For many years the sailing ships had one great advantage over the steamers in that the huge coal consumption of the latter's machinery made it very difficult to run them at a profit on routes where coal was dear or where the bunkering stations were far apart. As steamers became more economical this handicap was gradually removed, and the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 forced sailing ship owners to cut down their running expenses and increase their carrying capacity if they were to compete with the steamer. Clipper freights were no longer to be obtained, and without them the fine-lined clippers could not be run at a profit. Not only would they not stow sufficient cargo, but they made it necessary to maintain a large crew. The ship rig, that is to say the sailing vessel with yards on all her masts, had been introduced in the early days of convoys and fleet tactics in order that speed might be regulated by backing the squaresails on the mizzen. It was maintained by most of the fast ships after the convoy days had ended more or less as a matter of tradition, for under all plain sail it made very little difference to the actual speed of the ship, while the barque rig, in which the aftermost mast was fore and aft rigged and the others square, meant a very con siderable economy in men. Thus, although the full-rigged ship did not disappear rapidly, many of the new ships laid down were barque rigged and many existing ships were converted, while owners no longer gave orders for extreme clippers but insisted on a fair carrying capacity. Some of these vessels with fuller lines made remarkably good passages, and they were invariably more comfortable than the clippers.
Iron sailing ships also became almost universal on account of the saving on their weight in their hull, and finally the steel ship came into existence for the same reason. In the early 'nineties there was a considerable revival in the construction of sailing ships in Great Britain, invariably designed to carry the maximum load at reasonable speed with the smallest possible crew. The British yards turned out a considerable number of ships at this time but still more, proportionately, were built for French owners who had the greatest assistance in running their ships by the navigation bounties offered by the Government, bounties that were so considerable that it paid a shipowner to take a sailing vessel round the world without a ton of cargo on board. The Germans also built a number of large sailing vessels, some with auxiliary machinery, principally for their trade with the nitrate ports on the West coast of South America.
The American sailing ship owners lost the greater part of their enthusiasm for square rigged ships when the trans-Continental Railways finished the Californian trade, although a few were built even into the present century. The "Atlas" of 1902 was their last big iron ship, but some owners favoured the wooden construction with which they had made their name right into the 'nineties, the "Aryan" of 1893 being the last. Until a very much later date, however, American owners took an interest in the multiple masted schooners which they made peculiarly their own. Although they were sent on ocean voyages these schooners were particularly adapted for the American coastal trade, where they carried large cargoes with very small crews ; the wooden 6-masted "Wyoming" (3,73o tons built in 1909) and the steel 7-masted "Thomas W. Lawson" (5,218 tons built in 1902) were extreme specimens of this type.
Apart from these, however, and a few sail training ships built for naval purposes, the large sailing vessels now at sea are prin cipally old ships which have passed under the various Scandi navian and other flags to be run as cheaply as possible at the end of their days. The last surviving British square rigged ship at sea (1929) is the "Garthpool," a four-masted barque of 2,842 tons built as the "Juteopolis" in 1891.
During the World War a large number of wooden auxiliary schooners were built, as rapidly as possible, to replace losses caused by the German submarine Nockade, but the great majority of these have been broken up since the Armistice.