The 4-Masted Coasting Schooner A7;(^ Philip was built in 1886 at Camden, Maine. Her register dimensions 

 were 211.0' x 42.5' x 20.4', 1,163.65 net tons. From a painting by VV. P. .Stubbs, 1888, in the Watercraft 

 Collection (USNM 76108). (Smithsonian photo ^^6gi~b.) 



square sails. The foremast, in this period, had no gafT 

 sail. It was common practice, in naval reports, to 

 refer to the brigantine in abbreviation, "brig.," and 

 gradually "brig" (with period omitted) was used 

 when actually a "brigantine" was meant. When in 

 the 18th century a main course was added to the 

 brigantine, the resulting rig came to be called "brig" 

 by lexicographers. A variation of this rig was the 

 "snow," a 2-masted vessel rigged exactly like the 

 "brig" that had by then developed, except that on 

 the after side of the mainmast, was placed a pole, 

 or small mast, on which a main fore-and-aft gaff- 

 sail, or spanker, was set, an arrangement that allowed 

 the main yard to be lowered without interfering with 

 the main fore-and-aft sail, as it did on the brigs and 

 brigantines. Curiously enough, the snow rig became 

 the naval rig known as the "brig," so that after 1810 

 nearly all naval brigs were, in fact, snows! In the 

 19th century a fore-and-aft gaff-sail of small size was 

 added on the foremast and the result was called 

 "schooner brig" or "brig schooner" by some and 



finally, Ijy most seamen, hermaphrodite. To add to 

 the confusion, the British Navy as late as 1812 rated 

 as "brigantines" vessels having the lexicographers' 

 "brig" rig. 



The American coasting brigantine was built in a 

 variety of hull forms. The most common was that of 

 the ordinary 2-masted topsail schooner, having a 

 rather full entrance, long and often fine run, moderate 

 sheer, slightly raking and flaring stem rabbet with a 

 short and heavy cutwater, a somewhat raking stern- 

 post, upper-and-lower raking transoms with round 

 tuck, the rail quite full at the bow and the sides alinost 

 parallel for most of the hull length. The midsection 

 was formed with a slight rise in the straight floor, 

 a full round bilge, and some tumble-home in the top- 

 side. The high, raised quarterdeck, at main-rail 

 height, was short and had solid bulwarks or the 

 turned-stanchion-and-cap rail. Between 1820 and 

 1850 this was the most common New England coasting 

 brigantine. To the southward the model used was 

 that of the inodified Baltimore clipper until about 



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