louisiana2000

No doubt you love all things nautical which means you love learning everything there is to learn about ships. In order to better understand the Louisiana ships (the first of which was a sloop), we thought we’d provide a brief overview of three types of sailing boats as distinguished by their hull configuration, keel type, and configuration of masts.The sloop features one mast and two sails a normal mainsail and a foresail. This configuration is efficient for sailing toward the wind. The position of the mast is the most important factor in determining whether a ship is classified as a sloop. The historical naval definition of sloop referred to chips with varying rigs and sizes. The term “sloop-of-war” was more of a nod to the purpose of the ship opposed to the specific size or sail configuration.The cutter is like a sloop in that it has a single mast and mainsail, but the craft typically carried the mast further rear for use with two head sails attached to two fore stays (the head stay and the inner stay) which respectively carry the jib and stay sail. The term “cutter” is also used to refer to a small boat assigned to a larger boat and used to transport passengers or goods between the larger boat and shore.The schooner has two or more masts with the forward mast either being the same height or shorter as the rear mast(s). These ships were most widely used in the United States (opposed to other countries) and were popular in activities that required speed such as slaving and privateering. There is not a set number of masts to define a schooner since some smaller vessels had only two or three while others were built with as many as seven (the Thomas W. Lawson).