Quote Originally Posted by rrgg View Post
Ideally there was supposed to be a fair amount of space between the oars where during combat they could store weapons, ammunition, barrels of seawater, surgeons, etc within easy access. Mendoza does mention though that galleys in particular should always keep at least a couple of lanterns lit below decks at night so that the men aren't stumbling and tripping over each other if they need to do something in the middle of the night.
I would have to go over my sources again to get all the correct terminology, but basically, there was an inner walkway, and an outer walkway on each side, where soldiers could be stationed. However, from what I've seen they would still have to step over the oars. (Note the oars are leveraged between upright pegs mounted at the outside edge of this walkway, so it's not like the oars are moving all over the place).