Every component of the “world encounter” that began in the fifteenth century crossed the oceans in wooden ships. People and their possessions, mineral and agricultural products, religions, ideas, and diseases all passed overseas aboard vessels bound for American, European, and Asian ports. Ships were as basic to the continuing encounter as they had been to its first, exploratory phase. In Vanguard of Empire, Roger Smith assiduously examines the ships and shipping of both stages over the period 1430-1530.
This book is uniquely complete. Samuel Eliot Morison (Admiral of the Ocean Sea, 1942) and José María Martínez Hidalgo (Las Naves de Colón, 1966) have written in the context of the Columbus voyages, describing the ships utilized in them. In Six Galleons for the King of Spain (1986), Carla Rahn Phillips displays a firm knowledge of the Carrera de Indias and the ships built for it. Björn Landström’s book The Ship: An Illustrated History (1961) describes and beautifully depicts vessels of all epochs. But Smith addresses the task of full exposition of the Iberian maritime world: the terms of trade and exploration beginning in the early fifteenth century, the sailing craft employed, their construction, arms, rigging, provisioning, and navigation. Clearly and methodically, he delineates the maritime technology of Iberian expansion in terms readily understandable to specialists or to ordinary readers. Illustrations of hull construction, sail and rigging plans, pumps, and cannon clarify and illuminate the text.
As a maritime archaeologist, Smith has employed new and direct knowledge of early ships gained from recent excavations. From shipwrecks at Red Bay, Labrador; Bahia Mujeres in Yucatán; Highborn Cay in the Bahamas; West Molasses Reef in the Caicos; and a newly discovered site on the Little Bahama Bank he deduces “startlingly tangible evidence” about the discovery vessels (p. 190). This lends freshness and immediacy to his narrative.
Based on research for a doctoral dissertation, the book is soundly grounded in primary and secondary sources that are reviewed in a bibliographical essay. Three very useful glossaries of nautical terms—in English, Spanish, and Portuguese—are appended, together with translations of key documents about Columbus’ caravels Niña and Santa Cruz from the Libro de Armadas in the Archivo de Indias.
Vanguard of Empire is a significant book that belongs in the libraries of Latin American scholars and maritime historians. Its excellent quality, readability, and thoroughness should guarantee it a wide audience.
