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The lowest and normally largest sail on a mast is the course sail of that mast, and is referred to simply by the mast name: Foresail, mainsail, mizzen sail, jigger sail or more commonly forecourse etc. Even a full-rigged ship did not usually have a lateral (square) course on the mizzen mast below the mizzen topmast.
Fore-mast: the mast nearest the bow, or the mast forward of the main-mast. [3] As it is the furthest afore, it may be rigged to the bowsprit. Sections: fore-mast lower, fore topmast, fore topgallant mast; Main-mast: the tallest mast, usually located near the center of the ship
Sail components include the features that define a sail's shape and function, plus its constituent parts from which it is manufactured. A sail may be classified in a variety of ways, including by its orientation to the vessel (e.g. fore-and-aft) and its shape, (e.g. (a)symmetrical, triangular, quadrilateral, etc.).
Sailing ships prior to the mid-19th century used wood masts with hemp-fiber standing rigging. As rigs became taller by the end of the 19th century, masts relied more heavily on successive spars, stepped one atop the other to form the whole, from bottom to top: the lower mast, top mast, and topgallant mast. This construction relied heavily on ...
A mast may be referred to as a square rigged mast where square sails predominate – this would differentiate from other masts on the same vessel being fore-and-aft rigged, for example in a barque. Square sails are generally suspended from yards which, when at rest, are at right angles ("square") to the centre-line of the vessel.
Flags are flown at half-mast on ships and at naval stations. On shore, flags are flown at half-staff, meaning the flagpole is attached to a building or stuck in the ground.
Abaft (preposition): at or toward the stern of a ship, or further back from a location, e.g. "the mizzenmast is abaft the mainmast". [1]Aboard: onto or within a ship, or in a group.
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]