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Iron hulled sailing ships represented the final evolution of sailing ships at the end of the age of sail. They were built to carry bulk cargo for long distances in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. They were the largest of merchant sailing ships, with three to five masts and square sails, as well as other sail plans. They carried lumber, guano, grain or ore between continents. Later examples had steel hulls. They are sometimes referred to as "windjammers" or "tall ships". Several survive, variously operating as school ships, museum ships, restaurant ships, and cruise ships.

Iron hulled sailing ships were mainly built from the 1870s to 1900, when steamships began to outpace them economically, due to their ability to keep a schedule regardless of the wind. Steel hulls started to become common from 1885, providing an even greater strength to weight ratio. Even into the twentieth century, sailing ships could hold their own on ultra long voyages such as Australia to Europe, since they did not require bunkerage for coal nor freshwater for steam, and they were faster than steamers, which usually could barely make Many sailed under the Finnish flag during at least some part of their careers. Ship owner Gustaf Erikson of Mariehamn, Åland, Finland, was noted for his fleet during the interwar period. Other sailing ship companies carrying on despite the onset of the machine age were F. Laeisz of Hamburg and A. D. Bordes of Dunkirk. The four masted, iron hulled ship, introduced in 1875 with the full rigged County of Peebles, represented an especially efficient configuration that prolonged the competitiveness of sail against steam in the later part of the 19th century. The largest example of such ships was the five masted full rigged ship Preussen, which had a load capacity of 7,800 tons. She was also one of the fastest, regularly logging average speed on transatlantic voyages. Unfortunately speed was her undoing, as she collided with a steamer that underestimated the speed of the Preussen when crossing before her. The second largest example was France II.

The last large commercial sailing vessels, designed well after the Industrial Revolution, used engineered iron and steel in their construction. In general, the ships displaced between 2,000 and 5,000 tons and were cheaper than their wooden hulled counterparts for three main reasons: (1) iron was stronger and enabled larger ship size, capable of delivering considerable economies of scale, (2) iron hulls took up less space, allowing more room for cargo in a given hull size, and (3) iron required less maintenance than a wooden hull. The large sail plans and raked bows of these vessels invite confusion with clippers, but there are significant differences. Clippers were optimized for speed, these vessels were optimized for cargo capacity and ease of handling. Most clippers were of composite construction (iron structure, wooden planking), full rigged and had a cargo capacity of less than 1,000 tonnes; these vessels were iron and steel hulled, usually barque rigged, and had far greater cargo capacities. Clippers had already begun to disappear when these vessels emerged. Typically, such vessels were equipped with steel masts and yards and steel cables, where possible. Often the running rigging was handled by motor driven winches powered by donkey engines.