APPENDIX SAILS OF THE ESSEX EAST INDIAMAN
Reading edition
The following is a list of the sails which the Essex could set, and it is worth placing on record now that the sailing ship is so rapidly becoming a rarity. These details have been taken from a contemporary manuscript which has been kindly sent me by Colonel E. B. Urmston, C.B., whose great-grandfather served in East Indiamen from the time when he joined as a midshipman in 1763, and afterwards commanded several of these ships between 1783 and 1803. In 1795 he brought home, as Commodore, a fleet of thirty East Indiamen without a convoy of any of H.M. ships, and later in the same year was Commodore of the East Indiamen fleet which accompanied Sir Ralph Abercrombie’s expedition to the West Indies. His eldest son, Sir James Urmston, joined the company’s service as a “writer” in 1798, and became President of the company’s factory and affairs in China.
This memorandum, already turning yellow with age, was made in 1816, at the time Lady Urmston came home in the Essex, and with the aid of existing pictures of East Indiamen it would not be impossible to reconstruct a model on fairly accurate lines. It will be seen that she was able to set twenty-seven sails on her foremast, twenty-one on her mainmast, and seventeen on her mizzen: total sixty-five. It is interesting as showing that at least one of these Indiamen was a real sail-carrier. She was commanded by Captain Nisbett.
ON THE FOREMAST 26. ON THE MAINMAST 21. ON THE MIZZENMAST 17.
Fore course Main course Square cross jackyard
” topsail ” topsail Mizzen topsail
” t’gallant sail ” t’gallant sail ” t’gallant sail
” royal ” royal ” royal
” skysail ” skysail ” skysail
” moon-raker ” moon-raker ” moon-raker
” cloud-scraper ” cloud-scraper
” star-gazer ” star-gazer
” storm staysail ” staysail Driver
” topmast staysail ” topmast staysail Ring-tail
Jib ” middle ” Watersail
Inner jib ” t’gallant ” Gaff topsail
Flying ” ” royal ” Upper ”
Outer ” ” upper ” Mizzen staysail
Cutter’s topmast jib ” topmast staysail
Upper ” ” t’gallant ”
On the bowsprit:
Sprit sail Mizzen royal staysail
Sprit topsail ” topmast stuns’l
” outer topsail ” t’gallants’l
Studding sails:
Common lower studding sail Lower studding sail
Outer lower studding sail Common topmast studding sail
Common topmast studding sail Outer topmast studding sail
Outer topmast studding sail Common t’gallant studding sail
Common t’gallant studding sail Outer t’gallant studding sail
Outer t’gallant studding sail Royal t’gallant studding sail
Royal t’gallant studding sail Upper t’gallant studding sail