Portal:Ships/Selected article

A dhow is a traditional Arab sailing vessel with one or more lateen sails. In historical sea culture is primarily used along the coasts of the Arabian Peninsula, India, and East Africa. Dhows are similar to the cutter in that both ships are capable of moving four times per round and both able to sustain the same amount of damage. The dhow has more firepower (medium versus small cannon) but it is easier to achieve the maximum rate of fire on the cutter (8 cannons/2 gunning stations on the cutter versus 4 cannons and only 1 gunning station on the dhow).

The dhow's lack of gun to crew percentage and relative ease with which it can be damaged make it unpractical as a blockade ship outside of early buoy racing but making it a reasonable small to medium pillaging ship. When the dhow was released to production oceans with it, along with its smaller counterpart the baghlah, became the first ship to require the use of lacquer in production making it considerably more expensive than ships with similar construction values.