Square rigged ships (the pirate ship most people imagine) are designed primarily for speed running with the wind. They would sail more or less down a line of longitude to a trade wind and then sail in the direction of that wind. They could tack of course but they were really not very good at sailing upwind and that was essentially a design trade off to make them better at sailing in the trade wind.
Ship builders of that time did, of course, know how to make more maneuverable ships with different types of rigging. These would all be used for different jobs, eg coastal and fishing.
But for long distance transport, speed with the trade wind was the most important consideration.
