Venetian Arsenal (serial galley production)
Arsenal de Venecia (producción en serie de galeras)
- Date
- 1104 (fundación); c. 1320 (producción en serie) · confidence medium
- Place
- Arsenal, Castello, Venice, Veneto, Italy
- Credited to
- Republic of Venice
- Field
- Tools
What it is
A state shipyard where galleys were built from standardised parts, with spare-part stores and a quasi-assembly-line division of labour. In the 16th century it could fit out a galley in hours from prefabricated components.
Production figures (a galley a day in 1574, on the visit of Henry III) come from visitors' accounts and may be exaggerated; serial organisation consolidated between the 14th and 16th centuries.
What it led to
- a Venetian merchant and war fleet of hundreds of galleys
- a precedent for standardised industrial production
- Venetian naval advantage over the Ottomans