ABSTRACT
For the Crown of Aragon the 13th century ushered in a period of expansion and the acquisition of overseas possessions. The spearhead of this rise in naval power was the Catalan navy, whose ships varied considerably in both size and style of construction. Unfortunately, to date very little headway has been made in defining the differences between the types of vessels used by 13th-century navies beyond generalizations about size and use. The problem is compounded by the evolution of ship design during this period and by a complete change in the method of rowing at the end of the century. All the ships at the Palau Nadal have their oars arranged on one level, this was not the case for the warships which had immediately preceded them. Despite the problems and limitations, the Catalans seem to have experimented with the limited use of a third oar or tarsol during the second half of the 13th century.
