This thesis will deal with sailing vessels on the eastern Adriatic coast through three main phases: the initial ascent, development and their twilight when they were pushed out by steamships. During their domination, which lasted approximately 700 years, sailing vessels underwent various changes, always striving for perfection. With the appearance of clean sailing ships for long voyages in the XIII. century, during the nautical revolution, they discarded the oars and, by adding the Navarrian rudder, sailed unhindered outside the Adriatic Sea, that is, the Mediterranean. Due to such important changes, the development of sailing vessels will be described through three periods: the Hungarian-Croatian period and the period of Dalmatian free municipalities (1200.-1420.), the Venetian rule (1420.-1797.) and the Austro-Hungarian administration (1797.-1914.). Each period and rule brought some different challenges for the Croatian people, but also for the continued development of shipping and shipbuilding, which either allowed or hindered its further development. During the Hungarian-Croatian period, the greatest prosperity will be experienced by Dubrovnik, while the Venetian rule will completely paralyze some shipyards as well as maritime centers that will not have sailing vessels for long voyages until the XVIII. century. Passing under Austro-Hungarian rule, the eastern Adriatic coast faces a new player coming on the scene - a steamer, which will pose a great danger and competition to sailboat owners and bring not only a struggle between foreign and domestic capital, but also various social changes such as the transition from carat to joint stock companies and the complete reorientation of the shipyard from a wooden to an iron way of making a ship. By establishing numerous steamship companies along the coast and opening rail traffic, it will improve the general situation on the eastern Adriatic coast, signaling that the Croatian people are slowly but surely adapting to the new age in which steamships will remain and sailboats will disappear. Indeed, little by little, steamships take away functions from sailing vessels and in a very short time throw them out of the world's seas, leaving them, once untouchable and in full force, in coastal navigation where they manage to preserve their own existence by installing an auxiliary engine.