A large, heavily built merchant or sailing ship used in the 15th-17th centuries, with high castles at bow and stern.
From Italian 'caraca' or Portuguese 'caravela,' possibly derived from Arabic 'qāriyyah' (merchant ship); the word shows the maritime trade routes of the Renaissance.
Caracks were the ocean liners of the Renaissance—so large and expensive that losing one could bankrupt a merchant company, yet they enabled Columbus and da Gama's voyages!
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