A schooner ( / ˈ s k uː n ər / SKOO -nər ) is a type of sailing vessel defined by its rig: fore-and-aft rigged on all of two or more masts and, in the case of a two-masted schooner, the foremast generally being shorter than the mainmast. A common variant, the topsail schooner also has a square topsail on the foremast, to which may be added a topgallant . Differing definitions leave uncertain whether the addition of a fore course would make such a vessel a brigantine . Many schooners are gaff-rigged , but other examples include Bermuda rig and the staysail schooner.
28-497: LSNS Governor Moore was a schooner -rigged steamer in the Confederate States Navy . Governor Moore had been Southern S. S. Company's Charles Morgan , named for the firm's founder and built at New York in 1854 as a schooner-rigged, low pressure, walking beam-engined, seagoing steamer. She was seized at New Orleans , Louisiana by Brigadier General Mansfield Lovell , CSA , in mid-January 1862 "for
56-401: A sloop rig is simpler and cheaper, the schooner rig may be chosen on a larger boat so as to reduce the overall mast height and to keep each sail to a more manageable size, giving a mainsail that is easier to handle and to reef. An issue when planning a two-masted schooner's rig is how best to fill the space between the masts: for instance, one may adopt (i) a gaff sail on the foremast (even with
84-432: A Bermuda mainsail), or (ii) a main staysail, often with a fisherman topsail to fill the gap at the top in light airs. Various types of schooners are defined by their rig configuration. Most have a bowsprit although some were built without one for crew safety, such as Adventure . The following varieties were built: Schooners were built primarily for cargo, passengers, and fishing. The Norwegian polar schooner Fram
112-415: A common rig, especially in the 19th century. Some schooners worked on deep sea routes. In British home waters, schooners usually had cargo-carrying hulls that were designed to take the ground in drying harbours (or, even, to unload dried out on an open beach). The last of these once-common craft had ceased trading by the middle of the 20th century. Some very large schooners with five or more masts were built in
140-445: A fishing vessel has the red light at top and the white light below. To remember this, some people use the mnemonic "white cap, red nose" to reflect the idea that pilots consumed a lot of alcohol while waiting for ships, thus the white captain's cap with a red nose below it. Pilot boats often also use bright colours, like flashy yellow, to make them clearly visible and distinctive in even the worst conditions. This last mainly applies to
168-415: A highly visible colour such as orange, red or yellow. In terms of design, monohull hullforms are most commonly used, though examples of catamarans , SWATHs and Wave Piercing Hulls also exist. Although some pilot boats are still constructed from steel, the need to travel quickly means lighter weight materials such as aluminium, fibreglass and composites are now commonly used. In some instances, such as
196-517: A smaller crew for their size compared to then traditional ocean crossing square rig ships, and being fast and versatile. Three-masted schooners were introduced around 1800. Schooners were popular on both sides of the Atlantic in the late 1800s and early 1900s. By 1910, 45 five-masted and 10 six-masted schooners had been built in Bath, Maine and in towns on Penobscot Bay , including Wyoming which
224-571: A third thrust from another cottonclad forced Varuna aground. Next attacking USS Cayuga , Governor Moore exposed herself to fire from most of the Union flotilla. With practically her whole upper hamper shot away and 61 men dead or dying, she went out of command, drifting helplessly to shore, where her captain, pilot, and a seaman set her afire. Governor Moore blew up while they and three other survivors were being captured by USS Oneida 's boats to be imprisoned on board USS Colorado ; two-thirds of
252-620: Is a type of boat used to transport maritime pilots between land and the inbound or outbound ships that they are piloting. Pilot boats were once sailing boats that had to be fast because the first pilot to reach the incoming ship got the business. Today, pilot boats are scheduled by telephoning the ship agents/representatives prior to arrival. Pilots and the work functions of the maritime pilot go back to Ancient Greece and Roman times, when incoming ships' captains employed locally experienced harbour captains, mainly local fishermen , to bring their vessels safely into port. Eventually, in light of
280-714: Is considered the largest wooden ship ever built. The Thomas W. Lawson was the only seven-masted schooner built. The rig is rarely found on a hull of less than 50 feet LOA , and small schooners are generally two-masted. In the two decades around 1900, larger multi-masted schooners were built in New England and on the Great Lakes with four, five, six, or even, seven masts. Schooners were traditionally gaff-rigged, and some schooners sailing today are reproductions of famous schooners of old, but modern vessels tend to be Bermuda rigged (or occasionally junk-rigged) . While
308-633: Is to be believed, the first official Bristol Channel pilot was barge master George James Ray, appointed by the Corporation of Bristol in May 1497 to pilot John Cabot 's Matthew from Bristol harbour to the open sea beyond the Bristol channel . In 1837 Pilot George Ray guided Brunel 's SS Great Western , and in 1844 William Ray piloted the larger SS Great Britain on her maiden voyage. In 1840, there were only eight New York pilot boats. They were
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#1732802404545336-784: The Phantom, No. 1; Washington, No. 2; New York, No. 3; Jacob Bell, No. 4; Blossom, No. 5; T. H. Smith, No. 6; John E. Davidson, No. 7; and the Virginia, No. 8. In 1860 there were twenty-one New York pilot boats and four under the New Jersey dispensation. In the spring of 1896, the New York and New Jersey pilots discarded pilot-boats and moved them to the Erie Basin in Brooklyn. They were for sale because of
364-685: The Hooghly River between Calcutta and the sea. The Zodiac and Adventuress are both listed with the National Register of Historic Places and are now cruising in Washington state after restorations. Modern pilot boats can be from 7 metres to over 25 metres (23–82 ft) in length, built to withstand heavy seas and bumping against 100,000 ton tanker and cruise ships. They are high-powered and hence both very quick and durable purpose-built boats. They are normally painted
392-527: The Berkeley Class vessels produced in Australia, a combination of materials is used. Pilots identified pilot boats with a large number on the mainsail and by flying a large pilot flag, bisected vertically into two colours, usually white and blue, which added to the boat's visibility. In distress, they would fire rockets and blue-lights at night. A brass signal gun was carried to be used when there
420-592: The State of Louisiana, Governor Moore was commanded for some time by Lieutenant Beverly Kennon, CSN , then serving as Commander in the Louisiana Provisional Navy without pay. She distinguished herself in the battle of 24 April 1862, when Admiral David Farragut , USN , passed Fort Jackson and Fort St. Philip before dawn en route to capture New Orleans. After a furious exchange of raking fire, Governor Moore twice rammed USS Varuna , and
448-575: The Thames at Lambeth, dated 1697, suggest that schooner rig was common in England and Holland by the end of the 17th century. The Royal Transport was an example of a large British-built schooner, launched in 1695 at Chatham. The schooner rig was used in vessels with a wide range of purposes. On a fast hull, good ability to windward was useful for privateers, blockade runners, slave ships, smaller naval craft and opium clippers. Packet boats (built for
476-647: The United States from circa 1880–1920. They mostly carried bulk cargoes such as coal and timber. In yachting, schooners predominated in the early years of the America's Cup . In more recent times, schooners have been used as sail training ships. The type was further developed in British North America starting around 1713. In the 1700s and 1800s in what is now New England and Atlantic Canada schooners became popular for coastal trade, requiring
504-671: The change from wood and sail to steel and steam pilot boats. In Great Britain, pilot boats were rigged as schooners in Fleetwood , Swansea and Liverpool . In Liverpool, the Pioneer, No. 6 was built in 1852 and was 53-tons. The clipper George Holt, No. 10 was built in 1892. The Bengal Pilot Service was established by the British East India Company to control piloting . The pilot boats were responsible for guiding East Indiaman , and other vessels, up and down
532-709: The early 1700s. The name may be related to a Scots word meaning to skip over water, or to skip stones. The origins of schooner rigged vessels is obscure, but there is good evidence of them from the early 17th century in paintings by Dutch marine artists. The earliest known illustration of a schooner depicts a yacht owned by the mayors (Dutch: burgemeesters) of Amsterdam, drawn by the Dutch artist Rool and dated 1600. Later examples show schooners (Dutch: schoeners) in Amsterdam in 1638 and New Amsterdam in 1627. Paintings by Van de Velde (1633–1707) and an engraving by Jan Kip of
560-592: The fast conveyance of passengers and goods) were often schooners. Fruit schooners were noted for their quick passages, taking their perishable cargoes on routes such as the Azores to Britain. Some pilot boats adopted the rig. The fishing vessels that worked the Grand Banks of Newfoundland were schooners, and held in high regard as an outstanding development of the type. In merchant use, the ease of handling in confined waters and smaller crew requirements made schooners
588-463: The incoming vessels. But fishing boats were heavy working boats, and filled with fishing equipment, and so a new type of boat was required. Early boats were developed from single masted cutters and twin masted yawls , and latterly into the specialist pilot cutter . These were effectively light-weight and over-powered single-masted boats with large, steeply angled keels, making them deep draft under power and shallow draft in lighter sail. If legend
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#1732802404545616-432: The need to regulate the act of pilotage and ensure pilots had adequate insurance, the harbours themselves licensed pilots for each harbour. Although licensed by the harbour to operate within their jurisdiction, pilots were generally self-employed, meaning that they had to have quick transport to get them from the port to the incoming ships. As pilots were often still dual-employed, they used their own fishing boats to reach
644-577: The public service." As a gunboat , renamed for Louisiana's Governor Thomas Overton Moore , her stem was reinforced for ramming by two strips of flat railroad iron at the waterline, strapped and bolted in place, with pine lumber and cotton-bale barricades to protect her boilers, but the Governor Moore was never commissioned as a ship in the Confederate States Navy. The larger of two similar cotton-clads owned and operated by
672-420: The so-called pilot tenders: the vessels that go to the ships to bring the pilot on board of arriving ships or pick them up from departing ships. Depending on the local situation the tenders might be launched directly from a nearby harbour or they are coming from the central (large) pilot station : a pilot boat located at a pre-defined location at sea near a pilotage area. In earlier days nearly all pilots came from
700-474: The two dozen or more crew members escaped into the marshes, the rest being captured by other ships' launches; no one drowned. "The pennant and remains of the ensign were never hauled down ," wrote Kennon from Colorado . "The flames that lit our decks stood faithful sentinels over their halyards until they, like the ship, were entirely consumed. I burned the bodies of the slain. Our colors were shot away three times. I hoisted them myself twice; finally every stripe
728-421: Was fog and sometimes on fair days. Pilot boats are specially marked to indicate their function. During the day they fly the "H" flag and normally the word PILOT (or PILOTS ) is written in clearly visible, large, letters on the sides. At night they have special navigation lights: in addition to the "normal" navigation lights, a pilot boat has a white round light at top and below that a red round light, while
756-654: Was taken out of the flag, leaving a small constellation of four little stars only, which showed to our enemy how bravely we had defended them." The ship sank with the Louisiana's colors flying.(It is unclear if the flag referred to was the Confederate Stars and Bars or Louisiana State banner of January 1861 ; the Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships claims the latter.) Schooner The name "schooner" first appeared in eastern North America in
784-505: Was used by both Fridtjof Nansen and Roald Amundsen in their explorations of the poles. Bluenose was both a successful fishing boat and a racer. America , eponym of America's Cup , was one of the few schooners ever designed for racing. This race was long dominated by schooners. Three-masted schooner Atlantic set the transatlantic sailing record for a monohull in the 1905 Kaiser's Cup race. The record remained unbroken for nearly 100 years. Pilot boat A pilot boat
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