A question about sailing upwind or crosswind in a three-masted, square-rigged sailing ship.

'Tis my understanding, purely through talking to nautical types, that square sails would have to be lowered and tied, since they can't be angled, and the jib (front triangular sheet) would be pulled to port or starboard so the wind blowing across it produces drag that pulls the ship forward, while the tiller is turned in the opposite direction from the jib to increase the effect.

Then again it's been a while since I heard the explanation, which was actually hard to believe at the time.

Added: the conversations took place here! I could be in the audience pics!
http://www.tallshipsracesgreenock.com/tall-ships-greenock-1999.html

-Derek

The main mast spars are capable of angling slightly as they are not fixed, but not as drastically as the forward jib sails. Also, some ships had a aft jib as well. It really depends on the ship style.

The thing is, the crew is constantly looking for changes and react to these changes in wind and current. They watch clouds and waves, and even the birds following them.

Sometimes, there is no wind and the ship will ride the current. Sometimes, the ship just had to wait it out until it caught a breeze and then they would go with the breeze, even if in the wrong direction, until they could swing back around.

In storms, one of the problems is waves of course, but also the wind comes at the ships from different directions. The sails have to be furled and stowed or be ripped apart or drive the ship over...

If...

you pop down to genres Historical you will find a stickie at the top of the board called Resources by Era.

It's a huge resource now so trawl carefully down to the title sailing Ships and you will find urls and books, some of which have all the info you need.

Square riggers can't sail as close to the wind as a fore-and-aft rig, but they can go pretty well up to about 70 degrees off the wind. See this link for a diagram.

http://sailing-ships.oktett.net/square-rigging.html

Absolutely they can be trimmed for variations in wind. Sailing ships were amazingly complex machines. The yards can be angled, plus cocked (one end higher than the other), plus the sails can be furled.

Clipper ships had big crews to work the sails constantly because fast passages meant more profits for the owners. Many shipmasters were known to be hard drivers, carrying lots of sail even in Cape Horn conditions.

Ah!

Thank you for the comment re urls not working. I've remove the two dead ones and corrected two to the home page.