eli5 Why some sailing ships have multiple square sails like Clipper? Why not have one continuous sail from top to bottom like Korean Turtle Ship?
In: 4
The turtle ships primary mode of propulsion was rowing. The square sail were only used on rare occasions when they were sailing with the wind. Medieval European ships also had the same arrangement of sails and would also primarily use ores for propulsion or have to wait for favorable winds. The concept of tacking and jibbing as a way to sail fast in any direction was not used much until the renaissance and even then it had limited use for war ship and inland ships (turtle ships being both) as maneuvering in close quarters were significantly harder using sails alone. These types of sailing techniques requires you to be able to turn the sails so they face along the hull of the ship, which is what the clippers primarily is designed for. In addition it is harder to find masts that can support the forces of the sail so you need to use more masts to distribute the forces. The turtle ships were able to use huge old trees for their masts but that does not scale to a large industrial mercent marine like the clippers were serving.
Latest Answers