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37-563: In naval terminology, " sloop-of-war " refers to the purpose of the craft, rather than to the specific size or sail-plan , and thus a sloop should not be confused with a sloop-of-war. The term is also used loosely with other sail plans, as with the Friendship Sloop , which is a cutter . The name originates from the Dutch sloep , which is related to the Old English slūpan , to glide. A sloop

74-404: A brigantine with two square-rigged masts instead of one gave it greater sailing power. The square-rigged brig's advantage over 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

111-468: A three-masted (ship) rig. The third mast afforded the sloop greater mobility and the ability to back sail. In the 1770s, the two-masted sloop re-appeared in a new guise as the brig sloop , the successor to the former snow sloops. Brig sloops had two masts, while ship sloops continued to have three (since a brig is a two-masted, square-rigged vessel, and a ship is a square-rigger with three or more masts, though never more than three in that period). In

148-600: 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 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

185-417: Is smaller than the main mast. The fore mast holds a fore sail, fore top sail, fore top gallant sail, and fore royal. Between 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

222-468: Is usually regarded as a single-masted rig with a single headsail and a fore-and-aft mainsail. In this form, the sloop is the commonest of all sailing rigs – with the Bermuda sloop being the default rig for leisure craft, being used on types that range from simple cruising dinghies to large racing yachts with high-tech sail fabrics and large powerful winches.If the vessel has two or more headsails ,

259-616: The Grimsby and Kingfisher classes, were built in the interwar years. Fleet minesweepers such as the Algerine class were rated as "minesweeping sloops". The Royal Navy officially dropped the term "sloop" in 1937, although the term remained in widespread and general use. During World War II , 37 ships of the Black Swan class were built for convoy escort duties. However, the warship-standards construction, propulsion and sophisticated armaments of

296-768: The Battle of the Atlantic . In 1948 the Royal Navy reclassified its remaining sloops and corvettes as frigates, even though the term sloop had been officially defunct for nine years. The Royal Navy has proposed a concept, known as the " Future Black Swan-class Sloop-of-war ", as an alternative to the Global Corvette of the Global Combat Ship programme. Brig A brig is a type of sailing vessel defined by its rig: two masts which are both square-rigged . Brigs originated in

333-633: The Bermuda sloop , both as a cruiser against French privateers , slavers, and smugglers, and also as its standard advice vessels, carrying communications, vital persons and materials, and performing reconnaissance duties for the fleets. Bermuda sloops were found with gaff rig, mixtures of gaff and square rig, or a Bermuda rig . They were built with up to three masts. The single masted ships had huge sails and harnessed tremendous wind energy, which made them demanding to sail and required large, experienced crews. The Royal Navy favoured multi-masted versions, as it

370-522: The Hunt class of "minesweeping sloops", those intended for minesweeping duty. The Royal Navy continued to build vessels rated as sloops during the interwar years. These sloops were small warships intended for colonial " gunboat diplomacy " deployments, surveying duties, and acting during wartime as convoy escorts. As they were not intended to deploy with the fleet, sloops had a maximum speed of less than 20 knots (37 km/h). A number of such sloops, for example

407-505: The forestay (on which the headsail is carried) attaches at the top of the mast. On a fractional-rigged sloop, the forestay attaches to the mast at a point below the top. A sloop may use a bowsprit , a spar that projects forward from the bow . Sloop-of-war During the 18th and 19th centuries, a sloop-of-war was a warship of the British Royal Navy with a single gun deck that carried up to 18 guns. The rating system of

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444-464: 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 the 17th century, one of the most famous periods for the brig was during

481-420: The 19th century was designed to last for about twenty years (many lasted longer). The word brig has been used in 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

518-413: 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 the conversion of the schooner HMS Grenfell to a brig, with the justification of

555-649: The Napoleonic period, Britain built huge numbers of brig sloops of the Cruizer class (18 guns) and the Cherokee class (10 guns). The brig rig was economical of manpower – important given Britain's chronic shortfall in trained seamen relative to the demands of the wartime fleet. When armed with carronades (32-pounders in the Cruizer class, 18-pounders in the Cherokee class), they had

592-426: The Royal Navy covered all vessels with 20 or more guns; thus, the term encompassed all unrated warships, including gun-brigs and cutters . In technical terms, even the more specialised bomb vessels and fire ships were classed by the Royal Navy as sloops-of-war, and in practice these were employed in the role of a sloop-of-war when not carrying out their specialised functions. In World War I and World War II ,

629-631: The Royal Navy reused the term "sloop" for specialised convoy -defence vessels, including the Flower class of the First World War and the highly successful Black Swan class of the Second World War, with anti-aircraft and anti-submarine capabilities. They performed similar duties to the destroyer escorts of the United States Navy , and also performed similar duties to the smaller corvettes of

666-477: The Royal Navy. A sloop-of-war was quite different from a civilian or mercantile sloop , which was a general term for a single-masted vessel rigged in a way that would today be called a gaff cutter (but usually without the square topsails then carried by cutter-rigged vessels), though some sloops of that type did serve in the 18th century British Royal Navy , particularly on the Great Lakes of North America. In

703-422: The battle fleets consisted almost entirely of iron-hulled steamships. Brigs were prominent in 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

740-438: 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

777-530: The classifications of sloops, corvettes and frigates. Instead a classification based on the intended role of the ship became common, such as cruiser and battleship . During the First World War , the sloop rating was revived by the British Royal Navy for small warships not intended for fleet deployments. Examples include the Flower classes of "convoy sloops", those designed for convoy escort, and

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814-517: The equivalent of British post-ships. The Americans also occasionally used the French term corvette. In the Royal Navy , the sloop evolved into an unrated vessel with a single gun deck and three masts, two square rigged and the aft-most fore-and-aft rigged (corvettes had three masts, all of which were square-rigged). Steam sloops had a transverse division of their lateral coal bunkers in order that

851-443: The first half of the 18th century, most naval sloops were two-masted vessels, usually carrying a ketch or a snow rig. A ketch had main and mizzen masts but no foremast. A snow had a foremast and a main mast immediately abaft which a small subsidiary mast was fastened on which the spanker was set. The first three-masted, i.e., " ship rigged ", sloops appeared during the 1740s, and from the mid-1750s most new sloops were built with

888-401: The first half of the 19th century, the vast majority were rigged as brigs, and that rig 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

925-446: The highest ratio of firepower to tonnage of any ships in the Royal Navy, albeit within the short range of the carronade. The carronades also used much less manpower than the long guns normally used to arm frigates. Consequently, the Cruizer class were often used as cheaper and more economical substitutes for frigates , in situations where the frigates' high cruising endurance was not essential. A carronade-armed brig, however, would be at

962-622: The lower division could be emptied first, to maintain a level of protection afforded by the coal in the upper bunker division along the waterline. During the War of 1812 sloops of war in the service of the United States Navy performed well against their Royal Navy equivalents. The American ships had the advantage of being ship-rigged rather than brig-rigged, a distinction that increased their manoeuvrability. They were also larger and better armed. Cruizer- class brig-sloops in particular were vulnerable in one-on-one engagements with American sloops-of-war. In

999-420: The masts to which they are attached: the mainsail ; above that the main topsail ; above that 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

1036-465: The mercy of a frigate armed with long guns, so long as the frigate maneuvered to exploit its superiority of range. The other limitation of brig sloops as opposed to post ships and frigates was their relatively restricted stowage for water and provisions, which made them less suitable for long-range cruising. However, their shallower draught made them excellent raiders against coastal shipping and shore installations. The Royal Navy also made extensive use of

1073-435: The respective yards of square-rigged ships are smaller spars, which can be extended, thus lengthening 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

1110-413: 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

1147-403: 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

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1184-409: The second half of the 19th century, successive generations of naval guns became larger and with the advent of steam-powered sloops , both paddle and screw, by the 1880s even the most powerful warships had fewer than a dozen large calibre guns, and were therefore technically sloops. Since the rating system was no longer a reliable indicator of a ship's combat power, it was abolished altogether and with it

1221-525: The sixth rate of the British Navy). The name corvette was subsequently also applied to British vessels, but not until the 1830s. American usage, while similar to British terminology into the beginning of the 19th century, gradually diverged. By about 1825 the United States Navy used "sloop-of-war" to designate a flush-deck ship-rigged warship with all armament on the gun deck; these could be rated as high as 26 guns and thus overlapped "third-class frigates,"

1258-414: The sloop of that time shared bottlenecks with destroyers and did not lend themselves to mass production on commercial shipyards, thus the sloop was supplanted by the corvette , and later the frigate , as the primary escort vessel of the Royal Navy. Built to mercantile standards and with (initially) simple armaments, these vessels, notably the Flower and River classes, were produced in large numbers for

1295-411: The term cutter may be used, especially if the mast is stepped further aft. Before the Bermuda rig became popular outside of Bermuda in the early 20th century, a (non-Bermudian) sloop might carry one or more square-rigged topsails which will be hung from a topsail yard and be supported from below by a crossjack. A sloop's headsail may be masthead-rigged or fractional-rigged. On a masthead-rigged sloop,

1332-535: Was (by virtue of having too few guns) outside the rating system . In general, a sloop-of-war would be under the command of a master and commander rather than a post captain , although in day-to-day use at sea the commanding officer of any naval vessels would be addressed as "captain". A ship sloop was generally the equivalent of the smaller corvette of the French Navy (although the French term also covered ships up to 24 guns, which were classed as post ships within

1369-465: Was perennially short of sailors at the end of the 18th century, and its personnel received insufficient training (particularly in the Western Atlantic, priority being given to the continuing wars with France for control of Europe). The longer decks of the multi-masted vessels also had the advantage of allowing more guns to be carried. Originally a sloop-of-war was smaller than a sailing frigate and

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