The term sailing ship is now used to refer to any large wind-powered vessel. In technical terms, a ship was a sailing vessel with a specific rig of at least three masts, square rigged on all of them, making the sailing adjective redundant. In popular usage "ship" became associated with all large sailing vessels and when steam power came along the adjective became necessary. Large sailing vessels which are not ship rigged may be more appropriately called boats.
Read more about Sailing Ship: Specifications, Types of Sailing Ships, Automated Sailing
Famous quotes containing the words sailing and/or ship:
“The Colonel went out sailing,
He spoke with Turk and Jew
With Christian and with Infidel
For all tongues he knew.
“O what’s a wifeless man?” said he
And he came sailing home.”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)
“I do not know if you remember the tale of the girl who saves the ship under mutiny by sitting on the powder barrel with her lighted torch ... and all the time knowing that it is empty? This has seemed to me a charming image of the women of my time. There they were, keeping the world in order ... by sitting on the mystery of life, and knowing themselves that there was no mystery.”
—Isak Dinesen [Karen Blixen] (1885–1962)