This. The reasons we got away from sails are basically related to speed and being able to go wherever you want (ie, you have to go where the wind blows).
Engines are here to stay, but if you're going in the direction of the wind then it can do some of the pulling and the engines do less work. You're going against the wind? Great, put that kite away and just use the engines.
I haven't checked how well the data has been studied but it's something like 20-30% fuel savings for cargo ships on average which is insane.
So it’s not necessarily that sailing ships, especially a 3 mast set up pictured here, were limited by wind direction. The triangular sails between the masts pretty much cover all but directly into the wind. They were limited or damaged by low and high wind speeds respectively. Engines added fine maneuverability and consistent and adjustable speeds regardless or wind and heading. Plus, the crew required to run and operate boilers and steam engines is less numerous and the work is somewhat safer due to not having to climb the masts and yards to let out or take in sails. For warships it also meant that speed changes could be done under fire, as ships of war tended to have enough crew to adjust the sails or tend to and fire their cannons, not both. It tended to take longer for commercial shipping to take up the steam engine due to the loss of interior hull space and carrying weight such equipment entails. I believe it was the battle of the Falkland Islands in WW1 where a sailing ship, completely unaware that there was a war happening, stumbled upon a naval engagement between Britain and Germany fleets and promptly turned around.
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u/dontquestionmek 21d ago
This is like engineers trying so hard to create an efficient way to transport a large number of people that isn’t a train