1. Class 3 William A. Reader E-mail: williamreader40@gmail.com
Getting from here to there and back – The impact of a few transportation innovations on history
Class 3
William A. Reader

2. What We Will Cover Today
Sailing Ships
Galleys & Early Sailing Ships
Carracks, Caravels & Full Rigged Ship
Impact of the Sailing Ship
Piracy
The impact of the steam-powered vessel
Steamboat
Steamship
Refrigerated steam-powered vessel
Container Ship

3. Impact of the Ocean-going Sailing Ship

4. Early Ships – Oared Galleys
Ships could be oared galleys or sailing ships
Both types had their advantages and disadvantages
Galleys
Could make way on windless days
Required a large crew to man the oars
Could not venture for long out of sight of land
Crew had to be fed so landfall had to be frequent
Could not carry a large number of cannon
Ships were powered by either sails or oars.
Advantages of galleys - Oared ships (known as galleys) had good acceleration, were extremely maneuverable, and could make way on windless days.
Made good warships when the only way to defeat an enemy warship was either to ram it or to get sufficiently close to it so marines could jump onto the enemy ship and kill or capture the crew.
Disadvantage of galleys - Required an enormous crew (which had to be fed so that landfall had to be frequent and thus range was limited), had to be kept low in profile since the rowers and their oars had to be near the water (which made them less seaworthy).
They could not carry a large number of cannon since that would make the ship top-heavy

5. Early Ships – Sailing Ships
Sailing ships revered the advantages and disadvantages of oared galleys
Sailing ships
Were high-sided and more seaworthy, especially on the oceans
Were difficult to maneuver and helpless when becalmed
Could not accelerate on command
Could accommodate large cargoes
Could be handled by small crews that were easily sustained over a long period of time
Could accommodate a large number of cannon
Sailing ships reversed the advantages and drawbacks of galleys.
High-sided and seaworthy, they were relatively difficult to maneuver, unable to accelerate on command, and helpless when becalmed.
Sailing ships could accommodate large cargoes, could be handled by small crews that were easily sustained (giving them virtually unlimited range), and were buoyant enough to accommodate a large number of cannon

6. Medieval European Sailing Ships
Medieval northern European ships were known as ‘cogs’ with a single, massive, square sail.
Cogs used clinker planking (overlapping wooden planks)
Medieval Mediterranean and Indian Ocean sailing ships used the Arab lateen sail or triangular sail
Cogs - Cogs were round-bottomed and square-sailed boats good for sailing with the wind
Lateen sails - Besides oared galleys, the other main idea in Mediterranean sailing had been taken from the Arabs - this was the lateen sail.
The only type of sail seen on Arab ships, the lateen sail is essentially triangular, laced to a forward-leaning mast and a long yard.
Whether or not the Arabs invented it, the lateen was spread through them, both in the Indian Ocean and in the Mediterranean.
Its shape made the most of whatever wind was going and as a form of rig it was very versatile and made ships more maneuverable in that it allowed ships to tack against the wind

7. Cog

8. Lateen Sail

9. The Full-Rigged Ship
In the mid-15th century, the lateen-rigged Mediterranean ship was married to the square-rigged north European ship (and the stern rudder added) to produce the full-rigged ship
There were two variations of the full-rigged ship
The Carrack – a 3-masted ship with a foremast and main mast rectangular sail and a mizzenmast lateen sail
The Caravel – a 3-masted ship with 3 lateen sails
Advantages of the 3-masted ship - Full three-masted rigging combined the advantages of the lateen sail in sailing against the wind and the square sail’s speed in sailing with the wind.
The mainmast and the foremast carried square sails that drove the ship forward.
The mizzenmast had a lateen sail rigged fore and aft which helped in sailing against the wind and maneuvering ships in narrow waters.
Unlike the clinker-planked cogs, the full-rigged ships used caravel construction – simple skeleton-covered with side-by-side wooden planks with waterproof caulking between the planks.
The full-rigged ship met all the prerequisites for long oceanic voyages: it was seaworthy in fair weather and foul; it could sail in whatever direction was required; it could carry sufficient food, water, and cargo to sustain the crew and finance the voyage; it provided sufficient shelter for the crew and cargo; and could sail both with the wind and upwind.
Carrack - The full-rigged ship, known as a carrack, was a three-masted vessel with a foremast (and a rectangular foresail), a main mast (and rectangular mainsail), and a mizzenmast (with a lateen sail) to permit tacking against the wind.
Caravel - Another version of the full-rigged ship, known as the caravel, used lateen sails on all three masts – these were primarily used in coastal shipping because it had a greater ability to sail to windward and so avoid being driven onto a lee shore in a storm.
The carrack was better for ocean sailing since its rectangular sails provided a larger surface for the wind to blow against.

10. Carricks & Caravels Carracks were largely-ocean going vessels
They were large 600+ ton ships
Columbus’ flag ship, the Santa Maria, was a carrack
Caravels were smaller in size
They were smaller than the carrack – from 60 to 120 tons
2 of Columbus’ ships were caravels
Carracks & Caravels - Carracks were huge by the standards of the day- 600 and even 1,000 tons.
Caravels were much smaller - sixty or seventy tons - and faster.
They were lateen-rigged, more convenient for exploring estuaries and islands, and they turned out to be very safe, despite their small size. Columbus took two caravels with him on the first voyage.
There were other changes, to the differences, such as the shape of the keels and the superstructure,
What was significant about the carrack and caravel was that their rigging and crewing requirements would prove the most important factors in the great discoveries of the world. .

11. Carrack

12. Caravel

13. Other 15th Century Sailing Innovations
In the 14th century, the compass arrived and the astrolabe, cross-staff, and quadrant were developed
Medieval portalan charts evolved into maritime maps showing coastlines, port locations, parallels, and meridians
By 1500, a spritsail was attached to the mast jutting forward from the bow
It provided leverage against the rudder, enabling vessels to sail as close to 800 to wind and also to pull away from a leeward shore
Astrolabe - a compact instrument used to observe and calculate the position of celestial bodies
Cross-staff - an instrument formerly used at sea for taking the altitude of a celestial body
Quadrant - an instrument for measuring altitudes consisting commonly of a graduated arc of 90 degrees with an index or vernier and usually having a plumb line or spirit level for fixing the vertical or horizontal direction
Portolan charts – Originally, these consisted of a set of rough maps with written sailing instructions and compass headings. These originated in the 13th century. By the 15th century, they had evolved into detailed maps with coastlines, port locations, parallels, and meridians.
Leeward shore - A leeward shore is a shore facing the direction toward which the wind is blowing. You have a leeward shore when the wind is blowing from the sea to the shore.

14. Subsequent Evolution of the Full Rigged Ship
By the 18th century, the full rigged ship had further evolved
Copper sheathing of the underwater hull
Overlapping joints to strengthen the frame of the ship
Sprit sail replaced by bowsprits with new booms for jib sails
Mizzenmast with lateen sails replaced by a large gaffsail with beam

15. Changes in Sail Rigging

16. Silhouette of a Full Rigged Ship

17. Later Version of the Full-Rigged Ship

18. Later Version of Full Rigged Ship

19. Impact of cannon - 1
Prior to the invention of cannon and gunpowder, oar-driven galleys would ram enemy vessels, allowing marines to swarm onto the enemy vessel
With the invention of cannons, ship battles became artillery duels at very short range
With the gun port – a hinged door built into the side of a ship – cannons could now fire from lower decks and carry more and heavier guns just above the waterline
When the ship was sailing, the ports – closed and caulked – kept out the sea
During a battle, the gunners opened the gun ports and fired away
Ramming enemy ships - The great sea powers of medieval times -- Venice, Genoa, the Ottoman Turks -- all relied on the galley as their principal fighting ship.
Driven by one or more banks of oars per side, each oar pulled by as many as five rowers, galleys were fast and maneuverable.
A captain would try to drive the ram that jutted from the prow into an opposing vessel or would close with the enemy, allowing a contingent of marines to swarm over the sides and engage in an armed melee on the enemy vessel.
Ship artillery battles - Beginning around 1340, there are records of cannon being carried aboard ships. From 1430 onward, guns were placed on the center decks of sailing ships and made to fire through ports cut in the hull in order to lower the ship’s center of gravity and increase its stability.
During the reign of Henry VIII, the English successfully made cannon of iron rather than bronze, thus cutting the cost of cannon to one third that of bronze cannon.
A large galley in 1600 could carry 6 or 7 cannon mounted on the bow and pointing forward. Meanwhile, a sailing ship could carry up to a 100 or more cannon.
Problems with cannons on ships - The use of cannon aboard ship was not without problems. One was controlling the violent recoil of the cannon.
To control recoil, gunners used a heavy breaching rope attached to the ribs of the ship and looped through a ring at the rear of the cannon. With the gun thrust inboard, the crew could reload more handily. Once the gun was ready to fire again, the sailors heaved on tackle running through two sets of blocks that linked the gun to the side of the ship, hauling the muzzle out of the gun port for firing. In spite of all precautions, there was always the danger that a gun might break away from its breaching and become a ‘loose cannon.’
Another problem was that the gunpowder used to fire the cannonball carried a severe danger of fire and explosion. To minimize the danger, gunpowder was stored in packages in a magazine in the lowest part of the ship, where it was most secure from enemy fire. During a battle, ships’ boys would carry the gunpowder packages to the gunners.
After the gun was fired, a crewmember would remove smoldering debris or powder from the gun barrel, another seaman would slide a wet sponge down the bore to extinguish any remaining embers. A third rammed home a cartridge of powder followed by a cannonball and a wad of shredded hemp. A wire thrust through the vent pieced the bag of powder, The gun captain then poured in fine priming powder from a flask. Then the gun crew ran the cannon out the gun port. While some of the crew held the gun in place, others adjusted the elevation, and then the gun was fired.
A crack squad might get off a shot every two minutes.

20. Impact of Cannons - 2
Led to the cannon-armed sailing ship replacing the oared galley
Led to the seaborne expansion of Europe and the Age of Exploration
Allowed Europeans to establish trading posts and forts on the coasts of Africa and the Indian Ocean
In 1509, the Portuguese defeated the Muslim fleet off the Indian port of Diu to win naval supremacy in the Indian Ocean
European sailing ships could carry many more cannon than Ottoman galleys, Arab dhows, or Chinese junks
Sailing ship replaced oared galley - Sailing ships did not make suitable fighting platforms before the invention of the gun, since the management of sails precluded engagement at the short ranges where pre-gunpowder weapons could take effect.
Oared ships were much more maneuverable in encounters where crews sought to close hand-to-hand with swords and spears. The advantage of the oared ship went further: by mounting a ram and working up to full rowing speed, it could actually sink another ship if it hit it broadside.
Once the cannon was invented, the sailing ship, especially after the invention of the gun port, could accommodate many more cannon than an oared galley. A large galley in 1600 could carry 6 or 7 cannon mounted on the bow and pointing forward. Meanwhile, a sailing ship could carry up to a 100 or more cannon.
Seaborne expansion of Europe - A ship carrying cannon could enter into the coastal waters of foreign powers with little risk of being approached, boarded, and captured by either the ships of foreign potentates or by mere pirates.
A handful of cannon-armed ships -- or even a single ship -- could engage and either destroy or drive off enemy vessels, even in foreign coastal waters.
Thus, the cannons on a ship permitted the Europeans to go where they wanted. The cannon completely tilted the balance of power at sea.
Ships armed with cannon could survive in hostile environments. They could project force ashore, both by supporting landing parties with cannon fire and by moving cannon from the ship to the shore.
Without equivalent armament, local leaders were forced to capitulate or reach some sort of accommodation.
Portuguese supremacy in the Indian Ocean - In 1501, Vasco da Gama returned to India with a fleet of ten ships, the largest of which carried 32 cannon. When the Muslim fleet of galleys attacked, da Gama fought a stand-off battle, using his cannon to destroy the Muslim fleet. In 1509, the Sultan of Egypt organized a formidable fleet of galleys in an attempt to reestablish Arab trading rights in India. In a battle off the Indian port of Diu, Portuguese cannon again proved their superiority

21. Why America Was Not Discovered Until 1492 - 1
Before 1492, European intellectuals, rulers, & sailors knew the earth was round
They also had a good idea of the circumference of the earth
24,000 miles as opposed to our 25,000
This meant Asia lay about 10,000 to 12,000 miles west of Europe
15th Century European ships were too small to carry the food and water needed to sustain crews on such a voyage
Round earth - Contrary to popular myth, 15th century European intellectuals, rulers, and sailors knew the earth was round. They accepted the theoretical possibility of sailing west to reach East Asia. Although they expected to find some more Atlantic islands to the west, no Europeans anticipated that any large continents would obstruct a westward passage to Asia.
Why Europeans did not sail west to Asia - What deterred Europeans from sailing due west for Asia was not fear of sailing off the edge of a flat world, but instead their surprisingly accurate understanding that the globe was too large.
Ancient Greek mathematicians had determined that the earth had a circumference of about 24,000 miles, which suggested that Asia lay about 10 to 12 thousand miles west of Europe. 15th century European ships were too small to carry enough food and water to sustain their crews on a 10,000 mile voyage beyond contact with land.

22. Why America Was Not Discovered Until 1492 - 2
The fall of Constantinople in 1453 caused spice-trade costs to go through the roof
Retail prices of spices in Europe skyrocketed as a result of Turkish price gouging
The alternative overland travel route via the Silk Road became too dangerous
This led to the European desire to seek new routes to the East
Led to the Portuguese sailing around the tip of Africa into the Indian Ocean
Led to the Spanish (and later the English and French) sending explorers to the West
The returning Crusaders had created an insa­tiable demand for the spices they had consumed in the Middle East.
So when Constantinople finally fell to the Turks in 1453, spice-trade costs went through the roof. Freight charges rocketed, overland travel was too dangerous and, at one point, the retail price of spices reached ten times the cost at source.
Some other, less expensive way had to be found. This was ultimately the problem that would kick off Western colonialism.

23. Why America Was Not Discovered Until 1492 - 3
Columbus radically underestimated the circumference of the earth
His estimate was 18,000 miles
He also calculated that Japan was only 3,500 miles west of Europe
What saved Columbus and his crew was the fact that the Americas were about 3,000 miles west of Spain
What Columbus believed - Columbus dared the westward trip to Asia because he believed that the earth’s circumference was only 18,000 miles – which would have place Japan only 3,500 miles west of Europe.
This critical and potentially fatal mistake in calculations inspired his eccentric confidence that he could sail westward to Asia. Columbus was fortunate that the unexpected Americas loomed at the 3,000 mile mark to provide fresh water and provisions before his men mutinied.
Because he believed that Asia was only 3,500 miles west of Europe, he was convinced that the lands he discovered were simply islands off the main Asian continents. He thus referred to the native Amerindians that he encountered as “Indians.” As a result, the inhabitants of the Indian subcontinent and the original inhabitants of the Americas have everafter been confused with each other since the term “Indian” got applied to both.

24. Piracy and Smuggling
The combination of the ocean-going sailing ship, cannon, and the European wars over colonies and fishing rights led to piracy and smuggling
During wartime, nations gave their nationals the right to prey upon enemy merchant shipping for profit
The U.S. Constitution gave Congress the right to grant “Letters of Marque and Reprisal and make Rules concerning Capture on Land and Water”
Smuggling (to avoid payment of import taxes) was common
The attempts to suppress smuggling in the American colonies played a major role in precipitating the American Revolution
Piracy – By the 17th century, transoceanic voyages had become fairly common. No longer the province of explorers, merchants began to ply the seas in search of trade. The merchants, however, were soon joined by pirates who found it more profitable to seize merchants’ ships and their cargo rather than trade for them.
Policing the oceans proved largely impractical until the 19th Century due to frequent maritime wars (which impelled warring states to encourage private attacks on enemy shipping), the inability to control ships at sea or even to know where they were or what they were doing, and the fact that privately-owned vessels were regularly armed.
Piracy tended to be a successful so long as the pirates had secure bases from which to operate and places in which to sell their loot.
These bases were regularly provided by nations interested in discouraging the maritime commerce of other nations.” Thus, England encouraged piracy against Spain, France against England, and North African Muslim states against Christian maritime states.
In addition, both the American and Asiatic coast included large areas which had not been settled or brought under the control of any government -- many Caribbean islands, the Mississippi delta, the Carolina coast, and the Malay peninsula all supplied bases for pirate activity.
The attempts of European governments to establish exclusive control of maritime trade for the benefit of their own selected nationals generated resistance from two sources: first, from the nationals of other governments; second, from their own nationals who had not been selected for participation in the government’s grant of a trading monopoly. Resistance took two forms: piracy and smuggling.

25. End of Piracy
For merchants, piracy raised the risks and costs of all ocean-going voyages
This led merchants and companies which had formerly engaged in piracy to pressure governments to repress it
A combination of legislation, international treaties, permanent navies, and ironclad ships ended piracy
Piracy tended to be a successful so long as the pirates had secure bases from which to operate and places in which to sell their loot.
These bases were regularly provided by nations interested in discouraging the maritime commerce of other nations.
Thus, England encouraged piracy against Spain, France against England, and North African Muslim states against Christian maritime states.
In addition, both the American and Asiatic coast included large areas which had not been settled or brought under the control of any government -- many Caribbean islands, the Mississippi delta, the Carolina coast, and the Malay peninsula all supplied bases for pirate activity
One of the reasons the French invaded Algeria in 1830 was to repress Algerian pirates.

26. European Voyages of Discovery
Brought Europeans into contact with cultures that were very different
Challenged core European concepts
Neither the Bible nor the Greek philosophers mentioned the Americas (or Australia or Antarctica)
Led to the Columbian Exchange
Eurasian crops and animals began to be raised in the Americas
American crops began to be cultivated in Europe, Asia, and Africa
Impact of European Voyages of Discovery - In the words of Jacques Barzun From Dawn to Decadence, “New knowledge about alien cultures creates self-consciousness, This is a fact and a theme: as soon as comparisons are made, one’s own customs are no longer seen as inevitable. If others can do common things differently, why can’t we?
Thus, the idea of deliberate change is born -- social engineering is around the corner and begins to find expression in literature.”
The mere fact of maritime voyage of discovery and trade led to intercultural and interpersonal contacts that exposed sailors and traders to the customs, beliefs, and interests of strange communities and peoples.
Intellectual Consequences of the Discovery of America – In the words of James Burke The Pinball Effect, “The discovery of America caused both a proliferation of knowledge and a discrediting of classical and biblical authority. No classical or biblical author (the twin pillars of knowledge) had mentioned its existence.
No sooner had the first foot been set in the New World than reports and samples of previously unknown organisms started flooding back to Europe.
Plants appeared for which there was no reference in the classic literature. These included chocolate, custard apples, cashew nut guavas, papayas, chilies, maple syrup, pineapples and tobacco.
There were also animals which had not been on board the Ark, so where had they come from?
The tropical rain forests of the New World broke Aristotle's weather law, which said that the farther south one went, the drier it became. These discoveries followed similar shocking revelations from the astronomers.”
Thomas Sowell in Conquest and Culture noted, “More than a material impact was made by the New World on the Old. A mental revolution was set in motion as well. After centuries of looking back with reverence to the superior achievements of the Roman Empire and to both the secular and religious authorities of ancient times, Europeans began to comment widely on the fact that these ancients never knew of the existence of half the world and so could not be infallible guides. This undermining of ancient authority was one of the Western Hemisphere’s inadvertent contributions to the changing of the mental universe of Europeans, a change also brought on by the rise of science. … Europeans now began to look forward rather than backward, and progress became a major theme in European thought and action, for better or worse.”

27. European Discovery of Hunter-Gatherers
The discovery by Europeans of hunter-gatherer bands in the Americas and the Pacific Islands had some very interesting intellectual consequences
Led to the creation of the concept of the ‘noble savage’
Led to the concept that private property was the root of all evil – e.g. Jean Jacques Rousseau
Led to the concept of “primitive communism” e.g. Karl Marx & Friedrich Engels
Led to the concept that society could be based on “free association” rather than submission to traditional authority
Noble savage in the Garden of Eden -- “The "discovery" of surviving hunter-gatherer bands by Europeans in the 16th-18th centuries led to the creation of the idealized portrait of the "noble savage" living in an unspoiled Eden.
Rousseau – In his Discourse on the Origin of Inequality, Jean-Jacques Rousseau famously said: ‘THE first man who, having enclosed a piece of ground, bethought himself of saying This is mine, and found people simple enough to believe him, was the real founder of civil society. From how many crimes, wars and murders, from how many horrors and misfortunes might not any one have saved mankind, by pulling up the stakes, or filling up the ditch, and crying to his fellows, "Beware of listening to this impostor; you are undone if you once forget that the fruits of the earth belong to us all, and the earth itself to nobody." This idea was to inspire many future radical thinkers, including Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels.
Primitive Communism -- When Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels developed the doctrine of communism in the nineteenth century, they were inspired in part by the "primitive communism" of hunter-gatherer societies described by Lewis H. Morgan, an American anthropologist who studied Native American societies
Free Association – Europeans saw Amerindians as surviving quite happily in voluntary, organized, and functioning societies that lacked the traditional European authority structures of Church and State.
This realization triggered the rapid spread in Europe of the radical concept of ‘free association’” -- a social principle at variance with old European social forms based on submission to authority.
“Free association proposed that communities of people should come together of their own free will and voluntarily agree on their laws, just as ‘primitive’ American tribes appeared to do.”
This concept influenced John Locke and many of the American and French revolutionaries.

28. The Columbian Exchange
Europeans and Africans, along with their animals and insects, introduced diseases into the Americas with devastating effects
Malaria, yellow fever, mumps, measles, chicken pox, smallpox, and influenza killed a large proportion of the American Indian population
Led Europe to shift its external trade from the Levant to the New World
Led to the economic decline of the Islamic world
Changing trade patterns - With the new crops, medicinal herbs, and tobacco received from the Americas, Europe developed a massive trade with the New World.
Centuries-old patterns of trade were disrupted, and, in some cases, destroyed, by a shift in the directions of commerce.
The relative importance of the Levant in the international trade between the Far East, India, the Middle East, and Europe declined as the Americas replaced previous international and internal European supply sources for a variety of products.
As Middle Eastern ability to tax and profit from Eurasian trade declined, so did the economic fortunes of the Islamic world. The Middle East now became a backwater.

29. The Columbian Exchange - 2
Led to a change in European, Asian, and African dietary habits
Imagine Thai, Indian, or Chinese cuisine without chili peppers or peanuts
Imagine Western Europe and Russia cuisine without the potato
Imagine Italian cuisine without the tomato
Imagine African cuisine without manioc or corn

30. Other Effects of Ocean-going Sailing Ships
Allowed the Portuguese to colonize islands off the coast of Africa where sugar could be grown
Since sugar was a labor-intensive crop, the Portuguese began importing African slaves and establishing sugar plantations to grow and process the sugar
Formed the template for slavery in the Americas
Allowed European ships to exploit the fishing grounds of the North Atlantic and the Newfoundland banks
Fishing and later whaling played a major role in the development of the New England economy
Fishing in turn led to shipbuilding, timber exporting, and barrel-making
Fishing - By 1500, huge fishing and whaling fleets sailed every year for the Grand Banks.
Half a century later, more than 2,000 Basques visited Labrador each summer, where they processed their catches before sailing home on the fall westerlies.
Bristol fleets sailed first to Portugal for salt, braving the stormy Bay of Biscay in winter, then crossed to Newfoundland for cod. They returned to Portugal with their catch, then filled their holds with wine, olive oil, and more salt for Bristol.
English vessels beat southward along the rugged Nova Scotia and Maine coasts following a bonanza of cod.
On May 14, 1602, the ship Concord rounded Cape God and “anchored in 15 fathoms, where we took a great store of codfish.” The Concord's skipper, Bartholomew Gosnold, noted that in spring, 'there is upon this coast, better fishing, and as in as great plentie, as in Newfoundland ... and besides the place is in but seven fathoms of water and within less than a league of shore.” He also named a tree-covered island after his wife Martha, calling it Martha's Vinyard.
For two decades, fishermen were content to catch and dry their cod on shore during the favorable months, but no one stayed during the stormy and harsh winters in a time of increasingly severe cold until in 1620

31. Other Effects of Ocean-going Sailing Ships - 2
Made possible the triangular trade that linked New England, the Caribbean, England, and Africa
Via the Manila Galleon, it brought East Asia into the European trading system
Exchanged Mexican silver for Chinese luxury goods
Triangular Trade – New England:
Sold dried and salted fish to the Caribbean and Spain/Portugal;
Sold timber to Britain and the Caribbean; barrels, and rum, guns, gunpowder, and utensils to Africa
Imported sugar and molasses from the Caribbean, and manufactured and luxury goods from Britain.
From Africa it bought slaves which were sold in the Caribbean and the American South.
Manila Galleon - Once a year, a treasure flotilla from Mexico, usually consisting of two large merchantmen, weighed down with silver and guarded by a heavily armed galleon, ventured westward along the equatorial route pioneered by Magellan to Manila.
The silver was exchanged for oriental luxury goods, mainly high-quality Chinese silk, which had been brought in junks from southern China and then shipped on the Manila galleon to Acapulco.

32. Wooden Casks
In the 17th-18th centuries, wooden casks were the shipping containers of the day
Even fragile items (packed in straw or sawdust) were shipped in them
Shippers of wine and hard liquor noticed that the process of shipping improved the flavor, taste, and smell of the product
Led to the process of storing wine and liquor in casks
In the 17th-18th centuries, wooded casks were the shipping containers of the day. Even items like crockery were shipped in them, packed in straw or sawdust.
Casks are robust, durable, rollable, and hoistable.
It didn’t take long for the early entrepreneurs of the booze trade to realize that, as with many wines, the process of shipment seemed to improve the rum remarkably, mellowing and smoothing the initially raw and acrid spirits and leaving it with interesting amber colors and more delicate fragrances. This led to the practice of storing wine, whiskey, rum, brandy, and other liquors in wooden casks in order to improve the flavor.

33. Clipper Ships
The clipper ships led to a vast increase in the tea trade with China
The growing demand for tea in Britain led to the growing importation of Chinese porcelain as ballast
The demand for tea cups and saucers that could hold hot tea led to the rise of the British porcelain industry
Wedgwood China
The American vessels, modeled after the finer hull lines of the swift privateers from the War of 1812, could make the run between New York and Canton in under a 100 days.
The new ships, called tea clippers, were immediately recognizable by their long, low hulls that had a "fish head" stern hanging sharply over the water.
They were square-rigged and triple-masted, "a perfect beauty to every nautical man," as one captain remarked. hundred days.
The tea clippers remain the fastest sailing ships in the world, in part because they were marvels of engineering and enterprise, and in part because there was never again a need for a big, fast sailing boat.
Trade with the Far East became so valuable that the French undertook the building of the Suez Canal.
Although clippers couldn't sail in the waterway—the Red Sea's winds were too challenging—a steamship could reach China in half the time of a clipper.
With well-placed fueling stations, the journey to China and India grew ever easier.
By 1869, when the Suez Canal was complete, all the improvements in navigation brought on by tea would become a thing of the past.
The ambitions of the Brit­ish merchant fleet could be fueled by reliable and steady coal, not fickle wind
British porcelain industry - Tea's light weight meant that a merchant ship transporting it needed ballast to stay trim, and for most of the early years of the tea trade, that ballast consisted of blue and white Chinese porce­lain, which also helped protect against leaking of sea water into the tea crates.
Tea's growing consumer base encouraged the development of the porcelain industry in Britain—among the very first industries to take advantage of the nineteenth century's mechanical innova­tions.
Prior to the eighteenth century, no European factories could make a ceramic teacup capable of holding boiling water.
After 1750, Meissen and Wedgwood discovered the secret of Chinese porcelain production and a new mechanized porcelain manufacturing industry was born.

34. Clipper Ship