imagine how they were able to navigate with sails having over 300 square metres surface area, and spars over 35 metres long without capsizing, but there are records which show that they regularly navigated not only in the Mediteranean (Turkey, Egypt and Spain) but also as far as England, Holland and Germany.
There were narrow galleys mainly for military use and wider galleys for trade. There were also larger variants such as the galeàzze used to start the battle of Lepanto, and smaller types such as the fuste and the galeòte.
Another historic ship is the Doge’s ceremonial boat, the Bucintoro, of which at least four similar examples were built over the centuries. The last, built in 1722, was an imposing vessel 100 Venetian feet long (34.8 m) which was decorated and gilded. The bucintoro had two decks: the lower deck was where the workers of the Arsenale rowed the 42 oars, the upper deck was reserved for the authorities, and at the stern on a special throne, the Doge. During the ceremony of the Sposalizio col mare, the Doge, at the entrance to the port of the Lido, threw a ring into the water which symbolized the Marriage of Venezia to the Sea.
Finally the bissòne are an ancient type of ceremonial boat, rowed by eight costumed oarsmen. The boat was sumptuously decorated with sculptures and allegorical carvings. It was used to display or receive important people. Even today, ten of these boats (reconstructions) make up the procession during the Regata Storica. The themes illustrated by thes boats are: Byzantine, Horses, China, Floral, Geographic, Neptune, Pescantina, Querini, Rezzonico, Venice.
The boats of Venetian lagoon are noteworthy not only for their beauty and variety, but also for their peculiar rowing system. The oarsman stands face forward and, depending on the different type of boats, uses either a single long oar or two crossed oars on the entire surface of the typical oarlocks, called fórcole. Thanks to this rowing technique the gondola cruises the narrow canals in Venice (rii ) and is able to cross other boats, to pivot and to stop without any visible effort.
Venetian rowing is particularly efficient: the rower covers long distances almost effortlessly, furthermore - thanks to his standing position - he can spot in advance any obstacle and locate the twisted gaps (ghèbi) among the shoals.
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RAIXE VENETE - el jorna