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A gig is a type of boat optimised for speed under oar, but usually also fitted with a sailing rig for appropriate conditions. The type was in use by
Deal A deal, or deals may refer to: Places United States * Deal, New Jersey, a borough * Deal, Pennsylvania, an unincorporated community * Deal Lake, New Jersey Elsewhere * Deal Island (Tasmania), Australia * Deal, Kent, a town in England * Deal, ...
boatmen in the 18th century. It first occurred as a naval
ship's boat A ship's boat is a utility boat carried by a larger vessel. Ship's boats have always provided communication with the shore and with other ships. Other work done by such boats has varied over time, as marine technology has changed. In the age o ...
after Deal boatbuilders recommended a different design to boats ordered from them by the
Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against ...
to equip the cutters purchased in the 1760s to combat smuggling. The captains of larger warships soon sought permission to substitute a gig for one of the heavier boats which were then used; some even had a gig built at their own expense. The gig therefore became part of the usual complement of ship's boats used in warships. Gigs also had civilian uses, being employed to take pilots to and from ships, carrying mail and people for vessels waiting at anchor for favourable winds, salvage and lifesavingand for smuggling. They could be found in places like the
Mersey The River Mersey () is in North West England. Its name derives from Old English and means "boundary river", possibly referring to its having been a border between the ancient kingdoms of Mercia and Northumbria. For centuries it has formed part ...
, as one of the faster and lighter boat types providing communication with ships anchored off the Norfolk and Suffolk coasts, and also from Deal to the Downs. The
West Country The West Country (occasionally Westcountry) is a loosely defined area of South West England, usually taken to include all, some, or parts of the counties of Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Somerset, Bristol, and, less commonly, Wiltshire, Glo ...
is well known for its pilot gigs, with surviving and new-built examples now being raced at a large number of clubs in the region. Gigs were lightly built, usually of clinker construction. They were narrow for their length. Typically, in naval gigs a beam of was used for hull lengths from propelled by between four, six or eight oars. Exceptions included gigs pulling ten oars. Oars were always single-banked in a gig. Some would describe larger gigs as a galley, with regional variation on this terminology for civilian craft. Others regard the galley as a similar but different type. In Royal Navy usage of the latter half of the 19th century, the captain's gig was always referred to as "the galley". This contrasts with the US Navy usage: here the "captain's gig" was originally the traditional wooden boat, but in recent times a fibre-glass hulled powerboat which provided transport for the captain to and from his ship.


History

The Royal Navy had, by the middle of the 18th century, a long-standing relationship with the boat builders of
Deal A deal, or deals may refer to: Places United States * Deal, New Jersey, a borough * Deal, Pennsylvania, an unincorporated community * Deal Lake, New Jersey Elsewhere * Deal Island (Tasmania), Australia * Deal, Kent, a town in England * Deal, ...
. The Navy bought their
clinker-built Clinker built (also known as lapstrake) is a method of boat building where the edges of hull planks overlap each other. Where necessary in larger craft, shorter planks can be joined end to end, creating a longer strake or hull plank. The techni ...
yawl A yawl is a type of boat. The term has several meanings. It can apply to the rig (or sailplan), to the hull type or to the use which the vessel is put. As a rig, a yawl is a two masted, fore and aft rigged sailing vessel with the mizzen mast p ...
s and cutters which contrasted with the carvel hulls of boats built in the Navy yards. The working boats of Deal were well known to all in the Navy when they came out to warships anchored in the Downs. In 1763, the Navy bought thirty cutters cutter in the sense of the small warship or revenue protection vessel. These were to combat smuggling. To ensure they were properly equipped with boats, a dozen cutters (in the ship's boat meaning of the word) were ordered from Deal boatbuilders. A discussion with four of the local boatbuilders ensued, and they gave the firm advice that the ordered boats were not suitable for catching smugglers. (The Deal boatmen had a reputation for involvement in a substantial amount of smuggling at the time.) What was recommended instead was the gig, a type of boat used locally. The Navy accepted the recommendation. When war started with France again in 1793, naval captains came to prefer smaller, lighter boats than the barges that they were issued with. The barge was meant to match the status of the officer they carried, but something that could be launched quickly and achieve a good speed was much more useful. Some brought on board boats that were their own property. Others just ignored the barges carried and used one of the cutters out of their ship's selection of boats. Gigs were the most popular of the private boats;
Nelson Nelson may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Nelson'' (1918 film), a historical film directed by Maurice Elvey * ''Nelson'' (1926 film), a historical film directed by Walter Summers * ''Nelson'' (opera), an opera by Lennox Berkeley to a lib ...
had one on in 1801. By 1808 it is clear that the Navy had accepted the gig on vessels other than the anti-smuggling cutters. By the end of the
Napoleonic Wars The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of major global conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European states formed into various coalitions. It produced a period of Fren ...
gigs were available in six different lengths (18 ft to 26 ft) for issue to British warships.


Characteristics

The gigs generally had a high wineglass transom, full
keel The keel is the bottom-most longitudinal structural element on a vessel. On some sailboats, it may have a hydrodynamic and counterbalancing purpose, as well. As the laying down of the keel is the initial step in the construction of a ship, in Br ...
, straight stem and somewhat rounded sides. There was in general very little rocker in the keel. The
gunwale The gunwale () is the top edge of the hull of a ship or boat. Originally the structure was the "gun wale" on a sailing warship, a horizontal reinforcing band added at and above the level of a gun deck to offset the stresses created by firin ...
s on many were nearly straight from bow to stern. Howard Chapelle mentions the belief of W.P.Stephens that the gig was the precursor to the
Whitehall rowboat A Whitehall rowboat is a style of lapstrake-built rowboat developed in the United States in the 19th century. The basic design is much older and of European ancestry. It strongly resembles a sailing ship's gig or a Thames river wherry used by w ...
being built (in New York) by former apprentices in the Navy Yard.


Today

With the coming of metal ships and combustion engines the size of the captain's gig increased and the boats could transport more sailors swiftly. In the
U.S. Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage o ...
, the captain's gig varied by the size of the ship, with aircraft carriers and, until the mid-1990s when they were decommissioned, battleships, typically assigned a double cabin cruiser that was in length. These boats were typically painted with a white superstructure and gray hull with a red waterline stripe and black hull below the waterline. Because these capital ships also held a dual function as flagships for an embarked admiral, an identical vessel, albeit painted with a black hull and green waterline stripe, functioned as an admiral's barge. Captain's gigs were eliminated from all U.S. Navy ships in early 2008 in an economy move.http://archive.navytimes.com/article/20080210/NEWS/802100313/Long-skipper-s-perk-gig-going-away


In popular culture

* In
science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel uni ...
, the term is often used to refer to a small auxiliary spacecraft. In '' Star Trek'', the craft is referred to as a " captain's yacht".


See also

*
Cornish pilot gig The Cornish pilot gig is a six-oared rowing boat, clinker-built of Cornish narrow-leaf elm, long with a beam of . It is recognised as one of the first shore-based lifeboats that went to vessels in distress, with recorded rescues going back ...
, a larger boat (crewed by six plus a cox) which used to be used to transport pilots out to ships.


Notes


References

{{Ship's boats Military boats Ship's boats