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Topsail
A topsail ("tops'l") is a sail set above another sail; on square-rigged vessels further sails may be set above topsails. Square rig On a square rigged vessel, a topsail is a typically trapezoidal shaped sail rigged above the course sail and below the topgallant sail where carried ,on any mast (i.e., a fully rigged ship would have a foremast topsail, a mainmast topsail, and a mizzen topsail). A full rigged ship will have either single or double (i.e, "split" upper and lower) topsails on all masts, the single or lower topsail being the second sail above the deck and the upper topsail where so rigged being the third. Although described as a "square" sail, a topsail on a full rigged ship refers not to the sail's shape but to it and its yard being rigged square (i.e., at a right angle) to the vessel's keel rather than in line with it (in which case it would be called a fore-and-aft rig or a fore-and-aft rigged sail) ; a square rigged topsail is nearly always trapezoidal in shape ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Square Rig
Square rig is a generic type of sail and rigging arrangement in which the primary driving sails are carried on horizontal spars which are perpendicular, or square, to the keel of the vessel and to the masts. These spars are called ''yards'' and their tips, outside the lifts, are called the ''yardarms.'' A ship mainly rigged so is called a square-rigger. The square rig is aerodynamically the most efficient running rig (i.e., sailing downwind), and stayed popular on ocean-going sailing ships until the end of the Age of Sail. The last commercial sailing ships, windjammers, were usually square-rigged four-masted barques. History The oldest archaeological evidence of use of a square-rig on a vessel is an image on a clay disk from Mesopotamia from 5000 BC. Single sail square rigs were used by the ancient Egyptians, the Phoenicians, the Greeks, the Romans, and the Celts. Later the Scandinavians, the Germanic peoples, and the Slavs adopted the single square-rigged sail, with it be ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Glossary Of Nautical Terms (M-Z)
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Cutty Sark
''Cutty Sark'' is a British clipper ship. Built on the River Leven, Dumbarton, Scotland in 1869 for the Jock Willis Shipping Line, she was one of the last tea clippers to be built and one of the fastest, coming at the end of a long period of design development for this type of vessel, which halted as steamships took over their routes. She was named after the apparel (short shirt) of the fictional witch in the Robert Burns poem: Tam o’ Shanter. After the big improvement in the fuel efficiency of steamships in 1866, the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 gave them a shorter route to China, so ''Cutty Sark'' spent only a few years on the tea trade before turning to the trade in wool from Australia, where she held the record time to Britain for ten years. Continuing improvements in steam technology meant that gradually steamships also came to dominate the longer sailing route to Australia, and the ship was sold to the Portuguese company Ferreira and Co. in 1895 and renamed ''Fer ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fully Rigged Ship
A full-rigged ship or fully rigged ship is a sailing vessel's sail plan with three or more masts, all of them square-rigged. A full-rigged ship is said to have a ship rig or be ship-rigged. Such vessels also have each mast stepped in three segments: lower mast, top mast, and topgallant mast. Other large, multi-masted sailing vessels may be regarded as ships while lacking one of the elements of a full-rigged ship, e.g. having one or more masts support only a fore-and-aft sail or having a mast that only has two segments. Masts The masts of a full-rigged ship, from bow to stern, are: * Foremast, which is the second tallest mast * Mainmast, the tallest * Mizzenmast, the third tallest * Jiggermast, which may not be present but will be fourth tallest if so If the masts are of wood, each mast is in three or more pieces. They are (in order, from bottom up): * The lowest piece is called the ''mast'' or the ''lower''. * Topmast * Topgallant mast * Royal mast, if fitted On steel-mas ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Topsail Schooner
A schooner () is a type of sailing vessel defined by its rig: fore-and-aft rigged on all of two or more masts and, in the case of a two-masted schooner, the foremast generally being shorter than the mainmast. A common variant, the topsail schooner also has a square topsail on the foremast, to which may be added a topgallant. Differing definitions leave uncertain whether the addition of a fore course would make such a vessel a brigantine. Many schooners are gaff-rigged, but other examples include Bermuda rig and the staysail schooner. The origins of schooner rigged vessels is obscure, but there is good evidence of them from the early 17th century in paintings by Dutch marine artists. The name "schooner" first appeared in eastern North America in the early 1700s. The name may be related to a Scots word meaning to skip over water, or to skip stones. The schooner rig was used in vessels with a wide range of purposes. On a fast hull, good ability to windward was useful for private ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Topgallant Sail
On a square rigged sailing vessel, a topgallant sail (topgallant alone pronounced "t'gallant", topgallant sail pronounced "t'garns'l",C.S. Forester, ''Beat to Quarters'', Chapter VI. is the square-rigged sail or sails immediately above the topsail or topsails. It is also known as a gallant or garrant sail. Later full-rigged ships split the topsail (and often the topgallant sail) for easier handling. They thus set two topsails (and possibly two topgallant sails) per mast. The lower topgallant sail is immediately above the upper topsail. The upper or only topgallant sail is set from the top of the topgallant mast, if there is a lower topgallant it is set from midway down the topgallant mast. A staysail A staysail ("stays'l") is a fore-and-aft rigged sail whose Sail components#Edges, luff can be affixed to a stays (nautical), stay running forward (and most often but not always downwards) from a mast (sailing), mast to the deck (ship), deck, the b ... set on a stay running forward a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Topmast
The masts of traditional sailing ships were not single spars, but were constructed of separate sections or masts, each with its own rigging. The topmast is one of these. The topmast is semi-permanently attached to the upper front of the lower mast, at the top. Its shrouds run to the edges of the top, rather than to the sides of the hull, though long shrouds leading well aft to the hull, more in the manner of backstays, are sometimes seen. In accordance with the standard square rig sail plan, the topmast carries the topsail. In the late 19th century, however, topsails became so big that merchant ships began to divide them into two separate sails for easier handling; since these were still on the topmast they were known as upper and lower topsails to preserve the consistency of the naming scheme. The majority of large square-riggers today carry separate upper and lower topsails. The main topmast carries the upper end of the main-topmast-staysail; a mizzen-topmast may carry the e ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gaff Rig
Gaff rig is a sailing rig (configuration of sails, mast and stays) in which the sail is four-cornered, fore-and-aft rigged, controlled at its peak and, usually, its entire head by a spar (pole) called the ''gaff''. Because of the size and shape of the sail, a gaff rig will have running backstays rather than permanent backstays. The gaff enables a fore and aft sail to be four sided, rather than triangular. A gaff rig typically carries 25 percent more sail than an equivalent Bermudian rig for a given hull design. A sail hoisted from a gaff is called a gaff-rigged (or, less commonly, gaff rigged or gaffrigged) sail. Description Gaff rig remains the most popular fore-aft rig for schooner and barquentine mainsails and other course sails, and spanker sails on a square rigged vessel are always gaff rigged. On other rigs, particularly the sloop, ketch and yawl, gaff rigged sails were once common but have now been largely replaced by the Bermuda rig sail, which, in addition to bei ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Denis Sullivan (schooner)
The S/V ''Denis Sullivan'' is a replica three-masted, wooden, gaff rigged schooner originally from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She was a flagship of both the state of Wisconsin and of the United Nations Environment Programme until she was sold to the World Ocean School and moved to Boston, Massachusetts in late 2022. History The construction of the ''Denis Sullivan'' was first proposed in 1991 by a group of Milwaukee residents and volunteers from other states. Their plan was to build a tall ship which would serve as a platform for educating people about the Great Lakes. Community involvement was welcome in the project, and almost a thousand people donated almost a million volunteer hours toward the ''Denis Sullivan'' construction. Through the efforts of both professional shipwrights and volunteers, the ''Denis Sullivan'' was partially completed and launched in June 2000. She departed Milwaukee for her first sail to the Caribbean in November 2000. Folk singer Pete Seeger recorded a song ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Yard (sailing)
A yard is a spar on a mast from which sails are set. It may be constructed of timber or steel or from more modern materials such as aluminium or carbon fibre. Although some types of fore and aft rigs have yards, the term is usually used to describe the horizontal spars used on square rigged sails. In addition, for some decades after square sails were generally dispensed with, some yards were retained for deploying wireless (radio) aerials and signal flags. Parts of the yard ; Bunt : The short section of the yard between the ''slings'' that attach it to the mast. ; Quarters : The port and starboard quarters form the bulk of the yard, extending from the slings to the fittings for the lifts and braces. ; Yardarms : The outermost tips of the yard: outboard from the attachments for the lifts. Note that these terms refer to stretches of the same spar, not to separate component parts. Controlling the yard The yard can rotate around the mast to allow the direction of the vess ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tall Ship
A tall ship is a large, traditionally- rigged sailing vessel. Popular modern tall ship rigs include topsail schooners, brigantines, brigs and barques. "Tall ship" can also be defined more specifically by an organization, such as for a race or festival. History Traditional rigging may include square rigs and gaff rigs, usually with separate topmasts and topsails. It is generally more complex than modern rigging, which utilizes newer materials such as aluminum and steel to construct taller, lightweight masts with fewer, more versatile sails. Most smaller, modern vessels use the Bermuda rig. Though it did not become popular elsewhere until the twentieth century, this rig was developed in Bermuda in the seventeenth century, and had historically been used on its small ships, the Bermuda sloops. Author and master mariner Joseph Conrad (who spent 1874 to 1894 at sea in tall ships and was quite particular about naval terminology) used the term "tall ship" in his works; for example, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Yard (sailing)
A yard is a spar on a mast from which sails are set. It may be constructed of timber or steel or from more modern materials such as aluminium or carbon fibre. Although some types of fore and aft rigs have yards, the term is usually used to describe the horizontal spars used on square rigged sails. In addition, for some decades after square sails were generally dispensed with, some yards were retained for deploying wireless (radio) aerials and signal flags. Parts of the yard ; Bunt : The short section of the yard between the ''slings'' that attach it to the mast. ; Quarters : The port and starboard quarters form the bulk of the yard, extending from the slings to the fittings for the lifts and braces. ; Yardarms : The outermost tips of the yard: outboard from the attachments for the lifts. Note that these terms refer to stretches of the same spar, not to separate component parts. Controlling the yard The yard can rotate around the mast to allow the direction of the vess ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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