History of sailing ships

A The first sailing boats had single masts with square sails fixed to them. Over the centuries, boatbuilders arranged their boats' sails, called the rig, in various ways designed to catch the more efficiently. A square rig consists of sails hung on a spar across the boat. The fore-and-aft rig, with a triangular sail hanging from a spar parallel with the boat’s sides, is more effective at making the best use of wind blowing from side on. By the 15th century, many ships had a mixture of rigs: square-rigged sails on some masts and fore-and-aft sails on others. Ships (large vessels) could now sail across the oceans