SAILING.
“The tar’s a jolly tar, that can hand, reef and steer,
That can nimbly cast-off and belay;
Who in darkest of nights finds each halliard and gear,
And dead reckoning knows well, and leeway:
But the tar to please me must more jolly be,
He must laugh at the waves as they roar.”—Dibdin.
It would be very difficult to trace to its origin the art of sailing. Perhaps the curled leaf passing over the water, with one end erect, might have given to observant man the first notion of a sail. It has been supposed that the Nautila, Argonaut, or sailor-fish, was suggestive of the first sailing-vessel; but long before the Argonaut had been noticed, sails of some kind or other had no doubt been common. A man could not stand in the simplest boat without perceiving that the wind exerted a power upon him and his boat; and therefore the idea of a sail must have been identical with the first launching of the rudest boat. The science of sailing, however, has grown up gradually through a succession of ages, and has now reached a perfection of which the ancients had no idea.
We will first speak of the various kinds of vessels, which are distinguished principally by the number of masts, and the number and shape of their sails.
A Sloop is properly a vessel with one mast, having her sails, with the exception of her topsails, set in the plane of her length, which is technically called “set fore and aft.” Her topsail is a square sail, rigged at right angles to the plane of her length. The bowsprit is generally elevated from the bows, inclining slightly to the deck. The term “sloop” is now usually applied to a man-of-war, ship-rigged, and carrying less than 18 guns.
A Cutter differs from a sloop in being without a square sail, and in having her bowsprit horizontal; her mast at the same time “raking” aft. Her topsail is fore and aft, and triangular in shape.
A Brig is a square-rigged vessel, with two masts.
