The sloop is a sailing boat with a single mast and a fore-and-aft rig. It has only one head-sail: if a boat has two or more head-sails, it is named cutter, not sloop, and its mast may be set further aft than on a sloop. In Dutch they call it "sloep", and in French it's called "chaloupe". The most common rig of modern sailboats is the Bermuda-rigged sloop. Typically, a modern sloop carries a mainsail on a boom aft of the mast, with a single loose-footed head-sail (a jib or a genoa jib) forward of … [Read more...]
Clipper – The Last Speedy Boat Type Before Steam Revolution
After a pause posting in this category, I'm restarting with the clipper, a very quick sail boat which is not in use anymore. The verb "clip" has been coined by the 17th century English bard John Dryden, with the sense of running or flying very quick. Clip became synonymous with speed, hence "clipper". Not everybody is certain of it as a nautical term until the end of the 18th century. The Baltimore Clipper When this new model of vessel was built, which was intended to "clip" over the … [Read more...]
Cruise Ship
A cruise ship or cruise liner is a passenger ship used for pleasure voyages, where the voyage itself and the ship's amenities are a part of the experience, as well as the different destinations along the way. Transportation is not the prime purpose, as cruise ships operate mostly on routes that return passengers to their originating port, so the ports of call are usually in a specified region of a continent. There are even "cruises to nowhere" or "nowhere voyages" where the ship makes two - … [Read more...]