the commercial sailing vessel was by no means obsolete. They still show video on the history channel of WWI U-boats torpedoing them. On certain routes, for certain cargoes, the "windjammers", (large, three-masted square riggers) were still commercially viable, even into the late 1920s, and there were still many sailing vessels involved in coastal trading, fishing, and other duties were speed was not necessary, and cargoes were not perishable. Large fore-and-aft rigged barques of up to 7 masts were still in use on some routes, although the manpower costs were partially mitigated with steam winches, etc.

What finally killed the sailing vessel was not the innate superiority of reciprocal steam propulsion (which was very cumbersome and inefficient at first), but the fact that large crews of skilled sailors were too expensive. The chronically underemployed industrial workers of the late 19th century replaced skilled seamen, and you didn't need as many.

When London disses the "sailor" on large vessels he's still talking about sailing vessels. On big commercial sailing ships, the all-around mariner (like London) who could "reef, hand, and steer" had been replaced by a specialist who could only do one mechanical job well, like operate a powered windlass, splicing wire rope or pipefitting.

I know it sounds overly romanticized and sentimental, but there is more than just swashbuckling romance to the sailing life. As a sailor, you deal with the universe, you bend it to your will, directly, without multiple overlapping layers of abstraction, technology and specialization. The rig pokes into the atmosphere, and the hull grips the water. The human eye and hand and brain masters the interface between sea and sky. It all comes together in your mind and body. You deal with the universe from a man-made craft built with natural materials by simple tools using only a wooden tiller and a fiber rope to impose your will on the cosmos.

I have studied science and mathematics, I understand modern chemistry and physics, and I have earned my living in high tech as a programmer, (for eight years in Silicon Valley!). But the one thing I have done in my life I am proudest of is that I can still take a sailing ship anywhere in the world without any more high tech than a magnetic compass and a sextant.

Sure, we don't need cowboys any more, but who wants to work in a feed lot?