The first vehicles by which people crossed water barriers during their migrations or during hunting were, in all likelihood, more or less primitive rafts. Rafts existed, no doubt, already in the Stone Age. At the end of the Middle Stone Age, a boat hollowed out of a tree trunk, a canoe, was a great progress. With the passage of time and with the further development of the productive forces, boats and rafts became better, larger and more reliable. We have the most information about the development of shipbuilding in the region. mediterranean sea, although, of course, shipbuilding technology and navigation on the rivers and seas of other parts of the world developed in parallel. The oldest known to us are boats and ships. ancient egypt. A variety of floating facilities went along the Nile and the seas surrounding Egypt: first rafts and boats made of wood and papyrus, and later ships that could make long sea voyages, such as the famous expedition during the 18th dynasty to the country Punt (Ript - probably Somalia or even India) in about 1500 BC. e.
Ancient Egyptian papyrus river rowboat
Due to the low strength of papyrus, a thick rope was used as a longitudinal reinforcement, stretched between short masts, bow and stern. The boats were steered with an oar located at the stern. The ancient Egyptian sea vessels, like the river vessels that sailed along the Nile in those days, were flat-bottomed. As a result of this, and also due to the lack of frames and insufficient strength of building material (papyrus or low-growing trees, acanthus), seaworthiness sea vessels Ancient Egypt was very low. These ships, sailing along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea or on the calm waters of the Red Sea, were propelled by oars and a rake sail.
Ancient Egyptian ship with a raked sail
Egyptian merchant and military ships almost did not differ from each other, only military ships were faster. It should not be forgotten that military campaigns and trade were closely interconnected. However, the Egyptians (inhabitants of the Nile Valley) cannot be called good sailors. Their merits in the field of shipbuilding and distant sea voyages are relatively modest. The inhabitants of the island of Crete were the first to build merchant sea vessels. According to some ancient researchers, they used the keel and frames, which increased the strength of the ship's hull. For the movement of the ship, the Cretans used both oars and a rectangular sail. It is believed that it was partly due to these technical improvements that Crete became the first maritime power in the Mediterranean. Its heyday falls on the 17th - 14th centuries. BC e. The method of building ships with frames from the Cretans was borrowed by the Phoenicians. The Phoenicians lived on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea, in a country rich in cedar forests, which provided excellent shipbuilding material. On their ships, the Phoenicians made military and trade campaigns to the most remote places of the modern world. As Herodotus wrote at the beginning of the 7th century. n. e., Phoenician ships circled Africa from east to west. This testifies to the great seaworthiness of the ships: on their way they had to go around the Cape of Good Hope, where it often stormed. Although the Phoenician ships were vastly superior in size and strength to the Egyptian ones, their shape did not change significantly. As the surviving bas-reliefs testify, for the first time rams appeared on the bow of a Phoenician warship to sink enemy ships.
Phoenician sailing ship
Sea vessels Ancient Greece and, later, Rima were modifications of the Phoenician courts. Merchant ships were predominantly wide and slow-moving, usually propelled by sail and steered by a large steering oar located in the stern. Warships were narrow and propelled by oars. In addition, they were armed with a rectangular main sail mounted on a long yard and a small sail mounted on an inclined mast. This slanted mast is the forerunner of the bowsprit, which will appear on sailboats much later and will carry additional sails to facilitate maneuvering. Initially, one tier of oars was installed on each side of a warship, but with an increase in the size and weight of the ships, a second tier appeared above the first tier of oars, and even later, a third. This was explained by the desire to increase the speed, maneuverability and force of the impact of the ram on the enemy ship. One tier of rowers was located below deck, the other two were on deck. It looked like the most popular type of warship of antiquity, which, starting from the VI century BC. e. called a trireme.
Trieres formed the basis of the Greek fleet that participated in the battle of the island of Salamis (480 BC). The length of the triremes was 30-40 m, the width was 4-6 m (including supports for the oars), the freeboard height was about 1.5 m. There were a hundred or more rowers on the ship, in most cases slaves; speed reached 8-10 knots. The ancient Romans were not good sailors, but the Punic Wars (1st war - 264-241 BC; 2nd war - 218-210 BC) convinced them of the need to have their own navy to defeat the Carthaginians. The Roman navy of that time consisted of triremes built according to the Greek model.
An example of a Roman trireme of this type is the ship shown in the figure. It has a raised deck in the stern, as well as its own kind of tower, in which the commander and his assistant could find a safe shelter. The nose ends with a ram, upholstered in iron. To facilitate the conduct of battle at sea, the Romans invented the so-called "raven" - a boarding bridge with a metal load in the form of a hawse, which descended on an enemy ship and through which Roman legionnaires could go to it. In the battle of Actium (31 BC), the Romans used a new type of ship - the liburn. This ship is much smaller than the trireme, equipped with rams, has one tier of oars and a rectangular transverse sail. The main advantages of liburns are good agility and maneuverability, as well as speed. On the basis of a combination of structural elements of triremes and liburnes, a Roman rowing galley was created, which, with some changes, survived until the 17th century. n. e.
The improvement of rowing warships with additional sailing equipment was in the nature of leaps. The need for these vessels increased, for example, during military campaigns. From the end of the XII to the XIV century. galleys appeared in the Atlantic Ocean and the North Sea. But the main area of operation of the galleys was, as before, the Mediterranean Sea; their further development was largely facilitated by the Venetians. Galleys in light combat performance served as warships, in heavy combat they served as military transports. They were also used as merchant ships. The disadvantage of the galleys was the numerous crew. So, for one galley up to 40 m long, 120-180 rowers were required (and with two tiers of oars - 240-300 rowers). If you take into account the crew needed to maintain the rudder and sail, and the crew in the galley, then the total was well over 500 people. Such a galley had a draft of about 2 m and a freeboard height of 1-1.5 m. On medieval galleys, 2-5 rowers served one oar; the mass of the oar with a length of 10-12 m was up to 300 kg. In addition to the oars, the galleys were equipped with an auxiliary sail. Later, they began to install two, and then three masts, and the rectangular sail was replaced by a slanting one, borrowed from the Mediterranean Arabs. In the course of further development, ships began to be built, which are a combination of a galley and a sailing vessel. Such ships were called galleas. Galeasses were larger than galleys: the length of the largest reached 70 m, width 16 m, displacement 1000 tons; the crew was 1000 people. They were used as both military and merchant ships.
Galleass
Regardless of the development of shipping in the Mediterranean, shipping developed in Northern Europe, where already in the early centuries beautiful sailors - the Vikings - lived. Viking ships were open wooden boats with a symmetrical fore and stern; on these ships it was possible to go both forward and backward. Viking ships were propelled by oars (they are not shown in the figure) and a straight sail mounted on a mast approximately in the middle of the ship.
Viking ships had frames and longitudinal ties. A characteristic feature of their design was the way the frames and other beams were connected to the outer skin, which usually consisted of very long wooden planks, passing from one stem to another and arranged in a lap. The largest Viking ships, which were called “dragons” due to the bow decoration and the shape of the dragon’s head, were 45 m long and had about 30 pairs of oars. Despite the difficulties of sailing through the stormy northern seas on open deckless ships, the Vikings very soon penetrated from Scandinavia to the coast of England and France, reached the White Sea, conquered Greenland and Holland, and at the end of the 10th century. entered North America.
The old Russian koch of the ice class was a real conqueror of the northern seas
Under feudalism, in parallel with the development of trade in Northern Europe, shipbuilding continued to develop. Large merchant ships of the 12th and 13th centuries, called naves, had the same shape of the bow and stern. They were driven exclusively by a transverse sail mounted on a mast in the middle of the ship. From the end of the XII century. so-called towers appeared in the bow and stern. At first, these were probably battle bridges (perhaps the remains of a Roman bridge), which over time moved to the bow and stern and turned into a forecastle and poop. The steering oar was usually on the starboard side.
Nave
Hanseatic merchants, in whose hands European trade was concentrated from the 13th to the 15th centuries, usually transported their goods on coggs. These were strong high-sided single-masted vessels with almost vertical fore and stern posts. Gradually, small tower-like superstructures appeared on the coggs in the bow, relatively large superstructures in the stern and peculiar "crow's nests" at the top of the mast. The main feature that distinguishes the cog from the nave is the articulated rudder with tiller, located in the diametrical plane of the vessel. Thanks to this, the maneuverability of the vessel has improved.
Single mast cogg
Until about the 14th century. shipbuilding in the northern regions Western Europe developed independently of the shipbuilding of the Mediterranean. If the rudder, placed in the plane of symmetry of the ship, became the greatest achievement in the art of shipbuilding and navigation of the North, then the triangular sail, which is now called Latin, introduced in the Mediterranean Sea, made it possible to sail steeper to the wind than was possible with a rectangular sail. Thanks to contacts between north and south in the XIV century. a new type of ship arose - a caravel, a three-masted vessel with Latin sails and an articulated rudder. Over time, a transverse sail was installed on the bow mast.
Columbus era caracca
The next type of vessel that appeared at the end of the 15th century was the karakka. This vessel had a much more developed forecastle and poop. Carracks were equipped with an articulated rudder and both types of sails. The bow mast had a straight sail, the middle mast had one or two straight sails, and the aft mast had a latin sail. Later, they began to install an inclined bow mast - a bowsprit with a small straight sail. With the advent of caravels and caracques, distant voyages became possible, such as the journey of Vasco de Gama, Columbus, Magellan and other navigators to unknown lands. " Santa Maria”, the flagship of Columbus, in all likelihood, was a caracca. It had a length of 23 m, a width of 8.7 m, a draft of 2.8 m and a crew of 90 people. The ship belonged to ships of medium size (for example, the ship "Peter von la Rochelle", built in 1460, had a length of 12 m). Subsequently, the typical aft superstructure of the karakk was replaced by a superstructure that rose in steps towards the stern. A mast was added (sometimes inclined), the number of sails increased. Direct sails were predominantly used, only a hafel sail was installed at the stern. This is how the gallion arose, which in the 17th and 18th centuries. became the main type of warship. The most common type of merchant ship of that time was the flute, whose hull tapered upwards. Its masts were taller and the yards shorter than those of earlier ships. The rigging was the same as on the galleons.
flutes
Powerful trading companies that were under the tutelage of the state (the English West India Company, founded in 1600, or the Dutch East India Company, founded in 1602), stimulated the construction of a new type of ships, which were called "East Indians". These ships were not very fast. Their full contours and high sides provided a very large carrying capacity. To protect themselves from pirates, merchant ships were armed with cannons. On the masts they put three, and later four direct sails, on the aft mast - an oblique hafel sail. There were usually latin sails in the bow, and trapezoidal sails between the individual masts. These vessels, by their resemblance to a warship of a similar type and with the same rigging, are also called frigates.
Frigate
A significant achievement in sailing shipbuilding was the creation of clippers. The clippers were narrow vessels (the ratio of length to width was approximately 6.7 m) with advanced weapons and a carrying capacity of 500-2000 tons. They were distinguished by high speed. The so-called "tea races" of this period are known, during which clippers with a load of tea on the China-England line reached a speed of 18 knots.
tea clipper
At the beginning of the XIX century. after many thousands of years of dominance of the sailing fleet, a new type of engine appeared on ships. It was a steam engine - the first mechanical engine. In 1807, the American Robert Fulton built the first ship with a steam engine, the Clermont; it went along the Hudson River. The steamer showed itself especially well when sailing against the current. Thus began the era of the steam engine on river boats. In maritime navigation, the steam engine began to be used later. In 1818, a steam engine was installed on the Savannah sailboat, which set the paddle wheels in motion. The ship used the steam engine only for a short passage across the Atlantic. first time crossed North Atlantic almost exclusively with the help of a mechanical drive, the ship "Sirius" is a steam sailing ship built in 1837, the hull of which was still wooden.
Steamship - Sirius
Since that time, the development of a mechanical drive for marine vessels began. Large paddle wheels, whose work was hindered by sea waves, in 1843 gave way to the propeller. It was first installed on the steamer Great Britain. A huge sensation at that time was the Great Eastern ship, 210 m long and 25 m wide, built in 1860. This ship had two paddle wheels with a diameter of 16.5 m and a propeller with a diameter of more than 7 m, five pipes and six masts with a total with an area of 5400 m2, on which it was possible to put a sail. The vessel had rooms for 4,000 passengers, holds for 6,000 tons of cargo and developed a speed of 15 knots.
Great Britain
Great Eastern
The next step in the development of the ship's drive was made at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century; in 1897, a steam turbine was installed for the first time on the ship Turbinia, which made it possible to reach a speed of 34.5 knots that had never been seen before. Built in 1906, the British passenger ship Mauritania (length 241 m, width 26.8 m, carrying capacity 31,940 registered tons, crew 612 people, 2335 passenger seats) was equipped with turbines with a total capacity of 51,485 kW. During the crossing of the Atlantic in 1907, she developed an average speed of 26.06 knots and won a symbolic award for speed - the Blue Ribbon, which she held for 22 years.
Mauritania
In the second decade of the XX century. diesel engines were used on ships. In 1912, two diesel engines with a total capacity of 1,324 kW were installed on the Zeeland cargo ship with a carrying capacity of 7400 tons.
Currently, the phrase "sailing ship" is used to refer to any ship with at least one sail, but from a technical point of view, a sailing ship is a ship that uses wind energy converted using sails to propel it.
Types of sailing ships at all times were diverse. In addition to the original design, the sailboat could be modified at the request of the owner, depending on sailing conditions or local traditions. As a rule, such reconstructions were created in order to improve seaworthiness, with the involvement of a smaller number of crew. Until the middle of the 19th century, sailing ships were the main means of shipping and conducting military operations at sea. Currently, they are used only as training, sports and pleasure boats. In connection with the rise in fuel prices and the tightening of environmental protection requirements, a number of countries began the development and construction of experimental sailing ships equipped with modern sailing equipment. Sailing ships can take from one day to several months, but long sailing requires careful planning with calls to ports to replenish supplies.
There are different types of sailing ships, but they all share the same basic characteristics. Every sailing vessel must have a hull, spars, rigging, and at least one sail.
Spars - a system of masts, yards, gaffs and other structures designed to accommodate sails, signal lights, observation posts, etc. The spars can be fixed (masts, topmasts, bowsprit) and movable (yards, hafels, booms).
Rigging - all the gear of a sailing vessel, is a stretched rope. Rigging is divided into standing and running. Standing rigging serves to hold the spars in place and plays the role of stretch marks. Standing rigging cables on modern sailing ships are usually made of galvanized steel. The running rigging is designed to control the sails - lifting them, cleaning them, etc.
Sail - the mover of a sailing vessel - is a part of the fabric, on modern sailboats - synthetic, which is attached to the spars with the help of rigging, which allows transforming wind energy into the movement of the vessel. Sails are divided into straight and oblique. Straight sails have the shape of an isosceles trapezoid, oblique sails have the shape of a triangle or an unequal trapezoid. The use of slanting sails allows the sailing vessel to move steeply into the wind.
CLASSIFICATION OF SAILING SHIPS AND VESSELS
The most common classification of sailing ships is the division by type and number of masts. This is where the name of the type of sailing ship comes from. So, all sailing ships can carry on their masts different types of sails in different numbers, but they all fall into the following categories:
single masted sailing ships
yal- light keelless sailing boat (dinghy). The mast on the yawl is one, often removable and is called the foremast.
cat- a sailing vessel characterized by the presence of one mast carried far forward, that is, near the bow of the boat.
sloop- single-masted sea sailing vessel.
tender- a single-masted sea sailing vessel with three types of sail on the mast - staysail, trisail and topsail.
cutter- a sailing vessel having one mast with oblique, as a rule, gaff rigging with two staysails.
two-masted sailing ships
yol- a two-masted vessel, in which the mizzen mast is located in the stern near the rudder head, and has oblique sailing equipment.
ketch- a two-masted sailing vessel, which differs from the iol in a slightly larger mizzen mast. In addition, the area of the sail of the stern mast is about 20 percent of the total sail of the sailboat. This feature gives advantages in handling in strong winds.
schooner (bermuda schooner)- a sea sailing vessel having two masts with slanting sails.
brigantine- a two-masted sailing vessel with combined sailing equipment, having direct sailing equipment on the foremast and slanting sails on the mainmast.
brig- a two-masted sailing vessel with direct sailing equipment.
three-masted sailing ships (multi-masted sailing ships)
caravel- has three masts with straight and oblique sails.
schooner- a type of sea sailing vessel that has at least two masts with slanting sails. According to the type of sailing armament, schooners are divided into: gaff, bermuda, staysail, Marseille And brahmsail. Bramsel schooner differs from the topsail schooner by the presence of a bram-topmast and another additional direct sail - a bramsel. At the same time, in some cases, Marseille and brahmseille two-masted schooners, especially with a brief, can be confused with a brigantine. Regardless of the type of slanting sails - hafel or Bermuda, the schooner can also be a topsail (bramsel). Schooners have a small draft, which allows you to enter even in shallow water.
barque- a large sailing ship with three or more masts, having direct sailing equipment on all masts, except for the stern mast, which is equipped with slanting sails.
barquentine (schooner-bark)- as a rule, this is a sailing vessel with three or more masts with mixed sailing equipment, and has direct sailing rigging only on the foremast, slanting sails are located on the remaining masts.
frigate- a sailing vessel having three or more masts with straight sails on all masts.
In addition to the above types of sailing ships, there were a large number of other names in the history of navigation, many of which disappeared over time, but thanks to enthusiasts, some ships have survived to this day in the form of fully functional copies or replicas: corvette, flutes, galleon, lugger, clipper, shebeka, karakka, windjammer.
CLASSIFICATION OF SPORTS SAILING VESSELS
Sailing originated in countries that have always been famous for navigation - England and the Netherlands. Its origin is closely related to the professional sailing on small sailing vessels, where the advantage in speed allowed it to compete successfully, for example, in fishing or pilotage. The sporting interest that arose as a result of the improvement in the driving performance of such sailing vessels, as well as the holding of races between them, led to the emergence of special vessels designed exclusively for amateur sailing, which became known as yachts. This name comes from the Dutch word "jagie" - so in the Netherlands in the 17th century they called small high-speed single-masted ships. The wide spread of exciting water competitions also forced the classifiers to divide sports sailing yachts into types.
Classification of sailing sports vessels (yachts)- this is the division of sailing, sports, ships into classes depending on the sizes and their ratios that affect the driving performance and seaworthiness of these sailing ships. There are four main classes of sailing, sports vessels (yachts): free classes; formula classes; monotypes And handicap classes.
Classes of sailing sports vessels (yachts) are constantly being improved and changed and can be national and international. International classes of sailing sports vessels involved in the Olympic regattas are called "Olympic". As of 2012, there are six classes of monohull racing yachts: Finn-class boats, boats 470 class, 49er class boats, 49erFX class boats, boats of class Laser-Standard, boats of the Laser-Radial class.
Stands out from the group multihull sports class, named Nacra 17. As well as competitions boards with a sail for surfing (windsurfing) have their own class - RS:X.
In addition to the above, there is the concept of sailing-motor vessels - these are vessels with sailing equipment and an auxiliary diesel power plant used to move the vessel in calm, entering (exiting) ports, passing narrownesses (straits, canals) and the like. Most of the motor-sailing vessels are small fishing, training and pleasure boats.
The topics are running out in, but there is still where to roam. Here, for example, is a topic from german_ukraine About sailing ships, with blueprints and tips for building models. Interested in the period 16-18 century.
Regarding ship modeling with drawings and advice, for now I propose. In the meantime, let's quickly and briefly "run" to the 15th century, and there we will already reveal the issue in more detail. So let's start:
The first sailing ships appeared in Egypt around 3000 BC. e. This is evidenced by the paintings decorating ancient Egyptian vases. However, the home of the boats depicted on the vases is apparently not the Nile Valley, but the nearby Persian Gulf. Confirmation of this is a model of a similar boat found in the Obeid tomb, in the city of Eridu, which stood on the shores of the Persian Gulf.
In 1969, the Norwegian scientist Thor Heyerdahl made an interesting attempt to test the assumption that a ship equipped with a sail, made of papyrus reed, could sail not only on the Nile, but also on the high seas. This vessel, essentially a raft, 15 m long, 5 m wide and 1.5 m high, with a 10 m mast and a single straight sail, was steered by a steering oar.
Before the use of the wind, floating craft either moved by oars or were pulled by people or animals walking along the banks of rivers and canals. Vessels made it possible to transport heavy and bulky goods, which was much more productive than transporting animals by teams on land. Bulk goods were also transported mainly by water.
papyrus ship
A large naval expedition of the ruler of Egypt Hatshepsut, undertaken in the first half of the 15th century, is historically attested. BC e. This expedition, which historians believe is also a trade, proceeded through the Red Sea to the ancient country of Punt on the east coast of Africa (this is roughly modern Somalia). The ships returned heavily laden with various goods and slaves.
In close navigation, the Phoenicians used mainly light merchant ships that had oars and a straight rake sail. Vessels intended for long-distance navigation and warships looked much more impressive. Phoenicia, unlike Egypt, had very favorable natural conditions for the construction of the fleet: near the coast, on the slopes of the Lebanese mountains, forests grew, dominated by the famous Lebanese cedar and oak, as well as other valuable tree species.
In addition to the improvement of sea vessels, the Phoenicians left another remarkable legacy - the word "galley", which probably entered all European languages. Phoenician ships set sail from the large port cities of Sidon, Ugarit, Arvada, Gebala, etc., where there were also large shipyards.
Historical materials also speak of the voyage of the Phoenicians in a southerly direction through the Red Sea to indian ocean. The Phoenicians are credited with the honor of the first voyage around Africa at the end of the 7th century. BC e., that is, almost 2000 years before Vasco da Gama.
The Greeks already in the IX century. BC e. they learned from the Phoenicians to build ships that were remarkable for that time and early began the colonization of the surrounding territories. In the VIII-VI centuries. BC e. the area of their penetration covered the western shores of the Mediterranean Sea, the entire Pontus Euxinus (Black Sea) and the Aegean coast of Asia Minor.
Not a single wooden antique ship or part of it has survived, and this does not allow us to clarify the idea of the main types of galleys, which has developed on the basis of written and other historical materials. Divers and scuba divers continue to explore the seabed at the sites of ancient naval battles in which hundreds of ships were lost. Their shape and internal structure can be judged by indirect signs - for example, by accurate sketches of the location of clay vessels and metal objects that have been preserved where the ship lay. And yet, in the absence of wooden parts of the hull, painstaking analysis and imagination cannot be dispensed with.
The vessel was kept on course by means of a steering oar, which had at least two advantages over the later rudder: it made it possible to turn a stationary vessel and easily replace a damaged or broken steering oar. Merchant ships were wide and had ample hold space to accommodate cargo.
The ship was a Greek war galley circa 5th century BC. BC e., the so-called bireme. With rows of oars arranged in two tiers along the sides, she naturally had greater speed than a ship of the same size with half the number of oars. In the same century, triremes became widespread - warships with three "floors" of rowers. A similar arrangement of galleys is the contribution of ancient Greek masters to the design of sea vessels. Military kinkerems were not "long ships", they had a deck, internal quarters for soldiers and a particularly powerful ram, bound with copper sheets, located in front at water level, which broke through the sides of enemy ships during naval battles. The Greeks adopted a similar combat device from the Phoenicians, who used it in the 8th century. BC e.
Although the Greeks were able, well-trained sailors, sea travel was a dangerous business at that time. Not every ship reached its destination as a result of either a shipwreck or a pirate attack.
The galleys of ancient Greece plowed almost the entire Mediterranean and Black Sea, there is evidence of their penetration through Gibraltar to the north. Here they reached Britain, and possibly Scandinavia. Their voyages are shown on the map.
At the first big clash with Carthage (in the First Punic War), the Romans realized that they could not hope for victory without having a strong navy. With the help of Greek specialists, they built 120 large galleys in a short time and transferred to the sea their method of warfare, which they used on land - an individual battle of a warrior against a warrior with personal weapons. The Romans used the so-called "crows" - boarding bridges. On these bridges, which pierced the deck of the enemy ship with a sharp hook, depriving him of the possibility of maneuvering, the Roman legionnaires broke into the enemy deck and started the battle in their usual manner.
The Roman fleet, like the contemporary Greek fleet, consisted of two main types of ships: "round" merchant and slender battle galleys.
Certain improvements can be noted in the sailing armament. On the main mast (mainmast) a large square straight sail is retained, which is sometimes supplemented by two small triangular upper sails. A smaller quadrangular sail appears on the forward inclined mast - the bowsprit. Increasing the total area of the sails increased the force used to propel the ship. However, the sails continue to be an additional mover, the oars, not shown in the figure, remain the main one.
The value of the sail, however, undoubtedly increased, especially on long voyages, which were made as far as India. At the same time, the discovery of the Greek navigator Gippal helped: the August southwest and January northeast monsoons contributed to the maximum use of sails and at the same time reliably indicated the direction, like a compass much later. The road from Italy to India and the return journey, with an intermediate crossing by caravans and ships along the Nile from Alexandria to the Red Sea, lasted about a year. Previously, the path by oars along the shores of the Arabian Sea was much longer.
During trading voyages, the Romans used numerous Mediterranean ports. Some of them have already been mentioned, but one of the first places should be given to Alexandria, located in the Nile Delta, whose importance as a transit point increased as Rome’s trade with India and the Far East grew.
For more than half a millennium, the knights of the high seas, the Vikings, kept Europe in fear. They owe their mobility and omnipresence to dracars - true masterpieces of shipbuilding art.
On these ships, the Vikings made distant sea voyages. They discovered Iceland, South coast Greenland, long before Columbus they visited North America. The snake heads of the stems of their ships were seen by the inhabitants of the Baltic, the Mediterranean and Byzantium. Together with the squads of the Slavs, they settled in the great trade route from the Varangians to the Greeks.
The main mover of the drakar was a raked sail, with an area of 70 m2 or more, sewn from separate vertical panels, richly decorated with gold braid, drawings of the coats of arms of the leaders or various signs and symbols. Ray rose with the sail. The high mast was supported by the stays going from it to the sides and to the ends of the vessel. The sides were protected by richly painted shields of warriors. The silhouette of the Scandinavian ship is one of a kind. It has many aesthetic merits. The basis for the reconstruction of this ship was the drawing of the famous carpet from Bae, which tells about the landing in 1066 of William the Conqueror in England.
At the beginning of the 15th century, they began to build two-masted coggs. The further development of world shipbuilding was marked by the transition in the middle of the 15th century to three-masted ships. For the first time this type of vessel appeared in the north of Europe in 1475. Its fore and mizzen masts are borrowed from Mediterranean Venetian ships.
The first three-masted ship to enter the Baltic Sea was the French ship La Rochelle. The skin of this ship, which had a length of 43 m and a width of 12 m, was not laid flat, like tiles on the roof of a house, as was done before, but smooth: one board close to another. And although this method of sheathing was known before, nevertheless, the merit of his invention is attributed to a shipbuilder from Brittany named Julian, who called this method "carvel" or "craveel". The name of the plating later passed into the name of the type of ships - "caravel". Caravels were more elegant than coggs and had better sailing equipment, so it was no coincidence that medieval discoverers chose these strong, fast and roomy ships for overseas campaigns. Characteristic features of caravels are high sides, deep sheer deck in the middle part of the vessel and mixed sailing equipment. Only the foremast carried a square straight sail. Latin sails on the slanting yards of the main and mizzen masts allowed ships to sail steeply into the wind.
In the first half of the 15th century, the largest cargo ship (perhaps up to 2000 tons) was a three-masted, two-deck karakka, probably of Portuguese origin. In the 15th-16th centuries, composite masts appeared on sailing ships, which carried several sails at once. The area of the topsails and kruysels (top sails) was increased, which made it easier to control and maneuver the vessel. The ratio of body length to width ranged from 2:1 to 2.5:1. As a result, the seaworthiness of these so-called "round" vessels improved, which made it possible to make safer long-distance voyages to America and India and even around the world. A clear distinction between sailing merchant and military ships did not exist at that time; for a number of centuries, only a rowing galley was a typical warship. The galleys were built with one and two masts and carried Latin sails.
"Vasa" Swedish warship
At the beginning of the XVII century. Sweden has significantly strengthened its position in Europe. The founder of the new royal dynasty, Gustav I Vasa, did a lot to bring the country out of medieval backwardness. He delivered Sweden from Danish rule, carried out a reformation, subordinating the previously all-powerful church to the state.
The Thirty Years' War of 1618-1648 was underway. Sweden, which claimed to be one of the dominant countries in Europe, sought to finally consolidate its dominant position in the Baltic.
Sweden's main rival in the western part Baltic Sea was Denmark, which owned both banks of the Sound and the most important islands of the Baltic Sea. But it was a very strong opponent. Then the Swedes focused all their attention on the eastern shores of the sea and, after long wars, captured the cities of Yam, Koporye, Karela, Oreshek and Ivan-gorod, which had long belonged to Russia, thus depriving the Russian state of access to the Baltic Sea.
However, Gustav II Adolf, the new king of the Vasa dynasty (1611-1632), wanted to achieve complete domination of Sweden in the eastern part of the Baltic Sea and began to create a strong navy.
In 1625, the Stockholm Royal Shipyard received a large order for the simultaneous construction of four large ships. The king showed the greatest interest in the construction of a new flagship. This ship was named "Vasa" - in honor of the Swedish royal Vasa dynasty, to which Gustav II Adolf belonged.
The best ship craftsmen, artists, sculptors, and wood carvers were involved in the construction of Vasa. Hendrik Hibertson, a well-known shipbuilder in Europe, was invited as the chief builder. Two years later, the ship was safely launched and towed to the outfitting pier, located just under the windows of the royal palace.
Galion "Golden Hind" ("Golden Doe")
The ship was built in the 60s of the 16th century in England and was originally called "Pelican". On it, the English navigator Francis Drake in 1577-1580, as part of a squadron of five ships, undertook a pirate expedition to the West Indies and made the second circumnavigation of the world after Magellan. In honor of the excellent seaworthiness of his ship, Drake renamed it the "Golden Hind" and installed a figurine of a doe made of pure gold in the bow of the ship. The length of the galleon is 18.3 m, the width is 5.8 m, the draft is 2.45 m. This is one of the smallest galleons.
Significantly larger ships than galleys were galleasses: they had three masts with Latin sails, two large steering oars in the stern, two decks (lower for rowers, upper for soldiers and cannons), and a surface ram in the bow. These warships proved to be durable: as late as the 18th century, almost all maritime powers continued to replenish their fleets with galleys and galleasses. During the 16th century, the appearance of a sailing ship was formed as a whole, which was preserved until the middle of the 19th century. Ships increased significantly in size, if for the 15th century ships of more than 200 tons were rare, then by the end of the 16th century there were single giants reaching 2000 tons, and ships with a displacement of 700-800 tons were no longer rare. From the beginning of the 16th century, European shipbuilding increasingly began to use oblique sails, at first in their pure form, as was done in Asia, but by the end of the century, mixed sailing rigs spread. Artillery was improved - bombards of the 15th and culverins of the early 16th centuries were still not very suitable for arming ships, but by the end of the 16th century the problems associated with casting were largely resolved and a familiar-looking naval gun appeared. Around 1500, cannon ports were invented, it became possible to place cannons in several tiers, and the upper deck was freed from them, which had a positive effect on the ship's stability. The sides of the ship began to fill up inward - so the guns of the upper tiers were closer to the axis of symmetry of the ship. Finally, in the 16th century, regular navies appeared in many European countries. All these innovations gravitate towards the beginning of the 16th century, but, given the time required for implementation, spread only towards its end. Again, shipbuilders also had to gain experience, because at first the ships of a new type had an annoying habit of capsizing immediately when leaving the stocks.
During the 16th century, the appearance of a sailing ship was formed as a whole, which was preserved until the middle of the 19th century. Ships increased significantly in size, if for the 15th century ships of more than 200 tons were rare, then by the end of the 16th century there were single giants reaching 2000 tons, and ships with a displacement of 700-800 tons were no longer rare. From the beginning of the 16th century, European shipbuilding increasingly began to use oblique sails, at first in their pure form, as was done in Asia, but by the end of the century, mixed sailing rigs spread. Artillery was improved - bombards of the 15th and culverins of the early 16th centuries were still not very suitable for arming ships, but by the end of the 16th century the problems associated with casting were largely resolved and a familiar-looking naval gun appeared. Around 1500, cannon ports were invented, it became possible to place cannons in several tiers, and the upper deck was freed from them, which had a positive effect on the ship's stability. The sides of the ship began to fill up inward - so the guns of the upper tiers were closer to the axis of symmetry of the ship. Finally, in the 16th century, regular navies appeared in many European countries. All these innovations gravitate towards the beginning of the 16th century, but, given the time required for implementation, spread only towards its end. Again, shipbuilders also had to gain experience, because at first the ships of a new type had an annoying habit of capsizing immediately when leaving the stocks.
In the first half of the 16th century, a ship appeared with fundamentally new properties and a completely different purpose than the ships that existed before. This ship was intended to fight for supremacy at sea by destroying enemy warships on the high seas with artillery fire and combined significant autonomy for those times with the strongest weapons. The rowing ships that existed up to this point could only dominate a narrow strait, and even then, if they were based in a port on the shore of this strait, in addition, their power was determined by the number of troops on board, and artillery ships could act independently of the infantry. A new type of ships began to be called linear - that is, the main ones (like "linear infantry", "linear tanks" the name "linear ship" has nothing to do with lining up - if they were built, then just in a column).
The first battleships that appeared on the northern seas, and later on the Mediterranean Sea, were small - 500-800 tons, which approximately corresponded to the displacement of large transports of that period. Not even the biggest ones. But major transports rich merchant companies were built for themselves, and battleships were ordered by states that were not rich at that time. These ships were armed with 50-90 guns, but they were not very strong guns - mostly 12-pounders, with a small admixture of 24-pounders and a very large admixture of small-caliber guns and culverins. Seaworthiness did not stand up to any criticism - even in the 18th century, ships were still built without drawings (they were replaced by a layout), and the number of guns was calculated based on the width of the ship measured in steps - that is, it varied depending on the length of the legs of the chief engineer of the shipyard. But this was in the 18th, and in the 16th, the correlation between the width of the vessel and the weight of the guns was not known (especially since it does not exist). Simply put, ships were built without a theoretical basis, only on the basis of experience, which was almost non-existent in the 16th and early 17th centuries. But the main trend was clearly visible - guns in such a quantity could no longer be considered as auxiliary weapons, and a purely sail design indicated a desire to get an ocean-going ship. Even then, battleships were characterized by armament at the level of 1.5 pounds per ton of displacement.
The faster the ship was, the fewer guns it could have in relation to the displacement, since the more the engine weighed - the masts. Not only did the masts themselves with a mass of ropes and sails weigh a fair amount, they also shifted the center of gravity upwards, therefore they had to be balanced by laying more cast-iron ballast in the hold.
The battleships of the 16th century still had inadequate sailing equipment for sailing in the Mediterranean Sea (especially in its eastern part) and the Baltic. The storm jokingly blew the Spanish squadron out of the English Channel.
Already in the 16th century, Spain, England and France together had about 60 ships of the line, with Spain more than half of this number. Sweden, Denmark, Turkey and Portugal joined this trio in the 17th century.
Ships of the 17th and 18th centuries
In the north of Europe at the beginning of the 17th century, a new type of vessel appeared, similar to flutes - a three-masted pinasse (pinasse). The same type of ships also includes the galleon that appeared in the middle of the 16th century - a military ship of Portuguese origin, which later became the basis of the fleets of the Spaniards and the British. For the first time, guns were installed on the galleon both above and below the main deck, which led to the construction of battery decks; guns stood on the sides and fired through the ports. The displacement of the largest Spanish galleons of 1580-1590 was 1000 tons, and the ratio of the length of the hull to the width was 4:1. The absence of high superstructures and a long hull allowed these ships to sail faster and steeper to the wind than "round" ships. To increase the speed, the number and area of sails were increased, additional sails appeared - foxes and underliesels. At that time, jewelry was considered a symbol of wealth and power - all state and royal courts were luxuriously decorated. The distinction between warships and merchant ships became more distinct. In the middle of the 17th century, frigates began to be built in England, which had up to 60 guns on two decks, and smaller warships, such as a corvette, sloop, bombard, and others.
By the middle of the 17th century, battleships had grown significantly - some already up to 1500 tons. The number of guns remained the same - 50-80 pieces, but 12-pounder guns remained only on the bow, stern and upper deck, guns of 24 and 48 pounds were placed on other decks. Accordingly, the hull became stronger - it could withstand 24-pound shells. In general, the 17th century is characterized by a low level of opposition at sea. England, almost throughout its entire length, could not deal with internal turmoil. Holland preferred ships small size, relying more on their number and the experience of the crews. France, powerful at that time, tried to impose its hegemony on Europe by wars on land - the French were of little interest to the sea. Sweden reigned supreme in the Baltic Sea and did not lay claim to other bodies of water. Spain and Portugal were ruined and often found themselves dependent on France. Venice and Genoa quickly turned into third-rate states. The Mediterranean Sea was divided - the western part went to Europe, the eastern - to Turkey. Neither side sought to upset the balance. However, the Maghreb ended up in the European sphere of influence - English, French and Dutch squadrons did away with piracy during the 17th century. The greatest maritime powers of the 17th century had 20-30 battleships each, the rest had only a few.
Türkiye also began to build battleships from the end of the 16th century. But they still differed significantly from European models. Especially the shape of the hull and sailing weapons. Turkish battleships were significantly faster than European ones (this was especially true in the Mediterranean), carried 36-60 guns of 12-24 caliber pounds and were weaker armored - only from 12-pounder cores. Armament was a pound per ton. The displacement was 750 -1100 tons. In the 18th century, Türkiye began to lag significantly behind in terms of technology. Turkish battleships of the 18th century resembled European ones of the 17th century.
During the 18th century, the growth in the size of ships of the line continued uninterrupted. By the end of this century, battleships had reached a displacement of 5,000 tons (the limit for wooden ships), armor was strengthened to an incredible degree - even 96-pound bombs did not harm them enough - and 12-pound half-guns were no longer used on them. Only 24 pounds for the upper deck, 48 pounds for the two middle decks, and 96 pounds for the bottom deck. The number of guns reached 130. True, there were also smaller battleships with 60-80 guns, with a displacement of about 2000 tons. They were more often limited to 48-pound caliber, and they were also protected from it.
Incredibly increased the number of battleships. England, France, Russia, Turkey, Holland, Sweden, Denmark, Spain and Portugal had battle fleets. By the middle of the 18th century, England had almost undivided dominance at sea. By the end of the century, she had almost a hundred battleships (including those that were not in active use). France scored 60-70, but they were weaker than the English. Russia under Peter stamped 60 battleships, but they were made in a hurry, somehow, carelessly. In a rich way, only the preparation of wood - so that it would turn into armor - should have taken 30 years (in fact, Russian ships and later were built not from bog oak, but from larch, it was heavy, relatively soft, but did not rot and lasted 10 times longer than oak). But their number alone forced Sweden (and the whole of Europe) to recognize the Baltic Sea as Russian inland. By the end of the century, the size of the Russian battle fleet even decreased, but the ships were brought up to European standards. Holland, Sweden, Denmark and Portugal had 10-20 ships each, Spain - 30, Turkey - also about that, but these were already ships of a non-European level.
Even then, the property of battleships was manifested that they were created most of all for numbers - so that they were, and not for war. It was expensive to build and maintain them, and even more so to equip them with a crew, all kinds of supplies and send them on campaigns. They saved on this - they did not send it. So even England used only a small part of her battle fleet at a time. Equipment for a campaign of 20-30 battleships was also a national task for England. Russia kept only a few battleships on alert. Most of the battleships spent their entire lives in the port with only a minimal crew on board (capable, in case of urgent need, to overtake the ship to another port) and unloaded guns.
The ship next in rank to the battleship was the frigate, designed to capture the water space. With the incidental destruction of everything (except battleships) that was available in this space. Formally, the frigate was an auxiliary ship in the battle fleet, but, given that the latter was used extremely sluggishly, frigates turned out to be the most popular of the ships of that period. Frigates, like later cruisers, could be divided into light and heavy ones, although such a gradation was not formally carried out. The heavy frigate appeared in the 17th century, it was a ship with 32-40 cannons, counting the falconets, and displacing 600-900 tons of water. The guns were 12-24 pounds, with the latter predominating. The armor could withstand 12-pound cannonballs, the armament was 1.2-1.5 tons per pound, and the speed was greater than that of a battleship. The displacement of the latest modifications of the 18th century reached 1500 tons, there were up to 60 cannons, but usually there were no 48-pound ones.
Light frigates have been common since the 16th century, and in the 17th they made up the vast majority of all warships. Their production required a significantly lower quality wood than for the construction of heavy frigates. Larch and oak were considered strategic resources, and pines suitable for making masts in Europe and the European part of Russia were counted and taken into account. Light frigates did not carry armor, in the sense that their hulls withstood wave impacts and mechanical loads, but they did not claim more, the skin thickness was 5-7 centimeters. The number of guns did not exceed 30, and only on the largest frigates of this class were 4 24 pounds on the lower deck - they did not even occupy the entire floor. The displacement was 350-500 tons.
In the 17th and early 18th centuries, light frigates were simply the cheapest warships, ships that could be made a whole cloud and quickly. Including by re-equipment of merchant ships. By the middle of the 18th century, similar ships began to be specially produced, but with an emphasis on maximum speed - corvettes. There were even fewer cannons on corvettes, from 10 to 20 (there were actually 12-14 cannons on 10-gun ships, but those that looked at the bow and stern were classified as falconets). The displacement was 250-450 tons.
The number of frigates in the 18th century was significant. England had little more than ships of the line, but still got a lot. Countries with small battleship fleets had several times more frigates than battleships. The exception was Russia, which had one frigate for three battleships. The point was that the frigate was intended to capture space, and with it (space) in the Black and Baltic Seas it was a bit tight. At the very bottom of the hierarchy were sloops - ships designed to carry out sentinel service, reconnaissance, combat piracy, and so on. That is, not to fight other warships. The smallest of them were ordinary schooners of 50-100 tons in weight with several guns less than 12 pounds in caliber. The largest had up to 20 12-pounder guns and a displacement of up to 350-400 tons. Sloops and other auxiliary ships could be any number. For example, Holland in the middle of the 16th century had 6,000 merchant ships, most of which were armed.
By installing additional guns, 300-400 of them could be turned into light frigates. The rest are in sloops. Another question is that the merchant ship brought profit to the Dutch treasury, and the frigate or sloop consumed this profit. England at that time had 600 merchant ships. How many people could be on these ships? A is different. In principle, a sailboat could have one crew member for every ton of displacement. But this worsened habitability and reduced autonomy. On the other hand, the more numerous the crew, the more combat-ready the ship turned out to be. In principle, 20 people could manage the sails of a large frigate. But only in good weather. They could do the same in a storm, simultaneously working on the pumps and battening down the port covers knocked out by the waves, they could do it for a short time. Most likely, their strength would have ended earlier than the wind. To conduct a battle on a 40-gun ship, a minimum of 80 people were required, - 70 load the guns of one side, and another 10 run around the deck and lead. But if the ship performs such a complex maneuver as a turn, all gunners will have to rush from the lower decks to the masts - when turning, the ship will certainly have to move tacks against the wind for some time, but for this, it will be necessary to tightly reef all direct sails, and then, of course, open them again. If the gunners need to either climb the masts, then run into the hold for the cannonballs - they won’t shoot much.
Typically, sailboats designed for long passages or long cruising had one person on board for 4 tons. This was enough to control the ship and for combat. In the event that the ship was used for landing operations or boarding, the crew could reach one person per ton. How did they fight? If two roughly equal ships met in the sea under the flags of the warring powers, then both of them began to maneuver in order to take a more advantageous position from the side of the wind. One sought to go into the tail of the other - so it was possible at the most interesting moment to take away the wind from the enemy. Considering that the guns were guided by the hull, and the maneuverability of the ship was proportional to its speed, no one wanted to move against the wind at the time of the collision. On the other hand, having too much wind in the sails, it was possible to slip forward and let the enemy pass to the rear. All these dances were original in the sense that it was practically possible to maneuver only by direction.
Of course, the whole story did not fit into the LiveJournal framework, so read the continuation on InfoGlaze -
Battleship(English) ship-of-the-line, fr. navire de ligne) - a class of sailing three-masted wooden warships. Sailing ships of the line were characterized by the following features: full displacement from 500 to 5500 tons, armament, including from 30-50 to 135 guns in side ports (in 2-4 decks), the crew size ranged from 300 to 800 people with full staffing. Battleships were built and used from the 17th century until the early 1860s for naval battles using linear tactics. Sailing battleships were not called battleships.
General information
In 1907, a new class of armored ships with a displacement of 20,000 to 64,000 tons was named battleships (abbreviated as battleships).
History of creation
"In times long past ... on the high seas, he was not afraid of anything as a battleship. There was not a shadow of a sense of defenselessness from possible attacks by destroyers, submarines or aircraft, nor quivering thoughts about enemy mines or air torpedoes, there was, in fact, nothing, with the possible exception of a fierce storm, a drift to a lee shore, or a concentrated attack by several equal opponents, which could shake the proud confidence of a sailing ship of the line in its own invincibility, which it took upon itself with every right to do so. - Oscar Parks. Battleships of the British Empire.
Technological innovations
To the emergence of battleships as the main force of the military navy led to many related technological advances.
Considered today as a classic technology for the construction of wooden ships - first the frame, then the sheathing - finally took shape in Byzantium at the turn of the 1st and 2nd millennia AD, and due to its advantages over time replaced the methods that existed before: the Roman one used in the Mediterranean, with sheathing smooth from boards, the ends of which were connected with spikes, and clinker, which existed from Russia to the Basque Country in Spain, with sheathing and transverse reinforcing ribs inserted into the finished body. In the south of Europe, this transition finally took place before the middle of the 14th century, in England - around 1500, and in Northern Europe merchant ships with clinker sheathing (holki) were built as early as the 16th century, possibly later. In most European languages, this method was denoted by derivatives of the word carvel; hence the caravel, that is, initially, a ship built starting from the frame and with a smooth sheathing.
The new technology gave shipbuilders a number of advantages. The presence of a frame on a ship made it possible to accurately determine in advance its dimensions and the nature of the contours, which, with the previous technology, became fully evident only during the construction process; ships are now built according to a pre-approved plan. In addition, the new technology made it possible to significantly increase the size of the ships - both due to the greater strength of the hull, and due to the reduction in the requirements for the width of the boards going to the skin, which made it possible to use less quality timber for the construction of ships. Also, the requirements for the qualifications of the labor force involved in the construction were reduced, which made it possible to build ships faster and in much larger quantities than before.
In the XIV-XV centuries, gunpowder artillery began to be used on ships, but initially, due to the inertia of thinking, it was placed on superstructures intended for archers - forcastel and aftercastle, which limited the permissible mass of guns for reasons of stability. Later, artillery began to be installed along the side in the middle of the ship, which largely removed the restrictions on the mass of guns, however, aiming them at the target was very difficult, since the fire was fired through round slots made to the size of the gun barrel in the sides, which were plugged from the inside in the stowed position. Real cannon ports with covers appeared only towards the end of the 15th century, which opened the way for the creation of heavily armed artillery ships. During the 16th century, a complete change in the nature of naval battles took place: rowing galleys, which had been the main warships for thousands of years, gave way to sailboats armed with artillery, and boarding battles gave way to artillery.
Mass production of heavy artillery guns was very difficult for a long time, therefore, until the 19th century, the largest of those installed on ships remained 32 ... But working with them during loading and aiming was very complicated due to the lack of servos, which required a huge calculation for their maintenance: such guns weighed several tons each. Therefore, for centuries, ships tried to arm as many relatively small guns as possible, which were located along the side. At the same time, for reasons of strength, the length of a warship with a wooden hull is limited to about 70-80 meters, which also limited the length of the onboard battery: more than two or three dozen guns could only be placed in a few rows. This is how warships arose with several closed gun decks (decks), carrying from several dozen to hundreds or more guns of various calibers.
In the 16th century, cast iron cannons began to be used in England, which were a great technological innovation due to their lower cost compared to bronze ones and less laborious manufacturing compared to iron ones, and at the same time they had higher characteristics. Superiority in artillery manifested itself during the battles of the English fleet with the Invincible Armada (1588) and since then began to determine the strength of the fleet, making history of boarding battles - after that, boarding is used exclusively for the purpose of capturing an enemy ship already disabled by fire.
In the middle of the 17th century, methods for the mathematical calculation of ship hulls appeared. The method of determining the displacement and waterline level of a ship, introduced into practice around the 1660s by the English shipbuilder A. Dean, based on its total mass and shape of contours, made it possible to calculate in advance at what height from the sea surface the ports of the lower battery will be located, and to arrange the decks accordingly and the guns are still on the slipway - earlier for this it was required to lower the ship's hull into the water. This made it possible, even at the design stage, to determine the firepower of the future ship, as well as to avoid incidents like the one that happened with the Swedish Vasa due to too low ports. In addition, on ships with powerful artillery, part of the gun ports necessarily fell on the frames; only real frames were power, not cut by ports, and the rest were additional, so it was important to accurately coordinate their relative position.
History of appearance
The immediate predecessors of battleships were heavily armed galleons, carracks and the so-called " big ships» (Great Ships). The English karakka is sometimes considered the first purpose-built artillery ship. Mary Rose(1510), although the Portuguese attribute the honor of their invention to their king João II (1455-1495), who ordered several caravels to be armed with heavy guns.
The first battleships appeared in the fleets of European countries at the beginning of the 17th century, and the first three-deck battleship is considered HMS Prince Royal(1610) . They were lighter and shorter than the “ship-towers” that existed at that time - galleons, which made it possible to quickly line up sideways to the enemy when the bow of the next ship looked at the stern of the previous one. Also, ships of the line differ from galleons by straight sails on the mizzen mast (the galleons had from three to five masts, of which usually one or two were “dry”, with oblique sailing weapons), the absence of a long horizontal latrine at the bow and a rectangular tower at the stern , and the maximum use of the surface area of \u200b\u200bthe sides for guns. A battleship is more maneuverable and stronger than a galleon in artillery combat, while a galleon is better suited for boarding combat. Unlike battleships, galleons were also used to transport troops and trade cargo.
The resulting multi-deck sailing ships of the line were the main means of warfare at sea for more than 250 years and allowed countries such as Holland, Great Britain and Spain to create huge trading empires.
By the middle of the 17th century, a clear division of battleships into classes arose: the old two-decker (that is, in which two closed decks one above the other were filled with cannons firing through ports - slots in the sides) ships with 50 guns were not strong enough for linear combat and were used in mainly for escorting convoys. Double-deck ships of the line, carrying from 64 to 90 guns, made up the bulk of the navy, while three- or even four-deck ships (98-144 guns) served as flagships. A fleet of 10-25 such ships made it possible to control sea trade lines and, in case of war, block them for the enemy.
Battleships should be distinguished from frigates. The frigates had either only one closed battery, or one closed and one open on the upper deck. Sailing equipment for battleships and frigates was the same (three masts, each with direct sails). The battleships outnumbered the frigates in the number of guns (several times) and the height of the sides, but were inferior in speed and could not operate in shallow water.
battleship tactics
| With the increase in the strength of the warship and with the improvement of its seaworthiness and fighting qualities, an equal success in the art of using them appeared ... As the evolutions of the sea become more skillful, their importance grows day by day. These evolutions needed a base, a point from which they could start and to which they could return. The fleet of warships must always be ready to meet the enemy, so it is logical that such a base for naval evolution should be a battle formation. Further, with the abolition of the galleys, almost all the artillery moved to the sides of the ship, which is why it became necessary to keep the ship always in such a position that the enemy was abeam. On the other hand, it is necessary that not a single ship of its own fleet could interfere with firing at enemy ships. Only one system allows you to fully satisfy these requirements, this is the wake system. The latter, therefore, was chosen as the only battle formation, and consequently also as the basis for all fleet tactics. At the same time, they realized that in order for the battle formation, this long thin line of guns, not to be damaged or broken at its weakest point, it is necessary to bring into it only ships, if not of equal strength, then at least with equally strong sides. It follows logically that at the same time as the wake column becomes the final battle formation, a distinction is established between battleships, which alone are intended for it, and smaller ships for other purposes. Mahan, Alfred Thayer |
The term "battleship" itself arose due to the fact that in battle, multi-deck ships began to line up one after another - so that during their volley they were turned to the enemy by the side, because the volley from all onboard guns caused the greatest damage to the target. This tactic was called linear. Building in a line during a naval battle was first used by the fleets of England and Spain at the beginning of the 17th century and was considered the main one until the middle of the 19th. Linear tactics also protected the leading squadron well from attacks by firewalls.
It is worth noting that in a number of cases, fleets consisting of ships of the line could vary tactics, often deviating from the canons of the classic skirmish between two wake columns going in parallel courses. So, at Camperdown, the British, not having time to line up in the correct wake column, attacked the Dutch battle line in formation close to the front line, followed by a disorderly dump, and at Trafalgar they attacked the French line with two intersecting columns, competently using the advantages of longitudinal fire, inflicting undivided transverse bulkheads to wooden ships suffered terrible damage (at Trafalgar, Admiral Nelson used the tactics developed by Admiral Ushakov). Although these were out of the ordinary cases, nevertheless, even within the framework of the general paradigm of linear tactics, the squadron commander often had enough room for bold maneuver, and the captains for showing their own initiative.
Design features and fighting qualities
The wood for the construction of battleships (usually oak, less often teak or mahogany) was selected most carefully, soaked and dried for a number of years, after which it was carefully laid in several layers. The side plating was double - inside and outside of the frames; the thickness of one outer skin on some battleships reached 60 cm at the gondek (in the Spanish Santisima Trinidad), and the total internal and external - up to 37 inches, that is, about 95 cm. The British built ships with relatively thin skin, but often located frames, in the area of \u200b\u200bwhich the total thickness of the side of the gondek reached 70-90 cm of solid wood; between the frames, the total thickness of the side, formed by only two layers of skin, was less and reached 2 feet (60 cm). For greater speed, French battleships were built with sparser frames, but with thicker skin - up to 70 cm in total between the frames.
To protect the underwater part from rot and fouling, it was covered with an outer skin made of thin planks of soft wood, which was regularly changed during the timbering process in the dock. Subsequently, at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries, copper sheathing began to be used for the same purpose.
- List of men-of-war 1650-1700. Part II. French ships 1648-1700.
- Histoire de la Marine Francaise. French naval history.
- Les Vaisseaux du roi Soleil. Contain for instance list of ships 1661 to 1715 (1-3 rates). Author: J.C. Lemineur: 1996 ISBN 2906381225
Notes
For early ships "This is the name warship is a complex abbreviated word that arose in the 20s of the XX century. based on the phrase battleship. Krylov's etymological dictionary https://www.slovopedia.com/25/203/1650517.html
Aak- (Dutch. aak) - a single-masted flat-bottomed vessel,
used on the Lower Rhine to transport wine. By design - a small cargo ship of clinker construction with a semicircular hatch deck, flat-bottomed, without fore and sternposts. By means of the bow and stern pieces, the ship's bottom at both ends rose flat and obliquely starting from the waist. It did not have sideboards, carried a simple sprint sail and fore staysail. The short bowsprit made it possible to carry the jib, and usually the rigging of the Aaks was similar to that of coastal ships.
The oldest image of aak dates back to 1530.
Kolsche Aak, XVI.
Barque(Dutch. bark) - a three-five-masted large sea sailing vessel for the carriage of goods with direct sails on all masts, except for the stern (mizzen mast), which carries oblique sailing weapons. The largest barges that are still in service are Sedov (Murmansk), Kruzenshtern (Kaliningrad).
Bark "Sedov"
Barquentine(schooner-bark) - a three-five-masted (sometimes six-masted) sea sailing vessel with slanting sails on all masts except for the bow (foremast) carrying direct sails. Modern steel barkentines have a displacement of up to 5 thousand tons and are equipped with an auxiliary engine.
Brig- (English brig) - a two-masted vessel with a direct sailing armament of the foremast and mainmast, but with one oblique gaff sail on the mainsail - a mainsail-gaf-trisel. In the literature, especially fiction, the authors often call this sail a counter-mizzle, but it should be remembered that a ship with a brig's sailing armament does not have a mizzen mast, which means there are no accessories for this mast, although the functional load of the brig's mainsail-gaf-trysel is exactly the same the same as the counter-mizzen frigate.
Brigantine(Italian brigantino - schooner brig, brigantina - mizzen) - a light and high-speed vessel with the so-called mixed sailing weapons - straight sails on the front mast (fore mast) and oblique on the back (main mast). In the XVI-XIX centuries, two-masted brigantines, as a rule, were used by pirates (Italian brigante - robber, pirate). Modern brigantines are two-masted sailing ships with a foremast armed like a brig and a mainmast with slanting sails, like a schooner - a main trisel and a topsail. A brigantine with a Bermuda grotto apparently does not exist in our time, although there are references to the very fact of their existence.
Galleon- a large multi-deck sailing ship of the 16th-18th centuries with fairly strong artillery weapons, used as a military and commercial ship. The galleons were most famous as ships carrying Spanish treasures and in the battle of the Great Armada, which took place in 1588. The galleon is the most advanced type of sailing vessel that appeared in the 16th century. This type of sailing ship appeared during the evolution of caravels and caracques (naves) and was intended for long-distance ocean travel. 
The reduction of the forecastle superstructure and the lengthening of the hull led to an increase in stability and a decrease in wave resistance, resulting in a faster, seaworthy and maneuverable vessel. The galleon differed from early ships in that it was longer, lower and straighter, with a rectangular stern instead of a round one, and the presence of a latrine on the bow that protruded forward below the level of the forecastle. The displacement of the galleon was about 500 tons (although for the Manila galleons it reached up to 2000 tons). The first mention of it refers to 1535. In the future, the galleon becomes the basis of the fleets of the Spaniards and the British. The stem, strongly curved and elongated forward, had decorations and was shaped like a galley stem. A long bowsprit carried a sail - blind. The bow superstructure was pushed back and did not hang over the stem, like a carrack. The stern superstructure, high and narrow, was placed on a cut stern. The superstructure had several tiers, which housed the living quarters of officers and passengers. The strongly inclined stern had a transom above the load waterline. On the rear side, the aft wall of the superstructure was decorated with carvings and balconies. Galleons were used until the 18th century, when they gave way to more modern ships with full sailing equipment.
Dzhonka - (Malay djong, distorted Chinese chuan - ship), a wooden sailing cargo two-to-four-mast vessel of river and coastal sea navigation, common in Southeast Asia. In the era of the sailing fleet, D. were used for military purposes; goods are transported on modern D., often they are also used for housing. D. have a small draft, carrying capacity - up to 600 tons; characteristic features - very wide, almost rectangular in plan, raised bow and stern, quadrangular sails made of mats and bamboo slats.
Iol- (Dutch jol), a kind of two-masted sailing vessel with slanting sails. The position of the aft mast (behind the rudder axis) Iol differs from the ketch, in which the aft mast is in front of the rudder axis. Some large yachts and fishing vessels have Iola-type sailing equipment.
Caravel(Italian caravella) - 3-4 masted single-deck universal sailing wooden ship capable of ocean voyages. The caravel had a high bow and stern to resist ocean waves. The first two masts had straight sails, and the last one had a slanting sail. The caravel was used in the XIII-XVII centuries. In 1492, Columbus made a transatlantic voyage on 3 caravels. In addition to seaworthiness, caravels had a high carrying capacity.
Karakka(Spanish Carraca) - a large commercial or military sailing three-masted ship of the 16th-17th centuries. Displacement up to 2 thousand (usually 800-850) tons. Armament 30-40 guns. The ship could accommodate up to 1200 people. The ship had up to three decks and was designed for long ocean voyages. The karakka was heavy on the move and had poor maneuverability. The type of such a vessel was invented by the Genoese. 1519-1521 Carrack "Victoria" from the expedition of Magellan for the first time circumnavigated the world. For the first time, cannon ports were used on karakka and guns were placed in closed batteries.
Caracca "Victoria", recreated according to Spanish models of the 16th century
Ketch, ketch(English ketch), a two-masted sailing vessel with a small aft mast located ahead of the rudder axle. Sailing rigs of the K type (Bermuda or hafel) are used by some fishing vessels and large sports yachts.
flutes- a type of sailing vessel, which had the following distinctive features:
* The length of these ships was 4 - 6 or more times their width, which allowed them to sail quite steeply to the wind.
* Topmasts invented in 1570 were introduced into the rigging
* The height of the masts exceeded the length of the vessel, and the yards became shortened, which made it possible to make sails narrow and easy to maintain and reduce the overall number of the top crew.
The first flute was built in 1595 in the city of Horn, the center of shipbuilding in Holland, in the Zsider Zee. The sailing armament of the fore and mainmasts consisted of the fore and mainsails and the corresponding topsails, and later on large flutes and bramsails. On the mizzen mast, a straight sail of the cruysel was raised above the usual oblique sail. On the bowsprit they put a rectangular blind sail, sometimes a bom-blind. On flutes, a rudder appeared for the first time, which made it easier to shift the rudder. Flutes of the beginning of the 17th century were about 40 m long, about 6.5 m wide, had a draft of 3-3.5 m, and a carrying capacity of 350-400 tons. For self-defense, 10-20 cannons were installed on them. The crew consisted of 60 - 65 people. Vessels of this type were distinguished by good seaworthiness, high speed, large capacity and were used mainly as military transport ships. During the XVI-XVIII centuries, flutes occupied a dominant position on all seas.
Frigate- a military three-masted ship with full sailing weapons and one gun deck. Frigates were one of the most diverse classes of sailing ships in terms of characteristics. Frigates originate from light and fast ships used for raids in the English Channel since about the 17th century. With the growth of navies and their range, the characteristics 
Dunkirk frigates ceased to satisfy the admiralty, and the term began to be interpreted broadly, meaning, in fact, any light, fast ship capable of independent action. The classic frigates of the sailing age were created in France in the middle of the 18th century. These were medium-sized ships with a displacement of about 800 tons, armed with about two to three dozen 12-18 pounder guns on one gun deck. In the future, the displacement and power of the weapons of the frigates grew and by the time of the Napoleonic wars they had about 1000 tons of displacement and up to sixty 24-pound guns. The largest of them could be included in the battle line and were called battle frigates, like the battle cruisers of the 20th century. Like today's cruisers, frigates were the busiest type of ship in the sailing fleet. In peacetime, frigates, as a rule, were not laid up like battleships, but were used for patrol and cruising, anti-piracy, and crew training. The reliability and speed of frigates made them popular ships for explorers and travelers. For example, the French traveler Louis Antoine de Bougainville circumnavigated the world on the frigate "Boudez" (Angry) in 1766-1769, and the famous frigate "Pallada", on which Admiral E. V. Putyatin arrived in Japan in 1855 to establish diplomatic and trade relations, was built in 1832 as the personal yacht of Emperor Nicholas I. In the British Royal Navy, which had, according to many accounts, the largest number of frigates in the world, they had ranks from fourth to sixth.
Frigate "Holy Spirit"
Sloop(small corvette) (Dutch sloep, from sluipen - to slide) - a three-masted warship of the second half of the 18th - early 19th centuries with direct sailing weapons. Displacement up to 900 tons. Armament 10-28 guns. It was used for sentinel and messenger services and as a transport and expeditionary vessel. In addition, a type of sailing rig is called a sloop - one mast and two sails - front (staysail with Bermuda rigging, jib with direct rigging) and rear (respectively, mainsail and foresail).
Soviet sloop "Enterprise"
Schooner(eng. schooner) - a type of sailing vessel with 
at least two masts with slanting sails. According to the type of sailing armament, schooners are divided into gaff, Bermuda, staysail, topsail and brahmsail. Bramsel schooner differs from the topsail schooner by the presence of a bram-topmast and another additional direct sail - a bramsel. At the same time, in some cases, the topsail and topsail two-masted schooners (especially with a brief) can be confused with a brigantine. Regardless of the type of slanting sails (hafel or Bermuda), a schooner can also be a topsail (bramsel). The first ships with schooner rigging appeared in the 17th century in Holland and England, but schooners were widely used in America. They had two masts gaff sails and used for coastal shipping. At the end of the 19th century, the competition of steamships led to the need to reduce ship crews. Thanks to the simplicity of the sailing armament and the ease of control, it was the schooners that were able to withstand this struggle. Basically, two- and three-masted schooners were built, less often four-, five- and six-masted ones. And in 1902, in the city of Quincy (USA), the world's only seven-masted schooner "Thomas W. Lawson" was launched. "Thomas W. Lawson" was intended for the transport of coal. Each of the seven steel masts, 35 m high, weighed 20 tons. They were continued by 17-meter wooden topmasts. The work of sailors was facilitated by various mechanisms. The schooner, which did not have an engine, was equipped with a steam steering machine, steam winches, an electrical system and even a telephone network! After the First World War, when there were not enough merchant ships, the Americans, having excellent forests, built many wooden schooners of various sizes, with three to five masts.
Yacht(Dutch jacht, from jagen - to drive, to pursue) - originally a light, fast ship for transporting important people. Subsequently - any sailing, motor or motor-sail vessel intended for sports or tourist purposes. The most common are sailing yachts.
The first mention of sports sailing yachts dates back to the 17th century. Modern usage of the term Yacht motor yachts. Traditional yachts differed from work vessels mainly in their purpose - as a fast and comfortable means of transporting the rich. Almost all modern sailing yachts have an auxiliary motor (outboard motor) for maneuvering in port or moving at low speed in the absence of wind. 
Sailing yachts
Sailing yachts are divided into cruising, having a cabin, and designed for long trips and racing, pleasure and racing - for sailing in the coastal zone. According to the shape of the hull, keel yachts are distinguished, in which the bottom goes into a ballast keel (more precisely, a false keel), which increases the stability of the yacht and prevents it from drifting (drifting) when sailing, shallow-draught (dinghies), with a retractable keel (daggerboard) and compromises that have a ballast and retractable keel. There are two-hull yachts - catamarans and three-hull yachts - trimarans. Yachts are single- and multi-masted with different sailing equipment.
