Barquentine
| Barquentine | |
|---|---|
 Belgian barquentine Mercator |
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| Type | Sailing rig |
| Place of origin | Northwest Europe and America |
A barquentine (alternatively barkentine) is a sailing vessel with three or more masts; with a square rigged foremast and fore-and-aft rigged main, mizzen and any other masts.
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[edit] Modern barquentine sailing rig
While a full-rigged ship is square-rigged on all three masts, and the barque is square-rigged on the foremast and main, the barquentine extends the principle by making only the foremast square-rigged.[1] The advantages of a smaller crew, good performance before the wind and the ability to sail relatively close to the wind while carrying plenty of cargo made it a popular rig at the end of the 19th century.
Today barquentines are popular with modern tall ship and sail training operators as their suite of mainly fore-and-aft sails can be operated with ease and efficiency, but the single mast of square sails offers long distance speed and dramatic appearance in port.
[edit] Origin of the term
The term "barquentine" is 17th century in origin, formed from "barque" in imitation of "brigantine", a two-masted vessel square-rigged only on the forward mast, and apparently formed from the word brig.[Note 1][2]
[edit] Historic and modern examples
- Gazela Primeiro of 1901.
- Concordia, a sail training ship that capsized and sank on 17 February 2010.
- Transit, an experimental design of 1800 that could be worked entirely from the deck.
- Peacemaker launched 1989.
- Many smaller ships of the late 19th century Royal Navy were rigged as barquentines, including the Redbreast-class gunboats.
[edit] Notes
- ^ Although in actual fact the term "brig" was a shortening of "brigantine", and for much of the 16th to 18th century the two terms were synonymous.
[edit] References
- ^ "Sailing ship rigs, an infosheet guide to classic sailing rigs". Maritime Museum of the Atlantic. http://museum.gov.ns.ca/mma/AtoZ/rigs.html. Retrieved 2011-01-15.
- ^ T F Hoad, ed (1993). Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 34. ISBN 9780192830982.
[edit] External links
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Look up barquentine in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. |
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