The vessel dealt with here is the fully rigged ship with three masts. But the principles of others are the same. The simplest of all forms of rigging is the dipping lug, a quadrangular sail hang ing from a yard and always hoisted on the side of the mast oppo site to that on which the wind is blowing (the lee side). When the boat is to be tacked so as to bring the wind on the other side, the sail is lowered and rehoisted. One rope can serve as halliard to hoist the sail and as a stay when it is made fast on the weather side on which the wind is blowing. The difference between such a craft and the fully rigged ship is that between a simple organism and a very complex one ; but it is one of degree, not of kind. The steps in the scale are innumerable. Every sea has its own type. (See Pl. I., figs. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7.) Some in eastern waters are of extreme antiquity, and even in Europe vessels are still to be met with which differ very little if at all from ships of the Norsemen of the 9th and loth centuries. For a full account of these varieties of rigging the reader may be referred to Mast and Sail in Europe and Asia (London, 1906), by H. Warington Smyth.
When the finer degrees of variation are neglected the types of rigging may be reduced to comparatively few, which can be classed by the shape of their sail and the number of their masts. At the bottom of the scale is such a craft as the Norse herring boat. This boat has one quadrangular sail suspended from a yard which is hung (or slung) by the middle to a single mast which is placed (or stepped) in the middle of the boat. She is the direct representative of the ships of the Norsemen. Her one sail is a "course" such as is still used on the fore and mainmasts of a fully developed ship; a topsail may be added (above the course) and then we have the beginning of a fully clothed mast. A very similar craft called a Humber keel is used in the north of England. The lug sail is an advance on the course, since it is better adapted for sailing on the wind, with the wind on the side. When the lug is not meant to be lowered, and rehoisted on the lee side, as in the dipping lug mentioned above, it is slung at a third from the end of the yard, and is called a standing lug. A good example of the lug is the junk (Pl. I., figs. 4, 6). The lug is a "lifting sail," and does not tend to press the vessel down as the fore and aft sail does. Therefore it is much used by fishing vessels in the North Sea. The type of the fore and aft rig is the schooner (Pl. II., fig. 9). The sails on the masts have a gaff above and a boom below. These spars have a prong called "the jaws," which fit to the mast, and are held in place by a "jaw rope" on which are threaded beads called trucks. Sails of this shape are carried by fully rigged ships on the mizzenmast, and can be spread on the fore and main. They are then called trysails and are used only in bad weather when little sail can be carried, and are hoisted on the trysail mast, a small mast above the great one. The lateen sail (Pl. I., fig. 2) is a tri angular sail akin to the lug, and is the prevailing type of the Medi terranean. These original types, even when unmodified by mixture with any other, permit of large variations. The number of masts of a lugger may vary from one to five, and of a schooner from two to five or even seven. A small lug may be carried above the large
one, and a gaff topsail added to the sails of a schooner. A one masted fore-and-aft-rigged vessel may be a cutter (P1. II., fig. i ) or sloop. But the pure types may be combined, in topsail schoon ers, brigantines, barquentines and barques, when the topsail, a quadrangular sail hanging from and fastened to a yard, slung by the middle, is combined with fore and aft sails. The lateen rig has been combined with the square rig to make such a rigging as the xebec—a three-masted vessel square rigged on the main, and lateen on the fore and mizzen. Triangular sails of the same type as the jibs can be set on the stays between the masts of a fully rigged ship, and are then known as staysails. But it can only be repeated that the variations are innumerable. Studding-sails (pronounced "stun-sails") are lateral extensions to the courses, topsails, etc., of a square-rigged ship to increase the spread of sails, that require the support of special yards, booms and tackle.
The development of the rigging of ships is a very obscure sub ject. It was the work of centuries, and of practical men who wrote no treatises. It has never been universal. A comparison of the four-masted junk given above with the figures of ships on mediaeval seals shows at least much similarity. Yet by selecting a few leading types of successive periods it is possible to follow the growth of the fully rigged ship, at least in its main lines, in modern times.
For a time, and after the use of spritsails had been given up, the spritsail yard continued to be used to discharge the function now given to the gaffs. (See Smyth, Sailor's Word-Book.) The changes in the mizzen have an obscure history. About the middle of the 18th century it ceased to be a pure lateen. The yard was retained, but no sail was set on the fore part of the yard. Then the yard was given up and replaced by a gaff. The resulting new sail was called the spanker. It was, however, comparatively narrow, and when a greater spread of sail was required, a stud ding-sail (at first called a "driver") was added, with a boom at its foot. At a later date "spanker" and "driver" were used as synony mous terms, and the studding-sail was called a "ringtail." The studding-sails are the representatives of a class of sail once more generally used. In modern times a sail is cut of the extreme size which is capable of being carried in fine weather, and when the wind increases in strength it is reefed—i.e., part is gathered up and fastened by reef points, small cords attached to the sail. Till the 17th century at least the method was often to cut the courses small, so that they could be carried in rough weather. When a greater spread of sail was required, a piece called a bonnet was added to the foot of the sail, and a further piece called a drabbler could be added to that. It is an example of the tenacious con servatism of the sea that this practice is still retained by the Swedish small craft called "lodjor" in the Baltic and White Sea. It will be easily understood that no innovation was universally accepted at once. Jib and sprit topsail, lateen-mizzen and spanker, and so forth, would be found for long on the sea together.