76 NAVAL SCIENCES. 



the sails ; ^®, provision -room ; ^\ sick-room ; ", small boat ; ", sail and rigging- 

 room ; ^^ prison (see also pL 25, jig. 8) ; ^*, shot and rigging-room ; '^^ wine 

 and spirits-room ; ", powder magazine ; ", tackle-room ; ", general store- 

 room ; ''^ cattle-stalls ; ^", fodder-room. 



Frigates {pL 14, fig. 4, and pi. 10, fig. 3) take the first rank after ships 

 of the line, and are built on a similar plan. They have three masts, with 

 the same kind of sails, quarter-galleries and head, with forecastle and quar- 

 ter-deck, but no poop, and only one gun-deck. They formerly carried as 

 many guns on the forecastle and quarter-deck as on the main-deck, but 

 now they are made longer in preference, in order to have the cannon 

 mostly in one battery. There are frigates of from twenty to sixty guns ; 

 those with over thirty are called heavy frigates. Frigates must sail rapidly 

 and near the wind, but at the same time be able to bear the sea in a strong 

 wind, as they are used chiefly as cruisers, sailing in all directions to watch 

 the motions of the enemy, to clear the sea, to convoy merchantmen in time 

 of war, or to bring prizes into port. In a general engagement they take no 

 direct part, as they could not stand long against a ship of the line. They 

 consequently take position behind the line, and form a second row, protect- 

 ing the transport and hospital ships, and coming to the aid of the ships of 

 the line at the orders of the admiral. Some of them are deputed merely to 

 communicate signals from the admiral's ship during the battle, and are 

 hence called repeating frigates. After an engagement the frigates take in 

 tow those ships of the line which are so disabled that they cannot sail, and, 

 in short, they perform an endless variety of duties, and may be called the 

 light troops of the sea service. 



Next to the frigates come sloops-of-war, also three-masted, but sometimes 

 with only two masts, built like frigates, and carrying only from fourteen to 

 eighteen guns. The two-masters have only the main-mast and the fore- 

 mast, each of them somewhat longer in proportion than those of frigates, in 

 order to supply the place of the mizen-mast. The try-sail is attached 

 to the main-mast by a gaff; it is broader at the foot than at the head, and is 

 stretched by a sheet. Instead of the main-mast it is sometimes hung to the 

 snow-mast, a spar fastened between the trestle-trees, and is hence called 

 a snow-sail. Merchantmen with masts of this kind are called snows. 

 Sloops of war are very easy and rapid sailers ; they are used to convey 

 orders, for cruising, and for blockading harbors in which there are no 

 ships of war. PI. 14, fig. 3, is a three-masted sloop of war, frigate built, of 

 twenty-two guns. 



A brig or hrigantine closely resembles a two-masted sloop, for which it is 

 often mistaken. The difference consists in the mizen-sail, which in a brig 

 is not a gaff-sail but a boom-sail {pl. 10, fig. 6), attached by a boom to the 

 main-mast. As the boom projects over the stern, and must be turned, there 

 is no flag-staff, and the flag is drawn up by the flag line to the gaff-arm, an 

 arrangement prevailing in all vessels which have boom-sails. A brig 

 has no forecastle or poop-deck ; it has from fourteen to twenty-two guns. 

 PI. 17, fig' 4, is a Swedish 20-gun brig of war, sailing close to the wind; 

 fig. 5, an English 20-gun brig, laid-to. The object of this manoeuvre 

 •728 



