Windjammer

A windjammer is a collective name for many classes of large sailing ships, built to carry cargo for long distances in the nineteenth and early twentieth century. Windjammers were the grandest of merchant sailing ships, with between three and five large masts and square sails, giving them a characteristic profile. They usually carried bulk cargo, such as lumber, guano, grain or ore from one continent to another, usually following the prevailing winds and circumnavigating the globe during their voyages. Several of these ships are still in existence, variously operating as school ships, museum ships, restaurant ships, and cruise ships.

A common incorrect explanation of the origin of the term consists of an introduction into English of a folk etymology of the term common in Dutch and German. As Dutch jammeren and German jammern is similar to "jam" and means "to wail" and since speakers of these languages were not aware that the term "windjammer" originally came from English, the folk etymology claims "windjammer" refers to the typical sound of strong winds blowing through the rigging. In fact, the word comes from the English word "to jam" because the sails are so large that they seem to "jam" the wind.

Windjammers were the last breed of large commercial sailing vessel, designed well after the Industrial Revolution using scientific methods and modern materials such as iron and steel in their construction. In general, the ships displaced several thousand tonnes and were cheaper than their wooden hulled counterparts for three main reasons: (1) steel was stronger and thus could enable larger ship size and considerable economies of scale, (2) iron and steel hulls took up less space and allowed for more cargo to be carried, and (3) they were cheaper to maintain than a wooden hull. The usual cargo capacity was 2,000 to 5,000 tons.

The four-masted iron-hulled ship, introduced in 1875 by 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 four-masted barque was the ultimate refinement of aerodynamic study and thousands of years of seafaring experience. The barque rig can outperform the schooner rig, can sail upwind better than full-riggers, and is easier to handle than full square rig.

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