Note 42 — PART III JAMES DE WOLF AND THE PRIVATEER YANKEE

A word about nautical terms for the benefit of those not in an old sea port born. All vessels, except the one masted sloops, are much larger than those of a hundred years ago, and the number of masts upon vessels has been increased. A “full rigged ship” of a century ago was a three masted vessel with square sails hanging from yards on each of the masts. Schooners and brigs were two masted vessels, the former with sails on both masts similar to those upon a sloop yacht today, but very much smaller. The schooner rig was not applied to three masted craft until about the middle of the last century. The giant schooners of the present time, with their four, five, six and even seven masts, had not been dreamed of fifty years ago. The schooner rig was devised in Gloucester, Massachusetts, about the year 1713. It is gradually making its way around the world. The writer noted that in 1904 it had almost entirely supplanted the “junk” upon the Inland Sea of Japan.

Brigs were of two kinds, full rigged and hermaphrodite. A full rigged brig had square sails on both masts, while the hermaphrodite (in sailor dialect “morfydite”) had square sails on the foremast and schooner sails on the other, and was sometimes called a brigantine. The Yankee, ordinarily spoken of as a brig, was really a brigantine. Brigs are rarely seen in United States ports today. They almost invariably sail under a foreign flag.