I read about this once in what I remember as a particularly uninteresting book, and have been wondering if there is any truth to it.
I’ve long forgotten the details, but IIRC Ship A was chasing Ship B. Ship B was faster, so Ship A put up more sail. Since there was more canvas up than there was ship below, Ship A essentially drove herself underwater - the wind drove her down rather than forward.
I have two questions, I suppose:
Is/was this possible? (A ship under full sail has a heckuvalot of canvas up there; I suppose it would be, but, then, I’ve never sailed.)
Is the scene I’ve mentioned based in historical fact, or is it a fisherman’s story?
Well, it’s certainly true that the sails exert a nose-down moment on the hull; and I suppose that if a big wave came at you head-on, an over-sailed ship might plow through it instead of gliding over it. But I don’t think you’re ever going to be able to set enough sail to press the ship underwater.
I think this episode was included in James Michenor’s “Chesapeake” where one character had turned to piracy (or slaving or some such) and the authorities were trying to catch him. There was a pretty good storm coming up, the seas were getting rough, the pirate was in a sleek, well-built ship, and the other ship was a big and bulky Man-Of-War with a lot of cannon on board. The pirate escaped capture by sailing at high speed into the storm and watching as the pursuer buried itself in the waves trying to keep up.
However, although I can find no direct cite at present, I can easily imagine a situation in which a vessel, badly trimmed, is so down by the head that overpressing would cause it to ship water over the bow, flooding the forward spaces. This would put the bow down further so that the next time it hits a big wave it would ship more water, und so weiter. A fair case of positive feedback.
IIRC, many of the Clipper Ships were built to very fine-lined, almost racing standards to maximize speed. One such ship actually had so fine (too damn fine!) a bow that retofitted ‘packs’ had to be added to the bow to correct serious seaworthiness issues. Later, in rough weather, the packs broke away, and the clipper drove into a wave under full sail, and never recovered.
I don’t have the cite right here, it’s from a book on clipper ships my father owns.
This is an extreme and rare example, of course. Few ships or boats can loft enough sail to risk overpressing
A ship can plow into waves and it is not going to sink at all. Ships have decks to keep water out of the holds. Have a look at the documentary the barque Peking sailing around Cape Horn and you can see the ship with the decks being washed over by the waves. With every roll it just shakes of the tons of water and takes another few tons with the next wave and roll. A sailor can get washed overboard though and they set straining nets all along the rails. Still, a couple of guys were washed away.
I think that while a heavy press of sail could put a ship in some danger by forcing her down by the bow, it’s more likely that the ship would sustain damage aloft. Sails splitting, spars carrying away, that sort of thing. If that didn’t happen, I think there’s a greater chance of the ship broaching rather than being driven under water, that is turn violently into the wind. That would depend on the weather conditions, the point of sail relative to the wind, and what sails were set though.
I agree with Rockmotteller. Damage to equipment and capsizing due to too much sail for the conditions happens all the time even today. To actually sink the ship by driving the bow underwater is an unlikely situation, but I believe it to be possible given bad trim, a following wind, and heavy seas.
True in most cases, however it is dangerous practise to dismiss exceptional and unusual occurrences as impossible - even modern ships can have problems.
The deck structures of sailing ships of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries (the Peking sailed in 1929) were far from watertight, and water is heavy. It would not require bad weather as extreme as a typhoon for water coming inboard over the bow to do significant damage.
The OP asked if it was possible, not probable, not likely, but possible.
Too much sail when surfing down the face of a large wave can lead to pitchpoling end over end.
For a fun, non-technical read on this sort of thing, check out “The Race” by tim Zimmerman. It is an account of extremely fast, giant catamarans racing in the windy southern ocean, and talks extensively of the problem of pitchpolin.
With insufficient bouyancy forward, a hevy press of sail aloft, and a serious wind, you nac plunge the bow a ship deep enough to allow for progressive flooding. Once that happens, the problem grows rapidly, as evey pound of water in th bows further reduced the resserve bouyancy of the fwd portion of the hull.
It all comes down to style when performing such enders. A 360 degree pirouette with the hull landing back in the water is ideal and to be admired by all, whereas a plain flop over onto the deck is very poor form.
The OP cannot really be answered with a “yes” or a "no"but only with many considerations and questions.
When setting too much canvas the rigging would suffer damage before the hull.
In high seas a boat will climb over a wave and then surf at high speed down the other side and can easily have the bow dig into the trough and pitchpole. A good helmsman knows how to handle the boat so this does not happen. On a big ship you would need correspondingly bigger waves so you really have to ask many questions before you can answer this.
