German former pilot schooner Atalanta.

A schooner (pronounced /ˈskuːnɚ/) is a type of sailing vessel characterized by the use of fore-and-aft sails on two or more masts. Sailing ship is now used to refer to any large Wind -powered Vessel. A fore-and-aft rig is a Sailing rig consisting mainly of Sails that are set along the line of the Keel rather than perpendicular to it The mast of a sailing ship is a tall vertical or near vertical Spar, or arrangement of Spars which supports the Sails Large ships have several masts Schooners were first used by the Dutch in the 16th or 17th century, and further developed in North America from the early 18th century onwards. The Netherlands ( Dutch:, ˈnedərlɑnt is the European part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, which consists of the Netherlands the Netherlands

Schooner rigging:
1) Bowsprit 2) Jib, followed by fore staysail 3) (fore)gaff topsail 4) Foresail 5) Main gaff topsail 6) Mainsail 7) End of boom

Etymology

According to the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica, the first ship called a schooner was built by builder Andrew Robinson and launched in 1713 from Gloucester, Massachusetts. Rigging (from Anglo-Saxon wrigan or wringing, "to clothe" is on Sailboats and Sailing ships the collection of The bowsprit, or boltsprit, of a Sailing vessel is a pole extending forward from the vessel's prow A mainsail is the most important sail raised from the main (or only mast of a sailing vessel In Sailing, a boom is a Spar (pole along the foot (bottom of a Fore and aft rigged Sail, that greatly improves control of the angle The Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition (1910–1911 is a 29-volume reference work that marked the beginning of the Encyclopædia Britannica This article is about Gloucester Massachusetts USA there are other places called Gloucester Gloucester (ˈglɒstɚ) is a city on Legend has it that the name schooner was the result of a spectator exclaiming "Oh how she scoons", scoon being a Scots word meaning to skip or skim over the water. Scots ( The Scots leid) refers to Anglic varieties derived from early northern Middle English spoken in parts of Scotland and Northern Robinson replied, "A schooner let her be. "^[1] According to Walter William Skeat, the term schooner comes from the word scoon, while the sch spelling comes from the later adoption of the Dutch and German spellings. Walter William Skeat ( November 21, 1835 - 1912 English Philologist, was born in London on the 21st of November 1835 and educated Dutch ( is a West Germanic language spoken by around 24 million people 22 million of which are from the Netherlands, Belgium and Suriname The German language (de ''Deutsch'') is a West Germanic language and one of the world's major languages.

Construction

Rig of topsail schooner Shenandoah without sails.

The world's only seven-masted schooner, Thomas W. Lawson. Development and construction Designed by Naval architect Bowdoin B

1793 Newspaper ad for Packet Schooner, Chestertown. Chestertown is a town in Kent County, Maryland, United States.

The schooner sail-plan has two or more masts with the forward mast being shorter or the same height as the rear masts. A sail-plan is a set of drawings usually prepared by a naval architect. The mast of a sailing ship is a tall vertical or near vertical Spar, or arrangement of Spars which supports the Sails Large ships have several masts Most traditionally rigged schooners are gaff rigged, sometimes carrying a square topsail on the foremast and occasionally, in addition, a square fore-course (together with the gaff foresail). Gaff rig is a Sailing rig (configuration of sails in which the Sail is four-cornered Fore-and-aft rigged controlled at its peak and usually Schooners carrying square sails are called square-topsail schooners. Modern schooners may be Marconi or Bermuda rigged. The term Bermuda rig refers to a configuration of mast and Rigging for a type of Sailboat and is also known as a Marconi rig; this is the typical In Bermuda, Bermuda rigged schooners had appeared by the early 19th century. Known as Ballyhoo schooners, or, along with single masted relatives, with Bermuda or gaff rig, with or without a square topsail, as Bermuda sloops. The Bermuda sloop is a type of fore-and-aft rigged sailing vessel developed on the islands of Bermuda in the 17th century A memorable example to the last type was HMS Pickle. Service In 1803 Pickle was attached to Admiral William Cornwallis ' Inshore Squadron where she was used to recconoitre enemy harbours during the Blockade Some schooner yachts are Bermuda rigged on the mainmast and gaff rigged on the foremast. A staysail schooner has no foresail, but instead carries a main staysail between the masts in addition to the fore staysail ahead of the foremast. A staysail or gaff topsail schooner may carry a fisherman (a four sided fore and aft sail) above the main staysail or foresail, or a triangular mule. Multi-masted staysail schooners usually carried a mule above each stay sail except the fore staysail. Gaff-rigged schooners generally carry a triangular fore-and-aft topsail above the gaff sail on the main topmast and sometimes also on the fore topmast (see illustration), called a gaff-topsail schooner. A gaff-rigged schooner that is not set up to carry one or more gaff topsails is sometimes termed a "bare-headed" or "bald-headed" schooner. A schooner with no bowsprit is known as a "knockabout" schooner.

The schooner may be distinguished from the ketch by the placement of the mainsail. A ketch is a Sailing Craft with two masts: a main mast and a shorter Mizzen mast abaft (rearward of the main mast A mainsail is the most important sail raised from the main (or only mast of a sailing vessel On the ketch, the mainsail is flown from the most forward mast; thus it is the main-mast, and the other mast is the mizzen-mast. The mast of a sailing ship is a tall vertical or near vertical Spar, or arrangement of Spars which supports the Sails Large ships have several masts The mast of a sailing ship is a tall vertical or near vertical Spar, or arrangement of Spars which supports the Sails Large ships have several masts A two-masted schooner has the mainsail on the aft mast, and therefore the other mast is the fore-mast. The mast of a sailing ship is a tall vertical or near vertical Spar, or arrangement of Spars which supports the Sails Large ships have several masts

Schooners were more widely used in the United States than in any other country. Two masted schooners were and are most common. They were popular in trades that required speed and windward ability, such as slaving, privateering, blockade running and offshore fishing. The Atlantic Slave trade, also known as the transatlantic slave trade, was the trade of African people supplied to the Colonies of the New World A privateer was a private Warship authorized by a country's Government by Letters of marque to attack foreign shipping A blockade runner is a term applied to ships used to evade a naval Blockade of a harbor or strait as opposed to confronting the blockaders to break the blockade For the computer security term see Phishing. Fishing is the activity of catching Fish. They also came to be favoured as pilot vessels, both in the United States and in Northern Europe. In the Chesapeake Bay area several distinctive schooner types evolved, including the Baltimore clipper and the pungy. The Chesapeake Bay is the largest Estuary in the United States. Baltimore Clipper is the colloquial name for fast Sailing ships built on the south-eastern seaboard of the United States of America, especially at the port of The pungy is a type of Schooner developed in and peculiar to the Chesapeake Bay region

There was no set number of masts for a schooner. A small schooner has two or three masts, but they were built with as many as six (e. g. the wooden six-masted Wyoming) or seven masts to carry a larger volume of cargo. Description It was long and wide with a draft of. The Wyoming had a volume of 373054 cubic feet; that is a Gross register tonnage (GRT of The only seven-masted (steel hulled) schooner, the Thomas W. Lawson, was built in 1902, with a length of 395 ft (120 m), the top of the tallest mast being 155 feet (47 m) above deck, and carrying 25 sails with 43,000 ft² (4,000 m²) of total sail area. A hull is the body of a Ship or Boat. It is a central concept in floating vessels as it provides the Buoyancy that keeps the vessel from sinking Development and construction Designed by Naval architect Bowdoin B A sail is any type of surface intended to generate Thrust by being placed in a Wind &mdashin essence a vertically-oriented Wing. A two or three masted schooner is quite maneuverable and can be sailed by a smaller crew than some other sailing vessels. The larger multi-masted schooners were somewhat unmanageable and the rig was largely a cost-cutting measure introduced towards the end of the days of sail.

Essex, Massachusetts was the most significant shipbuilding center for schooners. Essex is a town in Essex County, Massachusetts, 26 miles north of Boston. By the 1850s, over 50 vessels a year were being launched from 15 shipyards and Essex became recognized worldwide as North America’s center for fishing schooner construction. In total, Essex launched over 4,000 schooners, most for Gloucester, Massachusetts fishing industry. This article is about Gloucester Massachusetts USA there are other places called Gloucester Gloucester (ˈglɒstɚ) is a city on ^[2]

Operation

Schooners were used to carry cargo in many different environments, from ocean voyages, to coastal runs and on large inland bodies of water. They were popular in North America, and in their heyday of the late 19th century over 2,000 schooners carried cargo back and forth across the Great Lakes. The Laurentian Great Lakes are a chain of freshwater lakes located in eastern North America, on the Canada–United States border. Three-masted "terns" were a favourite rig of Canada's Maritime Provinces. The scow schooner, which used a schooner rig on a flat bottomed, blunt ended scow hull, were popular in North America for coastal and river transport. A scow, in the original sense is a flat bottomed Boat with a blunt bow often used to haul garbage or similar bulk Freight; cf

Three of the most famous racing yachts, America, Atlantic, and Bluenose, were each schooners. Designer The America was designed by George Steers a revolutionary designer who began the practice of giving ships a knife-like bow widening Aft Created in 1903 by Townsend and Downey shipyard and designed by William Gardner, for Wilson Marshall, the three-masted Schooner Atlantic held History Designed by William Roué and built by Smith and Rhuland, Bluenose was launched at Lunenburg, Nova Scotia on March

Famous schooners

• Adventuress
• Adventure (schooner)
• Alma, a scow schooner
• America
• La Amistad
• Atlantic
• Bluenose
• Californian
• Chasseur
• USS Dolphin (1821)
• USS Enterprise (1799)
• Equator
• Ernestina
• Esperanto
• Schooner Kelly(2007-2008)
• A.W. Greely (Donald II)
• USS Lynx (1814)
• Paul Palmer (5-masted)
• HMS Pickle
• Pride of Baltimore
• R.Tucker Thompson
• Roseway
• The Royalist
• HMS Sultana
• Thomas W. Lawson
• Tole Mour
• Wawona
• Wyoming
• Zodiac

Gallery

Canadian schooner, Pacific Grace, 2001	US schooner Red Witch of Chicago	two-masted fishing schooner	US bald-headed knockabout schooner Shrike
Amphitrite, the world's oldest seagoing yacht	Finnish schooner Linden of Mariehamn, Åland	Dutch three-master Regina Maris	Bermuda rigged schooner
French topsail schooner La Recouvrance	Topsail schooner Pride of Baltimore II	French Navy two-masted schooner Étoile	US topsail schooner Californian

References

External links

• directory of schooner websites