Types of sailing ships
Types of sailing ships Types of sailing ships with the abbreviations used in the Mercantile Navy List
Human ingenuity has produced a huge variety of sailing ships with an extensive, and sometimes inconsistent, jargon to describe the ship types, rigs and sails. From the 19th century onwards, the naming of a sailing ship type was based mainly on the sail plan
(the number of masts and which types of sail are used) rather than the hull type or the ship's function. For more information and a gallery of images, see this Wikipedia article:
Wikipedia
The list below shows some of the more common types, including the abbreviations used in the Mercantile Navy List and links to more information about that type.
| Ship type | Abbreviation | Notes | Link |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bateau | Bat | A small flat-bottomed boat used for river navigation in North America. However, the small number of entries in MNL show tonnages over 70 tons. |
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| Barca | Bca | A small Mediterraean two or three masted lugger. AKA barca-longa |
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| Bagala | Bla | A large, deep-sea dhow (qv). AKA baghlah or baggala. |
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| Barque | Bk | A vessel with three or more masts having the fore- and mainmasts rigged square and only the mizzen mast rigged fore and aft. |
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| Barquentine | Bkn | A vessel with three or more masts; with a square rigged foremast and fore-and-aft rigged main, mizzen and any other masts. AKA Barkentine. |
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| Boomsail | Bmsl | A fore-and-aft rig with a boom, as opposed to a loose-footed sail as used on most Thames sailing barges. | |
| Bracciera | Bra | An Adriatic coastal vessel with a fore-and-aft rig. AKA bracera or brazzera. |
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| Brig | Bg | A vessel with two square rigged masts. |
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| Brigantine | Bn | A two-masted sailing vessel with a fully square-rigged foremast and at least two sails on the main mast: a square topsail and a gaff sail mainsail (behind the mast). |
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| Chassemaree | Ch | A vessel used around the English Channel and the Atlantic coast of France. |
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| Cutter | Cr | A single-masted decked vessel, gaff-rigged, with two or more headsails and often a bowsprit of some length, with a mast sometimes set farther back than on a sloop. |
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| Dhoney | Dhy | A vessel with lateen sails used in the Maldives, South India and Sri Lanka. AKA Dhoni, Thoni. |
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| Dogger | Dr | A small ketch (qv) used for fishing in the North Sea. It was gaff-rigged on the main-mast, with a lug sail on the mizzen, and two jibs on a long bowsprit. |
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| Dandy | Dy | Another name for ketch or yawl rigs (qv). | |
| Felucca | Fel | A small vessel used in the eastern Mediterranean, with one or two lateen sails. |
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| Fifie | A lugger (qv) used for herring drifting on the East coast of Scotland. |
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| Flat | F | A sea-going double-ended sailing barge used in canals, the rivers Mersey, Irwell and Weaver, and around Liverpool Bay. |
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| Galliot | G | A Dutch or German ship similar to a ketch (qv). |
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| Gaffsail | Gfsl | A gaff rig has a four-sided fore-and-aft sail hoisted from a gaff. |
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| Gabbart | Gt | A sailing barge used for inland navigation and coasting, especially on the River Clyde. |
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| Hoy | H | A small sloop-rigged coasting ship or heavy barge, used in the Thames and the coast of Kent. |
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| Hermaphrodite (brig) | Her | A type of Brigantine (qv) square rigged on the foremast with fore-and-aft sails on the main mast. |
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| Hooker | Hkr | A fishing boat used around the coast of Galway, with a single mast and two fore-sails. AKA Galway hooker. |
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| Hulk | A dismasted vessel that is afloat but incapable of going to sea. |
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| Junk | Jk | A Chinese sailing ship with fully battened sails. |
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| Jigger | Jr | The rearmost mast on a multi-masted ship. However, there are entries in MNL for vessels of about 80 tons from Liverpool (the Africa, America and Europe and others) which were previously described as flats, so this may also be another term for a flat (qv). There are also similar entries for smaller vessels from Glasgow and the Clyde ports. | |
| Jury | Jy | A term used for a makeshift rig used in emergencies. We are not able to find any reference for this in the MNL entries. |
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| Keel | Kl | (Norfolk Keel, Humber Keel, Tyne Keel). A square-rigged vessel used for inshore and inland cargo transport. |
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| Ketch | K | A fore-and-aft rigged vessel with the mizzen mast positioned forward of the rudder stock. |
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| Katoo | Ko | We are not able to find any reference for this online or in MNL (apart from in the MNL list of abbreviations). | |
| Lateen | Ln | A rig used in the eastern Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean for feluccas and dhows (qv) with a triangular sail on a long yard. |
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| Lorcha | Lor | A vessel with a junk rig on a European style hull. |
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| Lugger | Lr | A vessel with lug sails on all its masts, eg Fifie, Lancashire Nobby, Manx Nobby, Manx Nickie. |
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| Lighter | Ltr | A flat-bottomed barge, usually unpowered, used to transfer goods and passengers to and from moored ships. |
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| Martingana | Ma | A vessel used in Sicily and the eastern Mediterranean. |
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| Mistico | Mis | A vessel used in the Mediterranean, rigged partly like a xebec (qv) and partly like a felucca (qv). |
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| Nobby | Ny | (Lancashire Nobby, Manx Nobby, Manx Nickie). A lug-rigged herring drifter used on the coast of Lancashire and around the Isle of Man. |
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| Pielago | Plo | We are not able to find any reference for this online. The only reference we have found in MNL is for one ship (Israel, ON 61638 of Malta). | |
| Polacca | Pol | A Mediterranean vessel similar to the xebec (qv). It had two or three single-pole masts, the three-masted vessels often with a lateen hoisted on the foremast and a gaff or lateen on the mizzen mast. The mainmast was square-rigged after the European style. AKA Polacre. |
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| Schooner | Sr | A vessel with two or more masts, all fore-and-aft rigged. |
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| Ship | S | A generic term for surface vessels but, in the context of sailing vessels, a (full-rigged) ship has three or more masts, all square rigged. |
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| Speronara | Sa | A single-masted small sailing vessel originating in Malta, often with a lateen or sprit sail. |
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| Smack | Sk | A fishing vessel with either a cutter or ketch rig. |
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| Sloop | Sp | A vessel with a single mast with usually only one sail in front of the mast and one mainsail aft of (behind) the mast. |
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| Snow | Sw | A square-rigged vessel with two masts with an additional snow- or trysail-mast stepped immediately abaft (behind) the main mast. |
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| Spritsail | Spl | A fore-and-aft rig particularly associated with Thames barges. |
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| Square | Sq | Probably used in MNL as a generic term for any vessel which was square rigged. |
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| Tartana | Ta | A small Mediterranean vessel with one mast. |
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| Tongkang | Tkg | A Malay vessel propelled by oar, punt poles or sails, Junk (qv) or Ketch (qv) rigged. |
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| Trow | Tw | A cargo vessel used inshore and in the rivers Severn and Wye. |
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| Wherry | Wy | A sailing boat used for inland navigation including the rivers Cam and Thames and in the Broads. |
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| Xebec | Xbk | A two or three masted Mediterranean vessel with both square and lateen sails. AKA Xebeck, Zebec. |
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| Yawl | Yl | A two masted fore-and-aft rigged vessel with the mizzen mast positioned abaft, or close to, the rudder stock. |
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