![Reaper in sail](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5c/Reaper_in_sail.jpg)
A lugger is a
sailing vessel
A sailing ship is a sea-going vessel that uses sails mounted on masts to harness the power of wind and propel the vessel. There is a variety of sail plans that propel sailing ships, employing square-rigged or fore-and-aft sails. Some ships ...
defined by its
rig, using the
lug sail
The lug sail, or lugsail, is a fore-and-aft, four-cornered sail that is suspended from a spar, called a yard. When raised, the sail area overlaps the mast. For "standing lug" rigs, the sail may remain on the same side of the mast on both the port ...
on all of its one or several
masts. They were widely used as working craft, particularly off the coasts of
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
,
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
,
Ireland
Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...
and
Scotland
Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...
. Luggers varied extensively in size and design. Many were undecked, open boats, some of which operated from beach landings (such as
Hastings
Hastings () is a large seaside town and borough in East Sussex on the south coast of England,
east to the county town of Lewes and south east of London. The town gives its name to the Battle of Hastings, which took place to the north-west ...
or
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, ...
). Others were fully decked craft (typified by the Zulu and many other sailing
drifters). Some larger examples might carry lug
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 ...
s.
Luggers were used extensively for
smuggling from the middle of the 18th century onwards; their fast hulls and powerful rigs regularly allowed them to outpace any Revenue vessel in service. The French three-masted luggers also served as
privateer
A privateer is a private person or ship that engages in maritime warfare under a commission of war. Since robbery under arms was a common aspect of seaborne trade, until the early 19th century all merchant ships carried arms. A sovereign or deleg ...
s and in general trade. As smuggling declined about 1840, the
mainmast
The mast of a sailing vessel is a tall spar, or arrangement of spars, erected more or less vertically on the centre-line of a ship or boat. Its purposes include carrying sails, spars, and derricks, and giving necessary height to a navigation lig ...
of British three-masted luggers tended to be discarded, with larger sails being set on the fore and mizzen. This gave more clear space in which to work
fishing net
A fishing net is a Net (device), net used for fishing. Nets are devices made from fibers woven in a grid-like structure. Some fishing nets are also called fish traps, for example #Fyke nets, fyke nets. Fishing nets are usually meshes formed by ...
s.
Local types
;British Isles
*
Coble, used on the English east coast from
Yorkshire
Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a Historic counties of England, historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other Eng ...
to
Northumberland
Northumberland () is a county in Northern England, one of two counties in England which border with Scotland. Notable landmarks in the county include Alnwick Castle, Bamburgh Castle, Hadrian's Wall and Hexham Abbey.
It is bordered by land on ...
*Five Man boats, large 55–65 foot boats used for line fishing on the Yorkshire coast
*
Cornish lugger
* Deal lugger, the 2 larger types of boat used by
Deal boatmen to service ships anchored in
the Downs . These were beach-launched open boats, originally 3 masted, but the main-mast was later dispensed with to allow more room, ultimately giving
jib
A jib is a triangular sail that sets ahead of the foremast of a sailing vessel. Its tack is fixed to the bowsprit, to the bows, or to the deck between the bowsprit and the foremost mast. Jibs and spinnakers are the two main types of headsail ...
, dipping lug
foresail
A foresail is one of a few different types of sail set on the foremost mast (''foremast'') of a sailing vessel:
* A fore-and-aft sail set on the foremast of a schooner or similar vessel.
* The lowest square sail on the foremast of a full-rig ...
and a standing lug mizzen sheeted to an
outrigger
An outrigger is a projecting structure on a boat, with specific meaning depending on types of vessel. Outriggers may also refer to legs on a wheeled vehicle that are folded out when it needs stabilization, for example on a crane that lifts ...
. A first-class lugger or "fore-peaker" was typically 38 feet long, 12 ft 3 inches at greatest beam, carried 6 tons of ballast in a
clinker-built hull weighing 3 and a half tons. They could carry a replacement
anchor
An anchor is a device, normally made of metal , used to secure a vessel to the bed of a body of water to prevent the craft from drifting due to wind or current. The word derives from Latin ''ancora'', which itself comes from the Greek ἄγ ...
and cable out to a large ship - a load of at least 6 tons.
*
Fifie, a herring drifter of the Scottish east coast
*
Hastings
Hastings () is a large seaside town and borough in East Sussex on the south coast of England,
east to the county town of Lewes and south east of London. The town gives its name to the Battle of Hastings, which took place to the north-west ...
lugger
* Manx nickey
*
Manx nobby
The nobby is an inshore sailing boat which was used as a traditional fishing boat around Lancashire and the Isle of Man. The Lancashire nobby originated in Morecambe Bay about 1840 and around Southport. It subsequently came into widespread use dow ...
![Corenting-IMG 9716](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/20/Corenting-IMG_9716.JPG)
*
Sgoth Niseach
A Sgoth or ''Sgoth Niseach'' is a traditional type of clinker built skiff with a dipping lug rig, a Lateen style sail, built mainly in Ness, in the Western Isles of Scotland. The boats were traditional fishing boats, particularly for line fishi ...
, dipping lug
;Continental Europe
* ''
Barca-longa
A barca-longa (1600s, also barqua-; 1600s–1700s barco-longo) was a two- or three-masted lugger used near the coasts of Spain and Portugal, and more widely in the Mediterranean Sea. Barca-longas were used in Spain and Portugal for fishing, and we ...
'', of the
Iberian and
Mediterranean
The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western Europe, Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa ...
coasts
* Breton ''
chasse-marée
In English, a chasse-marée is a specific, archaic type of decked commercial sailing vessel.
In French, ''un chasse-marée'' was 'a wholesale fishmonger', originally on the Channel coast of France and later, on the Atlantic coast as well. The ...
''. These were fast-sailing cargo vessels that took fresh fish to market, sometimes taking general cargo for the return trip. They set standing lugs on three masts and a jib. Topsails were often used and topgallants when racing.
* French lugger (''lougre''), of the coast of
Normandy
Normandy (; french: link=no, Normandie ; nrf, Normaundie, Nouormandie ; from Old French , plural of ''Normant'', originally from the word for "northman" in several Scandinavian languages) is a geographical and cultural region in Northwestern ...
;United States of America
* ''New Orleans Lugger''
![Oyster Luggers in New Orleans](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/00/Oyster_Luggers_in_New_Orleans.jpg)
(also known as an ''Oyster Lugger''). These shallow draft vessels were typically 37 ft overall with a 12 ft beam - (though could vary substantially in size). They set a dipping lug on a single mast and had a centre board to help go to windward in deeper waters. They were used principally for fishing, with some cargoes occasionally carried. They could be found from Texas to the West coast of Florida.
;Australia
* Some of the early
pearling lugger
Pearling in Western Australia includes the harvesting and farming of both pearls and pearl shells (for mother of pearl) along the north-western coast of Western Australia.
The practice of collecting pearl shells existed well before Europea ...
s used off the northern coast line of Australia from about the 1870s, often ship's boats, carried a lug sail, but the purpose-built boats that were used from the 1880s stopped using it over time. The majority of these were
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 sha ...
ed
ketch
A ketch is a two- masted sailboat whose mainmast is taller than the mizzen mast (or aft-mast), and whose mizzen mast is stepped forward of the rudder post. The mizzen mast stepped forward of the rudder post is what distinguishes the ketch fr ...
es, although they continued to be called pearling luggers until the present day.
See also
* ''
Mystery
Mystery, The Mystery, Mysteries or The Mysteries may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Fictional characters
*Mystery, a cat character in ''Emily the Strange''
Films
* ''Mystery'' (2012 film), a 2012 Chinese drama film
* ''Mystery'' ( ...
'', lugger
* ''
Spirit of Mystery'', replica of the lugger ''Mystery''
* ''
Sophie Theresia (herring lugger)''
*
Leopold Janikowski
Leopold Janikowski (14 November 1855 - 8 December 1942) was a Polish people, Polish explorer and ethnographer.
Biography
Leopold Ludwik Janikowski was born on 14 November 1855 in Dąbrówka, now part of Warsaw (Białołęka) in Poland, son of Ja ...
sailed in a lugger to Cameroon in 1882
References
Further reading
*
Shearwood, Ken (1972) ''Evening Star: the story of a Cornish lugger''. Truro: D. Bradford Barton
External links
Cornish Luggers: an online guideCornish Luggers: an online guide; Beer luggers(formerly in use on the south Devon and Dorset coasts)
{{Authority control
Types of fishing vessels
Boat types
Sailing rigs and rigging
Pirate ships