The Lateen Rig
is very popular in some parts of the Old World, yet it has only few friends here. It may be because of my art training that I feel so kindly toward this style of sail, or it may be from association in my mind of some of the happiest days of my life with a little black canoe rigged with lateen sails. At any rate, in spite of the undeniable fact that the lateen is unpopular, I never see a small boat rigged in this style without a feeling of pleasure. The handy little stumps of masts end in a spike at the top and are adorned by the beautiful sails lashed to slender spars, which, by means of metal rings, are lightly, but securely, fastened to the mast by simply hooking the ring over the spike. I freely acknowledge that when the sails are lowered and you want to use your paddle the lateen sails are in your way. It is claimed that they are awkward to reef, and this may be true. I never tried it. When the wind was too strong for my sails I made port or took in either the large or the small sail, as the occasion seemed to demand.
The Ship
When you are out sailing and see a vessel with three masts, all square rigged, you are looking at a ship proper, though ship is a word often used loosely for any sort of a boat ([Fig. 159]).
The bark is a vessel with square-rigged foremast and mainmast and a fore-and-aft rigged mizzen-mast ([Fig. 160]).
The brig is a vessel with only two masts, both of which are square rigged ([Fig. 158]).
The brigantine has two masts—foremast square rigged and mainmast fore-and-aft rigged ([Fig. 155]).
The barkentine has three masts—mainmast and mizzen-mast fore-and-aft rigged and foremast square rigged. (See [Fig. 154].)