Ship types and fleet composition at Genoa and Venice in the early thirteenth century

The composition of Western war fleets changed considerably over the half-century between the establishment of the Latin Empire in 1204 and the outbreak in Acre of the War of St Sabas in 1256. In the wars between Genoa and Pisa in the Tyrrhenian Sea in the first half of the thirteenth century, fleets were often composed of a wide mix of sailing ships both large and small, galleys and smaller oared vessels of similar design, such as sagitae!saette, and intermediate types such as taride. Large sailing ships, or navi, were often mentioned as undertaking operations alone or as the primary warships in a fleet. However, by mid-century, when the first major war between Genoa and Venice broke out, galleys had clearly become the mainstay of war fleets.