A brig is a type of sailing vessel defined by its rig: two masts which are both square-rigged . Brigs originated in the second half of the 18th century and were a common type of smaller merchant vessel or warship from then until the latter part of the 19th century. In commercial use, they were gradually replaced by fore-and-aft rigged vessels such as schooners , as owners sought to reduce crew costs by having rigs that could be handled by fewer men. In Royal Navy use, brigs were retained for training use when the battle fleets consisted almost entirely of iron-hulled steamships.
29-852: General Armstrong was an American brig built for privateering in the Atlantic Ocean theater of the War of 1812 . She was named for Brigadier General John Armstrong, Sr. , who fought in the American Revolutionary War . General Armstrong was based in New York City and crewed by about 90 men. Captain Tim Barnard commanded the ship in 1812. Guy Richards Champlin led the ship from 1813 through July 1814, followed by Captain Samuel Chester Reid until
58-552: A few weeks before the fateful Battle of Fayal. Claims for damages arising out of the General Armstrong' s sinking lasted for over 70 years. One such claim drove the plot of The Senator , a popular play of the 1890s later adapted into a silent film . [REDACTED] This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships . Brig Brigs were prominent in
87-458: A prize crew for America. However, HMS Niemen recaptured Sir Alexander Ball and by 20 July 1814 she was at Halifax, Nova Scotia , being condemned as a prize to Niemen . Of the prizes the General Armstrong captured and ordered to port, about a third were recaptured. Battle-damaged and short-manned, they were fairly easily recaptured. Niles' Register details the plight of one such captured vessel: Shifting Owners! The prize schooner to
116-498: A ship sailing from Suriname to Liverpool with dry goods. However, the letter of marque Barton of Liverpool recaptured Lucy & Alida . The American privateer Revenge of Norfolk later captured Lucy & Alinda . On 19 November 1812 General Armstrong captured Sir Sidney Smith as Sir Sidney Smith , Knight, master, was sailing from London and Madeira to Berbice. The news item in Lloyd's List stated that General Armstrong
145-534: The General Armstrong was seized and the crew taken prisoner when she put into Dunkirk . However, the crew was later released and General Armstrong allowed to sail. On 25 June 1814 General Armstrong captured the Portuguese ship Mercury but allowed her to proceed as she was neutral. On 19 July 1814 General Armstrong captured the sloop Henrietta , which was bound to Chesapeake with stores, and sent her to Egg Harbor . According to Niles' Register , during
174-454: The 17th century, one of the most famous periods for the brig was during the 19th century when they were involved in famous naval battles such as the Battle of Lake Erie . In the early 19th century the brig was a standard cargo ship. It was seen as "fast and well sailing", but required a large crew to handle its rigging. Brigs were seen as more manoeuvrable than schooners. James Cook requested
203-510: The British sloop HMS Coquette . The ensuing battle severely damaged General Armstrong . Its captain, Guy Richards Champlin, was injured and threatened to blow up the ship if the crew surrendered. General Armstrong ultimately escaped. In his log-book Champlin wrote: "In this action we had six men killed and sixteen wounded, and all the halyards of the headsails shot away; the fore-mast and bowsprit one quarter cut through, and all
232-818: The General Armstrong (lately arrived at an Eastern Port) was formerly the Matilda, American privateer. She was captured on the Brazil coast, some months since, by the Lion, British privateer ship of 28 guns, after severe action, recaptured going into England by the late U.S. Brig Argus, re-captured going into France by a British 74, and again re-captured by the American privateer Armstrong. General Armstrong arrived in home port in late July 1814. Samuel Reid took over as captain and departed Sandy Hook on 9 September 1814,
261-754: The attacks but Captain Reid felt he could not escape the Azores so he ordered the General Armstrong scuttled after fighting off the Carnation a second time on 27 September. The Americans made it to shore where Portuguese authorities and the American consul John Bass Dabney protected them. American casualties amounted to two killed and seven wounded, while the British lost 36 men killed and 93 wounded. General Armstrong also sunk two British boats and captured two others. Two days after General Armstrong captured Queen , it captured Lucy & Alida (captained by Deamy),
290-519: The coast of Ireland . Fanny had been sailing from Maranhão to Liverpool. The engagement lasted about an hour and was described as a " severe " close-range action fought within " pistol shot range ." Eventually the British struck their colors after several men were killed or wounded. The General Armstrong' s crew lost one killed and six wounded; Fanny lost a like number out of a much smaller crew. The British third-rate ship Sceptre later recaptured Fanny . On 26 April 1814 Lloyd's List reported
319-414: The coastal coal trade of British waters. 4,395 voyages to London with coal were recorded in 1795. With an average of eight or nine trips per year for one vessel, that is a fleet of over 500 colliers trading to London alone. Other ports and coastal communities were also served by colliers trading to Britain's coal ports. In the first half of the 19th century, the vast majority were rigged as brigs, and that rig
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#1732783871534348-521: The conversion of the schooner HMS Grenfell to a brig, with the justification of the better control that he would have with a brig versus a schooner. The ability to stop the ship quickly (by backing sails) was particularly important for a vessel doing survey work. The windward ability of brigs (which depends as much on hull shape as the rig) could be comparable to or better than contemporary schooners. The author and naval officer Frederick Marryat characterised brigs as having superior windward performance to
377-644: The crew were killed. Queen was possibly one of the most valuable prizes captured by American privateers during the War of 1812. A prize crew began sailing Queen to the United States, but wrecked it off the Nantucket coast. On 11 March 1813 the General Armstrong was sailing in the mouth of the Suriname River when she encountered a vessel the crew presumed to be a British privateer but was, in fact,
406-444: The evolution of the barquentine . The need for large crews in relation to their relatively small size led to the decline of the production of brigs. They were replaced in commercial traffic by gaffsail schooners (which needed fewer personnel) and steam boats . The famous mystery ship Mary Celeste , while sometimes called a brig, was clearly a brigantine . Maxwell (1804 ship) Too Many Requests If you report this error to
435-477: The famous designer Colin Mudie 's 'Little Brigs' ( TS Bob Allen and TS Caroline Allen) , which are only 30 ft (9 m) long and weigh only 8 tonnes. Historically, most brigs were made of wood, although some later brigs were built with hulls and masts of steel or iron. A brig made of pine in the 19th century was designed to last for about twenty years (many lasted longer). The word brig has been used in
464-473: The fore and main shrouds but one shot away; both mainstays and running rigging cut to pieces; a great number of shot through our sails, and several between wind and water , which caused our vessel to leak. There were also a number of shot in our hull." General Armstrong returned to the United States, arriving in Charleston on 4 April. General Armstrong' s shareholders awarded Champlin a sword for saving
493-538: The fore mast and the bowsprit are the fore staysail , jib , and flying jib . All the yards are manipulated by a complicated arrangement of cordage named the " running rigging ". This is opposed to the standing rigging which is fixed, and keeps mast and other objects rigid. A brig is "generally built on a larger scale than a schooner , and may approach the magnitude of a full-sized, three-masted ship ." Brigs vary in length between 75 and 165 ft (23 and 50 m) with tonnages up to 480. A notable exception being
522-676: The fore-and-aft rigged brigantine was "that the sails, being smaller and more numerous, are more easily managed, and require fewer men or 'hands' to work them." The variant was so popular that the term brig came to exclusively signify a ship with this type of rigging. By the 17th century the British Royal Navy defined "brig" as having two square rigged masts. Brigs were used as small warships carrying about 10 to 18 guns. Due to their speed and maneuverability they were popular among pirates (though they were rare among American and Caribbean pirates). While their use stretches back before
551-429: The main topgallant sail ; and occasionally a very small sail, called the royal , is above that. Behind the main sail there is a small fore-and-aft sail called the spanker or boom mainsail (it is somewhat similar to the main sail of a schooner ). On the foremast is a similar sail, called the trysail . Attached to the respective yards of square-rigged ships are smaller spars, which can be extended, thus lengthening
580-428: The past as an abbreviation of brigantine (which is the name for a two-masted vessel with foremast fully square rigged and her mainmast rigged with both a fore-and-aft mainsail, square topsails and possibly topgallant sails). The brig actually developed as a variant of the brigantine. Re-rigging a brigantine with two square-rigged masts instead of one gave it greater sailing power. The square-rigged brig's advantage over
609-545: The rest of 1814 the General Armstrong captured various other prizes: Of these last three ships listed in Niles' Register , one may have been Fanny . Another may have been the Sir Alexander Ball , which General Armstrong captured after a short engagement some 80 miles (130 km) west of Lisbon. Sir Alexander Ball had six men wounded, two probably fatally. Champlin sent her crew into Lisbon, and sent her with
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#1732783871534638-413: The schooners of that time. Marryat is considered, by maritime historians, to be an authoritative source on such matters. A brig's square-rig also had the advantage over a fore-and-aft–rigged vessel when travelling offshore, in the trade winds, where vessels sailed down wind for extended distances and where "the danger of a sudden jibe was the large schooner-captain's nightmare". This trait later led to
667-407: The ship from capture or destruction. General Armstrong is perhaps most remembered for her involvement in the Battle of Fayal , under the captaincy of Samuel Chester Reid, on 26 and 27 September 1814. In the engagement, the British brig-sloop Carnation and several boats armed with cannon and carrying sailors and marines attempted to cut out the General Armstrong . General Armstrong repulsed
696-585: The ship's September 1814 scuttling in Faial . She was armed with seven guns, including a 42-pounder Long Tom cannon . On 11 November 1812 the General Armstrong —armed with 16 guns and 40 men—attacked the English ship Queen (Captain Conkey). Queen was sailing from Liverpool to Suriname with cargo valued at £90,000 . Her crew resisted and did not strike her colours until the captain, first officer, and nine of
725-399: The sloop Resolution , which was sailing from Jersey for Lisbon with linen and paper, seizing her cargo and releasing her. That month General Armstrong also captured and scuttled the brig Phoebe , which sailed from Forney for Madeira laden with butter and potatoes. On 19 April 1814 General Armstrong captured the eighteen-gun British letter of marque Fanny and its 45-man crew off
754-456: The yard, thus receiving an additional sailing wing on each side. These are called studding sails , and are used with fair and light wind only. The wings are named after the sails to which they are fastened, i.e. the main studding sails, main top studding sails, and the main top gallant studding sails, etc. A brig's foremast is smaller than the main mast. The fore mast holds a fore sail, fore top sail, fore top gallant sail, and fore royal. Between
783-535: Was armed with 19 guns. Sir Sidney Smith foundered off Nantucket, On 29 November General Armstrong unsuccessfully attacked Maxwell off the Brazil coast. General Armstrong also captured the brig Union , originally sailing from Guernsey to Saint Kitts , and sent to New York after her capture. In 1813 General Armstrong captured and burned an unnamed schooner and an unnamed brig that were sailing to France . On 20 March 1813 William , Cunningham, master,
812-462: Was on her way from St John's New Brunswick, to Barbados when General Armstrong captured William within sight of Barbados. General Armstrong took William into Puerto Rico. HMS Spider , Captain Willcock, claimed her there. The authorities gave William up and she arrived at St Thomas's on 19 April. The General Armstrong captured multiple ships throughout 1814. In January she captured
841-408: Was retained for longer in the northeast of England. In sailing , a full-rigged brig is a vessel with two square rigged masts (fore and main). The main mast of a brig is the aft one. To improve maneuverability, the mainmast carries a ( gaff rigged ) fore-and-aft sail. Brig sails are named after the masts to which they are attached: the mainsail ; above that the main topsail ; above that
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