The so-called "sail age" of the navy refers to the movement of ships relying entirely or mainly on the power brought by the wind blowing the sails. The main features of the ships of this era were their high hulls, the appearance of multi-decks, dense masts on board, and sail hunting. At full sail, a large sailing ship can hang up to 36 sails, and thanks to the combination of straight and cross-sail, the ship can sail upwind on a circuitous route. The "Age of Sails" was an era between human paddle power and steam power, and in this era, the era of rapid development of the nautical industry. After the Age of Discovery, there was the colonial era that spread all over the world, during this period, the sea was full of large warships with snow-white sails, and naval battles were frequent in the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. With the sound of cannons, the colonists brought their own ships and cannons, blasted open the doors of other countries, and at the same time promoted the development of the world. And for various reasons, we have missed the era of sail naval warfare, and we have been in seclusion when the Age of Western Exploration was in full swing, so that we still lag behind the Western world to this day, which is a sad sigh. Today, the author will start with the naval technology in the era of sail and analyze the naval tactics in the age of sail.

The navy of this period was different from the steam age when it was generally equipped with rear-loading steel rifled guns, and the navy used front-loading smoothbore guns made of bronze or pig iron for a long time, which were basically divided into naval guns with strong penetration and long range and mortars with a shorter range but great destructive power. There are three main types of ammunition: solid shells for the destruction of enemy hulls; Shotguns used to kill and injure enemy personnel, which are often referred to as flowering shells; Chain shells used to disrupt enemy ships' masts and incapacitate them in order to capture them (anyone who has seen Pirates of the Caribbean 3 will have an impression of this ammunition, which Captain Barbusa jumped on the conference table with this ammunition in his hand during the Pirate Guild). The term "battle line" is explained here, during the entire period of the Age of Sail and later the Age of Steam, when naval warfare was carried out, the fleets of the two warring sides entered the combat area in a single column, and after reaching the firing range, they fired at each other, and if you look at it from the air, you will see that two parallel lines of sailing ships are connected end to end, and the inside of the two lines is filled with gunsmoke (in a windless state, of course). And this straight line composed of battleships is called the "battleline", from which the name "battleship" comes from. In the 50s of the 18th century, 50 guns became the minimum standard of firepower for battleships; By the 80s of the 18th century, 64 guns were the smallest battleships. After 1805, 74 guns were the smallest battleships, and as a result, by 1830, 80 large-caliber guns were eligible for inclusion in the battle fleet.

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The influence of wind direction on operational tactics:

Sailing ships are certainly inseparable from the wind, and it will be difficult to move an inch without wind, and I believe that friends who have played the "Age of Discovery" are well aware of this truth. The relative position of two sailing ships or two fleets, depending on the direction of the wind, involved the most important tactical issues and was one of the main concerns of the admirals of the time. First of all, we need to carefully compare the effect of the relative positions of the upwind and downwind on the combat effectiveness of the fleet (the "upwind" and "downwind" here refer to the direction perpendicular to the battle line, not the longitudinal direction of the fleet). Both fleet operations and single-ship engagements are greatly affected by the position of the ship in relation to the direction of the wind. The upwind ship has its hull tilted downwind due to the action of the wind, so that the lower running door will either enter the water (in the case of strong wind and waves) due to its low position, or the muzzle of the gun will be pointed at the sea, while the downwind ship will have a better position to fire the gun. However, since the downwind ship is up-tilted towards the enemy fleet, it is very likely that the shells fired from its upper deck will hit the rigging of the local fleet. Therefore, in actual combat, it is necessary to seize different combat positions according to the different operational objectives (annihilation or capture). This is crucial in the combat maneuver of the fleet. The significant advantage of a ship gaining the upper hand is the ability to enter and withdraw from battle at will, as well as to create a favorable offensive posture when choosing a method of attack. The ships that had the upper hand could not attack, their combat situation was limited to defense, and they could only fight according to the enemy's intentions. Ships attacking upwind will be disrupted by their own coordination and command (although this is unlikely) and enemy strikes, and will be exposed to enemy fire, and may partially or completely ineffective the guns of some of the attacking ships (because the guns are mainly installed on the side of the ships, and they are vertically approaching the enemy during the attack). A ship that has the upper hand can compensate for this disadvantage by maintaining a good battle formation and continuing to fire at the enemy's guns even if he is unable to return fire because of his maneuvering.

Britain and France were the two great naval powers of the Age of Sail, and although the Netherlands also had a tripartite relationship with them, they later declined, which is beyond the scope of this article. At that time, the presence of warships carrying "English" or "French" on the shores of any country was enough to terrify the local rulers. Britain and France also fought numerous battles at sea for the position of maritime supremacy. The British often preferred to occupy the upper hand, because it was the consistent policy of the British to attack and destroy their enemies; The French, on the other hand, were accustomed to occupying the upper hand, which usually allowed them to weaken the enemy's fighting force when they approached, and to preserve their strength by avoiding a decisive engagement.

The age of the arson ship:

In the age of sails, the rational use of arson ships often played a decisive role in the outcome of battles, although it was only an appendage of the fleet. For the ships of that time, the arson ship was similar to the modern *. The hulls of ships in the Age of Sail were made of wood, and the power of an arsonist ship was that once it collided with an enemy ship, it would cause the enemy ship to burn until it burned up. Historically, there have been many naval battles in which arsonists have participated and played a decisive role, and in 1588, Spain and England fought a major battle in the Flemish Sea. Taking advantage of the favorable winds, the British arsonist ship rushed to the Spanish "Armada". The "Invincible Armada" was destroyed in this battle, and the greatest contributor was obviously the arsonist ship. However, arson ships are not as suitable for use in melee as *, and if used, they are very likely to injure your own ship.

In short, the "Age of Sails" is an era of great progress in marine development, and the study of naval strategy and tactics in this period is of great significance for understanding the development process of the navy and studying the development strategy and historical inheritance of modern navies in various countries.

The study of the success of the British Navy has become an important national research project, and over the years has provided a large number of jobs and meal tickets for researchers in the UK and around the world. The results of the study are even more varied: military scientists believe that the success of the British Navy is due to the lives of British officers and men: small soldiers are not afraid of death, and big officers love to make money; Sociologists and historians have pointed out that the great social changes and changes in class composition in the 17th and 18th centuries were the main reasons for the success of the British (sound familiar?). New Oriental reviewed GRE logic and practiced this question); Psychologists have proposed that the self-satisfied personality of the British fully mobilized their enthusiasm to fight wars; Nutritionists emphasize that the main reason why the British won naval battles was that they liked to eat beef. My economist friend, Professor Douglas Allen, believes that there is a very serious information asymmetry in naval operations in the era of sail warships, which is mainly reflected in the hidden actions of ship commanders and fleet commanders, in other words, these managers have moral hazard (moralhazard). However, the British Navy implemented a series of systems to ensure that their navy was better able to overcome this information asymmetry than the navies of other countries, so that they could better serve His Majesty the British Monarch and thus be invincible in the world (this comment is well deserved). The following articles are adapted from DougAllen's article "TheBritishNavyRules: MonitoringandIncompatibleIncentivesintheAgeofFightingSail".

Why is it said that there is an extremely serious information asymmetry in the operation of the navy in the era of sail warships? Listen to the details. For one, in the Age of Discovery, warships were very expensive and crucial to securing shipping routes. How is such an important asset managed? General Manager Admiralty Words: Go and block the enemy docks for me, go and capture Captain Jack for me (the Pirates of the Caribbean have seen it) to protect our merchant ships, and go and kill the enemy ships for me. The order was so abstract that the expensive battleship was casually handed over to the manager (captain). The captain has a strong information advantage over the Admiralty in that the communication is slow and the interval is long, most of the sea area is unknown, the nautical charts are incomplete, the knowledge of the trade wind is incomplete, the longitude and latitude positioning is not well developed, and the battleship is sail forward, so that the mission is not completed, the man-made disaster, the defeat of the battle, and the loss of any captain for which the captain should be held responsible can be attributed to God. Basically, the loss of state-owned assets is the captain's mouth, and the Admiralty cannot find out.

Second, in the era of sails, everyone carried a shroud on board the ship (the proportion of people who died of illness was higher than that of war death), and they risked thousands of miles to save their lives and seek wealth. Fools know to choose jobs with low risks and high returns, let alone captains. What kind of work falls into this category? Bullying enemy merchant ships that are basically powerless to fight back (merchant ship guy: Cut, what kind of heroes are we?) Admiral: We don't want to be good men, we want to be rich! ), or go ashore and loot (remember the Wakos). Which jobs are risky and low-return? Needless to say, fighting a war to chase pirates.

The above points out two major problems of information asymmetry in naval operations: war cowardice and selfishness. This will be highlighted in (4). So is there any way to make these death-scared and selfish guys serve the British Empire honestly? Listen to the breakdown below.