Spinnakers are immense triangular sails used when running before the wind and which are spread out from the side of the boat by means of a spar known as a spinnaker boom. Balloon jibs are huge, jib-like sails of very light cotton or silk used in place of the smaller head sails when running on, or before, the wind, while jib topsails are triangular sails run up on the stay which extends from the topmast to the bowsprit.
Nowadays fore-and-aft-rigged vessels form the bulk of all sailing craft, many of which are of immense size and capable of carrying many hundreds of tons of cargo. The use of fore-and-aft sails on any but small boats is comparatively recent, however, and formerly all large craft were what are known as square-riggers. Although far more beautiful and stately than the schooners the square-rigged vessels gradually gave way to the more economical and handy fore-and-aft rigs and a few years ago one seldom saw a square-rigged vessel, save in out-of-the-way places. With the tremendous demand for ocean-going vessels, brought about by the European War, the square-riggers once more came into their own and today one may see ships, barks and brigs everywhere in the important ports of the world.
Although small boats are seldom square-rigged yet everyone who is fond of the sea and of boats should know something of square-rigged craft and should be familiar with the various rigs and their sails and should know the proper names and terms to use in speaking of them. To the landsman, and to many sailors as well, the rigging of a square-rigged vessel appears most complicated and confusing, but in reality it is very simple.
A great many people call every large vessel a “ship” and many more who can distinguish a sloop from a schooner, and a schooner from a yawl, fail to note the differences between the various square-rigs and call all square-rigged vessels “ships.” As a matter of fact “ships” are only one type of square-rigged craft and it is just as erroneous to call a bark a “ship” as to call a sloop a “schooner.”
Sails of Square-rigged Vessels
1—Topsail schooner. 2—Brigantine. 3—Brig (main course in dotted lines). 4—Barkentine (with double topsails). 5—Bark (with double topsails). 6—Ship (with double topsails, fore and main skysails (mizzen course in dotted lines)). Staysails are omitted in Figs. 3, 4, 5, 6.
Oddly enough one may trace the transition from the original square-riggers to the modern fore-and-aft schooners by the various rigs, for the old square sails died hard and even after the many advantages of fore-and-aft sails were proven sailors still held tenaciously to certain square sails and thus many types of square-rigged vessels are combinations of the two forms and are really connecting links between true square-riggers and fore-and-aft rigs.
This is the case with the so-called “topsail schooners” which are almost a thing of the past in most countries but are still used in Newfoundland, the Canadian provinces and in parts of Europe. The topsail schooner is essentially a two-masted, fore-and-aft schooner, but the foretopmast is equipped with yards bearing square sails, the lower sail being known as the foretopsail and the upper one as the foretopgallantsail. Another step backward and we find the foremast equipped entirely with square sails, the fore-and-aft sail on the foremast missing and a fourth square sail above the foretopgallantsail. This rig is known as the brigantine, while in the rig known as a brig both masts carry square sails and in addition the mainmast is furnished with a fore-and-aft sail known as the spanker. In every square-rigged vessel there are a definite number of square sails on each mast and these always have the same name, although some vessels do not carry all of them. Thus, the lowest sail is the course, the next is the topsail, the next the topgallantsail, the next the royal and the highest of all is the skysail.
Formerly each of these sails was in one large piece, but in order to make it easier to handle them double topsails and double topgallantsails were invented and are now in general use. Thus one may see square-rigged vessels with seven instead of five square sails on each mast, but the names remain the same, the second and third sails above the deck becoming lower and upper topsails, and the two above these being lower and upper topgallantsails. Many other vessels carry double topsails and single topgallantsails, but one can always recognize these double sails as they are much narrower than the full sails. Comparatively few vessels carry skysails, many do not even carry royals and still others carry more on one mast than on another.