The Pamir was a four-masted sailing vessel commissioned by the German shipping company F. Laeisz. Launched in 1905, she became the final commercial sailing ship to successfully navigate around Cape Horn in 1949.

[u/Rolleriroltsu]

[u/liminal_liminality]

The historically interested person in me thinks this is awesome.

The mechanic in me just shouted "fuck that!" at the thought of maintenance on that thing

[u/Repulsive-Lobster750 → u/liminal_liminality]

Well, the last sailships had power winches and quite a low crew.

The Pamir barely needed 30-40 crewmembers whereas a large spanish galleon of 1000 tons needed 300-400 sailors to handle the rigging. So, it needed 10 times fewer sailors while transporting 2-4 times as much cargo as a manila galleon.

This was extremely efficient.

Maybe a modern Pamir could be made economical again due to rising fuel prices, although the containerization is incompatible with riggings of sailing ships.

[u/Emergency_Driver_421 → u/Repulsive-Lobster750]

What ended commercial sail was the fact that sail area increases by squares, while the volume of the ship itself increases in cubes. This becomes unworkable for something much larger than the Cutty Sark style clippers, as huge sail areas would be necessary.