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112-559: Eleven ships of the British Royal Navy have borne the name HMS Hector , named after the Trojan hero Hector in the Iliad . The first HMS  Hector  (1643) was a 22-gun ship sold in 1656. The second HMS  Hector  (1653) was a 30-gun ship sold in 1657. The third HMS  Hector  (1656) was a 22-gun ship sunk by

224-486: A conifer tree. From the 16th century, vessels were often built of a size requiring masts taller and thicker than could be made from single tree trunks. On these larger vessels, to achieve the required height, the masts were built from up to four sections (also called masts), known in order of rising height above the decks as the lower, top, topgallant and royal masts. Giving the lower sections sufficient thickness necessitated building them up from separate pieces of wood. Such

336-563: A full-rigged ship or a vessel may be described as "ship-rigged". Alongside this rig-specific usage, "ship" continued to have the more general meaning of a large sea-going vessel. Often the meaning can only be determined by the context. Some large vessels are traditionally called boats , notably submarines . Others include Great Lakes freighters , riverboats , and ferryboats , which may be designed for operation on inland or protected coastal waters. In most maritime traditions ships have individual names , and modern ships may belong to

448-433: A line of battle —coordinated movements of a fleet of warships to engage a line of ships in the enemy fleet. Carracks with a single cannon deck evolved into galleons with as many as two full cannon decks, which evolved into the man-of-war, and further into the ship of the line —designed for engaging the enemy in a line of battle. One side of a ship was expected to shoot broadsides against an enemy ship at close range. In

560-503: A prison ship in 1808. The eighth HMS  Hector  (1782) was a 74-gun third rate captured from France in April 1782 that foundered in October. The ninth HMS  Hector  (1862) was the first ship of her class of iron steam propelled battleships and launched in 1862, and scrapped in 1905. The tenth HMS  Hector  (1915) was a requisitioned merchant ship used as

672-458: A ship class often named after its first ship. In many documents the ship name is introduced with a ship prefix being an abbreviation of the ship class, for example "MS" (motor ship) or "SV" (sailing vessel), making it easier to distinguish a ship name from other individual names in a text. "Ship" (along with "nation") is an English word that has retained a female grammatical gender in some usages, which allows it sometimes to be referred to as

784-468: A square sail . They were steered by rudders hung on the sternpost . In contrast, the ship-building tradition of the Mediterranean was of carvel construction  – the fitting of the hull planking to the frames of the hull. Depending on the precise detail of this method, it may be characterised as either "frame first" or "frame-led". In either variant, during construction, the hull shape

896-519: A steering oar as a rudder to control direction. Starting in the 8th century in Denmark, Vikings were building clinker -constructed longships propelled by a single, square sail, when practical, and oars, when necessary. A related craft was the knarr , which plied the Baltic and North Seas , using primarily sail power. The windward edge of the sail was stiffened with a beitass , a pole that fitted into

1008-512: A "she" without being of female natural gender . For most of history, transport by ship – provided there is a feasible route – has generally been cheaper, safer and faster than making the same journey on land. Only the coming of railways in the middle of the 19th century and the growth of commercial aviation in the second half of the 20th century have changed this principle. This applied equally to sea crossings, coastal voyages and use of rivers and lakes. Examples of

1120-587: A combination of square and fore-and-aft sails, including the barque , barquentine , and brigantine . Early sailing ships were used for river and coastal waters in Ancient Egypt and the Mediterranean . The Austronesian peoples developed maritime technologies that included the fore-and-aft crab-claw sail and with catamaran and outrigger hull configurations, which enabled the Austronesian expansion into

1232-720: A crew headed by a sea captain , with deck officers and engine officers on larger vessels. Special-purpose vessels often have specialized crew if necessary, for example scientists aboard research vessels . Sailing ship A sailing ship is a sea-going vessel that uses sails mounted on masts to harness the power of wind and propel the vessel. There is a variety of sail plans that propel sailing ships , employing square-rigged or fore-and-aft sails. Some ships carry square sails on each mast—the brig and full-rigged ship , said to be "ship-rigged" when there are three or more masts. Others carry only fore-and-aft sails on each mast, for instance some schooners . Still others employ

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1344-577: A deadweight cargo and being sailed and steered." At this time, ships were developing in Asia in much the same way as Europe. Japan used defensive naval techniques in the Mongol invasions of Japan in 1281. It is likely that the Mongols of the time took advantage of both European and Asian shipbuilding techniques. During the 15th century, China's Ming dynasty assembled one of the largest and most powerful naval fleets in

1456-450: A destination, sailing vessels may have to change course and allow the wind to come from the opposite side in a procedure, called tacking , when the wind comes across the bow during the maneuver. When tacking, a square-rigged vessel's sails must be presented squarely to the wind and thus impede forward motion as they are swung around via the yardarms through the wind as controlled by the vessel's running rigging , using braces —adjusting

1568-530: A fast passage secured higher rates of freight or passenger fares. Whilst many clippers were ship rigged, the definition is not limited to any rig. Clippers were generally built for a specific trade: those in the California trade had to withstand the seas of Cape Horn, whilst Tea Clippers were designed for the lighter and contrary winds of the China Sea. All had fine lines, with a well streamlined hull and carried

1680-542: A few years, steam had replaced many of the sailing ships that had served this route. Even greater fuel efficiency was obtained with triple-expansion steam engines – but this had to wait for higher quality steel to be available to make boilers running at 125 pounds per square inch (860 kPa) in SS Aberdeen (1881) . By this point virtually all routes could be served competitively by steamships. Sail continued with some cargoes, where low costs were more important to

1792-534: A keel made from a dugout canoe. Their designs were unique, evolving from ancient rafts to the characteristic double-hulled, single-outrigger, and double-outrigger designs of Austronesian ships. In the 2nd century AD, people from the Indonesian archipelago already made large ships measuring over 50 m long and standing 4–7 m out of the water. They could carry 600–1000 people and 250–1000 ton cargo. These ships were known as kunlun bo or k'unlun po (崑崙舶, lit. "ship of

1904-554: A kite balloon ship in the Dardanelles campaign (1915), and returned to civil service in 1918. The eleventh HMS  Hector  (F45) was an armed merchant cruiser that served in World War II and was damaged beyond repair by Japanese aircraft in 1942. [REDACTED] [REDACTED] List of ships with the same or similar names This article includes a list of ships with the same or similar names. If an internal link for

2016-509: A large sail area. To get the best of this, a skilled and determined master was needed in command. During the Age of Sail, ships' hulls were under frequent attack by shipworm (which affected the structural strength of timbers), and barnacles and various marine weeds (which affected ship speed). Since before the common era, a variety of coatings had been applied to hulls to counter this effect, including pitch, wax, tar, oil, sulfur and arsenic. In

2128-465: A load capacity of 7,800 tonnes. Ships transitioned from all sail to all steam-power from the mid 19th century into the 20th. Five-masted Preussen used steam power for driving the winches , hoists and pumps , and could be manned by a crew of 48, compared with four-masted Kruzenshtern , which has a crew of 257. Coastal top-sail schooners with a crew as small as two managing the sail handling became an efficient way to carry bulk cargo, since only

2240-400: A section was known as a made mast , as opposed to sections formed from single pieces of timber, which were known as pole masts . Starting in the second half of the 19th century, masts were made of iron or steel. For ships with square sails the principal masts, given their standard names in bow to stern (front to back) order, are: Each rig is configured in a sail plan , appropriate to

2352-531: A ship can carry a boat, but not vice versa . A ship is likely to have a full-time crew assigned. A US Navy rule of thumb is that ships heel towards the outside of a sharp turn, whereas boats heel towards the inside because of the relative location of the center of mass versus the center of buoyancy . American and British 19th century maritime law distinguished "vessels" from other watercraft; ships and boats fall in one legal category, whereas open boats and rafts are not considered vessels. Starting around

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2464-522: A single propeller driven by a diesel or, less usually, gas turbine engine ., but until the mid-19th century they were predominantly square sail rigged. The fastest vessels may use pump-jet engines . Most commercial vessels such as container ships, have full hull-forms (higher Block coefficients ) to maximize cargo capacity. Merchant ships and fishing vessels are usually made of steel, although aluminum can be used on faster craft, and fiberglass or wood on smaller vessels. Commercial vessels generally have

2576-480: A spar on the upper edge. Large Austronesian trading ships with as many as four sails were recorded by Han dynasty (206 BC – 220 AD) scholars as the kunlun bo or K'un-lun po (崑崙舶, lit. "ship of the Kunlun people"). They were booked by Chinese Buddhist pilgrims for passage to Southern India and Sri Lanka. Bas reliefs of large Javanese outriggers ships with various configurations of tanja sails are also found in

2688-465: A specific ship led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended ship article, if one exists. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=HMS_Hector&oldid=1062002542 " Categories : Set index articles on ships Royal Navy ship names Hidden categories: Use dmy dates from January 2017 Use British English from January 2017 Articles with short description Short description

2800-428: Is determined by the frames, not the planking. The hull planks are not fastened to each other, only to the frames. These Mediterranean ships were rigged with lateen sails on one or more masts (depending on the size of the vessel) and were steered with a side rudder. They are often referred to as "round ships". Crucially, the Mediterranean and Northern European traditions merged. Cogs are known to have travelled to

2912-485: Is different from Wikidata All set index articles Ship The word ship has meant, depending on the era and the context, either just a large vessel or specifically a ship-rigged sailing ship with three or more masts, each of which is square-rigged . The earliest historical evidence of boats is found in Egypt during the 4th millennium BCE. In 2024, ships had a global cargo capacity of 2.4 billion tons, with

3024-526: Is the Late Bronze Age Uluburun shipwreck off the coast of Turkey, dating back to 1300 BC. By 1200 B.C., the Phoenicians were building large merchant ships. In world maritime history, declares Richard Woodman, they are recognized as "the first true seafarers, founding the art of pilotage, cabotage , and navigation" and the architects of "the first true ship, built of planks, capable of carrying

3136-411: Is unknown, but the largest number of jong deployed in an expedition is about 400 jongs, when Majapahit attacked Pasai, in 1350. Until the late 13th or early 14th century, European shipbuilding had two separate traditions. In Northern Europe clinker construction predominated. In this, the hull planks are fastened together in an overlapping manner. This is a "shell first" construction technique, with

3248-477: The Austronesian Expansion at around 3000 to 1500 BC. From Taiwan, they rapidly colonized the islands of Maritime Southeast Asia , then sailed further onwards to Micronesia , Island Melanesia , Polynesia , and Madagascar . Austronesian rigs were distinctive in that they had spars supporting both the upper and lower edges of the sails (and sometimes in between), in contrast to western rigs which only had

3360-631: The Borobudur temple, dating back to the 8th century CE. By the 10th century AD, the Song dynasty started building the first Chinese seafaring junks , which adopted several features of the K'un-lun po . The junk rig in particular, became associated with Chinese coast-hugging trading ships. Junks in China were constructed from teak with pegs and nails; they featured watertight compartments and acquired center-mounted tillers and rudders . These ships became

3472-495: The Dutch Navy in 1665. The fourth HMS  Hector  (1703) was a 44-gun fourth rate launched in 1703 and broken up in 1742. The fifth HMS  Hector  (1743) was another 44-gun fourth rate sold in 1762. The sixth HMS  Hector  (1763) was cutter purchased in 1763 and sold in 1773. The seventh HMS  Hector  (1774) was a 74-gun third rate launched at Deptford in 1774 and converted to

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3584-679: The Kunlun people") by the Chinese, and kolandiaphonta by the Greeks. They had 4–7 masts and were able to sail against the wind due to the usage of tanja sails . These ships may have reached as far as Ghana . In the 11th century, a new type of ship called djong or jong was recorded in Java and Bali . This type of ship was built using wooden dowels and treenails, unlike the kunlun bo which used vegetal fibres for lashings. In China, miniature models of ships that feature steering oars have been dated to

3696-715: The Red Sea as far as the myrrh -country." Sneferu 's ancient cedar wood ship Praise of the Two Lands is the first reference recorded (2613 BC) to a ship being referred to by name. The ancient Egyptians were perfectly at ease building sailboats. A remarkable example of their shipbuilding skills was the Khufu ship , a vessel 143 feet (44 m) in length entombed at the foot of the Great Pyramid of Giza around 2500 BC and found intact in 1954. The oldest discovered sea faring hulled boat

3808-752: The United Kingdom in the Falkland Islands and the United States in Iraq . The size of the world's fishing fleet is more difficult to estimate. The largest of these are counted as commercial vessels, but the smallest are legion. Fishing vessels can be found in most seaside villages in the world. As of 2004, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization estimated 4 million fishing vessels were operating worldwide. The same study estimated that

3920-589: The Warring States period (c. 475–221 BC). By the Han dynasty , a well kept naval fleet was an integral part of the military. Sternpost-mounted rudders started to appear on Chinese ship models starting in the 1st century AD. However, these early Chinese ships were fluvial (riverine), and were not seaworthy. The Chinese only acquired sea-going ship technologies in the 10th-century AD Song dynasty after contact with Southeast Asian k'un-lun po trading ships, leading to

4032-511: The after guard , who were stationed aft and tended the mainsail, spanker and manned the various sheets, controlling the position of the sails; the waisters , who were stationed midships and had menial duties attending the livestock, etc.; and the holders , who occupied the lower decks of the vessel and were responsible for the inner workings of the ship. He additionally named such positions as, boatswains, gunners, carpenters, coopers, painters, tinkers, stewards, cooks and various boys as functions on

4144-450: The atakebune . In Korea, in the early 15th century during the Joseon era, " Geobukseon "(거북선), was developed. The empire of Majapahit used large ships called jong , built in northern Java, for transporting troops overseas. The jongs were transport ships which could carry 100–2000 tons of cargo and 50–1000 people, 28.99–88.56 meter in length. The exact number of jong fielded by Majapahit

4256-518: The railway up to and past the early days of the Industrial Revolution . Flat-bottomed and flexible scow boats also became widely used for transporting small cargoes. Mercantile trade went hand-in-hand with exploration, self-financed by the commercial benefits of exploration. During the first half of the 18th century, the French Navy began to develop a new type of vessel known as a ship of

4368-411: The " Treasure Ship ", measured 400 feet (120 m) in length and 150 feet (46 m) in width, whereas modern research suggests that it was unlikely to have exceeded 70 metres (230 ft) in length. Sailing ships in the Mediterranean region date back to at least 3000 BC, when Egyptians used a bipod mast to support a single square sail on a vessel that mainly relied on multiple paddlers. Later

4480-545: The 11th century and was adopted by the Arab traders in the Indian Ocean. The compass spread to Europe by the late 12th or early 13th century. Use of the compass for navigation in the Indian Ocean was first mentioned in 1232. The Europeans used a "dry" compass, with a needle on a pivot. The compass card was also a European invention. At the beginning of the 15th century, the carrack was the most capable European ocean-going ship. It

4592-503: The 14th century, but did not become common at sea until they could be reloaded quickly enough to be reused in the same battle. The size of a ship required to carry a large number of cannon made oar-based propulsion impossible, and warships came to rely primarily on sails. The sailing man-of-war emerged during the 16th century. By the middle of the 17th century, warships were carrying increasing numbers of cannon on three decks. Naval tactics evolved to bring each ship's firepower to bear in

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4704-420: The 1870s to 1900, when steamships began to outpace them economically, due to their ability to keep a schedule regardless of the wind. Steel hulls also replaced iron hulls at around the same time. Even into the twentieth century, sailing ships could hold their own on transoceanic voyages such as Australia to Europe, since they did not require bunkerage for coal nor fresh water for steam, and they were faster than

4816-448: The 18th and 19th centuries with large, heavily armed battleships and merchant sailing ships . Sailing and steam ships coexisted for much of the 19th century. The steamers of the early part of the century had very poor fuel efficiency and were suitable only for a small number of roles, such as towing sailing ships and providing short route passenger and mail services. Both sailing and steam ships saw large technological improvements over

4928-444: The 18th century, the small and fast frigate and sloop-of-war —too small to stand in the line of battle—evolved to convoy trade, scout for enemy ships and blockade enemy coasts. The term "clipper" started to be used in the first quarter of the 19th century. It was applied to sailing vessels designed primarily for speed. Only a small proportion of sailing vessels could properly have the term applied to them. Early examples were

5040-525: The 19th century. Dana described the crew of the merchant brig, Pilgrim , as comprising six to eight common sailors, four specialist crew members (the steward, cook, carpenter and sailmaker), and three officers: the captain , the first mate and the second mate . He contrasted the American crew complement with that of other nations on whose similarly sized ships the crew might number as many as 30. Larger merchant vessels had larger crews. Melville described

5152-473: The Age of Sail also saw the development of large fleets of well-armed warships . The many steps of technological development of steamships during the 19th century provided slowly increasing competition for sailing ships — initially only on short routes where high prices could be charged. By the 1880s, ships with triple-expansion steam engines had the fuel efficiency to compete with sail on all major routes — and with scheduled sailings that were not affected by

5264-452: The Americas with Christopher Columbus , and around the world under Ferdinand Magellan . Sailing ships became longer and faster over time, with ship-rigged vessels carrying taller masts with more square sails. Other sail plans emerged, as well, that had just fore-and-aft sails ( schooners ), or a mixture of the two ( brigantines , barques and barquentines ). Cannons were introduced in

5376-881: The Great Lakes, "topping off" when they have exited the Seaway. Similarly, the largest lakers are confined to the Upper Lakes ( Superior , Michigan , Huron , Erie ) because they are too large to use the Seaway locks, beginning at the Welland Canal that bypasses the Niagara River . Since the freshwater lakes are less corrosive to ships than the salt water of the oceans, lakers tend to last much longer than ocean freighters. Lakers older than 50 years are not unusual, and as of 2005, all were over 20 years of age. SS  St. Marys Challenger , built in 1906 as William P Snyder ,

5488-609: The Lakes. These vessels are traditionally called boats, not ships. Visiting ocean-going vessels are called "salties". Because of their additional beam , very large salties are never seen inland of the Saint Lawrence Seaway . Because the smallest of the Soo Locks is larger than any Seaway lock, salties that can pass through the Seaway may travel anywhere in the Great Lakes. Because of their deeper draft, salties may accept partial loads on

5600-463: The Mediterranean in the 12th and 13th centuries. Some aspects of their designs were being copied by Mediterranean ship-builders early in the 14th century. Iconography shows square sails being used on the mainmast but a lateen on the mizzen, and a sternpost hung rudder replacing the side rudder. The name for this type of vessel was "coche" or, for a larger example, "carrack". Some of these new Mediterranean types travelled to Northern European waters and, in

5712-480: The Northern European tradition is the bottom planking of the cog . Here, the hull planks are not joined to each other and are laid flush (not overlapped). They are held together by fastening to the frames but this is done after the shaping and fitting of these planks. Therefore, this is another case of a "shell first" construction technique. These Northern European ships were rigged with a single mast setting

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5824-631: The United Kingdom and China after the East India Company lost its monopoly in 1834. The primary cargo was tea, and sailing ships, particularly tea clippers, dominated this long distance route until the development of fuel efficient steamships coincided with the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869. Other clippers worked on the Australian immigrant routes or, in smaller quantities, in any role where

5936-471: The basis for the development of Chinese warships during the Mongol Yuan dynasty , and were used in the unsuccessful Mongol invasions of Japan and Java . The Ming dynasty (1368–1644) saw the use of junks as long-distance trading vessels. Chinese Admiral Zheng He reportedly sailed to India, Arabia, and southern Africa on a trade and diplomatic mission. Literary lore suggests that his largest vessel,

6048-404: The bow. By the nineteenth century, ships were built with reference to a half model, made from wooden layers that were pinned together. Each layer could be scaled to the actual size of the vessel in order to lay out its hull structure, starting with the keel and leading to the ship's ribs. The ribs were pieced together from curved elements, called futtocks and tied in place until the installation of

6160-480: The century. Ultimately the two large stepwise improvements in fuel efficiency of compound and then triple-expansion steam engines made the steamship, by the 1880s, able to compete in the vast majority of trades. Commercial sail still continued into the 20th century, with the last ceasing to trade by c.  1960 . Early sea-going sailing vessels were used by the Austronesian peoples . The invention of catamarans , outriggers , and crab claw sails enabled

6272-509: The clew of a square sail forward. The crew of a sailing ship is divided between officers (the captain and his subordinates) and seamen or ordinary hands . An able seaman was expected to "hand, reef, and steer" (handle the lines and other equipment, reef the sails, and steer the vessel). The crew is organized to stand watch —the oversight of the ship for a period—typically four hours each. Richard Henry Dana Jr. and Herman Melville each had personal experience aboard sailing vessels of

6384-539: The consequences of this include the large grain trade in the Mediterranean during the classical period . Cities such as Rome were totally reliant on the delivery by sailing and human powered (oars) ships of the large amounts of grain needed. It has been estimated that it cost less for a sailing ship of the Roman Empire to carry grain the length of the Mediterranean than to move the same amount 15 miles by road. Rome consumed about 150,000 tons of Egyptian grain each year over

6496-421: The crew complement of the frigate warship, United States , as about 500—including officers, enlisted personnel and 50 Marines. The crew was divided into the starboard and larboard watches. It was also divided into three tops , bands of crew responsible for setting sails on the three masts; a band of sheet-anchor men , whose station was forward and whose job was to tend the fore-yard, anchors and forward sails;

6608-604: The decline of ocean liners as air travel increased. The rise of container ships from the 1960s onwards dramatically changed the nature of commercial merchant shipping, as containerization led to larger ship sizes, dedicated container routes and the decline of general cargo vessels as well as tramp steaming. The late 20th century also saw a rise in cruise ships for tourism around the world. In 2016, there were more than 49,000 merchant ships , totaling almost 1.8 billion deadweight tons . Of these 28% were oil tankers , 43% were bulk carriers , and 13% were container ships . By 2019,

6720-458: The development of the junks . The earliest historical evidence of boats is found in Egypt during the 4th millennium BCE The Greek historian and geographer Agatharchides had documented ship-faring among the early Egyptians : "During the prosperous period of the Old Kingdom , between the 30th and 25th centuries BC , the river -routes were kept in order, and Egyptian ships sailed

6832-611: The early 19th century, until the advent of iron and steel hulls. Iron-hulled sailing ships , often referred to as " windjammers " or " tall ships ", represented the final evolution of sailing ships at the end of the Age of Sail. They were built to carry bulk cargo for long distances in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. They were the largest of merchant sailing ships, with three to five masts and square sails, as well as other sail plans . They carried lumber , guano , grain or ore between continents. Later examples had steel hulls. Iron-hulled sailing ships were mainly built from

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6944-421: The early steamers, which usually could barely make 8 knots (15 km/h). The four-masted, iron-hulled ship, introduced in 1875 with the full-rigged County of Peebles , represented an especially efficient configuration that prolonged the competitiveness of sail against steam in the later part of the 19th century. The largest example of such ships was the five-masted, full-rigged ship Preussen , which had

7056-506: The first three centuries AD. Until recently, it was generally the case that a ship represented the most advanced representation of the technology that any society could achieve. The earliest attestations of ships in maritime transport in Mesopotamia are model ships , which date back to the 4th millennium BC. In archaic texts in Uruk , Sumer , the ideogram for "ship" is attested, but in

7168-623: The first two decades of the 15th century, a few were captured by the English, two of which had previously been under charter to the French. The two-masted rig started to be copied immediately, but at this stage on a clinker hull. The adoption of carvel hulls had to wait until sufficient shipwrights with appropriate skills could be hired, but by late in the 1430s, there were instances of carvel ships being built in Northern Europe, and in increasing numbers over

7280-419: The fore and aft angle of each yardarm around the mast—and sheets attached to the clews (bottom corners) of each sail to control the sail's angle to the wind. The procedure is to turn the vessel into the wind with the hind-most fore-and-aft sail (the spanker ), pulled to windward to help turn the ship through the eye of the wind. Once the ship has come about, all the sails are adjusted to align properly with

7392-562: The fore-sails required tending while tacking and steam-driven machinery was often available for raising the sails and the anchor . In the 20th century, the DynaRig allowed central, automated control of all sails in a manner that obviates the need for sending crew aloft. This was developed in the 1960s in Germany as a low-carbon footprint propulsion alternative for commercial ships. The rig automatically sets and reefs sails; its mast rotates to align

7504-427: The hull shape being defined by the shaping and fitting of the hull planks. The reinforcing frame s (or ribs) are fitted after the planks. Clinker construction in this era usually used planks that were cleft (split radially from the log) and could be made thinner and stronger per unit of thickness than the sawn logs, thanks to preserving the radial integrity of the grain. An exception to clinker construction in

7616-426: The implementation of center-mounted rudders, controlled with a tiller. Technological advancements that were important to the Age of Discovery in the 15th century were the adoption of the magnetic compass and advances in ship design. The compass was an addition to the ancient method of navigation based on sightings of the sun and stars. The compass was invented by Chinese. It had been used for navigation in China by

7728-568: The inscriptions of the kings of Lagash , ships were first mentioned in connection to maritime trade and naval warfare at around 2500–2350 BCE. Austronesian peoples originated in what is now Taiwan . From here, they took part in the Austronesian Expansion . Their distinctive maritime technology was integral to this movement and included catamarans and outriggers . It has been suggested that they had sails some time before 2000 BCE. Their crab claw sails enabled them to sail for vast distances in open ocean. From Taiwan, they rapidly colonized

7840-403: The invention of an effective stern gland for the propeller shaft, worked better than paddle wheels . Higher boiler pressures of 60 pounds per square inch (410 kPa) powering compound engines, were introduced in 1865, making long-distance steam cargo vessels commercially viable on the route from England to China – even before the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869. Within

7952-562: The islands of Maritime Southeast Asia , then sailed further onwards to Micronesia , Island Melanesia , Polynesia , and Madagascar , eventually colonizing a territory spanning half the globe. Austronesian sails were made from woven leaves, usually from pandan plants. These were complemented by paddlers, who usually positioned themselves on platforms on the outriggers in the larger boats. Austronesian ships ranged in complexity from simple dugout canoes with outriggers or lashed together to large edge-pegged plank-built boats built around

8064-611: The islands of the Indo-Pacific . This expansion originated in Taiwan c.  3000 BC and propagated through Island Southeast Asia , reaching Near Oceania c.  1500 BC, Hawaii c.  900 AD, and New Zealand c.  1200 AD. The maritime trading network in the Indo-Pacific dates from at least 1500 BC. Later developments in Asia produced the junk and dhow —vessels that incorporated features unknown in Europe at

8176-468: The large-diameter line run around them, whilst multiple holes allowed smaller line— lanyard —to pass multiple times between the two and thereby allow tensioning of the shroud. After the mid-19th century square-rigged vessels were equipped with iron wire standing rigging, which was superseded with steel wire in the late 19th century. Halyards , used to raise and lower the yards, are the primary supporting lines. In addition, square rigs have lines that lift

8288-478: The line , featuring seventy-four guns. This type of ship became the backbone of all European fighting fleets. These ships were 56 metres (184 ft) long and their construction required 2,800 oak trees and 40 kilometres (25 mi) of rope; they carried a crew of about 800 sailors and soldiers. During the 19th century the Royal Navy enforced a ban on the slave trade , acted to suppress piracy , and continued to map

8400-525: The lower corner of the sail, when sailing close to the wind. India's maritime history began during the 3rd millennium BCE when inhabitants of the Indus Valley initiated maritime trading contact with Mesopotamia. Indian kingdoms such as the Kalinga from as early as 2nd century CE are believed to have had sailing ships. One of the earliest instances of documented evidence of Indian sailing ship building comes from

8512-401: The man-of-war. 18-19th century ships of the line had a complement as high as 850. Handling a sailing ship requires management of its sails to power—but not overpower—the ship and navigation to guide the ship, both at sea and in and out of harbors. Key elements of sailing a ship are setting the right amount of sail to generate maximum power without endangering the ship, adjusting the sails to

8624-543: The mast became a single pole, and paddles were supplanted with oars. Such vessels plied both the Nile and the Mediterranean coast. The Minoan civilization of Crete may have been the world's first thalassocracy brought to prominence by sailing vessels dating to before 1800 BC (Middle Minoan IIB). Between 1000 BC and 400 AD, the Phoenicians , Greeks and Romans developed ships that were powered by square sails, sometimes with oars to supplement their capabilities. Such vessels used

8736-399: The mid 18th century copper sheathing was developed as a defense against such bottom fouling. After coping with problems of galvanic deterioration of metal hull fasteners, sacrificial anodes were developed, which were designed to corrode, instead of the hull fasteners. The practice became widespread on naval vessels, starting in the late 18th century, and on merchant vessels, starting in

8848-431: The middle of the 18th century, sailing vessels started to be categorised by their type of rig . (Previously they were described by their hull type – for example pink , cat .) Alongside the other rig types such as schooner and brig , the term "ship" referred to the rig type. In this sense, a ship is a vessel with three or more masts, all of which are square-rigged . For clarity, this may be referred to as

8960-538: The mural of three-masted ship in the Ajanta caves that date back to 400-500 CE. The Indian Ocean was the venue for increasing trade between India and Africa between 1200 and 1500. The vessels employed would be classified as dhows with lateen rigs . During this interval such vessels grew in capacity from 100 to 400 tonnes . Dhows were often built with teak planks from India and Southeast Asia, sewn together with coconut husk fiber—no nails were employed. This period also saw

9072-418: The new tack. Because square-rigger masts are more strongly braced from behind than from ahead, tacking is a dangerous procedure in strong winds; the ship may lose forward momentum (become caught in stays ) and the rigging may fail from the wind coming from ahead. The ship may also lose momentum at wind speeds of less than 10 knots (19 km/h). Under these conditions, the choice may be to wear ship —to turn

9184-498: The other to form the whole, from bottom to top: the lower mast , top mast , and topgallant mast . This construction relied heavily on support by a complex array of stays and shrouds. Each stay in either the fore-and-aft or athwartships direction had a corresponding one in the opposite direction providing counter-tension. Fore-and-aft the system of tensioning started with the stays that were anchored in front each mast. Shrouds were tensioned by pairs of deadeyes , circular blocks that had

9296-407: The planking. Typically, planking was caulked with a tar-impregnated yarn made from manila or hemp to make the planking watertight. Starting in the mid-19th century, iron was used first for the hull structure and later for its watertight sheathing. Until the mid-19th century all vessels' masts were made of wood formed from a single or several pieces of timber which typically consisted of the trunk of

9408-466: The principles of naval architecture that require same structural components, their classification is based on their function such as that suggested by Paulet and Presles, which requires modification of the components. The categories accepted in general by naval architects are: Some of these are discussed in the following sections. Freshwater shipping may occur on lakes, rivers and canals. Ships designed for those body of waters may be specially adapted to

9520-528: The quest for more efficient ships, the end of long running and wasteful maritime conflicts, and the increased financial capacity of industrial powers created more specialized ships and other maritime vessels. Ship types built for entirely new functions that appeared by the 20th century included research ships , offshore support vessels (OSVs), Floating production storage and offloading (FPSOs), Pipe and cable laying ships , drill ships and Survey vessels . The late 20th century saw changes to ships that included

9632-506: The rest of the century. This hybridisation of Mediterranean and Northern European ship types created the full-rigged ship , a three-masted vessel with a square-rigged foremast and mainmast and a lateen sail on the mizzen. This provided most of the ships used in the Age of Discovery , being able to carry sufficient stores for a long voyage and with a rig suited to the open ocean. Over the next four hundred years, steady evolution and development, from

9744-427: The sail or the yard from which it is suspended that include: brails , buntlines , lifts and leechlines. Bowlines and clew lines shape a square sail. To adjust the angle of the sail to wind braces are used to adjust the fore and aft angle of a yard of a square sail, while sheets attach to the clews (bottom corners) of a sail to control the sail's angle to the wind. Sheets run aft, whereas tacks are used to haul

9856-410: The sail up and secure it with lines, called reef points . Dana spoke of the hardships of sail handling during high wind and rain or with ice covering the ship and its rigging. Sailing vessels cannot sail directly into the wind. Instead, square-riggers must sail a course that is between 60° and 70° away from the wind direction and fore-and aft vessels can typically sail no closer than 45°. To reach

9968-430: The sail, the crew uses clewlines , haul up the clews and buntlines to haul up the middle of sail up; when lowered, lifts support each yard. In strong winds, the crew is directed to reduce the number of sails or, alternatively, the amount of each given sail that is presented to the wind by a process called reefing . To pull the sail up, seamen on the yardarm pull on reef tackles , attached to reef cringles , to pull

10080-441: The sails with the wind. The sailing yachts Maltese Falcon and Black Pearl employ the rig. In the 21st century, due to concern about climate change and the possibility of cost savings, companies explored using wind-power to reduce heavy fuel needs on large containerized cargo ships . By 2023, around 30 ships were using sails or attached kites, with the number expected to grow. The following year, The Economist wrote that

10192-588: The schooners and brigantines, called Baltimore clippers , used for blockade running or as privateers in the War of 1812 and afterwards for smuggling opium or illegally transporting slaves . Larger clippers, usually ship or barque rigged and with a different hull design, were built for the California trade (from east coast USA ports to San Francisco) after gold was discovered in 1848 – the associated ship-building boom lasted until 1854. Clippers were built for trade between

10304-415: The ship away from the wind and around 240° onto the next tack (60° off the wind). A fore-and-aft rig permits the wind to flow past the sail, as the craft head through the eye of the wind. Most rigs pivot around a stay or the mast, while this occurs. For a jib , the old leeward sheet is released as the craft heads through the wind and the old windward sheet is tightened as the new leeward sheet to allow

10416-520: The shipper than a predictable and rapid journey time. The Second Industrial Revolution in particular led to new mechanical methods of propulsion , and the ability to construct ships from metal triggered an explosion in ship design. These led to the development of long-distance commercial ships and Ocean liners , as well as technological changes including the Marine steam engine , screw propellers, triple expansion engines and others. Factors included

10528-587: The size of contemporary carracks. Before the adoption of carvel construction, the increasing size of clinker-built vessels came to necessitate internal framing of their hulls for strength. Parallel to the development of warships, ships in service of marine fishery and trade also developed in the period between antiquity and the Renaissance. Maritime trade was driven by the development of shipping companies with significant financial resources. Canal barges, towed by draft animals on an adjacent towpath , contended with

10640-432: The size of the sailing craft. Both square-rigged and fore-and-aft rigged vessels have been built with a wide range of configurations for single and multiple masts. Types of sail that can be part of a sail plan can be broadly classed by how they are attached to the sailing craft: Sailing ships have standing rigging to support the masts and running rigging to raise the sails and control their ability to draw power from

10752-500: The starting point of the carrack , gave types such as the galleon , fluit , East Indiaman , ordinary cargo ships, warships, clippers and many more, all based on this three-masted square-rigged type. The transition from clinker to carvel construction facilitated the use of gun ports. As vessels became larger, clinker construction became less practical because of the difficulty of finding commensurately large logs from which to cleave planks. Nonetheless, some clinker vessels approached

10864-530: The technology was at an inflection point as it moved from trials and testing towards adoption by the industry. Every sailing ship has a sail plan that is adapted to the purpose of the vessel and the ability of the crew; each has a hull , rigging and masts to hold up the sails that use the wind to power the ship; the masts are supported by standing rigging and the sails are adjusted by running rigging . Hull shapes for sailing ships evolved from being relatively short and blunt to being longer and finer at

10976-405: The three largest classes being ships carrying dry bulk (43%), oil tankers (28%) and container ships (14%). Ships are typically larger than boats, but there is no universally accepted distinction between the two. Ships generally can remain at sea for longer periods of time than boats. A legal definition of ship from Indian case law is a vessel that carries goods by sea. A common notion is that

11088-457: The time. European sailing ships with predominantly square rigs became prevalent during the Age of Discovery (15th to 17th centuries), when they crossed oceans between continents and around the world. In the European Age of Sail , a full-rigged ship was one with a bowsprit and three masts, each of which consists of a lower, top, and topgallant mast. Most sailing ships were merchantmen , but

11200-506: The widths and depths of specific waterways. Examples of freshwater waterways that are navigable in part by large vessels include the Danube , Mississippi , Rhine , Yangtze and Amazon Rivers, and the Great Lakes . Lake freighters , also called lakers, are cargo vessels that ply the Great Lakes . The most well-known is SS  Edmund Fitzgerald , the latest major vessel to be wrecked on

11312-404: The wind direction on the course sailed, and changing tack to bring the wind from one side of the vessel to the other. A sailing ship crew manages the running rigging of each square sail. Each sail has two sheets that control its lower corners, two braces that control the angle of the yard, two clewlines, four buntlines and two reef tackles. All these lines must be manned as the sail is deployed and

11424-472: The wind direction. However, commercial sailing vessels could still be found working into the 20th century, although in reducing numbers and only in certain trades. By the time of the Age of Discovery —starting in the 15th century—square-rigged, multi-masted vessels were the norm and were guided by navigation techniques that included the magnetic compass and making sightings of the sun and stars that allowed transoceanic voyages. The Age of Sail reached its peak in

11536-435: The wind. The running rigging has three main roles, to support the sail structure, to shape the sail and to adjust its angle to the wind. Square-rigged vessels require more controlling lines than fore-and-aft rigged ones. Sailing ships prior to the mid-19th century used wood masts with hemp-fiber standing rigging. As rigs became taller by the end of the 19th century, masts relied more heavily on successive spars, stepped one atop

11648-510: The world for the diplomatic and power projection voyages of Zheng He . Elsewhere in Japan in the 15th century, one of the world's first iron-clads, "Tekkōsen" ( 鉄甲船 ), literally meaning "iron ships", was also developed. In Japan, during the Sengoku era from the 15th century to 17th century, the great struggle for feudal supremacy was fought, in part, by coastal fleets of several hundred boats, including

11760-490: The world's 29 million fishermen caught 85,800,000 tonnes (84,400,000 long tons ; 94,600,000 short tons ) of fish and shellfish that year. In 2023, the number of ships globally grew by 3.4%. In 2024, new ships are increasingly being built with alternative fuel capability to increase sustainability and reduce carbon emissions. Alternative ship fuels include LNG , LPG , methanol , biofuel , ammonia and hydrogen among others. Because ships are constructed using

11872-419: The world's fleet included 51,684 commercial vessels with gross tonnage of more than 1,000 tons , totaling 1.96 billion tons. Such ships carried 11 billion tons of cargo in 2018, a sum that grew by 2.7% over the previous year. In terms of tonnage, 29% of ships were tankers , 43% are bulk carriers , 13% container ships and 15% were other types. In 2008, there were 1,240 warships operating in

11984-496: The world, not counting small vessels such as patrol boats . The United States accounted for 3 million tons worth of these vessels, Russia 1.35 million tons, the United Kingdom 504,660 tons and China 402,830 tons. The 20th century saw many naval engagements during the two world wars , the Cold War , and the rise to power of naval forces of the two blocs. The world's major powers have recently used their naval power in cases such as

12096-691: The world. Ships and their owners grew with the 19th century Industrial Revolution across Europe and North America, leading to increased numbers of oceangoing ships, as well as other coastal and canal based vessels. Through more than half of the 19th century and into the early years of the 20th century, steam ships coexisted with sailing vessels. Initially, steam was only viable on shorter routes, typically transporting passengers who could afford higher fares and mail. Steam went through many developmental steps that gave greater fuel efficiency, thereby increasingly making steamships commercially competitive with sail. Screw propulsion, which relied, among other things, on

12208-442: The yard raised. They use a halyard to raise each yard and its sail; then they pull or ease the braces to set the angle of the yard across the vessel; they pull on sheets to haul lower corners of the sail, clews , out to yard below. Under way, the crew manages reef tackles , haul leeches , reef points , to manage the size and angle of the sail; bowlines pull the leading edge of the sail ( leech ) taut when close hauled. When furling

12320-405: Was carvel-built and large enough to be stable in heavy seas. It was capable of carrying a large cargo and the provisions needed for very long voyages. Later carracks were square-rigged on the foremast and mainmast and lateen-rigged on the mizzenmast . They had a high rounded stern with large aftcastle , forecastle and bowsprit at the stem. As the predecessor of the galleon , the carrack

12432-494: Was one of the most influential ship designs in history; while ships became more specialized in the following centuries, the basic design remained unchanged throughout this period. Ships of this era were only able to sail approximately 70° into the wind and tacked from one side to the other across the wind with difficulty, which made it challenging to avoid shipwrecks when near shores or shoals during storms. Nonetheless, such vessels reached India around Africa with Vasco da Gama ,

12544-1097: Was the oldest laker still working on the Lakes until its conversion into a barge starting in 2013. Similarly, E.M. Ford , built in 1898 as Presque Isle , was sailing the lakes 98 years later in 1996. As of 2007 E.M. Ford was still afloat as a stationary transfer vessel at a riverside cement silo in Saginaw, Michigan . Merchant ships are ships used for commercial purposes and can be divided into four broad categories: fishing vessels , cargo ships , passenger ships , and special-purpose ships. The UNCTAD review of maritime transport categorizes ships as: oil tankers, bulk (and combination) carriers, general cargo ships, container ships, and "other ships", which includes " liquefied petroleum gas carriers, liquefied natural gas carriers, parcel (chemical) tankers, specialized tankers, reefers , offshore supply, tugs, dredgers , cruise , ferries , other non-cargo". General cargo ships include "multi-purpose and project vessels and roll-on/roll-off cargo". Modern commercial vessels are typically powered by

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