ir forces that no single
squadron could claim to belong to any one nation. As the Venetian
galleys lacked men, he put aboard them Spanish and Italian infantry.
Before leaving Messina, he had given every commander written
instructions as to his cruising station and his place in the battle
line. The fighting formation was to consist of three squadrons of
the line and one of reserve. The left wing was to be commanded
by the Venetian Barbarigo; the center, by Don Juan himself, in the
flagship _Real_, with Colonna, the Papal commander on his right and
Veniero, the Venetian commander, on his left, in their respective
flagships. The right wing was intrusted to Doria, and the reserve,
amounting to about thirty galleys, was under the Spaniard, Santa
Cruz. In front of each squadron of the line two Venetian galleasses
were to take station in order to break up the formation of the
Turkish advance. The total fighting force consisted of 202 galleys,
six galleasses, and 28,000 infantrymen besides sailors and oarsmen.

The Venetian galleasses deserve special mention because they attracted
considerable attention by the part they subsequently played in
the action. Sometimes the word was applied to any specially large
galley, but these represented something different from anything
in either Christian or Turkish fleets. They were an attempt to
reach a combination of galleon and galley, possessing the bulk,
strength, and heavy armament of the former, together with the oar
propulsion of the latter to render them independent of the wind.
But like most, if not all, compromise types, the galleass was
short-lived. It was clumsy and slow, being neither one thing nor
the other. Most of the time on the cruise these galleasses had
to be towed in order to keep up with the rest of the fleet. It
is interesting to note that, despite the example of the _Galleon
of Venice_ at Prevesa, there was not a single galleon in the whole
force.

On September 16 the start from Messina was made. The fleet crossed
to the opposite shore of the Adriatic, creeping along the coast and
in the lee of the islands after the manner of oar driven vessels
that were unable to face a fresh breeze or a moderate sea. Delayed
by unfavorable winds, it was not till October 6 that it arrived
at the group of rocky islets lying just north of the opening of
the Gulf of Corinth, or Lepanto[1] where the Turkish fleet was
known to be mobilized. Meanwhile trouble had broken out among the
C