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A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: sailing vessel types and rigs
From: Martin Ridsdale
Date: 2001 Dec 05, 1:55 PM
From: Martin Ridsdale
Date: 2001 Dec 05, 1:55 PM
Re-reading the answer to what a sloop might be I decided to look up a few of the terms mentioned in my copy of the "Universal Dictionary of the Marine" which was published in London in 1776. As a resykt I offer this contribution to add to the confusion that must surround a subject such as this. SLOOP A small vessel furnished with on mast, the main-sail of which is attached to a gaff above, to the mast on it's foremost edge, and to a long boom below; by which it is occasionally shifted to either quarter. See vessel. SLOOP of WAR A name given to the smallest vessels of war, except cutters. They are either rigged as ships or as snows. See Command, Horse, and Rate. VESSEL A general name given to the different sorts of ship which are navigated on the ocean, or in canals and rivers. It is, however, more particularly applied to those of the smaller kind, furnished with one or two masts. It has already been remarked in the article Ship, that the views of utility, which ought always to be considered in a work of this kind, seemed to limit our general account of shipping to those which are most frequently employed in European navigation. We have therefore collected into one point of view that principal of these in plate XII so that the reader, who is unacquainted with marine affairs, may the more easily perceive their distinguishing characters, which are also more particularly described under the respective articles. Thus fig 4 plate XII exhibits a snow under sail; fig 5 represents a ketch at anchor; fig 6 a brig or brigantine; fig 7 a bilander; fig 8 axebec; fig 9 a schooner; fig 10 a galliot; fig 11 a dogger; all of which are under sail; fig 12 & 13 two gallies, one of which is under sail, and the other rowing; and fig 14 a sloop. The ketch, whose sails are furled, is furnished with a try-sail, like the snow; and it has a fore-sail, fore-stay-sail, and jib, nearly similar to those of a sloop; but the sails on the main-mast are like those of a ship. The main-sail and main-top-sail of the brig are like those of the schooner; and the fore-mast is rigged and equipped with the sails in the same manner as the shop and snow. The sails, mast, and yards of the xebec, being extremely different from these, are described at large under the article. In the schooner both the mainsail and foresail are extended by a boom and gaff, as likewise is the sloop's main-sail; the sails of the dogger and galliot are sufficiently expressed by the plate; and, finally, the gallies are navigated with lateen-sails, which are extremely different from those of the vessels above described. CUTTER A small vessel commonly navigated in the channel of England; it is furnished with one mast, and rigged as a sloop. Many of these vessels are used on an illicit trade, and others employed by the government to seize them; the latter of which are either under the direction of the Admiralty or Custom-house. SCHOONER A small vessel with two masts, whose main-sail and fore-Sail are suspended from gaffs reaching from the mast towards the stern; and stretched out below by booms, whose formost ends are hooked to an iron which clasps the mast so as to turn therein as upon an axis, when the afterends are swung from one side of the vessel to the other. BARK A general name given to small ships: it is however peculiarly appropriated by seamen to those which carry three masts without a mizzen-top-sail. Our northern mariners, who are trained in the coal-trade, apply this distinction to a broad-stearned ship, which carries no ornamental figure on the stem or prow. BRIG or BRIGANTINE A merchant-ship with two masts. This term is not universally confined to vessels of a particular construction, or which are masted and rigged in a method different from all others. It is a variously applied, by the mariners of different European nations, to a peculiar sort of vessel of their own marine. Amongst English seamen, this vessel is distinguished by having her main-sail set nearly in the plane of the keel; whereas the main-sails of larger ships are hung athwart, or at right angles with the ship's length, and fastened to a yard which hangs parallel to the deck: but in a brig, the foremost edge of the main-sail is fastened in different places to hoops which encircle the main-mast, and slide up and down it as the sail is hoisted or lowered: it is extended by a gaff above, and by a boom below. BILANDER A small merchant-ship with two masts. The Bilander is particularly distinguished from other vessels of two masts by the form of her mainsail, which is a sort of trapizia, the yard thereof being hung obliquely on the mast in the plane of the ship's length, and the aftmost of hinder end peeked or raised up to an angle of about 45 degrees, and hanging immediately over the stern; while the fore end slopes downward, and comes as far forward as the middle of the ship. To this the sail is bent or fastened; and the two lower corners, the foremost of which is called the tack, and the aftmost the sheet, are afterwards secured, the former to a ring-bolt in the middle of the ship's length, and the latter to another in the taffarel. The main-sails of larger ships are hung across the deck instead of along it, being fastened to a yard which hangs at right angles with the mast and the keel. Few vessels, however, are now rigged in this method, which has probably been found more inconvenient than several others. It may not be improper to remark, that this name, as well as brigantine, has been variously applied in different parts of Europe to vessels of different sorts DOGGER A Dutch fishing-vessel navigated in the German ocean. It is generally employed in the herring fishery, being equipped with two masts, viz. a main-mast and a mizen-mast, and somewhat resembling a ketch.