Development history of the sailing ship
The European sailing ship , which ended with the windjammer as the last stage of development, has a long history of development. Independent of this, independent types developed in Asia , of which the Chinese junk and the dhow of the Indian Ocean are the best known.
Beginnings
The oldest evidence of a sail is a rock drawing in the Nubian desert, dating from around 5000 BC. And the depiction on an Egyptian funeral urn from Luxor .
However, there are theories that reed boats were used to sail across the Atlantic even earlier. Thor Heyerdahl tried to substantiate these theses with methods of experimental archeology . His last attempt was the ABORA III expedition in summer 2007.
Egyptian Nile Ships
Finds of Egyptian ship models date back to 3500 BC. BC, built with a flat bottom without a keel - advantageous for trips on the Nile. The ships were rowed, but already had a rectangular sail, which, in contrast to today's square sail, was driven on a spar above and below (see grave drawing). It is not known whether the expeditions from the Red Sea to East Africa were also sailed. Early Egyptian ships were built from native wood that did not provide long logs - so the hull had to be assembled from short pieces. To avoid sagging, the ship was braced with ropes running over the deck. Only with the import of cedar logs from Lebanon could stable hulls be built.
Keel ship
In addition to the sail, which makes the wind usable as a driving force, another element is necessary for an efficiently powered sailing ship, the keel . The beam keel, which, in contrast to the keel plank of a flat-bottomed ship, clearly protrudes, has several advantages:
- It enlarges the lateral plan , which reduces the lateral drift of the vehicle. In this way, wind power can also be converted into propulsion if the wind direction does not match the direction of travel.
- The keel beam or the keel pig on the inside of the hull is a stable base point for the mast, so that the weight and propulsive forces can be easily introduced into the hull.
The invention of the keel ship, d. H. a hull construction with keel, transverse ribs and planking attached to it is attributed to the Phoenicians . They were able to maintain their predominance in the Mediterranean for a long time. A sailing ship that can not only sail in the direction of the wind does not need a large rowing crew and can therefore travel long distances without having to rely on a constant supply of food and water. The Etruscans and especially the Greeks adopted Phoenician shipbuilding technology and developed the well-known Attic trireme from it . Although these ships were primarily rowers , they also had one or two square sails on their own masts for support .
Roman ships
Parallel to the long domination of the Roman Empire, the Roman ship types dominated , which go back to models from the opposing Phoenician city of Carthage . In addition to the boarding bridge for naval warfare, there were no fundamental changes. The ships were elongated keel ships with keel planking, which was covered with tarred wool under water, which was attached to copper nails with lead sheet. They had a large number of rowing places, the number and arrangement of which gave their names to the different types. At the stern, rudders were operated on both sides. The sails consisted of a vertical mast in the middle of the ship with a square sail and often a second, forward-sloping mast that carried another square sail over the bow. The ships reached a considerable size, the Nemi ships were around 30 BC. Chr. 71.5 or 73 meters long. The high stern indicates that they were only sailed before the wind.
Arabic dhow
In the Arab countries, especially the sea areas around the Arabian Peninsula, the Indian Ocean from East Africa to China and in the Mediterranean, a type of sailing ship that is commonly referred to as dhow dominated. This includes a large number of special types and sizes that have a long stem that emerges at an angle from the keel as a common feature. The sails consist of the set sail , a sail in the shape of an asymmetrical trapezoid, or the latin sail developed from it . The origin of the dhow is believed to be in India; it spread with the Arab expansion in the Mediterranean and replaced the Roman ship types in Islamic dominion.
European Middle Ages
In the Middle Ages there were two separate lines of development in shipbuilding in Europe. The one line prevailed in the Mediterranean and is therefore called the Mediterranean line. The western or northern European line developed on the Atlantic as well as on the North and Baltic Seas .
Mediterranean line of development
The Mediterranean line continued the Roman tradition, mixing with the dhow in the Mediterranean. Rowed ships of various sizes, all of which were very long and slender and had a low freeboard , were typical of the Mediterranean . This construction method had technical reasons: namely, many rowers had to be accommodated. The rowed ships had a high need for personnel and could not operate independently for very long because of their provision with water and food. These ships were therefore preferred warships. The rowing ships also had one or two masts with sails as an auxiliary drive.
For trade , there were also pure sailing ships in the Mediterranean, which were constructed much more bulky and thus offered more space for cargo . These ships were more economical to operate and, because of their shape, could also sail the coastal areas of the Atlantic. In the Mediterranean, the triangular latin sail loosened in the 5th – 6th centuries. Century AD removed the trapezoidal square sail that had prevailed until then . It allowed sailing higher up the wind , making cruising easier and significantly reducing overall sailing time. According to a recent theory, however, the Latin sail had no performance advantages at all; The decisive factor was rather its lower costs for construction and maintenance, which made the general change of rigging attractive in the contracting late antique economic situation.
These latin sails were driven on up to two, later also three masts . Little is known about the exact appearance and construction of the ships, as there are no meaningful archaeological finds so far. It is known that the shipbuilders of the Mediterranean Sea used crawler planking , which was already common in antiquity. The caravel was in its original form a mehrmastiges Sailboat with Latin rigging.
Northern European development line
First information about the ships in Northern Europe comes from Roman travel reports about Germania . These accounts describe a boat that resembled the 4th century find known today as the Nydam ship . Typical for the north were the symmetrical boat or double-ended (ship, bow and stern were built the same) and the clinker planking , which only required weak frames , which were connected to the planks by cords. It had neither a sail nor a keel, so it was a flat boat with a wide keel plank.
The Vikings further developed this type into their longships , which were also still rowed, but also carried a sail for the first time. The bow and the almost identical stern were pulled up strongly. The planks were firmly connected to each other and only tied to the frames. This made the hull very elastic and, to a certain extent, adapted to the waves . The longship had a military purpose and reached a considerable speed under oars, which, according to contemporary reports, was higher than that of a mounted messenger.
In addition to the longships, the Vikings built more bulky merchant ships called Knorr . This type was suitable for long trips to Iceland , Greenland and Newfoundland . The Vikings used a single square sail on a centrally positioned mast. In the course of time, the mast received a masthead called Mars (battle mars) , which could accommodate a lookout and some archers. In Scandinavia, Mars is mentioned in Snorri Sturluson's Heimskringla around 1150 .
Viking ship finds
The ships of the Vikings are quite well documented by archaeological finds. Starting with the Gokstad and Oseberg ships , which both served as graves , to the Skuldelev ship cemetery from the middle of the 11th century, there is a lot of evidence documenting the different types and the development.
See also: History of Viking Shipbuilding
Ships from the Hanseatic League
In the late Middle Ages , a new type of large merchant ship appeared, the cog, which, as the Hanse cog, became the most famous ship of the Hanse merchants . Until the discovery of the Bremen cog in 1962, there were only images of it, e.g. B. on city seals and descriptions. With its voluminous shape, high side walls and straight front and stern stems , the cog differs significantly from the ships of the Vikings. It is also the first known ship to have a stern rudder in the middle of the ship, which was attached to the stern post by means of hinges. According to the prevailing opinion, the cog emerged from the merging of flat-bottomed ships from the Lower Rhine and Wadden region with the trading ships of the Vikings.
In addition to the cog , there were other ships at this time, among them were
- the Schnigge , a small ship that the Vikings already knew,
- the Kraier , a seaworthy flat ship, and
- the Holk , a rounded ship without a keel and with a smooth bottom, which was smaller than the cog until the 15th century.
All these ships had a single square sail , the yard of which was pulled up by the mast to set the sail. To enlarge it, further pieces, so-called bonnets, could be attached to the square sail and the yard raised further.
Merging the lines of development
Towards the end of the Middle Ages, the two lines of shipbuilding merged from 1300 . Merchants and pirates from the north invaded the Mediterranean, and conversely merchants came north from the Iberian peninsula . The shipbuilders took over from the foreign ships that came into their ports, conspicuous features that had special advantages in their own newbuildings. Thus the basic concepts of the ships converged. Few visible details and handicraft techniques, on the other hand, were preserved in the local tradition, so that the ships could be clearly identified in their origin.
Particularly noticeable features were the sails, the stern rudder and the planking. The Bremen cog from 1380 was already planked on the floor, and the successor to the Hanse cog, the Kraweel , was even named after the new type of planking. The Mediterranean shipbuilders took over the stern rudder, which they had not known before.
What was particularly noticeable was the mixing of the rigging and its further development. After the latin sail had ousted the square sail in the Mediterranean because of its many advantages, it was later rediscovered and adopted by the ships of the north, because the larger the ship and the sail, the longer the rod became very long and unwieldy. A much larger sail could be driven on a horizontal yard with the same length. The weaving lines with which the shrouds were connected to form a kind of rope ladder were also taken over from the north .
In addition, the mixed rigging was created , which has prevailed for centuries from then on. In the Mediterranean there have been multi-masted sailing ships with Latin rigging for a long time . But it was difficult to keep a ship on course with two square sails. A third mast with a latin sail solved the problem, as the rearmost sail in this form was well suited to support the rudder. This found the rigging common in the north and south:
- a small square sail on the front foremast
- a large square sail on the middle mainmast
- a latin sail on the aft mizzen mast
The sail on the mainmast did most of the propulsion, the other two were more used to keep the ship on course and trim it.
This rigging applies to different types of ships:
Holk
The enlarged, three-masted holk was a mixture of the old, single-masted holk and the cog. The ship received a pronounced keel, mixed kraweel and clinker planking and rounded shapes. Through the transition to pure Kraweel planking and the resulting increase in size, it became the Kraweel towards the end of the 15th century . Although this construction method was heavier, it had the advantage that, in principle, it did not impose any restrictions on the size of the ship, since planks could also be pushed lengthwise on a frame without any problems. The clinker planking caused problems with the sealing of the hull as the size increased.
Nao
On the Iberian Peninsula, the Nao received a comparable rigging. A contemporary model of this Nao, the so-called Catalan Nao, has been preserved. The 1:24 scale model, a consecration gift for a church, is dated to the year 1450 and gives a very realistic impression of the construction at that time. It is now on display in the Prins Hendrik Maritime Museum in Rotterdam. The ship has a length-to-width ratio of 2.5: 1 and is very round with a long quarter deck that extends into the middle. The triangular structure on the bow is also striking. The shape of the ship coincides with contemporary drawings.
Christopher Columbus ' famous ship , the Santa Maria , is commonly classified as a carrack, while Columbus calls it the nao.
Caravel with square sails
The caravel , which was originally a ship with Latin rigging, was now also built with mixed sails and called caravela redonda or cross- sail caravel . She carried square sails on the first two masts, and latin sails on the third and, in some cases, also fourth mast. The demarcation to the Nao is not clear, presumably one referred to smaller ships.
Junk in China
A completely independent line of development emerged in China with the junks , which differ significantly from European ships. Particularly striking are the box-shaped hull with a flat, keel-free floor and almost vertical side walls with clinker planking, but planked from top to bottom (exactly the opposite of the northern European development line). The second big difference lies in the sails: The sails are not only attached to one or two spars, but are spread by many battens and attached to the mast. The short pole masts of a junk can also be asymmetrical, i.e. H. next to the center line and are usually not braced by shrouds and stages so that the sails can be swiveled all around. Older junks used rectangular sails similar to European square sails, while more modern ones used asymmetrical sails, similar to lug sails , but with battens.
The junk was clearly superior to contemporary European ships in terms of size and safety. B. by dividing the hull into several watertight segments by bulkheads, and nine-masted ships were also reported. The largest junks were the so-called treasure ships of Admiral Zheng He in the early 15th century.
However, the junk has not undergone any significant technical development for 400 years when the costs for the large state fleet were no longer appropriate. A reciprocal influence of the junk and the European sailing ship cannot be determined. Although the junk looked clumsy and primitive to European seafarers, it was relatively quick and very easy to operate.
Modern times
The Nao or caravel is the typical explorer ship with which the Portuguese explored the sea route to India around Africa and the first trips to America were made. At the same time, these discoveries at the turn of the Middle Ages to modern times meant a shift in trade flows. While trade in the Mediterranean and along the Atlantic coast to the Baltic Sea and Norway flourished in the late Middle Ages , these areas became sideline when trade with the new colonies arose.
16th to 18th century
Carrack
The carrack is a further development from Nao and Kraweel. She served mainly as a warship and for sea transport to the colonies . With this type, the ships became increasingly larger. The rigging was extended to include the Mars stalk. Above the pole basket another was on the mast spar , spar called, mounted for extension as a further Rahsegel the Marssegel wore. Initially introduced on the main mast, the foremast soon received a Martian stalk. For this purpose, the bowsprit , a sloping spar reaching over the bow, was introduced, which, as an additional square sail, carried the blind who lay in front of the bow just above the water. At the stern, the carrack received a fourth mast with another Latin sail, the Bonaventura mizzen mast.
The hull still had the raised forms of the Nao with a high fore fort that protruded over the bow and an aft fort, but each several decks high.
galleon
The galleon is the subsequent advancement that has been the dominant ship for centuries, mainly serving as a warship. It was developed by the Portuguese and first mentioned in 1535. The galleon is slimmer, with a length-to-width ratio of 3: 1 to 4: 1, and has lower superstructures at the bow and stern. The most noticeable difference is the shape of the bow, which on the galleon is quite flat. The front structure, the forecastle, ends in a straight wall in front of the bow. In front of it is the so-called Galion , an open porch that was often lavishly decorated.
Large galleons soon received a second mast , the Bramstenge, on which the Bramsail was driven to the fore and main mast. In contrast, the fourth mast disappeared again, and a topsail was inserted on the third mast. Another change was the bowsprit mast. At the forward end of the bowsprit came a small vertical mast with another square sail. The leeward sails , with which the square sails were laterally widened, were a further increase in the sail area . In addition, the yards were provided with extendable spars on both sides , on which these sails could also be set in light winds.
Flute
In addition to the galleon as a warship or royal treasure ship, the flute appeared in civil maritime trade from the Netherlands in the 17th century . this type was a simpler cargo ship with a comparatively elongated hull (ratio 4: 1) and very round shapes at the bow and stern without high superstructures. The rigging was dependent on the size and corresponded to that of the galleons. Smaller floods drove the blind, under and topsails on foresail and main mast and a latin sail on the mizzen mast.
pinnace
The pinasse , like the fleute, was a merchant ship that was used in parallel to this type, but was shaped differently. The pinnace had a transom and therefore less curved planks. This was advantageous when traveling in tropical regions, because heavily bent wood could crack in the heat. The rigging of the late pinnaces is comparable to that of the flutes.
Ship of the line
The galleon was gradually developed into a large ship of the line that had three continuous battery decks. The basic shape with the low bow and the slim, high stern were retained. The forecastle was connected to the poop with high side walls, resulting in a high, continuous hull. The drop sides, which were strongly drawn inwards, were typical. This should move the weight of the cannons in the upper decks closer to the center of the ship and improve stability. It also made the ships more difficult to board. The name ship of the line, which replaced the term galleon, was derived from the tactic: the ships were lined up in keel line so that they could best develop the effect of their cannons. The liner has thus become a clumsy floating battery .
frigate
In addition to the lazy ships of the line, there was a need for smaller and faster warships for the purpose of reconnaissance and communication, which was called the frigate . The frigate originally only had one battery deck, but the type grew over time and later had two battery decks. The transition to full-ship rigging developed on the frigate . First, the sail area of the latin sail on the mizzen mast was reduced by eliminating the triangular piece in front of the mast. Then the superfluous part of the rod was left out and the spar was stored with a fork on the mizzen mast, which gave it the name Gaffel , which was derived from the fork. Another spar, the mizzen tree, to which the sail was attached below, resulted in the shape of the gaff sail , which is still common today , which is called a mizzen sail in square sailors . This left space in front of the third mast for another sail, the cross sail . The mast was then called the cross mast. The full ship is also called a frigate in other languages , regardless of its function as a warship. This rigging was later introduced on other ships.
When the originally small frigate had grown into a large two-decker, the originally small ship was rebuilt as a corvette , a ship with a battery deck.
In the United States in 1794, very large frigates were constructed as a mixed type between a ship of the line and a frigate, carrying 44 cannons and proving to be very successful. The ship should be superior to opposing frigates, but preserve their better sailing characteristics. One of these ships, the USS Constitution , built in 1797, has survived to this day.
19th and early 20th centuries
Clipper
The clipper was developed in the United States in the mid-19th century and had its predecessors in the so-called Baltimore clippers . These were small mail carriers that, because of their high speed, served as blockade breakers in the War of Independence . The Rainbow , built in 1845, is considered the first “real” clipper.
With the clipper, there was a significant change in shipbuilding. For several decades, speed became the primary design goal. Slender and streamlined hulls with the sharp and inwardly curved clipper bow (sickle bow) came into use, which is said to have given the ships their name (from "clipping the waves"). Another derivation is from "to clip" = to move quickly. Clippers were mostly rigged as full ships , with leeward sails and a very high mainmast. The fore and cross mast were usually much smaller.
The ships were initially built entirely of wood and, because of the pursuit of record, were sailed to the limit, so that the service life was not very long. The British partially replaced the now scarce crooked wood with iron and thus introduced composite construction: internal structures made of iron with traditional wooden planking, which was covered with copper sheet to prevent vegetation . That led to more permanent ships, like the only surviving clipper, the Cutty Sark , which can be viewed in Greenwich . The standing estate was also built from steel ropes for the first time. The construction of the clippers made of wood was continued through the so-called Down Easter on the east coast of the USA, but with less sharp lines that were similar to the windjammers.
More beautiful
The schooner , originally a smaller two-masted sailing ship, was developed around 1880 in the USA as a cargo sailor for coastal shipping. The schooner has no or only very few square sails, but instead a pitched sails on several masts. The largest schooner had seven masts with gaff sails . This rig got by with very few personnel and was able to sail better upwind, which is important in coastal traffic.
Tall ship
The Windjammer is the successor to the clipper, when they had to cede their area of operation with fast, long journeys for high-quality goods to the steamers. The larger windjammers with more cargo space were left with the transport of cheap bulk goods over long distances, which had to be inexpensive. Therefore, the rigging of the windjammer was simplified, but increased as the size of the ships increased. In particular, a fourth mast was introduced again, which was initially also rigged. However, this did not prove itself, and so the four-masted barque became the typical large windjammer. The elaborate leeward sails were omitted, the masts were constructed uniformly and the height of the lower sail and the lower mast was only slightly varied. The first ships built entirely of iron or steel came with the windjammers . A further development of the five-masted ship, which was built in only a few copies, was not made against the emerging competition of steamers . The last windjammer to be built as a cargo ship is the Padua, completed in 1926, which is still in use at sea under the name Kruzenshtern (as of 2017).
Present and Future
Today's sailing shipping is operated with leisure boats, sport boats, tourism offers, nostalgia and some training ships, which includes several thousand mainly smaller ships.
After the 1973 oil crisis and the subsequent rise in fuel costs, attempts were made to revive the sail drive in commercial cargo shipping. In Japan , 17 freighters were equipped with auxiliary sails made of aluminum during the 1980s , each of which was turned into the most favorable position to the wind by computer control. This saved up to 30% of the fuel. There have also been similar developments in Europe. However, when oil prices fell again in the late 1980s, most of these ships returned to conventional operation.
The Tres Hombres , a former war fishing cutter that was re-rigged as a brigantine, has been sailing in freight traffic between Northern Europe and the Caribbean since 2009 .
SkySails
However, the sharp rise in crude oil prices from the late 1990s onwards has brought the long-unprofitable idea back to the fore. The industrial engineer Stephan Wrage developed a kite sail for this purpose. In a test of the prototype named by the developer Himmelssegel and built by his company SkySails in the Baltic Sea, the system proved to be practicable. Using helium and compressed air, the 5000 m² sail made of highly tear-resistant textiles was brought into an optimal shape and raised to a height of 100 meters using a single line. The kite could be steered into the position with the strongest wind thrust by means of a control gondola. A commercial application test was planned together with the largest German shipping company for heavy cargo, the Beluga Group . Their shipowner Niels Stolberg hopes to save half of the daily fuel consumption of three to four tons and thus 1200 dollars with a normal heavy lift carrier.
The maiden voyage of the 132 meter long prototype Beluga SkySails began on January 22, 2008 in Bremerhaven and led via Guanta (Venezuela) to Davant (Mississippi) to the end point of the voyage to Mo i Rana (Norway), which was on March 13, 2008, after 11,952 Nautical miles.
Dynaship
The name Dynaship denotes a new development in the field of sailing ships, with modern square sail surfaces on rotating masts forming a closed sail surface (compared to historical square sails).
Rotor ship
A special form of using the wind for ship propulsion without conventional sails are the so-called rotor ships , which use one or more Flettner rotors instead of classic sails. Originally developed by Anton Flettner in the 1920s, the ship type did not initially catch on. However, due to rising energy prices, the concept has been picked up again occasionally since the 1980s.
See also
swell
- ^ Whitewright, Julian (2009): "The Mediterranean Lateen Sail in Late Antiquity", in: The International Journal of Nautical Archeology , Vol. 38, No. 1, pp. 97-104 (103)
- ^ Whitewright, J. (2011) Efficiency or Economics? Sail development in the ancient Mediterranean. In, Harris, WV and Iara, K. (eds.) Maritime Technology in the Ancient Economy: Ship-Design and Navigation. Portsmouth, US, Journal of Roman Archeology, 89-102. (JRA Supplementary Series, 84), pp. 101f.
- ↑ Source: Greenpeace ( Memento of the original from September 27, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Roland Mischke: Return of the sailing ship , Die Welt from September 27, 2006, p. 16
