Galea

Galea in Latin is HELMET. The Galea was a Roman helmet in excess of 1000 BC. Another basis for the name was for a type of boat with oars and sails. The first Greek boats called galea, appeared around the second half of the 2nd millennium BC. There is reference in the 12th century BC, where the Galea boats had a single row of oarsmen were used primarily to transport soldiers to and from various land battles.The first recorded naval battle, the battle of the Delta between Egyptian forces under Ramesses III and the enigmatic alliance known as the Sea Peoples, occurred as early as 1175 BC. It is the first known engagement between organized armed forces, using sea vessels as weapons of war, though primarily as fighting platforms. It was distinguished by being fought against an anchored fleet close to shore with land-based archer support.

From Spanish galea "galleon, warship" presumably a metonymic occupational name for a shipwright or a sailor. Italian habitational name from Galea in Calabria.