Sailing ship facts for kids

INS Tarangini, a sailing ship in service with the Indian Navy.

A sailing ship is a big boat with sails which catch the wind. The wind pushes the boat along. A sailing ship had a rig of at least three masts, square rigged on all of them. The great days of sailing ships was from around the 15th century to the middle of the 19th century. They were very important for trade as well as for war. All large boats became known as "ships", so when steam power was invented people talked about "steam ships" to distinguish them from "sailing ships".

Small boats with sails are called "yachts" or sailboats. They are used today for leisure activities.

Images for kids

A barque—a three-masted sailing ship with square sails on the first two masts (fore and main) and fore-and-aft sails on the mizzenmast
Roman warship with sails, oars, and a steering oar
Fijian voyaging outrigger boat with a crab claw sail
A carved stone relief panel showing a Borobudur ship from 8th century Java, a typical ancient trading ship with tanja sails and outriggers used by Austronesian peoples in Maritime Southeast Asia
Chinese junk with a center-mounted rudder post, c. 1848
A traditional Maldivian Baghlah with a fore-and-aft lateen rig
Replica of Ferdinand Magellan's carrack, Victoria, which completed the first global circumnavigation.
1798 sea battle between a French and British man-of-war
Hull form lines, lengthwise and in cross-section from a 1781 plan
Diagram of rigging on a square-rigged ship.
Square sail edges and corners (top). Running rigging (bottom).
Seamen aloft, shortening sail
Sailing ship at sea, rolling and heeled over from the force of the wind on its sails.
Diagram contrasting course made good to windward by tacking a schooner versus a square-rigged ship.
Götheborg, a sailing replica of a Swedish East Indiaman
Cutty Sark, the only surviving clipper ship
USS Constitution with sails on display in 2012, the oldest commissioned warship still afloat
Maltese Falcon with all-rotating, stayless DynaRig