In the field of shipping, the early modern period began around 1450 with a new type of vessel, the caravel. A light ship developed in response to the needs of the Portuguese voyages of discovery, its construction and rig permitted tacking, unlike the Mediterranean carrack or the hulk of northwestern Europe (cf. Shipbuilding). In the general insecurity of the seas, where friend and foe were difficult to distinguish and arbitrary action impossible to control (even for Goethe, war, commerce, and Piracy merged into one at sea, cf. Faust II, Act 5, premiere 1854), merchant ships wer…