Shipping Intelligence PORT SAN FRANCISCO TO MASTERS OF VESSELS.--Masters of all vessels arriving at this port will confer a favor upon the proprietors of this paper by preparing, for the Marine Reporter for the ALTA, who will board them on their arrival, a Report of their vessel, cargo, consignees, passengers, vessels spoken, and other matters of general interest. Upon their leaving for any part of the world they will be cheerfully supplied with files of the ALTA, free of charge, on application at the office, Sacramento street, below Montgomery.
Port and Starboard
Ancient ships had their rudders, or steering boards, on the right side of the stern of the ship. This gave rise to the Anglo-Saxon word steorbord, which means "steer side." When ships came into port to load and unload, they were tied up with their left sides closest to the dock to prevent damage to the rudder. Thus, the left side became known as the port side. Port used to be called larboard, from the Middle English ladeborde, which referred to the loading side of a ship.
Barque (Bark, Barquentine, Barkentine)
A barque is square-rigged at fore and main masts, and differs from a ship in having no top, and carrying only fore-and-aft sails at her mizzenmast. She has at least three masts. All of them are rigged with at least three square sails each, except for the sternmost one, which is rigged with fore-and-aft sails.
The wooden three-masted barque was a common sight in the port of san Francisco in the middle of the 19th century. A look through Vessels In Port will give quick indication of how important barques were in California's early development. Until the fast, elegant clippers and huge steamers began arriving in 1850-1851, barques, ships and brigs carried huge cargo loads from around the world, as is exampled by the French barque Maria.
The typical cargo-carrier of the early 20th century was the four-masted steel barque. The beautiful Japanese ship Kaiwo Maru, pictured left during a trip into San Francisco Bay, is a four masted-steel barque now used as a training ship for the Japanese Navy. Interesting to note that her seaman wore bright yellow safety helmuts, but climbed barefoot.
Brig (Brigantine)
A full-rigged brig is square-rigged at both her masts.
Hermaphrodite Brigantine
If a ship has two masts, the foremast square rigged and the main mast fore-and-aft rigged, it can be called a hermaphrodite brig or a brigantine. Calling it a brigantine is a bit wrong, because the true brigantine should also have square sails on her main topmast. The brigantine must not, however, have a main course, because then it is called a brig and does not belong to the family of schooners since its main sail is not a fore-and-aft sail.
Clippers
Clipper ships, which were not of a specific design, ranged in size from a few hundred tons to over 4000. Between one and four hundred were built, depending on which ones you want to count as clipper ships.
Until 1845, cargo was transported in the world's oceans in slow, high-capacity merchant ships: barques, brigs, and ships. When San Francisco opened up to the world in the late 1840s, even before the Gold Rush, a booming economy ensued and with it a taste for exotics, such as Chinese tea. Shipping rates rose from $10 to $60 a ton. Suddenly it was profitable to build and operate ships that looked less like cargo carriers and more like racing vessels. Flying Cloud (pictured here and borrowed from a children's book), raced the Hornet from New York to San Francisco. The word "clipper ship" came from the fast little Baltimore Clipper, dating back to the War of 1812. The biggest of these, the Ann McKim, weighed less than 500 tons. But in 1843 it got from New York to Canton, China, and back with a load of tea in only 92 days. The Eastern seaboard ship designers began building clippers as fast as they could, and for ten years, the tall, elegant clippers ruled the high seas. They reached 14 knots and raced each other from port to port, sometimes with no more than a new suit of clothing as the prize.
Ship
A full-rigged ship is square-rigged throughout: She has three masts with tops, and carries at least three square sails on all three masts. Most also have a small gaff sail on the sternmost mast. Even though most people refer to any large vessel as a "ship," strictly speaking only full-rigged ships are ships.
Illustration and text from The Young Sea Officer's Sheet Anchor: Or a Key to the Leading of Rigging and to Practical Seamanship, Darcy Lever, Dover Press, 1998.
"The Names of the Sails are derived from the Masts to which
they are attached; thus the Foresail is named from the Foremast,
the Mainsail from the Main Mast, the Main Topsail from the Main
Top Mast, &c."
THE SQUARE SAILS
(a) The Fore Sail(b) The Fore Topsail
(c) The Fore Top-gallant Sail
(d) The Fore Top-gallant Royal
(e) The Fore Studding Sail
(f) The Fore Topmast Studding Sail
(g) The Fore Top gallant Studding Sail
(h) The Mainsail
(i) The Main Topsail
(k) The Main Top-gallant Sail
(l) The Main Top-gallant Royal
(m) The Main Topmast Studding Sail
(n) The Main Top-gallant Studding Sail
(o) The Mizen Topsail
(p) The Mizen Top-gallant Sail
(q) The Mizen Top-gallant Royal
(r) The Spritsail
(s) The Spritsail Topsail
THE FORE AND AFT SAILS
The JibThe Fore Topmast Staysail
The Fore Staysail
The Main Staysail
The Main Topmast Staysail
The Middle Staysail
The Main Top-gallant Staysail
The Mizen Staysail
The Mizen Topmast Sail
The Mizen Top-gallant Staysail
The Driver or Spanker and the Mizen brailed up
Sloop
A sloop has one mast, fore-and-aft rigged.
Topsail Schooner
Schooners are a family of ships and must have at least a foremast and a mainmast. Schooners are the vessels most commonly used today by recreational sailors and are seen at any given time on San Francisco Bay.
A topsail schooner has no tops at her foremast, and is fore-and-aft rigged
at her mainmast. She differs from a hermaphrodite brig in that she is
not properly square-rigged at her foremast, having no top, and carrying
a fore-and-aft foresaill instead of a square foresail and a spencer. The
San Francisco National Maritime Museum's 80-foot Alma, built on the shores
of San Francisco Bay in 1891 is a scow schooner: a wide, flat sailing
boat with gaff-rigged sails. At the turn of the century, scow schooners
moved the kind of heavy cargo that trucks carry today. They criss-crossed
the Bay and sailed up into the Delta delivering hay, salt and bricks.
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