If you have no one to tell you what to do, you will have to feel your way slowly and learn by experience; but if you have nautical instincts you will soon make your boat do what you wish her to do as far as she is able. But first learn to swim before you try to sail a boat.
Volumes have been written on the subject treated in these few pages, and it is not yet exhausted. The hints here given are safe ones to follow, and will, it is hoped, be of service to many a young sailor in many a corner of the world.
CHAPTER X
MORE RIGS OF ALL KINDS FOR SMALL BOATS
How to Distinguish between a Ship, Bark, Brig, and Schooner—Merits and Defects of Catboats—Advantages of the Sloop—Rigs for Canoes—Buckeyes and Sharpies
The two principal rigs for vessels are the fore-and-aft and the square rig.
Square rigged consists in having the principal sails extended by yards suspended at the middle ([Fig. 159]).
Fore-and-aft rigged is having the principal sails extended by booms and gaffs suspended by their ends ([Figs. 148], [149], [150], [156], and [161]).
Barks, brigs, and ships are all more or less square rigged, but schooners, sloops, and catboats are all fore-and-aft rigged. In these notes the larger forms of boats are mentioned only because of the well-known interest boys take in all nautical matters, but no detailed description of the larger craft will be given. All that is aimed at here is to give the salient points, so that the youngsters will know the name of the rig when they see it.