qarrāqa

Arabic qarrāqa (also qurqura) named a large merchant ship, and the word traveled the same trade routes as the cargo it described. Medieval Italian merchants borrowed it as caracca, Spanish as carraca, Portuguese as carraca — and these became carracks, the dominant ocean-going sailing ship of the 15th and 16th centuries. The Santa María, Columbus's largest ship in 1492, was a carrack. Vasco da Gama's São Gabriel (1497) was a carrack.

The carrack was the vessel of an age of contact. High-sided, with three or four masts and a combination of square and lateen sails, it could carry large cargoes across open ocean. It was not nimble, but it was capable of surviving the Atlantic and Indian Ocean swells that destroyed lighter vessels. The Portuguese carracks that reached India and China were essentially large boxes that could sail.

The carracks that entered the spice trade made Portugal briefly the wealthiest nation in Europe. A single carrack laden with pepper, cinnamon, and cloves from the Malabar Coast could return fifty-fold on its investment. The Pope divided the world's uncharted territories between Spain and Portugal in 1494 (Treaty of Tordesillas) partly because the carrack had suddenly made those territories reachable.

The carrack was superseded by the galleon in the mid-16th century — a sleeker, lower design that sacrificed cargo space for speed and maneuverability. The galleon's name also entered English via Spanish galeon, itself from Greek galea (galley). The carrack left its Arabic name behind and faded into the vocabulary of maritime historians. But almost every European contact with the Americas and Asia happened on its decks.