A galley is a type of ship that is propelled mainly by oars. The galley is characterized by its long, slender hull, shallow draft, and low freeboard(clearance between sea and railing). Virtually all types of galleys have sails that can be used in favorable winds, but human effort was always the primary method of propulsion. This allowed galleys to navigate independently of winds and currents.
Galley’s make up the majority of the navies of the The Inner Archipelago, with its short distances, favorable weather, fickle summer winds and extensive archipelagoes. However they prove much less effective in the less dense and more disperse Reaches. They are also gradually being phased out in favor of a more modern and more heavily armed Galleas.
While equipped with a ram and cannons, galleys typically rely on boarding actions to decide combat. Their multiple banks of oars can make them extremely fast under short distances, but have trouble maintaining these extreme bursts of speed for long periods.