Editing Sailing (section)

==History==
{{Further|Maritime history|Sailing ship#History}}

Throughout history, sailing was a key form of propulsion that allowed for greater mobility than travel over land. This greater mobility increased capacity for exploration, trade, transport, warfare, and fishing, especially when compared to overland options.{{r|Adams 2013|at=ch.2}}

Until the significant improvements in land transportation that occurred during the 19th century, if water transport was an option, it was faster, cheaper and safer than making the same journey by land. This applied equally to sea crossings, coastal voyages and use of rivers and lakes. Examples of the consequences of this include the large [[grain trade]] in the Mediterranean during the [[Classical antiquity|classical period]]. Cities such as Rome were totally reliant on the delivery by sailing ships of the large amounts of grain needed. It has been estimated that it cost less for a sailing ship of the Roman Empire to carry grain the length of the Mediterranean than to move the same amount 15 miles by road. Rome consumed about 150,000 tons of Egyptian grain each year over the first three centuries AD.<ref name="Casson 1995">{{cite book |last1=Casson |first1=Lionel |title=Ships and seamanship in the ancient world |date=1995 |publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press |location=Baltimore |isbn=0-8018-5130-0}}</ref>{{rp|297}}<ref name="Adams 2013">{{cite book |last1=Adams |first1=Jonathan |title=A maritime archaeology of ships : innovation and social change in medieval and early modern Europe |date=2013 |location=Oxford, UK |isbn=9781842172971 |edition=First}}</ref>{{rp|at=ch. 2}}<ref name="Jett 2017">{{cite book |last1=Jett |first1=Stephen C. |title=Ancient ocean crossings : reconsidering the case for contacts with the pre-Columbian Americas |date=2017 |publisher=The University of Alabama Press |location=Tuscaloosa |isbn=978-0-8173-1939-7}}</ref>{{rp|147}}{{efn|The distance by sea from Alexandria (the main Egyptian grain port during the Roman Empire) to Civitavecchia (the modern port for Rome) is {{convert|1126|nmi}}.<ref name="sea-distances_org">{{cite web |title=SEA-DISTANCES.ORG - Distances |url=https://sea-distances.org/ |website=sea-distances.org |access-date=2 November 2023}}</ref>}}

A similar but more recent trade, in coal, was from the mines situated close to the [[River Tyne]] to [[London]] – which was already being carried out in the 14th century and grew as the city increased in size. In 1795, 4,395 cargoes of coal were delivered to London. This would have needed a fleet of about 500 sailing [[Collier (ship)|colliers]] (making 8 or 9 trips a year). This quantity had doubled by 1839. (The [[John Bowes (steamship)|first steam-powered collier]] was not launched until 1852 and sailing colliers continued working into the 20th century.) <ref name="Turner 1921">{{cite journal |last1=Turner |first1=Raymond |title=English Coal Industry in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries |journal=The American Historical Review |date=October 1921 |volume=27 |issue=1 |pages=1–23 |doi=10.2307/1836917 |jstor=1836917 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/1836917.pdf |access-date=28 November 2021}}</ref>{{efn|The distance by sea from the Tyne to London is {{convert|315|nmi}}.<ref name="sea-distances_org" />}}

=== Exploration and research ===
[[File:SantaMaria.jpg|thumb|Replica of [[Christopher Columbus]]'s [[carrack]], ''[[Santa María (ship)|Santa María]]'' under sail]]
The earliest image suggesting the use of sail on a boat may be on a piece of pottery from [[Mesopotamia]], dated to the 6th millennium BCE. The image is thought to show a bipod mast mounted on the hull of a reed boat – no sail is depicted.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Carter |first=Robert |date=2012-12-08 |title=The Neolithic origins of seafaring in the Arabian Gulf |url=https://scienceopen.com/document?vid=478c51b0-5235-43f4-8d95-5385202b8bce |journal=Archaeology International |volume=6 |doi=10.5334/ai.0613 |issn=2048-4194|doi-access=free }}</ref> The earliest representation of a sail, from Egypt, is dated to circa 3100 BCE.<ref name="Casson 1995"/>{{rp|figure 6}} The [[Nile]] is considered a suitable place for early use of sail for propulsion. This is because the river's current flows from south to north, whilst the prevailing wind direction is north to south. Therefore, a boat of that time could use the current to go north – an unobstructed trip of 750 miles – and sail to make the return trip.{{r|Casson 1995|p=11}} Evidence of early sailors has also been found in other locations, such as Kuwait, Turkey, Syria, Minoa, Bahrain, and India, among others.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kimball |first=John |url=https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/mono/10.1201/9781420073775/physics-sailing-john-kimball |title=Physics of Sailing |year=2009 |doi=10.1201/9781420073775|isbn=9781420073775 }}</ref>

[[Austronesian peoples]] used sails from some time before 2000 BCE.<ref name="Horridge 2006">{{cite book |last1=Horridge |first1=Adrian |editor1-last=Bellwood |editor1-first=Peter |title=The Austronesians : historical and comparative perspectives |date=2006 |location=Canberra, ACT |isbn=978-0731521326}}</ref>{{rp|144}} Their expansion from what is now Southern China and [[Taiwan]] started in 3000 BCE. Their technology came to include [[Outrigger ship|outriggers]], [[catamaran]]s,<ref name="Doran1974">{{cite journal|last1=Doran| first1=Edwin Jr. |date=1974|title=Outrigger Ages|url=http://www.jps.auckland.ac.nz/document//Volume_83_1974/Volume_83%2C_No._2/Outrigger_ages%2C_by_Edwin_Doran_Jnr.%2C_p_130-140/p1|journal=The Journal of the Polynesian Society|volume=83|issue=2|pages=130–140}}</ref> and [[crab claw sail]]s,<ref name="Mahdi1999">{{cite book|last1=Mahdi|first1=Waruno|title=Archaeology and Language III: Artefacts languages, and texts|publisher=Routledge|year=1999|isbn=978-0415100540|editor1-last=Blench|editor1-first=Roger|series=One World Archaeology|volume=34|pages=144–179|chapter=The Dispersal of Austronesian boat forms in the Indian Ocean|editor2-last=Spriggs|editor2-first=Matthew}}</ref> which enabled the [[Austronesian Expansion]] at around 3000 to 1500 BCE into the islands of [[Maritime Southeast Asia]], and thence to [[Micronesia]], [[Island Melanesia]], [[Polynesia]], and [[Madagascar]]. Since there is no commonality between the boat technology of China and the Austronesians, these distinctive characteristics must have been developed at or some time after the beginning of the expansion.<ref name="Horridge">{{cite book |last1=Horridge |first1=Adrian |title=The Austronesian Conquest of the Sea — Upwind |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/j.ctt2jbjx1.10.pdf |website=www.jstor.org |year=2006 |pages=143–160 |publisher=ANU Press |jstor=j.ctt2jbjx1.10 |isbn=0731521323 |access-date=16 June 2022}}</ref> They traveled vast distances of open ocean in [[outrigger canoe]]s using navigation methods such as [[Marshall Islands stick chart|stick charts]].<ref>{{cite journal|last1=O'Connor|first1=Tom|date=September–October 2004|title=Polynesians in the Southern Ocean: Occupation of the Auckland Islands in Prehistory|journal=New Zealand Geographic|volume=69|issue=6–8}}</ref><ref name="Doran1981">{{cite book|last1=Doran|first1=Edwin Jr.|title=Wangka: Austronesian canoe origins|date=1981|publisher=Texas A&M University Press|isbn=9781585440863}}</ref> The windward sailing capability of Austronesian boats allowed a strategy of sailing to windward on a voyage of exploration, with a return downwind either to report a discovery or if no land was found. This was well suited to the prevailing winds as Pacific islands were steadily colonized.{{r|Horridge}}

By the time of the [[Age of Discovery]]—starting in the 15th century—square-rigged, multi-masted vessels were the norm and were guided by navigation techniques that included the magnetic compass and making sightings of the sun and stars that allowed transoceanic voyages.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|last1=Anderson|first1=Romola|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=h-QvjRbK0DAC|title=A Short History of the Sailing Ship|last2=Anderson|first2=R. C.|date=1 September 2003|publisher=Courier Corporation|isbn=9780486429885|language=en}}</ref>

During the Age of Discovery, sailing ships figured in European voyages around Africa to China and Japan; and across the Atlantic Ocean to North and South America. Later, sailing ships ventured into the Arctic to explore northern sea routes and assess natural resources. In the 18th and 19th centuries sailing vessels made [[Hydrographic survey]]s to develop charts for navigation and, at times, carried scientists aboard as with the voyages of [[James Cook]] and the [[Second voyage of HMS Beagle|Second voyage of HMS ''Beagle'']] with naturalist [[Charles Darwin]].

=== Commerce ===
[[File:Portrait of an American Clipper Ship.jpeg|thumb|A late-19th-century American [[clipper]] ship]]
[[File:La Marine-Pacini-140.png|thumb|A French squadron forming a [[line of battle]] circa 1840.]]
In the early 1800s, fast blockade-running schooners and brigantines—[[Baltimore Clipper]]s—evolved into three-masted, typically ship-rigged sailing vessels with fine lines that enhanced speed, but lessened capacity for high-value cargo, like tea from China.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Villiers|first=Alan|url=https://archive.org/details/menshipssea00vill_0|title=Men, ships, and the sea|date=1973|publisher=National Geographic Society|others=National Geographic Society (U.S.)|isbn=0870440187|edition=New|location=Washington |pages=|oclc=533537}}</ref> Masts were as high as {{Convert|100|ft|m|abbr=}} and were able to achieve speeds of {{Convert|19|kn|km/h|abbr=}}, allowing for passages of up to {{Convert|465|nmi|km|abbr=}} per 24 hours. Clippers yielded to bulkier, slower vessels, which became economically competitive in the mid 19th century.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Baker|first=Kevin|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=U-KACwAAQBAJ&pg=PA15|title=America the Ingenious: How a Nation of Dreamers, Immigrants, and Tinkerers Changed the World|date=2016|publisher=Artisan Books|isbn=9781579657291|location=|pages=13–5|language=en}}</ref> Sail plans with just fore-and-aft sails ([[schooner]]s), or a mixture of the two ([[brigantine]]s, [[barque]]s and [[barquentine]]s) emerged.<ref name=":0" /> Coastal top-sail schooners with a crew as small as two managing the sail handling became an efficient way to carry bulk cargo, since only the fore-sails required tending while [[Tacking (sailing)|tacking]] and steam-driven machinery was often available for raising the sails and the anchor.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Chatterton|first=Edward Keble|url=https://archive.org/details/sailingshipsand00chatgoog|title=Sailing Ships and Their Story :the Story of Their Development from the Earliest Times to the Present Day|date=1915|publisher=Lippincott|isbn=|location=|pages=[https://archive.org/details/sailingshipsand00chatgoog/page/n374 298]|language=en}}</ref>

[[Iron-hulled sailing ship]]s represented the final evolution of sailing ships at the end of the Age of Sail. They were built to carry bulk cargo for long distances in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Schäuffelen|first=Otmar|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QgMRudqoLGQC&pg=PA46|title=Chapman Great Sailing Ships of the World|date=2005|publisher=Hearst Books|isbn=9781588163844|language=en}}</ref> They were the largest of merchant sailing ships, with three to five masts and square sails, as well as other [[sail plan]]s. They carried bulk cargoes between continents. Iron-hulled sailing ships were mainly built from the 1870s to 1900, when [[steamship]]s began to outpace them economically because of their ability to keep a schedule regardless of the wind.  Steel hulls also replaced iron hulls at around the same time. Even into the twentieth century, sailing ships could hold their own on transoceanic voyages such as Australia to Europe, since they did not require [[Coal bunker|bunkerage]] for coal nor fresh water for steam, and they were faster than the early steamers, which usually could barely make {{Convert|8|kn|km/h|abbr=}}.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Randier|first=Jean|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OOUjAQAAMAAJ|title=Men and Ships Around Cape Horn, 1616–1939|date=1968|publisher=Barker|isbn=9780213764760|location=|pages=338|language=en}}</ref> Ultimately, the steamships' independence from the wind and their ability to take shorter routes, passing through the [[Suez Canal|Suez]] and [[Panama Canal]]s, made sailing ships uneconomical.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Pacific American Steamship Association; Shipowners Association of the Pacific Coast|year=1920|title=Safe Passage (Poem and photo of four masted ''John Ena'' in Canal)|url=https://archive.org/stream/pacificmarinerev17192paci#page/n1007/mode/1up|journal=Pacific Marine Review|publisher=J.S. Hines|volume=17|issue=October 1920|pages=|doi=|access-date=24 December 2014|place=San Francisco}}</ref>

=== Naval power ===
{{Further|Sailing ship tactics}}
Until the general adoption of [[Carvel (boat building)|carvel]]-built ships that relied on an internal skeleton structure to bear the weight of the ship and for gun ports to be cut in the side, sailing ships were just vehicles for delivering fighters to the enemy for engagement.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Marsden|first=Peter|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/52143546|title=Sealed by time : the loss and recovery of the Mary Rose|date=2003|publisher=Mary Rose Trust|others=Collins, K. J.|isbn=0-9544029-0-1|volume=1|location=Portsmouth|pages=137–142|oclc=52143546}}</ref> Early Phoenician, Greek, Roman galleys would ram each other, then pour onto the decks of the opposing force and continue the fight by hand, meaning that these galleys required speed and maneuverability.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Denny |first=Mark |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Rtg6T9kMZkUC |title=Float Your Boat!: The Evolution and Science of Sailing |date=2008-12-15 |publisher=JHU Press |isbn=978-0-8018-9568-5 |language=en}}</ref> This need for speed translated into longer ships with multiple rows of oars along the sides, known as [[Bireme|biremes]] and [[Trireme|triremes]].<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Anderson |first1=Romola |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=h-QvjRbK0DAC |title=A Short History of the Sailing Ship |last2=Anderson |first2=R. C. |date=2003-09-01 |publisher=Courier Corporation |isbn=978-0-486-42988-5 |language=en}}</ref> Typically, the sailing ships during this time period were the merchant ships.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Chatterton |first=Edward Keble |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=N0-zj_vJyKcC&q=rome |title=The History of Sailing Ships |date=2010 |publisher=BoD – Books on Demand |isbn=978-3-86195-308-1 |language=en}}</ref>

By 1500, [[Gun port]]s allowed sailing vessels to sail alongside an enemy vessel and fire a [[Broadside (naval)|broadside]] of multiple cannon.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Rodger|first=N. A. M.|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/38199493|title=The safeguard of the sea : a naval history of Britain, 660–1649|date=1998|publisher=W.W. Norton|isbn=0-393-04579-X|edition=1|location=New York|pages=312, 316|oclc=38199493}}</ref> This development allowed for naval fleets to array themselves into a [[line of battle]], whereby, [[Ship of the line|warships]] would maintain their place in the line to engage the enemy in a parallel or perpendicular line.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Glete|first=Jan|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/28542975|title=Navies and nations : warships, navies, and state building in Europe and America, 1500–1860|date=1993|publisher=Almqvist & Wiksell International|isbn=91-22-01565-5|location=Stockholm|pages=176|oclc=28542975}}</ref>