Spanish and Portuguese shipbuilders took a navigational leap forward at the end of the fifteenth century by borrowing a technology from their Muslim rivals: the lateen sail, a triangular sail joined at 45 degrees to a ship’s mast. Combining lateen sails with traditional European square rigs offered advantages of speed and maneuverability without sacrificing the stability of the square sail. The result was large ships that performed like smaller vessels. The “combined rig made possible a change in the nature of exploring voyages,” quickly becoming the preferred means for crossing the Atlantic.
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