als for building galleys, but a well-understood strategic and operational doctrine for making effective use of them (Dotson, 217-23). Both sides at Lepanto possessed sailing carracks and galleons, but would have had trouble meeting their objectives if they had tried to use them instead of galleys. These physical and human resources for galley warfare were far less available in the Atlantic. Even the Spanish, familiar with galleys, fell back on sailing ships for the Armada campaign.
Today we tend to think of sailing ships as more "modern" than galleys. Lepanto looks like a holdover from the ancient past, while the Armada campaign looks like a harbinger of things to come. However, in the 16th century the galley was still a highly effective fighting ship -- often more effective than sailing men-of-war. Lepanto was a well-fought and decisive battle, whereas the Armada engagements were a muddle, in which neither side was able to make its tactics work as intended.
During the Renaissance, the technology of both galleys
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