(copying my comment from another post)

I had to look this one up, I didn’t realize how old the technology was

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flettner_rotor

A Flettner rotor is a smooth cylinder with disc end plates which is spun along its long axis and, as air passes at right angles across it, the Magnus effect causes an aerodynamic force to be generated in the direction perpendicular to both the long axis and the direction of airflow.[1] The rotor sail is named after the German aviation engineer and inventor Anton Flettner, who started developing the rotor sail in the 1920s.

The Buckau, the Flettner Rotor Ship, photographed in 1924

I’m pretty sure this is referencing the urban legend of a military vessel wanting a lighthouse to make way to them.

Diabolical