Considering we're gonna spend most of the story on board old tall ships, let's get started with the basics: the different kinds of ships you're gonna read about.
In 1670, ships moved only thanks to the push of the wind in their sails, and there were many types of sailing ships, named according to size, number of masts and decks, oars or not, etc.
Here in the Legacy Saga universe, you will come across mostly brigantines and frigates, the best armed vessels back then. There are also some mentions about galleons, merchantmen and pataches.
Since author's tirany rules, I created a new type of ship I called warrior, which I describe here below.
So let's take a walk about the harbor and see the ships we're gonna sail on.
Merchantman refers to any kind of sailing ship carrying goods. These were mostly brigantines or smaller ships.
This is a merchant patache: two masts, one deck, small, light and fast, halfway between a sloop and a brigantine.2366Please respect copyright.PENANAOSyuBlS5f6
Caribbean pirates used them a lot, because they were easy to come by, capture and arm. 2366Please respect copyright.PENANAMouWRPg5CB
Spaniards used them as escort vessels in short trips, both in the Caribbean and in Europe.
Brigantines had two masts --mainmast (the tallest mast) and foremast (the one closest to the bow). They could carry about a dozen cannons and up to sixty or seventy men--if they didn't care about comfort. They had only one deck --the hold-- that also accommodated the crew to sleep. The cannons were on the weather deck --the upmost one, in the open.
They were the largest boats pirates used, because they were swift and weatherly --easily sailed and maneuvered .
Have you seen In The Heart Of The Sea? Well, that's a brigantine.
This is a brigantine like the Sovereign.
Warriors: this is a kind of ship I invented for this story.2366Please respect copyright.PENANAtBGhKieSdl
They're supposed to be larger than brigantines and smaller than frigates, with three masts, two decks and about two-dozen guns. They're also supposed to be weatherly as brigantines and fast as frigates.
This is how I picture them:
Frigates had three masts --add the mizzenmast behind the mainmast. They carried at least thirty cannons and the crew was about one-hundred and twenty.2366Please respect copyright.PENANALFEdmifFkN
Back in the 1600's most of them had two decks: the hold for supplies and ammo storage, and one more above it --the main deck-- that accommodated most of the cannons and the crew to sleep.2366Please respect copyright.PENANAQoJ6H6EdWB
Larger frigates carried up to forty cannons and two-hundred men, and they had one extra deck for artillery between the hold and the main deck.2366Please respect copyright.PENANAT38ZN13U74
Tall sides and masts, slender lines, they were strong, swift, weatherly and definitely classy.
Have you seen Master & Commander? Well, the Surprise is a 28-gun frigate.2366Please respect copyright.PENANAAHPss5KMyq
By the time the movie is set, in the early 1800's, frigates like the Surprise were sixth-rate frigates --the smallest ones.2366Please respect copyright.PENANALO5G977SDo
But in the Legacy universe, set 130 years earlier, those frigates were the queens of warships.
This is a 30-gun frigate.
Galleons were floating fortresses. Tall sides, broad decks. The weather deck was built in three different levels, to make it easier for defending soldiers to shoot from the forecastle and the quarterdeck against enemies boarding them by the waist --the most accesible point .2366Please respect copyright.PENANAzOarDpvo5m
They could carry up to three-hundred men and a hundred cannons, with two or even three decks solely for artillery. The largest ones even had a fourth mast behind the mizzenmast, because you needed to pack a lot of wind in a lot of sails to move such a bulk.
This is a small three-deck galleon.
If you want to get a better idea of them, you can make this comparison to animals:
galleon = elephant2366Please respect copyright.PENANAtxYnBJjGS1
frigate = lion2366Please respect copyright.PENANAH3wjUeVAFR
brigantine = hyena
In this painting you can see the compared sizes of a frigate and a patache:
Here's a simple sketch of a 17th-century 28-gun frigate like the ones in this story, with the names of some of her parts.
ONBOARD A TALL SHIP
Here's another basic sketch of a tall ship --this one of a three-deck frigate.
**Larboard: old and now-obsolete name of the left side of the ship. Nowadays they call it port.
**The front part's name is plural --bows-- because sailors would refer to it as 'larboard bow' and 'starboard bow', depending on what side of the bowsprit they were talking about.
More Parts of a Tall Ship
THE SAILS
Every little piece of tarp they hoisted on a sailing ship has its own name. Which is a necessary pain. Picture you're in the middle of the storm, or a battle. You can't go shouting, "Hey, strike the third sail from bottom up on the foremast!" You'd say, "Strike the fore topgallant!" Easier, right?2366Please respect copyright.PENANApBCKDxr3i7
However, we on comfy dryland don't need to know them all. So I only use the general names.2366Please respect copyright.PENANABuwzOh3wwB
But here you have them all, just for the kicks.
** The studding sails were auxiliary sails and jibs hoisted between the masts.
** The wings were auxiliary sails hoisted on booms spreading out from the yards. You can see them clearly in this picture:
DECKS
The decks were the "floors" of a ship, the roofed levels.
Small ships like pataches and brigantines had only one deck.2366Please respect copyright.PENANAhADev1ubKo
Warriors I picture with two decks, like frigates with up to thirty guns.2366Please respect copyright.PENANAWDXoT9awaL
Frigates with more than thirty guns and galleons had at least three decks.
The bottom deck was the hold, with storages for supplies and magazines for ammunition and gunpowder.
On two-deck ships, the other deck was the main deck, meant for artillery and crew accommodation.
The weather deck was the one in the open, on top of the others.
This picture portrays a three-deck ship:
For the ships in this story, just forget about the berth deck, right above the hold.
CREW ACCOMMODATION
On ships with only two decks --the main deck and the hold-- sailors would hang their hammocks over the cannons. Here you can see a main deck during the day and at night.
The hammocks were rolled up and stored during the day, to keep them out of the way.
On ships with three or more decks, the deck between the main deck and the hold was the berth deck, and was exclusive for crew accommodation.
Sailors on these ships slept on berths, not hammocks, and had also room for tables and benches.2366Please respect copyright.PENANA0kkP2ehEpT
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