Ship War!!!
Poll: Let's have a ship war! What's the best ship?
Frigate
Caravel
Barque
Galleon
Brig
Man-of-War
Sloop
Schooner
Trireme
Other (Please elaborate!)
Caravel - Lil fellas most associated with Portuguese explorers and the spice trade. These ships had shallow keels and small frames which allowed 'em to sail upriver.
Sloop - Adorable vessels, sloops have just one mast, typically you're gonna see triangular fore-and-aft sails, tho I'm partial to the gaff-rigged mainsail version. The name comes from Old English "slupan" meaning "glide" and also it's just fun to say. Sloop sloop sloop sloop.
Schooner - If sloop was a pokemon it would evolve into this. 2+ masts, fore-n-aft rigged, and a name that comes from Scots, referring to like, skippin a stone over water. As fun to say as sloop if you ask me.
Brig - 2+ masts, square-rigged, very similar to a schooner but requires a larger crew, used mainly by Britain in the coal trade. These guys are pretty, ngl, but for me they feel incomplete, like they're missing a mast. A missin' mast if you will.
Frigate - These are hard to define because the term is so broad. 3+ masts, square-rigged, strictly used as warships. Associated with the Napoleonic wars, the "true frigate" had one deck dedicated to guns, and below that was the berth deck where the crew slept. Nowadays frigates are made of metal and don't even have sails so I ain't interested in those.
Man-o-war - So this really just refers to any ol warship with lots of guns between the 16th-19th centuries. Big boys. Murderboats.
Trireme - So these guys were all the rage 700-400 BC, a type of galley associated with the Persian and Peloponnesian Wars, deriving their name from Latin "triremis" meaning "three-rower" which refers to the three rows of oars on either side of the ship. Some had one or two sails to help out, but the oars are what distinguish a galley from your typical sailing ship. Biremes had 2 rows of oars, monoremes had one -- you can probably guess how many rows quadriremes (the evolution of triremes) had.
Galleon - Now these beautiful bastards are somethin else. Big boys with 3+ masts, lateen fore-n-aft rig on the rear masts, multiple decks, and a Huge Ass. If you're lookin at a tallship settin out and thinkin to yourself, "Damn she thicc" that's probably a galleon. The name basically means "big galley," but make no mistake this thang don't need oars. Man-o-war may also refer to a galleon. This was my favorite ship for a long time cuz you know I like 'em big, I like 'em thicc, but the drawback is galleons are strictly warships. Such a shame that a ship so sexy must be used for war. 😔
Barque - Where do I begin? 3+ masts, efficient, cheap, and gorgeous. These guys saw so much work during the Golden Age of Sail, and for good reason, the rig required less crew, it could outperform a schooner downwind or a full-rigged ship windward. And to top it all off they're beautiful, inspiring Maurice Ravel's Une Barque sur l'ocean and Shakespeare's Sonnet 116. Unlike the galleon, the barque is not strictly a warship, and see, I may love me them big boys, but lord knows I love me a workin' man even more. Gimme a barque with a crew of 30 wildly homosexual sailors any day.
















