Age of Sail

The Battle of Terheide (1657) by Willem van de Velde the Elder, depicting a 1653 naval battle between the Dutch Republic and the Commonwealth of England
A Ship of War, Cyclopaedia 1728, Vol 2

The Age of Sail (usually dated as 1571–1862) was a period roughly corresponding to the early modern period in which international trade and naval warfare were dominated by sailing ships, lasting from the 16th to the mid-19th century.[1] This is a significant period during which square-rigged sailing ships carried European colonizers, and enslaved Africans, to many parts of the world, in one of the most expansive human migrations in recorded history.

Definition

Like most periodic eras the definition is inexact but close enough to serve as a general description. The age of sail runs roughly from the Battle of Lepanto in 1571, the last significant engagement in which oar-propelled galleys played a major role, to the Battle of Hampton Roads in 1862, in which the steam-powered ironclad CSS Virginia destroyed the sailing ships USS Cumberland and USS Congress, demonstrating that the advance of steam power had rendered sail power in warfare obsolete.

The Suez Canal, which opened in 1869, was impractical for sailing ships, and made steamboats faster on the European-Asian sea route.

Golden Age of Sail

The period between 1850 and the early 20th century when sailing vessels reached their peak of size and complexity is sometimes referred to as the "Golden Age of Sail".[2] During this time the efficiency and use of commercial sailing vessels was at its peak—immediately before steamboats started to take trade away from sail.

Decline

Sailing ships continued to be an economical way to transport bulk cargo on long voyages into the 1920s. Sailing ships do not require fuel or complex engines to be powered; thus they tended to be more independent from requiring a dedicated support base on the mainland. Crucially though, steam-powered ships held a speed advantage and were rarely hindered by adverse winds, freeing steam-powered vessels from the necessity of following trade winds. As a result, cargo and supplies could reach a foreign port in half the time it took a sailing ship. It is this factor that drove sailing ships aside.

Sailing vessels were pushed into narrower and narrower economic niches and gradually disappeared from commercial trade. Today, sailing vessels are only economically viable for small scale coastal fishing, along with recreational uses such as yachting and passenger sail excursion ships.

See also

References

  1. ↑ "The Age of Sail". HMS Trincomalee. Retrieved 12 April 2016.
  2. ↑ "Sailing Ship Rigs" Archived 2010-12-28 at the Wayback Machine.. Maritime Museum of the Atlantic
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