A lancaran or lanchara is a type of sailing ship used in
jong and malangbang. The reason for this difference is that the Malays operated their ships in riverine water, sheltered straits zone, and archipelagic environment, while the Javanese are often active in the open and high sea. After contact with Iberian people, both the Javanese and Malay fleets began to use the ghurab and ghali more frequently.[4]: 270–277, 290–291, 296–301 [1]
: 148, 155
Etymology
The term lancaran is derived from the Malay word lancar, which means "swift", "fast", "not hindered", and "velocity without effort". Thus the word lancaran may be interpreted as "swift vessel".[5]
Description
Lancaran is a swift, local ship propelled by oars and sails with two-quarter rudders, one on either side of the stern. In Aceh, lancarans were taller than galley but equaled them in length.
rentaka variety. One distinguishing feature from the galley is the presence of an elevated fighting platform (called a balai), in which warriors usually stood and perform boarding actions.[1]: 165 Cargo lancaran could carry 150 tons of cargo. The lancaran of Sunda had unique masts shaped like a crane, with steps between each so that they are easy to navigate.[7]
: 167
Role
Lancaran were used both as warships and for commerce. In the 14th–15th century CE, the Kingdom of Singapura and Sungai Raya each have 100 three-masted lancaran (lancaran bertiang tiga).[8]
In about 1500 CE, the
Sultanate of Malacca opposed Siam with 200 boats, consisting of lancaran and kelulus.[9]: 212 According to Afonso de Albuquerque, during the 1511 Portuguese attack on the Malacca Sultanate, the Malays used an unspecified number of lancaran (lanchara) and twenty penjajap (pangajaoa).[10]: 80–81 [11]: 68 After Sultan Mahmud Shah of Malacca was deposed from Malacca in 1511, he took over Bintan. In 1519 and 1520 he had a fleet consisting of 60 and 100 boats respectively, both being made up of lancaran and kelulus.[9]
: 212
During the
Javanese junks were too large to approach the shore.[12]: 74 Lancaran was the other type of vessel counted by Tome Pires after junks and penjajap upon arriving at a port.[7]
: 185, 195
Royal lancaran of
Lingga is said to carry 200 fighting men and is about the size of a large galleass (larger than ordinary galleys). The regular lancaran of Pasai is said to carry 150 men and is under the command of a Javanese captain. Large ones with 300 crew are said to have been Javanese vessels. In the 1520s, smaller lancarans of Bintan and Pahang were armed with only 1 berço (breech-loading swivel gun, likely refers to cetbang), but also had arrows, spears, and fire-hardened wooden spars. Nicolau Perreira's account of the 1568 Acehnese siege of Malacca said that Aceh's boats are usually lancaran. It has two rows of oars and was as long as a galley.[6]: 146–147 An anonymous work depicting the 1568 siege showed a ship with a double quarter rudder and 3 masts, which corresponds with "lancaran bertiang tiga" (three-masted lancaran) mentioned in Malay texts.[1]
^During the 1511 Portuguese attack on Malacca Sultanate, the Malays use lancaran (lanchara) and penjajap (pangajaoa).[2] Kelulus (calaluz) was used on several expeditions before and after the fall of Malacca.[3]
References
^ abcdManguin, Pierre-Yves (2012). Lancaran, Ghurab and Ghali: Mediterranean impact on war vessels in Early Modern Southeast Asia. In G. Wade & L. Tana (Eds.), Anthony Reid and the Study of the Southeast Asian Past (pp. 146–182). Singapore: ISEAS Publishing.
^Birch, Walter de Gray (1875). The Commentaries of the Great Afonso Dalboquerque, Second Viceroy of India, translated from the Portuguese edition of 1774 Vol. III. London: The Hakluyt Society, page 68; and Albuquerque, Afonso de (1774). Commentários do Grande Afonso Dalbuquerque parte III. Lisboa: Na Regia Officina Typografica, page 80–81.
^Manguin, Pierre-Yves (1993). 'The Vanishing Jong: Insular Southeast Asian Fleets in Trade and War (Fifteenth to Seventeenth Centuries)', in Anthony Reid (ed.), Southeast Asia in the Early Modern Era (Ithaca: Cornell University Press), page 212.
^Nugroho, Irawan Djoko (2011). Majapahit Peradaban Maritim. Suluh Nuswantara Bakti. p. 276 and 400, quoting Sejarah Melayu, 14.9: 126–127: "Karena pada masa itu kelengkapan Singapura juga seratus lancaran bertiang tiga, dan Sungai Raya pun demikian juga." (Because at that time, Singapura's equipment was also a hundred three-masted lancaran, and likewise with Sungai Raya).
^ abManguin, Pierre-Yves (1993). 'The Vanishing Jong: Insular Southeast Asian Fleets in Trade and War (Fifteenth to Seventeenth Centuries)', in Anthony Reid (ed.), Southeast Asia in the Early Modern Era (Ithaca: Cornell University Press), 197–213.