Depictions of Ships

In the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, demand for maps as decorative objects increased. They “became the standard fare of room decoration for public and private spaces,” leading, ultimately, to more standardization in how certain things were depicted (Unger 153). Additionally, because maps were shared widely across the European continent, they started to rely much more on images and pictograms, so as to communicate information to a much wider range of people, rather than limiting the use of a given map to those who understood the language. Also during this time, Europeans were “discovering” and colonizing new areas of the world, filled with vast swathes of ocean, and peoples they had never seen before. This era, then, saw a European turn towards classification and “objectivity” in all areas of knowledge (Foucault, 131). 

All of these forces combined led to increased depictions of ships on maps and affected the specific ways in which they were illustrated. Ships served both a decorative and functional purpose. Firstly, because maps suddenly had to depict huge amounts of ocean filled with nothing, which was boring from an aesthetic standpoint, ships represented a way of preserving the decorative nature of maps. Oceans were populated with ships of varying types, which could be resized and shown at a variety of different angles, as well as positioned in specific regions to tell stories. For example, Diogo Ribeiro “included a ship on his 1529 planisphere which suggested the route of the first circumnavigation of the globe”, and Johann Schöner, on his 1523 globe, “put in a black line showing the route of the ships that started out under the command of Magellan and returned to Europe under the command of Sebastian del Cano” (Unger 160).

Secondly, in addition to this type of functional use, the illustrations of the ships were intended to be accurate to the actual types of vessels used in various parts of the globe. Carracks, galleons, caravels, galleys, cogs, hulks, junks, and more all made appearances on maps as the specific ships used for seafaring evolved and changed, based on the era and location being depicted.

Finally, these illustrations of ships reinforced the idea of individual nations’ sovereignty over the seas. In the sixteenth century, European nations started developing navies, setting up colonies in earnest, and laying claim to bodies of water far from their home countries. Portugal “charged fees for using the Indian Ocean through a system of licenses as if the sea were the property of the Portuguese king” and Charles V, the Habsburg monarch, sought to consolidate power by claiming the North Sea as his own (Unger 167-168). Wrapped up in this desire for territorial expansion were the honor and reputations of the European monarchs during this time. To continue to command power and respect on the continent, one had to broaden one’s holdings outside of it. To this end, certain types of ships in specific regions on maps could support territorial claims, very much serving a political purpose.