caravel

noun

1. (historical)A light, usually lateen-rigged sailing ship used by the Portuguese and Spanish for about 300 years from the 15th century, first for trade and later for voyages of exploration.

   “When Gullion di'd (who knows not Gullion?) / And his drie soule arriu'd at Acheron, / He faire besought the feryman of hell, / That he might drink to dead Pantagruel. / […] Yet still he drinkes, nor can the Botemans cries, / Nor crabbed oares, nor prayers make him rise. / So long he drinkes, till the black Carauell / Stands still fast grauel'd on the mud of hell.”

   “We also barter'd all the Goods that were in the firſt Spaniſh Caravel, taken at our firſt ſetting out for other Commodities, and left all the Priſoners. A Caravel ſays Oforius lib. 2 is a Veſſel that has no round Top, nor any Timber acroſs the Top of the Maſt, but the Yard is made faſt a little below the Top. The Sails are triangular, and their lower Points are but little above the Deck.”

   “On the Ninth of May, in the Year one Thouſand, five Hundred, and Two, [Christopher] Columbus and his Brother departed, from Spain, on their laſt Voyage of Diſcovery, with four Caravelles, and one hundred, and ſeventy Men.”

   “At preſent theſe trees are not very numerous, as the Turks make uſe of them to build the Grand Signior's caravelles, and cut down without ever planting.”

   “[T]he governor of Hiſpaniola was afraid that if the admiral returned to Spain, Their Catholic Majeſties would reſtore him to his government, and ſo he ſhould be forced to quit it; for which reaſon he would not provide, as he might have done, for the admiral's voyage to Hiſpaniola; and therefore had ſent that little caraval to ſpy and obſerve the condition the admiral was in, and to know whether he could contrive with ſafety to have him deſtroyed, […]”