Welcome to the NavList Message Boards.

NavList:

A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding

Compose Your Message

Message:αβγ
Message:abc
Add Images & Files
    Name or NavList Code:
    Email:
       
    Reply
    Re: sailing vessel types and rigs
    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.
    

       
    Reply
    Browse Files

    Drop Files

    NavList

    What is NavList?

    Get a NavList ID Code

    Name:
    (please, no nicknames or handles)
    Email:
    Do you want to receive all group messages by email?
    Yes No

    A NavList ID Code guarantees your identity in NavList posts and allows faster posting of messages.

    Retrieve a NavList ID Code

    Enter the email address associated with your NavList messages. Your NavList code will be emailed to you immediately.
    Email:

    Email Settings

    NavList ID Code:

    Custom Index

    Subject:
    Author:
    Start date: (yyyymm dd)
    End date: (yyyymm dd)

    Visit this site
    Visit this site
    Visit this site
    Visit this site
    Visit this site
    Visit this site