Sailing
Wind-powered propulsion that shaped global trade and exploration.
Sailing is the use of wind acting on sails, wing sails, or kites to propel a craft over water, ice, or land. From prehistory until the late 19th century, sailing craft were the primary means of maritime trade, transportation, and exploration, enabling long-distance voyages and naval power. In the 21st century, most sailing is recreational or sport, including racing and cruising.
- field
- Maritime propulsion and navigation
- known_for
- Primary means of maritime trade and exploration until the late 19th century; recreational sport in the 21st century
- key_regions_of_invention
- Island Southeast Asia and the Mediterranean; possibly the Guayaquil River in Ecuador
Lore & Background
Sailing was probably independently invented in at least two regions: Island Southeast Asia and the Mediterranean (including the Nile and other Middle Eastern rivers). The geography of the Nile, with a northward current and prevailing wind blowing opposite, was conducive to early sail use. The same wind-and-current combination on the Guayaquil River in Ecuador may provide a third site of independent invention. By the Age of Discovery, square-rigged, multi-masted vessels guided by magnetic compass and celestial sightings undertook transoceanic voyages.
Reader's Guide
Sailing was a key means of propulsion that gave greater mobility than overland travel, increasing capacity for exploration, trade, transport, warfare, and fishing. Until the 19th century, water transport was faster, cheaper, and safer than land travel. For example, it cost less for a Roman sailing ship to carry grain the length of the Mediterranean than to move the same amount 15 miles by road. Sailing was slowly replaced by steam in the latter part of the 19th century, as steam allowed scheduled services at higher average speeds and better fuel economy. In the 21st century, most sailing is recreational or sport, relying on the physics of sails generating lift and drag, with the ability to sail both upwind and downwind courses.
Did You Know?
- Iron-hulled sailing ships were mainly built from the 1870s to 1900, when steamships began to outpace them economically.
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