A windjammer is a commercial sailing ship with multiple masts that may be square rigged, or fore-and-aft rigged, or a combination of the two. The informal term "windjammer" arose during the transition from the Age of Sail to the Age of Steam during the 19th century. The Oxford English Dictionary records the word "windjamming" from 1886 and "windjammer" with reference to a ship from 1892.[1] The term has evolved to include such a vessel, carrying passengers on overnight cruises in the Caribbean, the U.S. state of Maine and elsewhere.[2][3]
The word "windjammer" has a variety of associations, both nautical and not. In the late 19th century the term was pejorative, as used by sailors aboard steamships.[4]
Any of the following ships may be called a "windjammer":
Windjammers have figured prominently in both historical and fictional literature. Some examples include:
Allen, Oliver E. 1978. The Windjammers. Amsterdam: Time-Life Books.
Overviews | |||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Sailing rigs | |||||||||||||||||
By sailing rigs | |||||||||||||||||
Multihull vessels | |||||||||||||||||
Naval and merchant sailing ships and other vessels (by origin date) |
| ||||||||||||||||
Fishing vessels | |||||||||||||||||
Recreational vessels | |||||||||||||||||
Special terms | |||||||||||||||||
Other types | |||||||||||||||||
Related |