The Portuguese were masters of the wide oceans since the Portuguese prince, Henry the Navigator, promoted the sciences of cartography (map making), sailing, boat building, navigation, etc. The Portuguese supremacy extended over the fourteenth-fifteenth century culminating in Bartholomeu Diaz rounding the Good Hope (southern tip of Africa) and Vasco da Gama discovering the sea route from Europe to the west coast of India. The Portuguese ocean supremacy (military and commercial) lasted through the sixteenth century and into the seventeenth century. With Goa as the defacto administrative capital of Portugal's Asian and African colonies and commercial sea traffic resulted in the second golden age of Goa from 1550 to 1650. By the seventeenth century, the Dutch were starting to emerge as another ocean-going power and they overtook the Portuguese by mid-century; including blockading Goa from 1636-1639. This blockade was the start of Goa's decline as the administrative center of Portuguese's Asian colonies. Soon Portugal lost several port-cities and trade in India, Ceylon, Southeast Asia not to mention its monitoring of naval traffic in the Indian Ocean and monopoly of spice trade in Europe. While the Portuguese seafaring interests were sponsored by the King of Portugal that owned all the ships (and kept all its profits), the Dutch seafaring interests were promoted by the wealthy merchant class. So Portuguese concentrated in developing ships displaying its military might (loaded with cannons) with a secondary interest in cargo transportation. The Dutch ship designers emphasized the ship design to carry a larger pay-load and able to sail in shallow waters of the Dutch coast and rivers. Soon the Dutch fleet had about 3,500 small and large vessels carrying 600,000 tons of cargo annually. The rest of the western world (Portugal, Spain, France, England) worked off the prototype of a high-sided cargo galleon to maximize carrying as many cannons. However, the Dutch designed hull was wide and fuller, with a high narrow stem with a shallow draught. The bottom of the hull was flat. Resistance to lateral drift was provided by two lee-boards that could be lowered into the water. The rigs (sails) of conventional ships was square / lateen sails while the Dutch ships were rigged with a spanker gaff. This provided Dutch ships higher speed and maneuverability which could be managed by the smallest crew. By the eighteenth century, the Dutch naval supremacy was overtaken by the French and English. The above is a summary from a history-buff. Anyone knowledgeable in naval design and naval history may want to add or expand the above.
Regards, GL
