Swashbuckler ships
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Here you can read about the kinds of ships and boats mentioned in the Swashbuckler books:
I also write about ships or boats that I love on my blog.
Brigantine: A ship with two masts, square sails on the foremast, but triangular sails on the mainmast. Gisella is a brigantine. Dory: A light, narrow sailing and rowing boat. Lucas and Lily’s dory, the Swallow, has two masts and a gaff-rig. Frigate: Warship with three masts, a raised quarterdeck, and 24 to 38 guns along one gundeck. Galley: The elegant oar-driven warships of the great naval fleets of Barbary, Venice and Malta, often powered by slaves. Luzzu: The brightly painted traditional fishing boats still seen in Malta. Schooner: A fast, narrow ship with two masts. The mysterious Rafe Swann's lost ship, The Black Swan, was a schooner. Scow: Flat-bottomed ship or boat used for carrying cargo, especially in coastal areas and on rivers. Corfu, which sails into The Pirate's Revenge, is a scow. Ship of the line: A warship powerful enough to take its place in the line of battle. The Royal Navy classified its ships by rating them, according to how many cannon they carried. There were six levels of rating, and any ship rated 3 or over (meaning it had more than 64 guns) was a ship of the line. The biggest and best were the first-rates. A ship of the line carried hundreds of crew and had two or three gun decks. They often sailed in fleets with smaller, faster frigates, and in battle sailed in towards the enemy in a line, firing sideways. Skiff: Light, narrow row boat. Sloop: A small speedy ship with one mast, normally with a huge mainsail, and an equally vast triangular foresail fixed to a long bowsprit. The Mermaid is a sloop, and so are many modern yachts. Square-rig: Ship rigged with square or rectangular sails that are arranged across the width of the deck. Admiral Nelson’s flagship, the HMS Victory, was a first-rate square-rigged ship with 102 cannons on three gun-decks. See Ship of the line. Taridha: Fast, narrow Arab ship, with one mast and a lateen sail. Up to sixteen oars on each side meant the ship didn’t have to wait for the wind. Known to English sailors as a Tartan. Hussein Reis's ship is a taridha. In each Swashbuckler book, you'll find a list of words and terms used by 18th century sailors and pirates in the Mediterranean. Here are just a few: Mast: The tall poles that stick up from the deck of a ship and hold the sails. The poles horizontal across the mast are the yards. A sailing ship may have up to six masts – the Mermaid has one mast, Gisella has two. Prow: The pointed front of a ship, often decorated with a figurehead. Rig: The design of the sail system (such as a square-rig or brigantine rig). Rigging: The ropes and cables that make up the rig. The standing rigging (such as shrouds or stays) holds up the masts and is painted with tar to protect it. Running rigging (including halyards and sheets) is used to lower and raise the sails and yards, and it is not tarred.
Here are some useful websites about ships:
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Brigantine rig
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| ©2006 Kelly Gardiner |