Galleon

Definition

A large multi-decked sailing ship of the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, used by Spain and Portugal both as armed merchantmen on the Atlantic and Pacific treasure routes and as warships in the line of battle. A typical Spanish treasure galleon mounted thirty to forty guns and carried four to six hundred tons of cargo; the Manila galleons that crossed the Pacific between Acapulco and the Philippines were larger still. The galleon was the prize that, when taken, set up a buccaneer captain for life; the Sagrada Família that Roberts cut out at Bahia in 1719 was a galleon by Portuguese rating.