03/22/2020
The Brig; LADY WASHINGTON Tall Ship. I was fortunate enough to have served on the crew as the Onboard Engineer for a 6 week tour during the Spring of 2019.
Lady Washington's rig design is from the last half of the 18th century when sail theory was changing rapidly. She is what's known as a "brig". Brigs are vessels that have two masts with square sails made to catch the wind from behind. In addition, they have many "fore and aft" sails designed to catch the wind from abeam (beside) the vessel.
Lady Washington's square sails include the foresail, topsails, t'gallantsails, royals, and the spritsail. Her fore and aft sails include the jib and foretopmast staysail (known together as "headsails" because they are at the head of the ship), the main staysail and maintopmast staysail, and the s***ker.
The "s***ker" is called as such because its job is to s***k the stern of the ship downwind, helping her to maneuver.
The "royals" are square sails set from the deck that fly above the topsails. They are not shown in this photo because we can only set them in very light wind.
Lady Washington's combination of sails makes her very nimble and able to sail on many wind directions, instead of just downwind as ships of earlier time periods had to do.
