The carrying of sweeps was more common on smaller ships (up to the size of small frigates), in sheltered waters, on shallow draft hulls, in areas where calms were prevalent.

For example, the Russians used sweep equipped naval vessels later and more than most other navies as the Baltic had shallow, sheltered, waters, with fluky winds. (Shallow waters led to building shallow draft warships (so they could enter more harbors). The shallow draft made them perform worse under sail, but easier to move using sweeps, than more conventional ship designs.)

Where ships were equipped with sweeps, they were not used very often, and not often used in conjunction with sails.

Sweeps ,if carried, could be used to maneuver in tight, restricted waters, such as harbors, but other techiques, such as towing by the ship's boats, kedging, or warping, could be used by sailing ships without sweeps. Sweeps were also used (and this was the main reason for having them) to be able to direct the cannon broadsides of warships when there was a calm, with no wind.

Sailing warships were vulnerable to attack from their bows or sterns, as they mounted few cannon facing forward or aft. In a calm, a sailing warship could not turn to point its broadsides at a threat. In areas where calms were common, such as the Baltic or the Mediterranean, navies often had galleys, propelled by oars, as part of their fleet. Although sailing warships had little problem defeating galleys if there was wind (because they carried vastly more cannon), in a calm, sailing warships became vulnerable to galley attack.

The desire to provide a defense against galley attack in a calm was the main reason for warships to carry sweeps. That is also why they were more prevalent in the Russian Baltic navy (faced with many calms and Swedish galleys) than in most others.

Russian Warships in the Age of Sail, Eduard Sozaev, John Tredrea