Age of Sail

{{Short description|Historical era when sailing ships dominated global trade and warfare}}

{{For|the video game|Age of Sail (video game){{!}}Age of Sail (video game)}}

File:Battle of Scheveningen (Slag bij Ter Heijde)(Jan Abrahamsz. Beerstraten).jpg, 10 August 1653, painted by Jan Abrahamsz Beerstraaten]]

Image:Warship diagram orig.jpg, Vol 2]]

The Age of Sail is a period in European history that lasted at the latest from the mid-16th (or mid-15th) to the mid-19th centuries, in which the dominance of sailing ships in global trade and warfare culminated, particularly marked by the introduction of naval artillery, and ultimately reached its highest extent at the advent of steam power. Enabled by the advances of the related age of navigation, it is identified as a distinctive element of the early modern period{{cite web |url=http://www.hms-trincomalee.co.uk/history/the-age-of-sail |title=The Age of Sail |website=HMS Trincomalee |access-date=12 April 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160316114603/http://www.hms-trincomalee.co.uk/history/the-age-of-sail |archive-date=2016-03-16 |url-status=usurped }} and the Age of Discovery.{{cite journal | last=Gaynor | first=Jennifer L. | title=Ages of Sail, Ocean Basins, and Southeast Asia | journal=Journal of World History | publisher=Project Muse | volume=24 | issue=2 | year=2013 | issn=1527-8050 | doi=10.1353/jwh.2013.0059 | pages=309–333| s2cid=161330041 }}

Periodization

Like most periodic eras, defining the age is inexact and serves only as a general description. The term is used differently for warships and merchant vessels.

By the 14th century naval artillery was employed in Europe, documented at the Battle of Arnemuiden (1338). The 15th century saw the Iberian naval ventures all the way along the African Atlantic coast and across the Atlantic Ocean, starting the Age of Discovery.

For warships, 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 development of steam-powered warships.{{Cite web |date=2019-02-01 |title=The 74—the Perfect Age-of-Sail Ship |url=https://www.usni.org/magazines/naval-history-magazine/2019/february/74-perfect-age-sail-ship |access-date=2022-10-05 |website=U.S. Naval Institute |language=en}}

=Golden Age of Sail=

The period between the mid-19th century to the early 20th century, when sailing vessels reached their peak of size and complexity (e.g. clippers and windjammers), is sometimes referred to as the "Golden Age of Sail".[http://museum.gov.ns.ca/mma/AtoZ/rigs.html "Sailing Ship Rigs"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101228161737/http://museum.gov.ns.ca/mma/AtoZ/rigs.html |date=2010-12-28 }}. Maritime Museum of the Atlantic

Decline

The second sea-going steamboat was Richard Wright's first steamboat Experiment, an ex-French lugger; she steamed from Leeds to Yarmouth in July 1813.{{Citation | first = R | last = Malster | title = Wherries & Waterways | place = Lavenham | year = 1971 | page = 61}}.{{cite book|title=DNB|author=Stephen, L.|date=1894|publisher=Smith, Elder, & Company|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=puApAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA399|page=399|access-date=2017-12-28}} The first iron steamship to go to sea was the 116-ton Aaron Manby, built in 1821 by Aaron Manby at the Horseley Ironworks, and became the first iron-built vessel to put to sea when she crossed the English Channel in 1822, arriving in Paris on 22 June.{{cite web |title=The First Steamboat Services in Europe |url=http://www.artistaswitness.com/Steamships/steamships_dn_07.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20041105093118/http://www.artistaswitness.com/Steamships/steamships_dn_07.htm |archive-date=5 November 2004 |publisher=The Artist as Witness: Images of Technology |date=2002 |url-status=usurped |access-date=21 July 2021}} She carried passengers and freight to Paris in 1822 at an average speed of 8 knots (9 mph, 14 km/h).

The first purpose-built steam battleship was the 90-gun {{ship|French ship|Napoléon|1850|2}} in 1850.Lambert, A. "The Screw Propeller Warship", in Gardiner Steam, Steel and Shellfire pp. 30–44. Multiple steam battleships saw action during the Crimean War, especially the Allied (British, French and Ottoman) fleet Bombardment of Sevastopol as part of the Siege of Sevastopol (1854–1855). The first ironclad battleship, {{ship|French ironclad|Gloire||2}}, was launched by the French Navy in November 1859.Sondhaus, Lawrence. Naval Warfare 1815–1914 {{ISBN|0-415-21478-5}}, pp. 73–74. In the March 1862 Battle of Hampton Roads, the ironclad {{ship|CSS|Virginia}} fought {{USS|Monitor}}, making this the first fight between ironclads.

The Suez Canal in the Middle East, which opened in 1869, was more practical for steamships than for sailing ships, achieving a much shorter European-Asian sea route, which coincided with more fuel-efficient steamships, starting with {{SS|Agamemnon|1865|2}} in 1865.{{cite book |last=Jarvis |first=Adrian |editor1-first=Robert |editor1-last= Gardiner |editor2-first=Dr Basil |editor2-last=Greenhill |date=1993 |title=The Advent of Steam – The Merchant Steamship before 1900 |publisher=Conway Maritime Press |pages=158–159 |chapter=9: Alfred Holt and the Compound Engine |isbn=0-85177-563-2}}{{efn|The distance from London to Fuzhou via the Cape of Good Hope is {{convert|13358|nmi|km|abbr=on}}, compared to {{convert|10120|nmi|km|abbr=on}} via the Suez canal.{{cite web |last1=maritime data systems |title=Sea Routes |url=https://classic.searoutes.com/routing/4294967421/(51.460079193115234,%200.35891589522361755)/4294967865/4294968021?speed=10&panama=true&suez=true&kiel=true&rivers=block&roads=block&avoided-ports=GBLGP |website=m.classic.searoutes.com |access-date=18 August 2021 |language=en}} Sailing vessels going around the south of Africa would typically sail over {{convert|14000|nmi|km|abbr=on}} as their routes were adjusted to find favourable winds.{{cite book |last=MacGregor |first=David R. |date= 1983|title=The Tea Clippers, Their History and Development 1833–1875 |url= |location= |publisher=Conway Maritime Press Limited |isbn=0-85177-256-0}}{{rp|31}}}}

By 1873, the Age of Sail for warships had ended,{{cn|date=March 2021}} with {{HMS|Devastation|1871|6}} commissioned in 1871. Devastation was the first class of ocean-going battleships that did not carry sails.

File:HMS Devastation (1871).jpg

Sailing ships continued to be an economical way to transport bulk cargo on long voyages into the 1920s and 1930s, though steamships soon pushed them out of those trades as well. Sailing ships do not require fuel or complex engines to be powered; thus they tended to be more independent from sophisticated dedicated support bases on land. 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 a fraction of the time it took a sailing ship.

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.

In recent decades, the commercial shipping industry has been reviving interest in wind assisted ships as a way to conserve fuel in the interest of sustainability.{{cn|date=April 2021}}

Legacy

A New Age of Sail has been predicted by some experts to occur by 2030, driven by a revolution in energy technology and a desire to reduce carbon emissions from maritime shipping through wind-assisted propulsion.{{Cite web|date=2021-03-15|title=New age of sail looks to slash massive maritime carbon emissions|url=https://news.mongabay.com/2021/03/new-age-of-sail-looks-to-slash-massive-maritime-carbon-emissions/|access-date=2021-06-07|website=Mongabay Environmental News|language=en-US}} The book Trade Winds: A Voyage to a Sustainable Future for Shipping discusses the potential of a return to wind propulsion through the firsthand experiences of Christiaan De Beukelaer, who spent five months aboard a sailing cargo ship in 2020.{{cite book|url=https://manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781526163097/|title=Trade Winds: A Voyage to a Sustainable Future for Shipping|author=Christiaan De Beukelaer|publisher=Manchester University Press|year=2023|isbn=978-1-5261-6309-7}}