Development history/kloc-In the 3rd century, the Spanish and Portuguese began to build a light sailboat called caravel, which was mainly used as a fishing boat at first, but it was widely used in other fields because of its good performance. Bartholomeudias discovered the Cape of Good Hope in 1488, Christopher Columbus discovered the new continent in 1492, and Vasco Dagama crossed the Indian Ocean to reach Asia in 1498. The first round-the-world voyage was completed by Ferdinand Magellan in 15 19- 1522, all using this kind of ship. Don't forget that Europeans can build such ships because they have learned a lot of "long skills" from the East, especially China. The first "skill" that Europeans learned from Orientalism was the "jib" of Arab sailors. Europeans have always used square sails, that is, square sails placed horizontally. After more than a thousand years (6th century AD), influenced by Arabian dhows in the Indian Ocean, the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf, Mediterranean sailors gradually switched to this relatively easy-to-operate jib instead of a cross sail. By the 9th century, there were almost no horizontal sails in this area. Incidentally, although the invention right of this sail should belong to Arabs, it is called "Latinsail" or "lateensail" in Europe. The second "skill" that Europeans learned was "fore and aft sails". China people used this kind of sail as early as the Warring States Period (3rd century BC), but it was not learned by Europeans until13rd century. Although the jib they learned from Arab sailors is relatively easy to operate, it is still placed horizontally and they can only use the downwind. It is easy to use in the monsoon North Indian Ocean, but it is not suitable in the Mediterranean Sea and other European waters with uncertain wind direction. Using the principle of component force and resultant force, the longitudinal sail can sail in all directions, but only against the wind can't sail. However, in the16th century, due to the way of "adjusting the wind against the wind", ships could sail against the wind. The so-called "adjustment" means adjusting the direction of the bow and turning the headwind into a crosswind, which can also push the ship forward in a zigzag way. A necessary condition for using longitudinal sail is that it can flexibly adjust the direction of the bow. In China, it is achieved by using a "rudder" placed at the stern. Now there is "have it both ways" in the idiom dictionary, which comes from "slang" rather than "literary talent". It controls the rudder according to the wind direction to adjust the course. It is not derogatory. Unfortunately, it is often used to refer to a sleek, worldly, unprincipled and drifting with the wind. In ancient times, the word "rudder" was also called "rudder", "rudder" and "rudder" When Liu Xi explained the word "ship" in the Eastern Han Dynasty, he said: "The end of the ship is called" rudder ". Jade tablets from the Southern and Northern Dynasties (A.D. 543) said, "The rudder is ship wood." He said, "Hey, the stern is small. "These written records show that China people invented the rudder very early, and the evidence of using the rudder obtained by archaeological excavations is earlier. Wooden boat models have been unearthed from Western Han tombs in Guangdong and Hubei, and the stern is equipped with a rudder. However, the rudder spread to Europe quite late, about 12 century. Until now, Europeans have been using side oars to control the direction, which is far worse than using rudder. Rudder can be said to be the third "long skill" learned by Europeans. Sailors learn to use jib, longitudinal sail and rudder, and sailors can use wind more freely, which leads to an increase in the number of masts and sails, especially the number of sails, because it is easier to operate with multiple smaller sails than with a single large sail. " "caravel" is a light multi-masted sailboat, which usually has three masts. The front mast and the front of the main mast are hung with transverse sails, and the rear mast is hung with triangular longitudinal sails. Some people even put up a fourth mast and hung a jib. There are also some ships that extend forward from the bow with a bowsprit with small sails and a top sail above the main sail and the front sail. This can make full use of wind power, with speed, flexibility and easy operation, and can drive in various wind directions. It should be noted that the wind blowing on the upper part of the sail not only produces horizontal thrust, but also produces upward lift. Small lift is beneficial to the navigation of the ship, but excessive lift may capsize the ship. The use of jib and top sail can reduce the lift and help the ship sail smoothly. After Columbus discovered the New World, Europeans began to build bigger ships and plundered a lot of wealth there. From about the middle of16th century, Spain organized a huge fleet, which traveled between the east and west coasts of the Atlantic Ocean twice a year, bringing back looted treasures from American colonies. According to official statistics, in about a century and a half before 1600, more than 18600 tons of silver and 200 tons of gold were shipped back to Spain after paying taxes. It is not easy to estimate the amount of smuggling. In addition, many ships sank halfway or because of storms or pirate attacks, and a lot of gold and silver were buried at the bottom of the sea. To this day, they are still important targets for treasure hunters and salvage companies all over the world. Later, with the establishment and development of sugarcane, cotton and tobacco plantation economy in the New World, cargo transportation increased greatly, and fleet transportation in the Atlantic Ocean became busier. Of course, we should not forget about the slave trade. According to some scholars' research, this evil trade began in15th century, and19th century was officially abolished by European and American countries. The total number of blacks loaded with slave ship on the coast of West Africa reached120,000, of which about one sixth died on the way, and about10,000 people landed in the New World. It is not difficult to see that its traffic volume is quite large. In order to protect the transport fleet from pirates and ships from other countries, the Spanish built a warship named galleon, which is actually a large sloop developed on the basis of caravel. Since 1650, the Atlantic Ocean has entered an era of frequent naval battles. European colonial countries such as Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands, France, Britain, and pirates who "occupy the island as the king" (perhaps the most famous "pirates of the Caribbean") have turned the Atlantic into a big battlefield. This greatly stimulated the development of warships. At first, the largest warship probably consumed 1.500 tons of water, but ships with a tonnage of1.750,2000 tons were already common, and when it reached 1.800, there were more than 2,500 tons. Hulls are usually made of solid oak boards, which are double-layered and have a total thickness of 46 cm, which makes shipbuilding a very wood-intensive thing. For example, it takes 2,500 adult oak trees to build the flagship HMSVictory HoratioNelson (1758 1805) rode in the Battle of Trafalgar. Later, the same technology was used to build civilian ships. For example, the Mayflower, which was first brought to North America by British immigrants, belongs to this type. Before the appearance of ships driven by steam engines and propelled by propellers, large dhows have always been the main ship types of European merchant ships and warships. It is worth noting that learning to sail (jib, longitudinal sail) and rudder is a collective behavior, and it is difficult to determine when and who came from Orientalism. Only the fourth "watertightbulkheads" can determine the specific importer, that is, SamuelBentham, who was ordered to build a ship for the Royal Navy in 1795. The use of watertight cabin not only greatly increases the strength of the hull, but more importantly, it will flood the whole ship without any damage and is difficult to stop. With watertight compartments, European ships can be said to have reached the highest level in the era of navigation. Sailing Europeans learned the fifth "skill" from us, and it was later, after the Opium War. It turns out that in ship design, although they used the principle of bionics like us and designed the hull to be streamlined, they imitated different objects; Europeans imitate fish, while China imitates waterfowl. In this way, the widest part of their hull is in the front of the middle, while the widest part of China's hull is in the back of the middle. Later, the study of fluid mechanics proved that China people's practice is more scientific, because ships generally do not swim in the water like fish, but paddle between water and air like waterfowl (such as ducks and geese). Realizing this, western ships, like China's ships, put the widest part behind the middle. In China's ancient shipbuilding technology, the only thing that Europeans didn't learn was sculling. China began to paddle as early as the Western Han Dynasty (about BC 1 century). Paddling needs to lift the paddle off the water, which is a waste of time and time. Paddling paddles continuously, using the principle that fish wags its tail to move forward, so it is called "one paddle and three paddles". Europeans began to consider using China's paddles instead of their own paddles very late, but they didn't consider using paddles, because they soon invented paddlewheels with better propulsion efficiency. However, it should be pointed out that the real inventor of the paddle also came from China, more than a thousand years before Fulton. "Biography of Gao Li in Old Tang Dynasty" contains: "Dancing for two rounds, the wind blows and the waves beat, and the disease is like hanging sails." It can be seen that in the Tang Dynasty (8th century A.D.), it was known that paddlewheels were used to pedal instead of manual paddles. In ancient China, boats were called "boats". According to the existing records, the water war between Yue Fei and Yang Yao in Song Dynasty (12nd century) was a battle between ships. In a word, apart from the compass, one of the "four great inventions" in ancient China, we have also made many important contributions to shipbuilding and navigation technology. Of the five technologies that Europeans learned from Orientalism, four originated from China, and these technologies played a very important role in shipbuilding and navigation in their maritime times. Now is the "post-sailing era". Except for sports, sailboats are basically invisible, but the three technologies of rudder, watertight compartment and hull shape are still being applied, and will undoubtedly continue to be applied.