The Age of sail reference article from the English Wikipedia on 24-Apr-2004 (provided by Fixed Reference: snapshots of Wikipedia from wikipedia.org)

Age of sail

The age of sail is the period in which naval warfare was dominated by sailing ships. The age of sail runs roughly from the Battle of Lepanto (1571), the last significant engagement in which galleys played a major part, to the Battle of Hampton Roads (1862), in which the steam-powered CSS Virginia destroyed the sailing ships USS Cumberland and USS Congress.

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