The Lougre/ Lugger
The Lougre, as the small 14-23m long ship with a closed deck was called, is a French development and served in the 18th century mainly as a dispatch, cannon or privateer vessel.
A smuggling lugger chased by a naval brig, cirlce arounf Thoams Buttersworth, 1825 (x)
It was also used as a small coastal merchant ship or smuggling vessel.
The Greyhound a lugger replica of the 18th century (x)
They were small, light and had a flat keel so that they could sail close to the coast. a special feature was their sail plan. Their original layout was three masts, although not very high. The fore and main masts were almost the same height and could be folded down. The mizzenmast was therefore very far back. The main sails were the trapezoidal so-called lugger sails.
Plan of Le Coureur (1776) a french lougre
In the late 18th or early 19th century, the British also recognised the usefulness of these small, manoeuvrable ships and used them as dispatch ships. However, they also reworked the design and brought out the lugger, as they called it, as a two-master.
A two mast lugger (x)
From the middle of the 19th century onwards, luggers were used almost exclusively as fishing boats and were replaced in the navies by sloops or schooners.
