Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 18.djvu/116

SHIP. particularly in line-of-battle ships. Frigates and many merchant vessels were somewhat sharper. The full bows and relatively great width of beam, while they reduced the speed, gave great handiness or manœuvring power—a most necessary requisite in battle and in narrow channels or crowded harbors. The advent of steam changed the conditions materially. Sailing vessels were no longer used as fighting ships, while in the merchant service they had to compete with steamers. Furthermore, in entering or leaving a port and usually in passing through narrow channels, the services of tugs were available. These conditions led to changes in design which culminated in the celebrated clipper ships a little after the middle of the last century. These vessels were intended for long voyages and frequently made such fast passages as to rival the best steamer speeds. The famous Dreadnaught made the passage from Liverpool to New York in 13 days 8 hours and the Red Jacket in 13 days 11 hours and 25 minutes. The ordinary fast mail steamer passage was then about ten days.

The modern sailing ships are built on lines very similar to those of the old clippers and their average speed under sail is not greatly inferior, but they are designed for greater proportional carrying capacity, and the numerous small and light sails, which added slightly to the speed and a good deal to the cost of maintenance, are rarely fitted. Even in sailing ships steam is now very commonly provided to facilitate handling cargo, hoisting the sails, operating the steering engine, etc.

In the coasting trade of the United States large (q.v.) have almost wholly displaced square-rigged vessels. The large schooners are greater in size than most ships of a half century ago, while the largest ones have seven masts and exceed in length (and probably in carrying capacity) any of the old square-riggers.

The primary advantage of the schooner over its square-rigged rival is the ease with which its sails are handled, whereby the necessary number of men in the crew is greatly reduced. Furthermore, the schooner lies somewhat closer to the wind than the square-rigged ship. The schooner spreads less canvas than the ship of the same size, and is therefore, as a rule, not so speedy a sailer.

The sailing ship was a development of the (q.v.), and it was not until the eighteenth century that it attained a form and character suitable to ocean navigation under all conditions of weather. The earlier types were often profusely ornamented and carefully made, but clumsy, slow, and unseaworthy. The sterns, and in some cases the bows, were built high in the air. These awkward excrescences were gradually reduced in height until they took final shape in the poop and topgallant forecastle so common in steamers of the present day. Sailing ships are not now usually built with raised poop or forecastle, as the difference in level of the parts of the deck interferes with ease of handling the sails. In their place deck houses are often fitted. These do not extend the full width of the upper deck, in order to permit of hauling ropes in the gangways abreast them.

The reform in design of the rigging and sails was simultaneous with the improvement in the

hull, the poorly set and absurdly placed sails of tho fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth centuries giving way to the precisely planned sails and rigging of the eighteenth and nineteenth. The general adoption of three masts for large square-rigged vessels was due to the relation of length to beam. So long as this ratio does not exceed 6 to 1, three masts are found to be adequate, though as the latter figure is approached the addition of a fourth mast is not unsuitable. Probably no sailing ship of the eighteenth century had a length greater than five times her beam, and in many the proportion was not much beyond three to one.

A very large majority of the sailing ships of the world are built of wood, and doubtless for many years this will be so. But iron ships are more durable, require less expensive repairs, and carry more cargo on the same exterior dimensions; they are therefore beginning to supplant the wood-built ship. The lower masts, and in some cases the upper masts and yards, are of iron, while wire has almost entirely displaced hemp for standing (q.v.). The sails, masts, and spars of vessels are arranged in many different ways—in nautical language, the vessels have different rigs—and each particular style of arrangement has its own distinguishing name. The more common forms are ship-rig, bark-rig, barkentine-rig, sloop-rig, yawl-rig, cutter-rig, and cat-rig. A sailing ship is ship-rigged, of course, but a steamer may be ship-rigged, bark-rigged, brig-rigged, etc. Each principal style of rig has some variations; thus we have four-masted schooners, topsail schooners, etc. The accompanying plate shows in detail the rigging of a modern ship.

For further information, see ; ; and.  SHIP,. The first real armored vessels were floating batteries used at the siege of Gibraltar in 1782. The first proposal to build an armored steam vessel seems to have been made by Colonel John Stevens of New Jersey, who, in 1812, prepared plans for such a craft. In 1841 his son, R. L. Stevens, made proposals to the United States Navy Department to build an ironclad steamer of high speed in which all of the machinery, including the propellers, should be below water. This vessel was not built on the original designs, as it was considered desirable to increase the thickness of armor to be  
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