What is a sailing ship? Types of sailing ships. Large multi-deck sailing vessel

As soon as mankind rose above the level of stone clubs and began to explore the surrounding world, it immediately realized what prospects the sea routes of communications promised. Yes, even rivers, whose waters could be moved quickly and relatively safely, played a grandiose role in the formation of all modern civilizations.

The importance of sailboats for humans

We do not know and, most likely, we will never know where and how the first sailing vessel appeared. But only one is indisputable - the man who invented it, in its influence on the future of civilization, is comparable with the inventor of the wheel. The latter, by the way, is also unknown to us, but the memory of it is eternal. A sailing ship, by the way, is called a ship driven by wind power.

It was the sailboats that made possible the development of civilization. The first of the ancient sailors who mastered the art of "catching the wind" became the Greeks and, probably, the Sumerians. Subsequently, the palm of the championship was taken by the Phoenicians, as well as Vikings, who, according to modern research, swam to their coasts in North America before Columbus. So the sailing vessel is the kind of transport on which man first crossed the Atlantic and the Pacific, it was on such ships that Magellan made his first world tour.

The first "sailboats"

The first ships, capable of sailing, were, most likely, galleys. It all began with the simplest rowing boats of Ancient Egypt, and ended ... it is believed that the last ships of this type were used even after the invention of the steam engine, so that they served humanity for a very long time.

The galleys were ships intended for exploitation solely in coastal shallow waters, and in Egyptians they were often flat-bottomed. Of course, there were no outstanding seaworthiness qualities for such ships. Their sail was the most primitive, straight, allowed to walk under the wind only when the latter was passing. So the types of sailing ships described below are not envisaged. After all, they can not be considered full-fledged sailboats.

Classification of sailing vessels

Subsequently, the shipbuilders of the world mastered increasingly sophisticated technologies that enabled them to build ships with increasingly better seaworthiness. It is necessary to bring in the pages of this article the simplest classification of ships, so that later there would be no confusion:

• The ship (frigate). Yes, yes, not every sailing ship could be so called. So only those ships with three masts were named. The sails are exceptionally straight, but on the mizzen, in addition, there was also a "slanting" rig that allowed to go tacks. What other types of sailing ships were there?
• Barkom also called a ship with three masts, but on the first two there were only straight sails, and on the third - only oblique.
• The brig is almost the same as the frigate, only a two-masted sailboat. On the mizzen there is also an oblique sail, but all the rest of the rig is just a straight line.
• The schooner was any ship with the number of masts from two. But at the same time not less than two of them were supposed to carry slanting sails.
• One and a half mast vessels. They have a grotto and a mizzen as if "merged" into one structure.
• Single-masted vessels. It's not hard to guess, they had only one mast. As a rule, sails were the most simple, straight.

It so happened that the most common type in the history of world navigation was a sailing two-masted vessel. Such ships were much simpler than a frigate or a schooner in the construction, and with a successful arrangement of sailing rigs, they were distinguished by better mobility and speed characteristics.

Galleons and the revolution in navigation

The first sailing vessel, designed specifically for long oceanic transitions, is the galleon. It is believed that the first ship of this class was the casket of Mary Rose in 1512 built, owned by the British. However, the Portuguese are confident that it is they who have the honor of creating galleons, since they were the first to build caravels.

But all these ships appeared not in an empty place, since the possibility of their construction arose only when shipbuilding had absorbed many of the technical achievements and discoveries of those years. For example, a galleon is the first multi-deck sailing vessel. To a huge design made entirely of wood with minimal use of scarce iron, simply did not fall apart, the shipbuilders had to have a very high degree of professional skill.

Discoveries in the field of building the hull of the ship

It is believed that the classical scheme of building ships, when the hull is first made, and then it is sheathed, was invented by the Byzantines around the end of the first millennium of our era. Prior to this, the craftsmen collected the ships, initially making the hull, and only then the skeleton was "introduced" into its construction. It was difficult to achieve high accuracy, and because ships with high seaworthiness were obtained quite rarely.

The limit of perfection of those years is a small two-masted sailing vessel, on which it was already possible to make narrow sea crossings, but nevertheless its specialization is cabotage.

Most quickly, the Byzantine scheme was moved to southern Europe, where such ships were built since the XIV century, the British began to do it from around 1500, and in Northern Europe ships with the simplest clinker planking here and there were designed in the 16th century. Initially, the names of the ships made by Byzantine technology always contained the root "carvel", which meant the construction of the carcass with its subsequent "smooth" plating of the boards. Hence - a caravel, a relatively small sailing vessel, which had excellent seaworthiness.

The advantages of the new method

Shipbuilders received a lot of advantages when they finally switched to skeleton assembly of ships. The most important thing is that the skeleton from the first days of construction made it possible to visually assess the shape of the future ship, its contours and displacement, and immediately identify possible design flaws. In addition, the new technology has allowed many times to increase the size of ships due to the use of a strong and "springy" frame, which leveled even very heavy loads.

In addition, much less wide boards could be put on the hull, which made it possible to sharply reduce the cost of construction and stop cutting down the age-old oak forests. For example, a small two-masted sailing vessel built using this technique could be "cut" from a relatively cheap pine and birch, and its seaworthiness did not deteriorate.

About the qualifications of workers

Finally, it was possible to use the labor of considerably less skilled workers: just a few people were responsible for the design, and the carpenters were only engaged in plating. When building ships of the early types, each of them was supposed to be practically a virtuoso of his craft. Increased technological ability of the building also made it possible to do much more huge sea-going ships.

Each such a large multi-deck sailing vessel outnumbered a dozen early clumsy vessels in its combat power, which, by and large, were only suitable for cabotage.

Powder artillery and sailboats

Already in the 14th and 15th centuries gunpowder artillery began to spread actively in the sea business, but for a long time it was placed exclusively in the deck settings, which were originally intended for archers. This led to a strong "decentralization", making the ship very unstable even with relatively weak excitement.

Soon the guns began to be placed along the longitudinal axis of the gun, but still on the upper deck. However, it was extremely difficult to guide the aiming gun from guns, since circular holes cut through the sides were used for this purpose. In peacetime, they were jammed with wooden plugs.

Real ports for guns appeared only at the beginning of the 16th century. This innovation gave way to the creation of large and well-armed battleships. Such a large multi-deck sailing vessel was perfectly suited both for sea battles and for expansion into the lands of the future Latin America.

Giants of the Middle Ages

But the first mention of the classical galleon is found in historical documents dating from 1535. Its advantages were quickly appreciated by the Spaniards and the British. Unlike other ships of those years, this was much lower, with the "correct" contours of the hull, which provided a minimum hydrodynamic resistance on the move. The masts of a sailing vessel of this type carried a mixed sailing rig that, with due skill of the captain and crew, allowed to go with tack in a wind close to the oncoming one.

Their displacement even on today's days was decent - up to 2000 tons! At the same time the cost of galleons even became lower due to the use of cheaper varieties of wood. The problem was brought only by the masts of a sailing vessel, for which only selected pine trees were required.

Design features

Rangs also made of pines, the power elements of the shell allowed the oak. Unlike the Karakkas, the bow superstructure did not hang forward. The cut feed had a high and narrow superstructure, which had a positive effect on the stability of the ship during the excitement. Traditionally, galleons were distinguished by rich carvings and other options for decorating the case.

The largest sailing vessel of this type had seven (!) Decks. During the construction of such giants, the work of mathematicians was widely in demand (let us recall the Great Embassy of Peter in Holland). They did not waste their bread in vain: the calculations made it possible to create a very large ship, but strong, capable and withstand the storm, and boarding, accompanied by collisions of ships, survive.

Characteristics of sail rigging

The number of masts on the galleons ranged from three to five, the front ones carried straight sails, and the rear ones - oblique. The largest Spanish galleons could have just two bisanis, which provided good speed indicators even with a headwind and the need for a tack. How low the carpenters involved in the construction of such ships could have been of low qualification, so their sailors should have been so drilled, since they had to manage several hundred kilometers of rigging.

Incidentally, the relatively short length of the first galleons made them a kind of "relatives" of the galleys, which we mentioned at the very beginning of the article. If the ship fell into the zone of absolute calm, he could move on a merry move. Of course, the storm used this option was suicide.