Polacca
Type of ship used in the 17th–19th centuries
title: "Polacca" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["17th-century-ships", "tall-ships", "merchant-ships", "pirate-ships"] description: "Type of ship used in the 17th–19th centuries" topic_path: "general/17th-century-ships" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polacca" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0
::summary Type of ship used in the 17th–19th centuries ::
::callout[type=note] the sailing vessel ::
A polacca (or polacre) is a type of seventeenth- to nineteenth-century sailing vessel.
Structure
::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/02/Sail_plan_xebec.svg" caption="Sail plan for a polacre."] ::
The name is the feminine of "Polish" in the Italian language. The polacca was frequently seen in the Mediterranean. It had two or three single-pole masts, the three-masted vessels often with a lateen hoisted on the foremast (which was slanted forward to accommodate the large lateen yard) and a gaff or lateen on the mizzen mast. The mainmast was square-rigged after the European style.
History
Special polaccas were used by Murat Reis, whose ships had lateen sails in front and fore-and-aft rig behind.
Some polacca pictures show what appears to be a ship-rigged vessel (sometimes with a lateen on the mizzen) with a galley-like hull and single-pole masts. Thus, the term "polacca" seems to refer primarily to the masting and possibly the hull type as opposed to the type of rig used for the sails. Two-masted polaccas were referred to as brig-polaccas with square sails on both masts. Three-masted polaccas were called ship-polaccas or polacca-settees.
Captain Jack Aubrey in HMS Sophie captures a French polacre laden with corn and general merchandise in Patrick O'Brian's first Aubrey-Maturin novel, Master and Commander (1969).
Mughal Empire
"Great Mogul" emperor's fleet of Polacca ships were harboured at seaports like Calicut and Pulicat, it was a fleet that controlled Cape Comorin.
Gallery
Image:Oluf Eigilsson Murat Reis 1627-1628.jpg|Polacca of Murat Reis the Younger File:Polacre San Nicolo-Antoine Roux-p17.jpg|The Greek polacca San Nicolo, by Antoine Roux File:Antoine Roux sailing ship at Marseille.jpg|The Greek polacca *Bella Aurora *, by Antoine Roux File:Chebec Mistic-IMG 8860.jpg|Squared-rigged Polacca of the 1780-1815 period.
References
References
- (2000). "A Sea of Words". Henry Holt.
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