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A windjammer is a type of large sailing ship, with an iron, or for the most part, steel hull, built to carry cargo 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. 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. As Dutch ''jammeren'' 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.〔Longman Exams Dictionary CD〕 The windjammers were cargo ships designed for long voyages. 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. ==Design and tasks== 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 , 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. The largest windjammer ever built was the five-masted full-rigged ship , which had a load capacity of 7,800 tons. She was also one of the fastest, regularly logging average speed on transatlantic voyages. Unfortunately speed was her undoing, as she collided with a steamer that underestimated the speed of the ''Preußen'' when crossing before her. Windjammers are sometimes confused with clippers, but there are significant differences between them. Whereas clippers are optimized for speed; windjammers are optimized for cargo capacity and ease of handling. Most clippers were of composite construction, full rigged and had a cargo capacity of less than 1,000 tonnes; windjammers are of steel construction, usually barques by their rig, and have far greater cargo capacities. The clippers had already begun to disappear when windjammers emerged. Windjammers were mainly built from the 1870s to 1900, when steamships began to outpace them economically, due to their ability to keep a schedule regardless of the wind. Steel hulls also replaced iron hulls at around the same time. Sailing ships could hold their own on ultra-long voyages such as Australia to Europe. Since they were faster than steamers, did not require bunkerage for coal nor freshwater for steam, they were able to compete with steam ships, which usually could barely do 8 kn. Many of the famous windjammers sailed under the Finnish flag during at least some part of their careers. Ship-owner Gustaf Erikson of Mariehamn, Åland Islands, Finland, was famous for his windjammer fleet during the inter-war years. Other renowned sailing ship companies running their affairs despite the encroachment of the machine age were F. Laeisz of Hamburg and A.D. Bordes of Dunkirk.〔Randier, ''Men and Ships around Cape Horn'', p. 338〕 Typically, windjammers are equipped with semi-mechanized rigging, steel profile masts and yards and steel cables as running rigging where possible. Often also the running rigging was handled by motor winches instead of manpower. Since the windjammer hull is optimized for good hydrodynamics because of sail handling, they were (and still are) capable of sustained high cruising speeds; most four-masted barques were able to cruise at on plausible winds, some logged regularly and ''Herzogin Cecilie'' is known to have logged . 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Windjammer」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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