[tgarv]

Well said, and I just want to add some detail about how square-rigged ships are able to sail close-hauled:

They typically (or maybe always?) have "staysails", which run fore-and-aft between the masts, which works mostly like the main triangular sail you think of with a simple sailboat (with the exception that, as far as I know, these staysails aren't on a boom that can change its angle relative to the ship). These are able to take the wind at an angle but still generate forward thrust.

The "yards", the sections that hold the square sails perpendicular to the ship, are also able to rotate between perpendicular and nearly-parallel to the ship, which lets them take advantage of a wide range of wind directions.

(I'm also not much of a sailor, I've just sailed some tiny single-sail boats, but I've learned a lot while reading through the Aubrey-Maturin series and from playing the game Naval Action)

[scooble]

> A single huge fore-and-aft sail would be too hard to handle

This isn't quite right, as split fore and aft rigs existed that solved this problem. I suspect it is more that power replaced sail for crossing oceans and square sails make little sense for coastal work so they had already switched to fore and aft rigs (with a few notable exceptions, such as Humberkeels in the north of England).