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The Lateen Sail in World History
Author(s): I. C. Campbell
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Source: Journal of World History, Vol. 6, No. 1 (Spring, 1995), pp. 1-23
Published by: University of Hawai'i Press
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The Lateen Sail inWorld History
L C. CAMPBELL
University
of Canterbury
cen
in the sixteenth
the time of the Great European Excursion
as
was
use
in
in
the
the
sail
known
lateen
three
different
tury,
At
In the orthodox
and distribu
view, its existence
regions of the world.
tion are a matter
for several reasons. First, sails as an
of importance
artifact have not demonstrated
and
very great human
inventiveness,1
to conceive,
its distribution
since the lateen requires some ingenuity
is likely to be the result of diffusion,
contacts
historical
reflecting
a
societies. Second,
ancient
between
the lateen is generally considered
sail that gives great power and also allows a vessel greater maneuver
is widely given the credit for
therefore
of the age of discovery.2 Third,
the
ancestor
of the fore-and-aft
sails that
were
schooners
and clippers and that
typical of nineteenth-century
in the modern
culminate
rig of racing and pleasure yachts.3 All three
are open to question,
statements
and lying behind all three is the com
mon but equally questionable
belief that this sail was one of the great
to world history.
of Arab civilization
contributions
"Lateen" sails are triangular and are fundamentally
different
from
a
in
A
sails
functional
sail
catches
square
"square"
principles.
following
to
wind and is dragged along by it; the lateen sail is slung obliquely
a
to
its
motive
curved
surface
the
wind
and
derives
from
force
present
the pressure differential
between
the convex and concave
sides of the
ability than simpler sails, and
the European
accomplishments
lateen sail was the immediate
1
12 (1926):
H. H. Brindley,
13.
"Early Pictures of Lateen Sails," The Mariner's Mirror
2
in China,
6 vols.
Science and Civilisation
See, for example,
(Cam
Joseph Needham,
bridge,3 1971), 4:3:509.
The Wind Commands:
Sailors and Sailing Ships in the Pacific (Vancouver,
Harry Morton,
1975), p. 225.
Journal ofWorld History, Vol. 6, No. i
of Hawai'i Press
by University
?1995
1
2
JOURNAL
OF WORLD
HISTORY,
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1995
is the motive
sail. This
of fore-and-aft
sails generally
and is
principle
the basis for the idea that the lateen was the ancestral fore-and-aft
sail.
The advantages
of the lateen sail are that it offers less drag, can be used
in lighter winds, and allows a vessel to sail much
closer to
effectively
the wind than a simple square sail. For these reasons alone,
its inven
was
tion
an
event.
important
In contrast
to the simple principle
of the
of
the
the
fore-and-aft
sail
grasped,
principle
to presuppose
either theoretical
knowledge
siderable experience
of sailing in conditions
is easily
square sail, which
is sophisticated
and seems
or con
of aerodynamics
that are sufficiently
safe to
to encour
diverse or hazardous
allow
and sufficiently
experimentation,
at least a sail that acts on the "square" or
it.
The
sail?or
age
square
not be square in shape?would
it
need
there
though
"drag" principle,
evo
fore seem to be a prerequisite,
and most authorities
the
postulate
lution of the triangular sail from one kind of square or another.
is argued clearly
likely sequence from square to triangular
extensive
Richard
LeBaron
whose
Bowen,
by
convincingly
in his debt.4 Starting
research has placed
all later scholars
from a
soon
is
sailors
would
have
discovered
that
when
the
wind
square sail,
The most
and
can be enhanced
from behind,
the sail's efficiency
perfectly
so
to the wind
its
axis
is
the
sail
that
by turning
kept perpendicular
a
is
with
this
combined
keel
When
and/or steering
(fig. 1).
technique
the sailor has wider course options
than simply sailing directly
device,
If a wind comes more from the beam than the stern, this
downwind.
of
less effective,
but
rotating the sail on the mast becomes
technique
can
if
the declining
be
recovered
the
power
partially
edge (or luff) of
not
the sail is pointed
toward the wind. This does not work well, however,
unless the sail edge toward the wind can be kept taut, a result most
if the sail is canted so that the yard (or spar) hold
achieved
effectively
the
of
the
sail
and into the wind
top
ing
slopes downward
(fig. 2).
is well on the way
A sailor using a square sail in such a manner
one constructed
like that
toward inventing
the lateen sail, especially
in the western
Indian Ocean,
the
intermediate
step
probably by
of the lug sail (fig. 3). The particular
shape of the Indian Ocean
used
lateen5 enhances
short luff on the
the plausibility
leading
of
edge being
this hypothetical
perhaps a vestige
the
sequence,
of the original
square sail edge.
4
Richard
LeBaron
185-87.
(1953):5
The
Indian Ocean
off. It is thus quadrilateral,
note 24 below.
Bowen,
"Eastern
Sail Affinities,
is not, strictly speaking,
lateen
but for the present discussion
Part
II," The American
Neptune
13
a triangle
since the apex is shorn
is unimportant.
See
the difference
t
A
t
ih
LI X
b
Figure
i . Square
sail.
Leech
Lower yard or boom
Wind
Wind
Figure
2. Canted
square
sail.
Leech
Leech
?
Figure
3. Lug sail (left) and west Asian
lateen sail (right).
Luff
4
JOURNAL
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can only be postulated,
not proven,
and
sequence
however,
to reconstruct
the origin and spread of the sail must depend
Asian
Indeed, the Pacific-southeast
typology and chronology.
as
different
will
be
lateen clearly developed
lines,
along
explained
below. The contrasting
demonstrate
that the lateen
paths of evolution
had at least two independent
three. The Pacific
origins and possibly
Ocean-southeast
Asian
lateen certainly had a separate ancestry from
The
attempts
on both
seems possible
Indian Ocean
less
lateen, and it now
(though
that
the
Mediterranean
and
Indian
Ocean
lateens
also
devel
likely)
the
oped
independently.
of Arab
The Question
Origin
or
about whether
the lateen sail was of Mediterranean
one
area
to
its
and
diffusion
from
the
the
other,
origin,
point chiefly at issue was one of priority.6 The consensus
eventually
settled on Indian Ocean
priority on the insecure grounds that the sail
as the Arab
was universally
of which
known
sail, the borrowing
by
enormous
to
marine
Western
of
led
the
capa
expansion
Europeans
of the sail in the Mediterranean
bility, and that there was no evidence
In the debate
Indian Ocean
after Arab fleets began
the late ninth century a.D., two centuries
In
Bowen's
lateen derived
from
that
the
there.7
argument
operating
is a more
the Indian Ocean
the square sail, referred to above,
likely
home for the lateen because a variety of sails, including all the likely
intermediate
square and lateen, is to be found there. In
steps between
of the
antecedents
there seem to be no surviving possible
contrast,
This implies that the sail was imported in
lateen in the Mediterranean.
its mature
form from the Indian Ocean.
Indeed, the lateen is widely
as
of
the
sail
Arab
seafarers, and its distribu
characteristically
regarded
is therefore
tion is considered
diffusion
elsewhere
Its
Muslim.8
largely
until
plausibly
"Arab"
But
attributed
to the boldness
and
expansionism
of
so-called
sailors.9
there are difficulties
in linking
the antiquity
of the sail to the
6
"Eastern Sail Affinities,"
Bowen,
p. 191.
7
in the Indian Ocean
is well put by George
E Hourani,
Arab Seafaring
The argument
Ancient
and Early Medieval Times (Princeton,
1951), pp. 100, 103.
8
The American Neptune
of Eastern Arabia,"
LeBaron
"Arab Dhows
Richard
Bowen,
in
9
92.
(1949):
9
For example,
1415-1715
[London,
J.H. Parry (Europe and a Wider World,
1949], pp.
to the development
of the Arabs
the sail as "the special contribution
22-24), who describes
F.
in an otherwise
Also George
of the world's
excellent
and reliable discussion.
shipping"
Hourani,
Arab
Seafaring,
pp.
103-104.
Campbell: The Lateen Sail inWorld History
5
sources refer to "Arabs" in commerce
in the Indian
Arabs. Ancient
as
Ocean
and Red Sea long before Islam. Whether
they were mariners
is unclear, but there is no evidence
well as merchants
for their use of
the lateen sail. Although
he supported an Indian Ocean
origin for the
it. He argued
that the Arabs
invented
sail, Bowen
rejected the notion
that the Arabs were too late in taking to the sea to have invented such
a sail and that they derived
their maritime
from the Per
knowledge
sians who were
to send an expedition
to Yemen
nautical
in
sufficiently
the seventh century. Therefore,
he maintained,
when
they attempted
naval exploits,
the Arabs borrowed
their sail and much
else from the
as a result
of navigation.
Persians,
Then,
together with the vocabulary
to the Mediter
of the Arab
the sail was
introduced
intervention,
ranean and was first recorded
art in the ninth
in Mediterranean
century.10
this ninth-century
date for the appearance
of the lateen
However,
was converted
sail in the Mediterranean
from its proper meaning
of
"not later than" to a suppositious
not
but pragmatic
much
"probably
earlier than." Conversely,
it must not be supposed that the presumed
Persian
influence
around that
seventh-century
implies a development
time. Indeed,
if the sail was invented
in the Persian Gulf, as Bowen
at any time during or since the
argued, it might have been invented
b.c. And
second millennium
if diffusion
into the Mediterranean
is
a fact, then it might
at any time during
have occurred
that span,
the most
be the period when
although
likely times would probably
the Persian
reached
empire under Cyrus
or the Hellenistic
(sixth
B.c.)
century
as far as the
had taken Greek
influence
centuries
the
shores
of the Aegean
after
Alexander
period
Indian Ocean
(fourth-first
b.c.).11
is that the arguments
chief difficulty
ori
for an Indian Ocean
a priori. There
seems to be no
the lateen sail are entirely
evidence
for the date of the first use of the lateen sail in
unequivocal
the western
Indian Ocean.
The
sail used by the Persian navy in the
a.D.
is unknown,
seventh
and the otherwise
informative
century
The
gin of
10
"Eastern Sail Affinities,"
Bowen,
pp. 191-98. Also Frederick van Doorninck,
"Byzan
of the Sea: 330-641,"
in A History
tium, Mistress
Archae
of Seafaring Based on Underwater
F. Bass (London,
referred to is
ology, ed. George
1972), p. 146. The pictorial
representation
dated at about 880. Van Doorninck
we see for the first
"In these representations
writes,
as opposed
to the quadrilateral,
the triangular,
lateen sail. It is quite
likely, however,
use for some time, for manuscript
the triangular
in general
lateen had already been
illuminators
worked with
forms and rarely allowed
traditional
innovative
fea
stereotyped
tures to intrude into their art."
11
reviewer of this paper pointed
is not
out, the former suggestion
But, as an anonymous
time were not seafarers.
likely, as the Persians of Cyrus's
time
that
6
JOURNAL
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1995
in the first century a.d.)
Sea (composed
is
Periplus of the Erythraean
as are the other classical writers on commercial
silent on the matter,
com
in maritime
matters,
Indeed, the great growth
Pliny and Strabo.
merce between Egypt and India in Roman
imperial times was in typi
cargo ships, which were characteristically
square
cally Mediterranean
in an early paper in which
the difficulty
sailed.12 Bowen acknowledged
for the use of the lateen in the
he argued that there was no evidence
western
before Portuguese
Indian Ocean
times.13 He
later modified
this view in light of research by Lionel Casson
and suggested
that the
into the
precursor of the lateen) was introduced
lug sail (a possible
western
in Roman
times for the
Indian Ocean
by Greek merchants
from the lug in
India trade. He then suggested that the lateen evolved
or the Indian Ocean
the next few
either the Mediterranean
during
to spread it around during their great
in time for the Arabs
centuries,
expansion.14
even
of this hypothesis,
the
the attractions
Notwithstanding
F. Hourani
failed to find either literary
exhaustive
research of George
or pictorial
evidence
of any type of sail used in the western
Indian
that
Ocean
But Hourani
concluded
before
the fifteenth
century.
use
Arab" and in universal
the lateen was "characteristically
because
it was safe to assume that "the Arabs"
in the region,
(whoever
they
times. Literary
might have been) had used the same sail in "ancient"
to several ninthis restricted
and tenth-century
evidence
poetic
a distance
seen
to the fin of a
from
"a
sail
which
liken
images,
ship's
whale or a whale's spout." Hourani
interprets this as suggest
cautiously
ing a lateen rather than a square sail,15 but since whales do not have
like a rising cloud of steam than
dorsal fins and their spouts are more
else (and therefore of indeterminate
shape), the image must
anything
as purely romantic,
be understood
giving no clue at all to sail shapes.
of Ibn Majid
Even the late fifteenth-century
writings
navigational
as he refers to sail types at all, he implies a
are vague;
inasmuch
a
luff:leech ratio of 3:4 or 10:13.5.16 Such a sail is almost square?more
a
Bowen's
about
later
this
lateen.
While
than
supports
suggestion
lug
the case for Arab
the lug being a step toward the lateen, it undermines
diffusion of the lateen to the West.
12
Lionel Casson, Ancient Trade and Society (Detroit,
1984), pp. 184-88.
13
"Eastern Sail Affinities,"
Bowen,
pp. 191, 198.
14
Richard
LeBaron Bowen,
"The Earliest Lateen Sail," The Mariner's Mirror
42
(1956):
241.
15
Arab Seafaring, pp. 100, 103.
Hourani,
16
as G. R. Tibbetts,
Arab Navigation
and published
Translated
the Coming
(London,
1971), p. 52.
of the Portuguese
in the Indian Ocean
before
Campbell: The Lateen Sail inWorld History
7
a new sail to a
In any case, the idea of a desert people
introducing
maritime
deserves
But
how
much
the
scrutiny.
just
skeptical
people
to maritime
on
at
Arabs did contribute
least
the
history depends partly
definition
of "Arab." The traditional
view of the Arab as an accom
to both practical
seafarer contributing
and theo
plished
seamanship
is almost certainly
retical navigation
incorrect
and derives
from a
of terms. If "Arab" means desert Bedouins who erupted from
confusion
in the seventh
century a.D. and later received,
plateau
and
classical
it to the
absorbed,
preserved
learning and transmitted
term
is
was
is
the
It
then
misused.
that
"Arab"
used by
West,
probable
sources as loosely as "Greek" was used of any Hellenized
ancient
per
East for peo
son, or as loosely as "Frank" was and is used in the Middle
the Arabian
and western
ple from northern
Europe. The "Arabs" in the Red Sea
trade in the fifteenth
included Egyptians
and possibly Per
century
the
Arab
maritime
is
derived
from
sians;17
Persian;18 and
vocabulary
"Arab" vessels were built in India.19 In the context of maritime
affairs,
it seems reasonable
to denationalize
and to describe
the
therefore,
lateen sail, the sewn vessels, and the monsoon
sailing strategy (the lat
ter pioneered
as
"west
Asian."20
The Arabs of the
by Greeks)
simply
successful on either the Mediterranean
conquest were not particularly
in war or commerce.
Sea or the Indian Ocean
If they had been, then
Mediterranean
civilization
would surely have become Muslim. On the
to be controlled
continued
contrary, the Mediterranean
by Christians,
but those seafarers on its eastern and southern
shores (and to a lesser
extent the western)
became Arabized.
These peoples more than likely
knew the lateen sail before they became Arabic-speaking
Muslims.
At the very least, therefore,
casts doubt not only on
the evidence
the attribution
of the lateen sail to the Arabs, but also on the Arabs as
the agents of its diffusion. The
lateen sail can therefore no longer be
as an innovation
described
that Europe owes to the Arabs.21 On
the
17
W. H. Moreland,
"The Ships of the Arabian
Sea about a.d.
1500," Journal of the Royal
174.
(1939):
Society
18
"Arab Dhows,"
Bowen,
p. 95.
19
Moreland,
Sea," pp. 173-74.
"Ships of the Arabian
20
A. R. Lewis stresses the multinational
of Indian Ocean
character
and com
shipping
and warns that "Moor" and "Muslim" should not necessarily
merce,
be taken to mean Arab.
in the Indian Ocean,
"Maritime
Skills
A.R.Lewis,
Journal of the Social and
1368-1500,"
Economic History of theOrient
16 (1973): 246-47.
211 am suggesting
here merely
that the sail is not an indigenous Arab artifact and that
its presence
in the Mediterranean
the Arabs. Whether
to hoist
the first Portuguese
predates
a lateen sail got the idea
a Genoese,
or a Venetian
from an Arab,
is neither
immediately
nor material.
is that its use was universal
known
The
in the Mediterranean
point
by
times.
Renaissance
Asiatic
8
JOURNAL
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I995
had a continuous
contrary, the lateen in the Mediterranean
history of
more
to the needs of Atlantic
than i ,500 years before it was adapted
exploration
by the Portuguese.
The Mediterranean
Evidence
in the
It seems increasingly
likely that the lateen may have originated
the missing
link between
Mediterranean
where
the square and trian
gular sails was the brailed square sail. Brails were ropes that ran from
at various holding
the foot of the sail, up the front of it (fastened
over
to
the
the
and
deck.22
upper yard
By pulling on the ropes
points)
or partly furl the sail, and they could shorten one
sailors could wholly
side of it more
than the other merely
the lengths of the
by adjusting
Vene
various brail ropes. The process is similar to adjusting horizontal
tian blinds. This was an important
innovation
in allowing
sailors to
the sail
adjust the amount of sail surface area exposed and in trimming
to wind conditions.
Sails brailed on one side could be tilted toward the
wind to further increase efficiency. A remark by Aristotle
suggests that
were
a
manner
in
sails
used
fore-and-aft
furled
by the fourth
partially
establishes
the typological
B.c.23 This
century
suggestion
"missing
that
link." Moreover,
Casson
Greco-Roman
sailors used
argues
only
brails and that only in the manner
described
the system of vertical
a
could a square sail have been set to resemble a lateen. Developing
lateen sail from a square sail that was brailed up on one side would
seem fairly straightforward
and would be consistent
with a sail that was
a
the
head
stabilized
triangular,
by
eventually
long yard and apex fas
tened at the bow of the ship.
Casson
lateen had priority
further argues that the Mediterranean
is due to diffusion,
elsewhere
and that its presence
probably, he con
for
The
evidence
the
Arabs.24
cedes,
Mediterranean?indeed,
by
is epigraphic.
Tombstone
northern Aegean?priority
representations
of lateen sails have been found from as early as the second century
a.D.25 Other
22
Lionel
fore-and-aft
sails (not
lateens)
were
in use by the second
"The Origin
of the Lateen," The American Neptune
Casson,
31 ( 1971 ): 49-51.
2>Ibid.
24
its significance
is not at all clear, is the
A detail
that cannot be overlooked,
though
is triangular,
in the shape of the Mediterranean
and the so-called
difference
lateen, which
is quadrilateral.
which
The difference
indicate
"Arab" lateen of the Indian Ocean,
might
ancestor.
different
from a common
either different
origins or merely
adaptations
25
The Mariner's Mirror 42
"Fore-and-Aft
Sails in the Ancient
Lionel Casson,
World,"
unconvinced
(Science and Civilisation,
4:3:609)
by
(1956): 3-5. Needham
professes himself
Campbell: The Lateen Sail inWorld History
9
to Casson
century b.c. Most of the examples of these early sails known
a geographically
were from the northern Aegean,
suitable area to serve
as a sailing nursery. More
recent evidence
of mausoleum
graffiti from
a
to
Lucien
has
later
boats
led
Alexandria
scholar,
Basch,
depicting
a
an
was
in
often
used
with
sail
the
that
inclined
square
suggest
yard
of a proto-lateen.
He argues that lateen sails were in use by the
third or second century B.c.26
of the lateen sail back one
take the antiquity
Such a date would
known age and much earlier
thousand years earlier than its previously
to demonstrate
that it was not invented by
than would be necessary
era. Moreover,
the sixteen or so
the Arabs of the Muslim
throughout
its first recorded use and its adoption
centuries
and adapta
between
tion by the Portuguese,
the sail was in continuous
that
use, indicating
not even its diffusion was an Arab accomplishment.
A second-century
manner
stele
shows
shows
The
a
a quadrilateral
triangular
lateen
sail, and
a fourth-century
mosaic
one.27
sail seems not
to have
been used by merchant
vessels
of
times,
depictions
warships?typically
long,
on oar power?using
a triangular
galleys relying mostly
straight-sided
the late Roman
sail recur during
and Byzantine
lateen
imperial
in
A
The
War
reference
Vandalic
(sixth century)
by Procopius
periods.
sense only if he was refer
to the upper angle of sails appears to make
of the Italian
ring to lateen sails.28 Indeed, the lateen-sailed
warships
were
war
Renaissance
direct
descendants
of
Roman
the
city-states
after
lateen
classical
but
galleys of more than a thousand years earlier, structurally, functionally,
and in their sails; they remained
after the
substantially
unchanged
ninth
century.29
invasions
lateen sail therefore
the Muslim
of the
predates
not
some
not
this
Mediterranean
but
does
that
Arabs
did
prove
shores,
so
was
con
maritime
it.
have
their
role
before
then
However,
already
or its dif
fined that they seem unlikely
agents for either its invention
in east African
fusion. Although
Arabs were engaged
trade in the first
in the region of the Persian Gulf were
century a.D., and others
The
is unequivocally
both Casson's
and his argument. His reconstruction
evidence
diffusionist
for all sails and favors an Eastern origin. Later evidence
favors Casson.
26
to the Lateen Sail," The Mariners
Lucien Basch,
"The Way
Mirror
75 (1989): 328
the sail Basch refers to sounds more
is one
like a lug sail, but the difference
32. Technically,
of degree, not substance,
and of form rather than function.
27
Peter Throckmorton,
"Romans on the Sea," in History of Seafaring, ed. Bass, p. 77.
28
G. Percival Kaeyl,
"The Lateen Sail," The Mariner's Mirror 42 (1956):
154. Also van
p. 135.
Doorninck,
"Byzantium,"
29
Enrico
"The Maritime
Scandurra,
Republics:
Italy," in History
of Seafaring, ed. Bass, pp. 207-208.
Medieval
and Renaissance
Ships
in
IO
JOURNAL
OF WORLD
HISTORY,
SPRING
1995
to be seafarers
in the third century,
these were probably
reported
as
in
As
local
late
the
sixth century, when
navigation
engaged
only.
trade to Sri Lanka and beyond was conducted
by Persian-speaking
there is no mention
of Arabs, who were clearly "playing no
mariners,
part on the high seas."30
noteworthy
as were mariners
were south Arabians;
Such Arabs
the center of
to
on
affairs in Arabian
the
northern
Arabians
history abruptly swung
were
the eve of the Muslim
and
these
outburst,
people
emphatically
not seafarers.31 Thus, when
the Arabs
strategic opportunism
impelled
so
to venture onto Mediterranean
in
did
waters,
they
Byzantine-style
in their accustomed
by Copts of Alexandria
galleys, built and manned
won
in
and
this
the
naval
of Dhat
way they
fashion,
great
victory
assumes
in ?55.32 Hourani
al-Sawari
that the sails (if any) used by
these galleys were
that the lateen was
square, on the presumption
two centuries. As Casson
in the Mediterranean
for another
unknown
since shown, however,
and others have
the lateen was already well
as the auxiliary motive
established
dromones.
power for the Byzantine
It follows that the Arabs
learned their naval craft from the Copts and
to
the lateen sail in the same way. Copts,
indeed, continued
acquired
in
for
the
Arabs
the
bulk
of
naval
the
Mediterranean
supply
personnel
for
centuries.
The
lateen sail did not entirely bypass Italian merchant
shipping.
in the
The basic pattern of the merchant
ship in the Mediterranean
was
a
centuries
of
millennium
the
second
vessel
descended
early
tubby
oner aria. By this time it had been converted
into a
from the Roman
was
to
vessel
three
which
masts,
carrying up
lateen-rigged
practically
to the later Portuguese
identical
caravel supposedly
adopted from the
never
a
since
in
the
Arabs
had
Arabs.
Indeed,
position
commanding
commerce
to
it
is
of
Mediterranean
that
the
Italians,
comparable
Italians
the
sail
from
them.
that
the
This
would
sug
unlikely
procured
maritime
gest that the gift of the lateen sail to Atlantic
history could
well be Italian rather than Portuguese.
in the fourteenth
Then
the
vessel,
century came a new merchant
"great galley." The early Italian war galleys carried a single mast with
a lateen sail. Later, a second mast was added and a small square top
on the lateen. The
success of this combination
sail superimposed
led
to
of
Genoa.
the fourteenth-century
Venice
and
great galley
directly
a merchant
This
vessel,
ship was primarily
combining
galley and
30
Hourani,
31
Arab
Ibid., pp. 44-46.
32
Ibid., pp. 57-58.
Seafaring,
pp. 33-34,
38, 43.
Campbell: The Lateen Sail inWorld History
than a war galley, faster than a
features:
larger and wider
roundship
round ship. It had two or three masts, all lateen rigged, and used oars
for auxiliary power.33 The great galley was popular from the fourteenth
to the sixteenth
in the fifteenth
the caravel was developed
century;
in the sixteenth.
and superseded
of the lateen among
the Italian commercial
the heyday
During
to
is
It
been quite eclipsed.
sail
believed
have
the
square
city-states,
a sail as the square
seems scarcely credible
that so useful and obvious
assert
in the Mediterranean,
extinct
became
yet several authorities
there from northern
that it was introduced or reintroduced
Europe in
can
it
be
that
the early fourteenth
doubted
Still,
hardly
century.34
seamen brought their cogs into the Mediter
when northern
European
ranean in the fourteenth
to a variety of
century, they were introduced
tradition of
traditional
sails and to the long and creative maritime
s northern
the Mediterranean
shores. Some of the strangers from the
to have added a mizzenmast
for a lateen sail in
North
Sea are known
of the Portu
the Mediterranean:35
hence
the carrack, the equivalent
of
which
much
like a great
caravela
both
sound
guese
very
redonda,
the
without
oars.36
galley
It seems, therefore,
that there is no longer any basis for deriving
the
into
fore-and-aft
sail
from
the
Arab
the
Mediter
expansion
European
ranean Sea. The fact is that in both the Mediterranean
and the Indian
use
of
learned
the
the
lateen
sail
from
those who
Arabs
the
Ocean,
were on the sea before them.
The
Eastern
Lateen
a separate tradition produced a
the other side of the Indian Ocean
similar artifact,
but on morphological
alone neither
sail
grounds
on
to
have
had
influence
the
other.
any
appears
On
33
"Maritime Republics,"
Scandurra,
pp. 207, 208, 211.
34
Mirror 43 (1957):
"The Bowsprit
and the Sprit Sail," The Mariners
R.C.Anderson,
238-3935
Ibid., pp. 214-15.
36
is said to have evolved
from the caravel with
The caravela
redonda
the addition
of
to have copied
it from
who are commonly
square sails. As used by the Portuguese,
supposed
masts.
in north Africa,
two lateen-rigged
the Arabs
vessel with
the caravel was a decked
to have evolved
from the caravel by combining
the
caravela
redonda was supposed
the lateen rig of the Arabs.
It usually had three masts,
square rig of northern
Europe with
the first two with a single large, square sail, and the aftermast or mizzen
carrying a lateen
as having
sail. The carrack, a northern
vessel commonly
from
described
evolved
European
is substantially
the addition
of a mizzenmast
for the lateen,
the cog with
the same as a
redonda. The caravel hardly seems to be a necessary
caravela
step.
evolutionary
The
12
JOURNAL
OF WORLD
HISTORY,
SPRING
1995
contact with
com
time of first European
southeast Asia,
India and farther west was well established
and had been
than 1,000 years. Muslim
conducted
for more
traders had been pre
and by Persian merchants
ceded by Hindus
who were visiting
Sri
not long
Lanka regularly by the sixth century a.D., and even China
afterward.37 Sails putatively
suggestive of the lateen pattern are shown
At the
merce with
in Java of the eighth or ninth cen
carvings of Borobudur
the sails depicted were exotic or indigenous
is
but whether
The
tradition
back
before
goes
this,
sailing
indigenous
long
to the so-called Austronesian
of the region at
colonization
in the stone
tury a.D.,
unknown.
however,
were
characteristic
watercraft
least 4,000 years ago by people whose
canoes. The outrigger canoe
to this cul
is unique
rafts and outrigger
into the Indian
tural group and was taken by its carriers westward
as far as Madagascar,
as far as
into the Pacific
and eastward
Ocean
New
Easter
colonization
reached: Hawai'i,
human
Zealand,
Island,
even
and possibly
South America.38
As with the Aegean
indented coasts,
Sea, the insular environment,
a
winds
of
the
southeast Asian
and variable
provided
archipelagoes
a
in
environment
for
wide
suitable
experimentation,
variety
resulting
area and among
the related cultures of the
of sails in the immediate
this variety of sail types, the square sail was not
Pacific Ocean. Amid
its preeminence
with the Chinese.39
despite
significant,
of the square sail on
this region there is little evidence
Throughout
or
a
Chinese
either the Mediterranean
(that is, respectively
pattern
or
a
two
horizontal
between
from
square sail hanging
yard
supported
use or in sails that appear to
in its historical
vertical masts),
either
derive from it. The simplest sail is also the one with the widest distri
the earliest. Instead of being sup
bution,
implying that it was probably
is
from
this
sail
above,
supported by light spars on each side.
ported
been
referred to as sprits in the literature
These
have
spars
previously
as the
is misleading,
of indigenous
sailing craft in the Pacific. This
a
means
term spritsail in the European
tradition
sail
sailing
supported
are the ear
by a sprit running across the sail, usually diagonally. These
sails in the West. The use of the
forms of fore-and-aft
liest documented
37
G. F.Hourani,
in Pre-Islamic
between
"Direct Sailing
the Persian Gulf
and China
Times,"
Journal of the Royal Asiatic
157-60; O.W.Wolters,
Early Indonesian
Society (1947):
Commerce
145.
(Ithaca,
1967), pp. 63, 72-74,
38
of Pacific Ocean
sails and watercraft
has been dealt with
The complicated
taxonomy
in the magisterial
Canoes
work by A. C. Haddon
and James Hornell,
of
comprehensively
as one volume, Honolulu,
Oceania,
3 vols. (Honolulu,
1975). The fol
1936-38;
reprinted
is based largely on Haddon
and Hornell's
data.
lowing discussion
all sails,
39Needham
(Science and Civilisation,
deriving
4:3:615-17)
virtually
disagrees,
east and west, from a square sail in southeast Asian waters.
Campbell: The Lateen Sail inWorld History
Figure
4.
V-shaped
13
sail.
"square"
an entirely different
same term to describe
sail is unfortunate,
but it
to change. An
of
the
feature
is now too well established
important
or
was
is
it
is
Asian
mastless.
The
sail
that
Oceanic-southeast
spritsail
was usually but not always lashed to the supporting
spars. Each spar
was braced with guy ropes, and when
the sail had to be lowered, the
whole assembly was taken down.
a "square" sail, although mostly
Such a sail is functionally
they
were V-shaped,
the spars coming
together at the base in the narrow
of a fore-and-aft
sail from this
hull of the canoe (fig. 4). The evolution
Indeed, such a sail is as easily
"square" sail is easily imagined.
a
canoe
or
as
in
fore and aft
raft
and this would
transversely,
as soon as experience
and circumstances
demon
be accomplished
to the sailors. The use of such a sail, with
the
strated the possibility
primitive
mounted
result in a small craft, is very likely
that would
instability
cause
of the invention
of the outrigger?a
the immediate
device
that,
is unique
in the
however
obvious for small craft it seems in retrospect,
history of technology.
With
the passing of time and the wide dispersal of the "outrigger
to suit different
canoe people,"
the basic sail was modified
conditions
in ways that became established
In some places, nota
local traditions.
one of the sail-supporting
Islands and Hawai'i,
spars
bly in the Society
so as to resemble a mast.
became
thicker and taller and more vertical
like a slanted boom, and the sail overall
The other spar then worked
like an inverted mod
could be used either as "square" or "fore-and-aft"
inevitable
ern Marconi
or gaff sail (fig. 5). As long as the sail was lashed directly
a spar, not
to the vertical pole, however,
the pole remained technically
a mast.40
The next
pole, so that
a true mast for this
step was to substitute
evolutionary
it did not need to be taken down when
the sail was low
40
See G. S. Parsonson,
Revolution
"The Nautical
New Zealand,
script in the Hocken
Library, Dunedin,
in Polynesia"
p. 6.
1975),
(unpublished
type
M
JOURNAL
OF WORLD
/
Figure
5. Gaff
HISTORY,
SPRING
1995
I_I_t
sail (left) and Marconi
sail (right).
to be supported by two spars, but now one of
to the mast,
raising and lowering,
facilitating
to
A later devel
the
sail
and possibly simplifying
the
wind.41
trimming
was
to
it
the
of
the
additional
sail,
opment
giving
modify
shape
height
it so that it resembled a crab claw,
but narrowing
for greater efficiency,
to prevent
the instability
that comes with having
the center of effort
ered. The sail continued
the spars was attached
too high. It was in this manner
that the most highly developed
sails of
eastern Polynesia?the
so-called "claw" sails?were
(fig. 6).
developed
innovation
This
took place after the Polynesian
dispersal,42 as is shown
to the Society
is restricted
which
and Mar
by the sail's distribution,
sail is clearly a variant and probably rep
quesas islands. The Hawaiian
resents an earlier form that became
in the Society
Islands.43
superseded
use in these areas at the time of European
Such sails were in common
contact
in the eighteenth
century.
similar to the Hawaiian
Sails in Melanesia
(Mailu in particular)
are often
to a diffusionist
version
model.
This
interpreted
according
either requires some improbable direct con
however,
interpretation,
41
See also J.C. Beagle
Parsonson
p. 7) cites a Fijian example.
("Nautical Revolution,"
2: figs. 30, 38; and
hole, The Voyages of Captain James Cook,
3 vols. (Cambridge,
1955-67),
and Hawaiian
examples.
3:118342 for Tahitian
of the Polynesian
The prehistoric
ancestry with
footprints
people
imply a common
of northern
and a virtually
simultaneous
colonization
Micronesians
and some Melanesians,
in the middle
and Samoa)
of the second mil
Melanesia
and western
Polynesia
(Fiji, Tonga,
and Marquesas
islands?was
settled about the
lennium b.c. Eastern Polynesia?the
Society
and Easter
Island probably
of the present
era, Hawai'i
by about 400, and New
beginning
can be found in I.C. Campbell,
A History of the
Zealand probably by 800. Fuller discussions
The Evolution
(Cam
1989); P.V.Kirch,
of the Polynesian Chiefdoms
Pacific Islands (Berkeley,
and Coloni
Irwin, The Prehistoric Exploration
1984); and, in greater detail, Geoffrey
bridge,
zation of the Pacific (Cambridge,
1992).
43
Canoes
and Hornell,
Haddon
p. 120.
of Oceania,
Campbell: The Lateen Sail inWorld History
15
Spar or mast
Spar or mast
'-Spar
-Spar
Outrigger
V
Figure
y
6. Tahitian
claw sail (left) and Hawaiian
Outrigger
y
claw sail (right).
tacts or presupposes
that the sail could be an isolated relic artifact.
evidence.
The mechanism
Neither
has any supporting
of
possibility
invention
in these sails?the
quest for greater power through greater
and the retrieval of control by cutting out part of the sail?
height
seems an obvious
course of experimentation
for people who already
had
the V-shaped
Oceanic
sail.
in
from another path of evolution
developed
the southeast Asian homeland,
after the primary dispersal of the "out
the Pacific. The
intermediate
step in
rigger canoe people" throughout
of the mast from one of the sail sup
this case was not the invention
sail with heavier
ports, but the addition of a prop. A larger V-shaped
to propel larger and more
spars would
represent an obvious
attempt
some stage sailors here also evidently
laden craft. At
found
heavily
size
of a vertical
sail transferred the center of effort
that increasing
the
higher above the vessel with accompanying
instability and difficulty of
Some peoples
solved this problem by reducing the sail area
handling.
at the top, as explained
above, but the "Indonesians"
(for want of a
name
to
better
found that power could still be
identify these people)
increased and the center of effort kept low if the sail leaned backward:
the apex (or "tack") at the bottom was moved
forward in the canoe,
and the spars that supported
the edges of the sail now became
func
tionally upper and lower yards. In this new position
they could not
hold the sail up, and so a prop was added (fig. 7). This produced
the
The
lateen
sail that A. C. Haddon
and James Hornell
call the proto-Oceanic
lateen sail, which at the time of European contact was known and used
as far east as Tonga and Samoa.
a further development
was in the process of
At this time, however,
the canted mast. This mast ismorphologically
and function
adoption:
it is simply the prop enlarged,
but
ally similar to the prop?indeed,
i6
JOURNAL
Distinct bow and stern
Figure
7. Pacific proto-lateen
OF WORLD
HISTORY,
SPRING
1995
Symmetrical ends for shunting
sail (left) and Oceanic
lateen sail (right).
the sail actually being suspended by a halyard
that passes over a
to about the central point on the upper yard of
at the masthead
form of this sail was in the
refined and efficient
the sail. The most
at
it was used to propel racing canoes
where
islands of Micronesia,
with
crutch
canoes
seamen; even large voyaging
European
speeds that astonished
seven knots.44 Haddon
cite a speed of
and Hornell
could manage
canoe carrying 200 men.45
twelve knots for a Fijian voyaging
were developed
inMicronesia
and diffused with
Hull modifications
sizes and asym
the sail and mast. The new craft had hulls of unequal
metrical
and the smaller hull was always kept to wind
cross-sections,
so that going about
to be double-ended
ward. Such a vessel needed
the wind on the same side of the vessel. Earlier
could be done keeping
twin hulls
tacked like European
fore-and-aft
vessels with
identical
rigged vessels.
of the Oceanic
There were thus two steps in the evolution
lateen.
in the Indonesian
somewhere
First, the sail was invented
archipelago
at an unknown
later than the middle
of the sec
date, but necessarily
sail was supported by a prop, and its use
ond millennium
B.c.46 This
into Micronesia,
it even
where
spread from Indonesia northeastward
was
it
From
there
transmitted
southward
became
universal.
tually
Islands to western
and parts of Mela
the Gilbert
Polynesia
through
nesia. In both places it was grafted onto existing craft and used along
in Micronesia,
the sail's full poten
side earlier sails. Later, somewhere
a
into
the
the
tial was attained
mast,
prop
modifying
by converting
the enormous
force of the sail, and developing
hulls to help control
new handling
techniques.
44
David Lewis, We,
theNavigators
1972), pp. 266-68.
(Wellington,
45
and Hornell,
Canoes
Haddon
p. 326.
of Oceania,
46
a period of about 3,000 years. On distributional
at any time within
In other words,
it to have been
invented nearer a.D. 1000 than 1000 b.c.
grounds one may suppose
Campbell: The Lateen Sail inWorld History
17
in the process of being assim
These
changes were
consequential
at
contact
in the
time
of European
the
ilated in western
Polynesia
canoes?or
the
built
The
century.
greatest
Fijians
ships,
eighteenth
were
the most wide
but the Tongans
the entire Pacific,
really?in
from Fiji. The new technology
ranging seamen using vessels obtained
soon reached
downwind
from Tonga
and Fiji,
southern Melanesia,
in the far east, in the Tua
and isolated specimens were found upwind
Cook
Islands
archipelago. Not so far to the east, in the Northern
its functional
sail and
had
been
the new
(Manihiki),
principles
canoe
were
in
old
double
hulls
that
timber-short
but
region
adopted,
in favor of the asym
fastened bow to stern rather than being discarded
motu
metrical
and unequal hulls.
of this sail in the surviving sail types
of the evolution
The evidence
its separate history
is sufficient
of
from the west
of Oceania
proof
Asian
Sea and Indian Ocean.
The dis
lateen of the Mediterranean
on
was demonstrated
tinction
Bowen
ago
long
by
morphological
grounds. The differences may be summarized as follows:
1. The west Asian
lateen is quadrangular
with a short luff at the
lateen comes to an apex at the
triangular
leading edge. The Oceanic
tack where the upper and lower yards meet.
2. The west Asian
lateen has a yard at the head only, but the
In fact
Oceanic
lateen has a yard at the head and at the foot (a boom).
a
on
two
of
have
all Oceanic
sides.
sails, regardless
spar
shape,
of the luff, the head of the west Asian
sail is much
3. Because
are virtu
its
of
The
and
Oceanic
than
foot.
head
foot
the
lateen
longer
same
the
length.
ally
lateen are parallel to the yard. The
4. The seams of the west Asian
seams on the Oceanic
lateen are parallel to the leech.
lateen uses a vertical,
fixed mast held in place by
5. The west Asian
lateen uses a mast that is canted, must be able to
ropes. The Oceanic
and is often supported by a wooden
move,
prop.
6. The west Asian
sail is "loose footed," that is, tethered by a rope.
Most Oceanic
lateens have the tack secured directly to the hull, fitted
into
a socket.47
distinction
between
the two sails is
important and conclusive
the different manner
of their use. For sailing upwind, no lateen-rigged
vessel can tack: the "Arabs" (i.e., sailors of the western
Indian Ocean)
the
Pacific
Islanders
by "wearing
responded
by "shunting."
ship,"
are explained
terms and the methods
These
below.
further suggestion
of possible
of one sail on the
influence
Any
other is rendered more unlikely by the distribution
of each. Just as the
An
47
Bowen,
"Eastern
Sail Affinities,"
pp.
187-88.
i8
JOURNAL
OF WORLD
HISTORY,
SPRING
1995
so were
outrigger was diffused both east and west from southeast Asia,
it.
the sails associated with
Southeast
sails (in particular,
Asian-style
the proto-Oceanic
spritsail) were to be found in Sri Lanka,
V-shaped
and Aden.48 The Pacific Ocean
lateen (called in this con
Madagascar,
was
text the Indonesian
lateen by Bowen)
used on twin-hulled
vessels
as
as
the east coast of India, while
far west
traders from
(catamarans)
sea reached as far east as Java. Nevertheless,
the Arabian
the two sails
retained their separate, distinctive
features, except that the apex of the
Indonesian
sail in the Indian Ocean was sometimes
replaced by a short
luff similar to the Arab lateen.49
to
in relation
lack of inventiveness
humanity's
Despite
supposed
sails, the lateen appears therefore to have been invented at least twice
for the
and possibly
three times, if one allows separate development
lateens. Indeed, in all regions where
Mediterranean
and Indian Ocean
a sailing tradition
iswell established,
with a variety of
experimentation
and all regions show numerous
of the
sails is evident,
permutations
in the retention
inherent
of the basic
styles. The conservatism
or
types over long periods of time is not due to a lack of imagination
it is the result of the best solutions having been found,
inquiry. Rather,
does not yield a worthwhile
after which
continued
experimentation
basic
return.
the
Using
Lateen
as reputed, why has it
If the lateen was as remarkable
and efficient
to establish
is there
its antiquity
and origins? Why
been so difficult
more
of the use of square sails in antiquity
than of lateen
evidence
answer
lies in the misapprehension
of the
sails? The
by historians
merits of the lateen. This sail has been widely assumed to be generally
of authoritative
that the
of the weight
opinion
superior because
on and followed
its adoption
Excursion
Great European
by
depended
it as "the triangular
nations.
Even Casson
describes
the Atlantic
type
that
became
the
sail par
excellence
of
the Mediterranean
in later
ages."50
the
The perception
that the lateen is a superior sail has obscured
and each has its own
fact that the two sails are functionally
different,
There was no question of a lateen being
and disadvantages.
advantages
48
Ibid., p. 85.
Ibid., pp. 110-11.
"The
50Lionel Casson,
49
(1966):
199-200.
Lateen
Sail
in the Ancient
World,"
The Mariners
Mirror
52
Campbell: The Lateen Sail inWorld History
19
the latter was more suitable. Square sails
for a square when
substituted
were retained on merchant
because
there
ships in the Mediterranean
a
to
was no particular
from
be
faster
sail
when
dis
gained
advantage
sea
was
tances were
when
short
and
transport
already so
relatively
more
and
reliable
than
land
much
safer, cheaper,
faster,
transport.
Peter Throckmorton
describes
the Roman
square rig as "efficient and
to
of
he
As
the
claims
that a perama (a tra
question
speed,
practical."
to
similar
ditional vessel of the Aegean,
those
used in ancient
probably
in
Roman
the
fashion
would
times) rigged
(square-sail)
"undoubtedly
a modern
the same ship with
schooner
outsail"
(fore-and-aft)
rig,
"given the wind abaft the beam."51
is that it makes
of the lateen
the vessel
The disadvantage
less
a
a
is
and
less
than
handled
stable, requires
square
larger crew,
easily
sail. Unlike
the square sail, its size is not easily adjusted to cope with
No
different
conditions.
lateen was capable of being furled or reefed
or brailed,
so lateens had to be lowered when winds
too
became
area
was
more
for
the
sail
carried.
The
lateen
suitable
strong
being
it was in fact mostly
where
used: as an auxiliary
sail to the oar-pow
ered galleys. Additional
for entering and leaving har
maneuverability
to the square-sailed
bor was given
merchant
vessels
by the use of
use
to
at
least the second century B.c. in
goes back
spritsails, whose
the Aegean.52
to its superior
The popularity
of the lateen is commonly
ascribed
a
windward
times
square sail. In historic
performance
compared with
seamen took no significant
the west Asian
of this feature.
advantage
sail and would defer sailing rather
They used the sail as a "downwind"
than set out with the wind on an inconvenient
sailors
quarter.53 These
were
to sail on alternating
reluctant
reaches, that is, sailing upwind by
the
wind
first on one quarter and then turning through
the
taking
to take it on the other.54 This
is a sailing tactic usually called
wind
cannot be done with a lateen except at great risk and
tacking, which
both fore and aft of the mast
difficulty because the long yard extending
to
the
sail
moved
the
other
side of the mast.
Instead, it
prevents
being
to "wear ship"?that
turn
is necessary
downwind
of
instead
is,
upwind,
loosen the sail and carry it forward of the mast, bring the yard into an
in front of the mast,
and then reset the sail on the
upright position
51
"Romans on the Sea," p. 77.
52Throckmorton,
"Fore-and-Aft
"The Sprit Rig
Casson,
Sails," pp. 3-5; Lionel Casson,
The Mariner's Mirror 46 (i960):
LeBaron Bowen,
World,"
241; also Richard
Sails in the Ancient
The Mariner's Mirror 43 (1957):
World,"
160-64.
55
"Arab Dhows,"
Bowen,
pp. 123-29.
54
Lewis, "Maritime Skills," pp. 252-53.
in the Ancient
"Fore-and-Aft
20
JOURNAL
OF WORLD
HISTORY,
SPRING
1995
is a difficult and dangerous
side of the vessel. This
and
procedure
reason for the limited use of the lateen sail.
the principal
lateen of course suffers the same disadvantage,
The Oceanic
but
it was different.
of dealing with
the method
The vessels
that used
to tack,
it became necessary
this sail were double ended, and when
the sail was loosened,
taken along the side of the vessel
instead of
was
reset
stern.
in
and
what
around the forepart,
the
The
formerly
stern then became
the bow, and the vessel set off on its new course.
is the reason for the mast not being fixed: it must be reset to
This
is why
This
the evolution
of
support the yard in its new position.
was
an
enormous
on
mast
the former prop,
the canted
improvement
was
As with
with which
such a maneuver
the Indian
impractical.
maneuver
is called)
is cumbersome
and
Ocean
(as this
sail, shunting
a large crew and comparatively
and it requires
clear
dangerous,
other
In both
decks.
when
mostly
not
cases, the handling
are steady,
the winds
be
to sail
is an incentive
difficulty
so that changes
of direction
will
necessary.55
In this respect, the lateen in either form was not superior either to
sail that was giving way to
the Western
square sail or to the V-shaped
in the seventeenth
and eigh
the lateen in various parts of the Pacific
teenth centuries. The older vessels, whether
outrigger canoes or twin
hulled voyaging
canoes, had distinct bow and stern and went about by
manner.
Indeed, so recent was the spread
tacking in the conventional
in
for example,
the new sail was reported
of the lateen that
Tonga,
being used on the old hulls, and the sailors tacked with
of having
the boom and sail forced against
disadvantage
the sail's contour broken and pocketed
by the mast.56
The
Lateen's
Place
in Sail
the inevitable
the mast, with
Evolution
in its history
in the
utility of the lateen sail is evident
area.
it did
its long history,
culture
Mediterranean-Atlantic
Despite
a
use
common
in
not become
the early
the sail in
except for
period
It did not become
the main
the Italians.
second millennium
among
means
it could not compete with
of shifting
the war galleys because
of oars in battle
useful
the speed and maneuverability
conditions,
The
limited
though
it was
as an auxiliary
power
source.
,5
Canoes
and Hornell,
Haddon
p. 265.
of Oceania,
56
Haddon
The Voyages,
2:448. Also
Beaglehole,
comment
that "when
adds the interesting
p. 265. Cook
the yard is taken out of the socket and squared."
wind,
In ancient
times
other
and Hornell,
Canoes
of Oceania,
they want to sail large, or before the
Campbell: The Lateen Sail inWorld History
21
forms of fore-and-aft
sail, the spritsail in particular, were used to give
when entering and leaving harbor.
the round ship maneuverability
seamen adopted the lateen sail, they did so particu
Atlantic
When
to J.H. Parry, this was to
need. According
larly to meet a navigational
inshore waters,
and
for exploring
maneuverability
foreign,
to
it
and
More
the
facilitated
the
harbors
estuaries.57
point,
especially
return to Portugal against the trade winds for those first explorers who
Barto
northwestern
southward down Africa's
coast.58 Hence
pushed
provide
of the African
lomeu Dias's choice of the caravel for his exploration
to Atlantic
coast. Yet Dias's
achievement
and great contribution
across
ocean.
was
to
coast
the
and
sail
leave
open
Having
exploration
the building of the vessels
done so, moreover,
he chose and supervised
selected not the supposedly
for Vasco
da Gama's
great voyage. He
but
the
caravela
and
redonda, a three-masted
caravel,
superior
handy
on
the
and
with
sails
fore
and a lateen
mainmasts,
square
ship rigged
on the mizzen or aftermast.59 Columbus
rerigged his unsatis
a
as
caravel
caravela
redonda
his
first trans-Atlantic
during
factory
it
the
and
found
that
answered
need
voyage
perfectly. And when
on
set
in 1519, he sailed
forth
his
Magellan
global circumnavigation
with five ships, not one of them a caravel.60
sail only
as soon as the lateen was incorporated
into European
an
to
it
reduced
where
status,
auxiliary
shipping,
proved most
as the square sails
in the same manner
useful for stern and beam winds
to provide most of the sail area. In a little-known,
that continued
overstated
the essential
paper, G. S. Parsonson
unpublished
possibly
not
a
in
true
is
that
the
Mediterranean
lateen
fore-and-aft
point
saying
the fact that the lateen sail
have overlooked
sail,61 but most historians
is a modified
and well suited to beam winds, but
square sail, adaptable
not the ancestor of the true fore-and-aft
sails.
This is not to say that the lateen sail did not improve the windward
Thus,
almost
it was
its awkwardness
limited its usefulness.
The
ability of ships.62 Rather,
as a blind alley
lateen is not the "ultimate
sail." It is better described
on the evolutionary
trail: highly
for certain
very effective
specialized,
57
and aWider World,
pp. 22-23.
58Parry, Europe
Science and Civilisation,
Needham,
513.
4:3:509,
59
E. G. Ravenstein,
A Journal of the First Voyage of Vasco da Gama,
14Q7-?Q (London,
1898), app. D, p. 159. A caravel was a two-masted
roundship
rigged with a lateen sail on
each mast.
60
H. Parry, The Discovery
of the Sea (New York, 1974), p. 153.
61J.
"Nautical Revolution,"
Parsonson,
p. 5.
62
Needham
estimates
that the addition
of a mizzen
(Science and Civilisation,
4:3:593)
a square-rigged
mast
lateen enabled
from seven
ship to sail one point closer to the wind:
to six points
(80 degrees)
points
(69 degrees).
22
JOURNAL
OF WORLD
HISTORY,
SPRING
1995
limited uses, but not solving the principal
and
problems of navigation
not leading to other solutions.
Far from being a link between
square sails and fore-and-aft
sails, it
an
was
soon
unsuccessful
that
represents
adaptation
superseded by true
sails, which have a longer history than the lateen. During
or eighteenth
seventeenth
the mizzen
lateen sail dis
century,
to
from
Atlantic
be
the
shipping,
replaced by
gaff sail, which
appeared
to have been a fifteenth-century
is believed
invention.
Dutch
It is
fore-and-aft
the
that the gaff evolved
from the lateen
sail, though Harry
calls it a lateen with
the section before the mast removed.63
The precursors of the gaff sail are more
likely to have been the sprit
to Dutch
sails long used in the North
attributed
Sea, also commonly
in the fourteenth
inventiveness
It
remains
unclear
whether,
century.64
existence
from ancient
like the lateen, the spritsail had a continuous
unlikely
Morton
or whether
a separate
or
the Dutch
sail represents
tradition
a
more
con
is
invention.
Either
way,
independent
spritsail
obviously
verted into a gaff sail than is a lateen.
to any previous
The
sail
jib and staysail are less easily related
times,
of the absence
of a yard of any kind to indicate
the evolu
a
are
For
all
and
trail.
the same
purposes
tionary
jib
staysail
practical
is
the
foremast
and
the
the
former
between
prow (or
strung
thing:
invention
and
and the latter is strung between masts. Their
bowsprit)
the
century
by
mid-eighteenth
widespread
adoption
probably
than any of the other develop
required a greater leap of imagination
to be discarded
it was) had
the yard (whatever
because
ments,
are
to the
and
These
sails
also
attributed
replaced by rope.
entirely
because
Dutch.65
In this form the evolution
of the fore-and-aft
sail reaches its culmi
nation
in economy
of design and simplicity of use, but also in distinct
ness from those other fore-and-aft
sails that can be used when occasion
as
requires, quite successfully,
"square" sails.
63
Morton,
64
Needham
The Wind Commands,
pp. 225-26.
invented
the gaff in the sixteenth
says that the Dutch
century and that it
was adopted by the English
in
late in the seventeenth
says it was invented
century. Bowen
Casson
the fourteenth
century, but the luff was not laced to the mast until the seventeenth;
or sixteenth
in dating
is not
in the fifteenth
says it was invented
century. The difficulty
of a sail it is not always
but that in the evolution
evidence,
simply lack of clear pictorial
into another.
See Needham,
Sci
clear at which
stage one form can be said to have passed
ence and Civilisation,
"Eastern Sail Affinities,"
"Fore-and
Bowen,
p. 83; Casson,
4:3:611;
Aft Sails," p. 3.
65
The Wind Commands,
Bass, History of Seafaring, p. 288, figs. 6-7,
Morton,
pp. 232-33;
to Alan Moore
and p. 290, fig. 10. According
("Rig in Northern
Europe," The Mariner's
in the seventeenth
Mirror 42 [1956]: 17, 21), the staysail was invented
century, and the jib
was officially
adopted
by the Royal
Navy
in 1705.
Campbell: The Lateen Sail inWorld History
23
Conclusion
and less signif
The history of the lateen sail is both more complicated
to be
icant than has generally
Its origins continue
been supposed.
even though better known now than half a century ago. Its
uncertain,
is less than was
role in linking the major culture areas of the world
seems
now
too
to
It
much
that
the lateen sail
say
formerly thought.
to achieve what was previously
Non
allowed navigators
unattainable.
is not to deny the importance
of sail
lateen sails were sufficient. This
to the
evolution
but rather to suggest that credit should be attached
to the true fore-and-aft
much
underrated
sails with
square sail?and
which
the lateen has been too long confused.