How a galleass combined oars, sails, and a broadside

A galleass placed a sailing rig and broadside artillery above a large galley hull. A typical arrangement might use thirty-four oars on each side with five rowers to each oar. The oars preserved maneuver when the wind failed, while the gun deck gave the ship an advantage over an ordinary galley. This Mediterranean hybrid became popular for a time in the Atlantic, where calms could still immobilize a vessel that depended entirely on sail. It answered a mobility problem later addressed by auxiliary steam, at the cost of a very large rowing establishment and the burden of sustaining it.