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Square rig is a generic type of sail and rigging arrangement in which the primary driving sails are carried on horizontal spars which are perpendicular, or square, to the keel of the vessel and to the masts. These spars are called yards and their tips, outside the lifts, are called the yardarms. [1] A ship mainly rigged so is called a square ...
A two-masted, square-rigged vessel Brigantine A two-masted vessel, square-rigged on the foremast and fore-and-aft rigged on the main Caravel (Portuguese) A much smaller, two, sometimes three-masted ship Carrack Three or four masted ship, square-rigged forward, lateen-rigged aft; 14th–16th century successor to the cog Cartel
Many of these full-rigged ships (square rigged on all of three masts) had the hull type "bark" – another common classification was "cat". In the second half of the eighteenth century, the square sails on the mizzen were often eliminated. The resulting rig acquired the name of the hull type: initially as "bark" and soon as "barque".
The rigging of a square rigger in London. Standing rigging on a fore-and-aft rigged sailboat. Key: 1. Forestay 2. Shroud 3. (Spreaders) 4. Backstay 5. Inner forestay 6. Sidestay 7. (Boom) 8. Running backstays Bermuda rigged sloop at Convict Bay, Bermuda, circa 1879 Standing rigging on a square-rigged vessel. Running rigging on a sailing yacht ...
The word brig has been used in the past as an abbreviation of brigantine (which is the name for a two-masted vessel with foremast fully square rigged and her mainmast rigged with both a fore-and-aft mainsail, square topsails and possibly topgallant sails). The brig actually developed as a variant of the brigantine.
The definition given above describes the international usage of the term brigantine. In modern American terminology, the term brigantine usually means a vessel with the foremast square rigged and the mainmast fore-and-aft rigged, without any square sails. Historically, this rig used was called a "schooner brig" or "hermaphrodite brig". [7]
A term peculiarly appropriated to the yards and their sails. Thus, when the yards hang at right angles with the mast they are said to be 'square by the lifts;' when perpendicular to the ship's length, they are 'square by the braces;' but when they lie in a direction perpendicular to the plane of the keel, they are 'square by the lifts and braces.'
A square topsail is a square-rigged sail carried above the foresail only on gaff schooners. (A brigantine is an example of a two-masted vessel with a forward course.) Schooners carrying square tops are referred to as "topsail schooners"; gaff topsails are taken for granted on gaff-rigged vessels and pass without comment in a vessel description ...