It was known for its agility and speed and its capacity for sailing windward beating. Caravels were used by the Portuguese and Spanish for the voyages of exploration during the 15th and 16th centuries, in the Age of Discovery.
The caravel is a poorly understood type of vessel. Though there are now some archaeologically investigated wrecks that are most likely caravels, information on this type is limited. We have a better understanding of the ships of the Greeks and Romans of classical antiquity than we do of the caravel.
The long development of the caravel was probably influenced by various Mediterranean tending or coastal craft. The earliest caravels appeared in the thirteenth century along the coasts of Galicia and Portugal as single-masted fishing vessels. Evidence suggests that these were open boats. They carried a single-masted, triangular lateen sail rig. By the fourteenth century, their size had increased and their use had spread; for instance, there is mention, in , of larger caravels of up to 30 tons in Biscay.
Caravels were a common type of vessel in the coastal waters of the Iberian Peninsula in the fifteenth century. They were agile and easier to navigate than the barca and barinel , with a tonnage of 50 to tons and 1 to 3 masts.
Being smaller and having a shallow keel , the caravel was suited for sailing shallow coastal waters and up rivers. With the Mediterranean-type lateen sails attached it was highly maneuverable in shallow waters, while with the square Atlantic-type sails attached it was very fast when crossing the open sea.
