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![]() Visual History of the Sailing Shipfrom Viking Age to Early 20th Century
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This is an illustration of the development of the European sailing ship
from the Middle Ages to early 20th century, from the Viking long boat in
9th century to the barquentines used in cod fishing off Newfoundland in
the 1920s. All the sailng ship models shown here are masterpieces of skilled ship model makers who made them to the best available plans, true to scale and accurate to the very details. If you look for specifics on naval technology changing over time, here you may find them displayed in an illuminating way. Every museum would be proud of having these models in its collection. Each model has its own webpage with background information on the original ship. Links are given to specific literature and relevant museums. Each ship model is shown in 20 - 50 photos. Click on the photos to get the high resolution megapixel pictures. You will be surprised by the clarity of the structures in the actual size photos. The 33 tall ship models shown here of course cannot give a complete picture of all the ship types used in Europe since the Viking age. They are just singular pieces, but still the gradual changes of ship shapes and increase in rig efficiency and hull construction over time are clearly visible. If you look for a comprehensive work with many illustrations on the development of the sailing ship, I recommend Björn Landström, The Ship. An Illustrated History. Doubleday & Company, Inc., New York 1961. Otherwise interested: look at this literature list. 1. Medieval Viking boats and Hansa ships 2. Galleons, warships and traders in 17th century 3. Traders and yachts in 18th century 4. Frigates and ships of the line in 18th century 5. The last sailing warships in 19th century 6. Traders, fishermen and work boats in 19th and 20th century 1. Medieval Viking boats and Hansa ships |
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The
Oseberg Ship was built around A.D. 820.
It is a typical clinker-built Viking ship,
made of oak. |
The
Viking ship Skuldelev 5 was a small
warship, length 17.5 m, that was built
in A.D. 1040.
With a crew of up to 30 men it could go
by 14 knots under sail. |
The
Hanseatic League ship of 1470 is a symbol of an important historical
epoch. In 15th century the clinker-built Hansa cogs were more and more replaced by larger carvel-built ships like the one shown here. |
2. Galleons, warships and traders in 17th century |
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A
galleon of 1610, reconstructed according
to an English treatise of 1620 on ship-building, and to a votive ship from that
time in the "Great Church" (Storkyrkan)
in Stockholm |
The Swedish
Vasa of 1628, one of the
large warships built by Swedish King
Gustavus II Adolphus. On her maiden
voyage she capsized and sank
in Stockholm harbour. |
The
Dutch fluyt Zeehaen of 1639 was one of the expedition ships of Abel
Tasman. He was the first European to discover New Zealand. |
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The
French expedition ship La Belle of 1689. In 1684 - 1686 the French nobleman Robert Cavelier de La Salle undertook an expedition to establish a French colony at the mouth of the Mississippi. The La Belle was one of his four ships. |
3. Traders and yachts in 18th century |
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A splendid yacht that was ordered in 1711 by Max Emanuel, Duke of Bavaria and governor of the Spanish Netherlands. |
A
Bermuda sloop of 1740. The Bermuda sloops were a commonly used sailing vessel in the Caribbean. |
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An English East Indiaman of 1740. An East Indiaman was a ship operating under charter or license of the East India Companies of the major European trading powers in the 17th to 19th century. |
A galiot of 1740. The Dutch galiots were flat-bottomed ships with a rounded bow and aft, especially useful in shallow waters. Their development started in the 17th century. They were used mainly as merchant ships in northern Europe and the Mediterranean.
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A galeas from Stettin, around 1750, a type of trade ship that was common in the Baltic Sea and North Sea from the 17th to the early 20th centuries. The galeas was developed from the Dutch galliot. |
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The
English brig Duke of Bedford of 1750. |
The
Endeavour of 1768, the expedition ship of James Cook. James Cook set sail on 25 August 1768 from Plymouth to his study of the South Seas. On that journey he went to Tahiti, Tubuai and other islands, then to New Zealand and Australia. Via the Cape of Good Hope he returned to England on 12 July 1771. |
The
slaver L' AURORE of 1784. L' AURORE was built in France by the shipbuilder H. Penevert. From France ships of this kind sailed to the coast of Angola, in order to take over 600 slaves for the journey to Haiti. From there colonial goods were bought, usually sugar, and transported to France. |
4. Frigates and ships of the line in 18th century |
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The Wapen von Hamburg of 1720. On 12 November 1720 a third ship of this name was launched as a convoy ship by the City of Hamburg. A contemporary dockyard model of this vessel in 1 : 16 scale still exists. It is displayed in the Museum für Hamburgische Geschichte.
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A
French 40 gun frigate of around 1750. The model was built to the plans of Amiral Paris and Chapman. The sails were set like the ship being on starboard tack in wind abeam. |
The French bomb ketch La Salamandre was launched in 1752. This ship model is made only partly planked to allow for views into the ship's interior. |
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The HMS VICTORY of 1765, a 100 gun three-decker ship of the line. She was the flagship of Admiral Nelson 1805 in the battle of Trafalgar.
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The USS Confederacy of 1778, built in style of the admiralty models. Only two short years after she was launched, Confederacy was captured by the British off the coast of Cape Francois, West Indies, where she had been sent to retrieve supplies for the American army. |
5. The last sailing warships in 19th century |
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A Dutch bomb galiot of 1800. Bomb galiots needed to withstand the powerful downwards recoil of the mortars. Small beamy structures like the Dutch galiots were well suited for this. The bomb vessels were difficult to sail, in part because they typically had the masts stepped farther aft than would have been normal in other vessels of similar rig, in order to accommodate the mortars forward and provide a clear area for their forwards fire.
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The
Norwegian gunboat Axel Thorsen of 1810. Many of the Norwegian coastal defence vessels of that time were schooner-rigged gunboats. They carried one or two heavier guns. To keep and adjust the position when firing the ships were equipped with a few oars. |
The English 74 gun HMS Wellesley of 1815. HMS Wellesley was built by the East India Company at Bombay and
launched on 24th February 1815 as a 3rd rate 74 gun ship of the line.
She was named for the Duke of Wellington. |
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The
French corvette La Créole of 1827 The La Créole was a 24-gun corvette of the French Navy. Her plans were drawn by P. M. Leroux in 1827. She was launched in Cherbourg in May 1829. The ship took part in the French invasion of Mexico in 1838, and most notably in the Bombardment of San Juan de Ulloa before French troops disembarked and captured the city of Veracruz. |
The Russian frigate Pallada of 1833. The Russian frigate Pallada was built in 1833 to the
prototype of an American frigate, the USS President. The ship was one of
the best ships of the Russian Navy and was thus chosen for taking the
Russian consulate to Japan in 1853. |
The
Russian screw clipper Strelok of 1856. The screw clipper Strelok was one of six sister ships that were built in winter 1855/1856 in Arkhangelsk, to avoid the British blockade during the Crimean War. They were intended as light cruisers against the British merchant marine, but the war was over before they could be put in use. The Strelok served 1858 – 1862 in Far East and Northern Pacific, i.e. charting the Sea of Japan. |
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The
Prussian corvette Elisabeth of 1869.
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6. Traders, fishermen and work boats in 19th and 20th century |
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The
French barge Le Canot Impérial was built in 1811 for Napoleon's
inspection of the fortifications of Antwerp. This barge, which is 17.21
m long and 3.35 m wide, was built in only 21 days, including all the
decorations. |
The
English tea clipper Cutty Sark of 1869 The Cutty Sark was launched 1869 in Dumbarton, Scotland. In tea trade until 1890, she took part in the tea clipper races from China to London which made her famous and gave her a legendary reputation. In 1954 she was moved to a purpose-built dry-dock in Greenwich and preserved as a museum ship. |
A
German zeesenboot of 1880.
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The
German galiot Hoffnung of 1897 A galiot is usually a schooner-rigged vessel that is very bluff both at bow and stern. Many variations in size and rigging were built in the Netherlands and at the German North Sea and the Baltic Sea coast. The galiots had a large hold, simple handling of the sails and low draft. The draft was crucial for the shallow harbours in the tidal waters of the North Sea coast and for going up river estuaries. |
The
French barquentine Cote d'Émeraude of 1925 The barquentine Cote d'Émeraude was built in Saint-Malo, France, and used for cod fishing off Newfoundland. |
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