Age of Sail Warships

[Seamus Fermanagh]

No it's true. One of my maternal great-grandfathers was a spar-maker until around the depression when he had to switch to carpentry. And if you look at the Canadian 10 cent piece there's an image of a wooden schooner type sailing vessel called the Bluenose (a nickname for Nova Scotians). It was built in 1921 for fishing and racing. And was used as such until 1946.

Interesting family tidbit.

It was a question of economics. Wind is, of itself, free. With the right rigging the crew was small and your range was only limited by provisions though your average speed especially when sailing against the predominant winds was slower than for a steamer.

Steamers did not fully supplant the sailing ship entirely until the development of the oil-fired boilers of the early 20th century. Before that, range limitations on coal still left wind as a viable alternative for non-perishable cargoes. Oil was so much more efficient in terms of bulk and storage that everything moved to oil-fueled steamers. Even if, as with the Liberty vessel, they used an antiquated engine to keep it cheap and simple, the BTU extractable from a kilo of oil greatly exceeded that of a kilo of coal (as well as being more safely stored).