THE CARRACK SAIL BOAT

The ships of Medieval Europe were powered by sail or oar, or both.It was not until after 200 B.C. that triangular "lateen" sails were adopted in the Mediterranean region. Pioneered by the Arabs possibly as early as 200 B.C., these triangle-shaped sails were slung across the mast to a long, sloping crossbar, and were the earliest example of fore-and-aft sails.

Angling from high above the mast down nearly to the deck, their maneuverability permitted a ship to sail almost into the wind. This ability to "tack" into the wind greatly increased the potential and range of a sailing ship, and proved to be a major breakthrough when combined with the square sail. Together, they produced a vessel capable of conquering the oceans. 

In the East, China became a major sea power around 1,000 A.D. because of its development of the junk. The term ultimately stems from the Chinese chuán (船, "boat; ship"), also based on and pronounced as [dzuːŋ] (Pe̍h-ōe-jī: chûn) in the Min Nan variant of Chinese, or zhōu (舟), the old word for a sailing vessel.[citation needed] It entered the English language in the 17th century through the Portuguese junco from the Javanese djong.[2] The modern Standard Chinese word for an ocean-going wooden cargo vessel is cáo (艚)

Their use of the lugsail, which was shaped like a trapezoid and strengthened by bamboo strips, combined with their invention of the rudder, made these ships one of the most efficient vessels ever to move under sail power. Junks were often five-masted, and the stiffness of their lugsails allowed them to make use of even the slightest gusts of wind.

A crucial problem with Mediterranean ships was that they still employed steering oars. Despite their great size and the ability to sail close haulted, their shallow draft and steering oars gave little resistance to the wind. These ships made a tremendous amount of leeway (drifting with the wind) and could spend several days going nowhere, losing to leeway, what progress they made sailing. A record dated to 1183 by a ship sailing from Sicily reports passing Crete…three times. Needless to say this played havoc with navigation, and was downright dangerous in close waters. As a result the first Mediterranean lighthouse of the period was built in Genoa in 1161.

Marine Paintings and Drawings in the Peabody Essex Museum 
 

The 1% Opium Drug Smuggling Boston Brahmins Pirates

The Old Clipper Days ~ Julian S. Cutler

"When we sold the Heathen nations rum and opium in rolls,
And the Missionaries went along to save their sinful souls."

Houqua (clipper)

The Houqua was an early clipper ship with an innovative hull design, built for A.A. Low & Brother in 1844. She sailed in the China Opium trade.

The Houqua was named "in honor of the beloved Canton Hong merchant Houqua, who had died the year before, and with whom the Low brothers had traded with in China for many years. 
Houqua, (also spelled Howqua or Hoqua), was the most prominent Hong merchant of the day. He "was to take her delivery in China as a warship on behalf of the Chinese government. However, upon arrival, she was found to be too small, and so she spent her career in merchant service for A.A. Low

Howqua (Chinese: 伍秉鉴; pinyin: Wu Bingjian, Cantonese: Ńg Bẽnkgâm; 1769 – 4 September 1843[2]) was the most important of the Hong merchants in the Thirteen Factories, and the leader of the Canton Cohong - Ewo (怡和). He was once one of the richest men in the world.

Opium Clipper Ship Trade - Chinese Attack on an Opium Clipper
http://www.eraoftheclipperships.com/page8web.html

In 1842, the Opium War came to a end after the signing of the Treaty of Nanking. England now had control of the island of Hong Kong and from this base of operations, opium smuggling grew with each passing year. Sleek new opium clippers were now being built for this highly profitable trade, many of them in Aberdeen, Scotland.
As this market grew following the Opium War, shrewd shippers realized the growing importance of acquiring large fast ships with which to go up against their rivals in this increasingly competitive trade, and to dispatch their ships to Chinese ports every autumn to await the first tea pickings.
Once the tea was in the holds, the great sailing race half way around the world commenced down the South China Sea, past Anjier, across the Indian Ocean, around the Cape of Good Hope, and up the Atlantic to New York.
The Low brothers were early on the scene in China. They were all sons of Seth Low, a drug merchant of Salem who had a dozen sons. Seth Low saw his opportunity as early as 1833, and had made his fortune in the China tea trade and importing such exotic wares as mocha, asafetida, gum arabic, and musk in pods. Like many of the Yankee merchants, the Lows had moved from Salem to New York City, finding it a much more suitable location from which to conduct their business. They were such a numerous clan that someone from Salem, in jest, made up a jingle about them: "Old Low, old Low's son, Never saw so many Lows since the world begun."
Abiel Abbott Low had been in Canton for seven years serving with the merchant firm of Russell & Company. One Low brother after another followed him to Canton to work for the same firm. Abbott had made his fortune by 1840 and returned to New York the following year and continued to conduct his business in New York and established the family firm of A. A. Low & Bros.

 

Some recollections by Captain Charles P. Low, commending the clipper ships "Houqua," "Jacob Bell," "Samuel Russell," and "N.B. Palmer," in the China trade, 1847-1873.
 

Copyright By FRANCES LOW PARTRIDGE 1905
This book is dedicated to my wife and to our seven children