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The building of ships is very much a skill and each ship is an individual masterpiece of the shipwright's art, as any shipwright will tell you. That being said there are various classes of ship and typical members of those classes. Some of those familiar to the Caribbean are described here. The types and descriptions are from a wider area and period than the C17th Caribbean, but that aside are broadly correct.
In order of increasing size:
A small, two-masted sailing ship of about 20 tons generallly acting as a tender to a larger ship. The primary small craft of the Caribbean. Very manoeuvrable, with a shallow draft. Faster than a sloop sailing close-hauled (into the wind) or rowed. A pinnace can be scratch-built given a skilled shipwright, able assistance, supplies of timber and metal parts, ropes, sails from a wreck...
- the name given indescriminanatly to any sort of fishing vessel...
(Dutch: sloep; French: chaloupe). "A vessel with one mast like a cutter; but having a jib stay, which a cutter has not." Small, fore-and-aft rigged sailing vessel with a single mast. Normally carrying a gaff-mainsail, gaff-topsail and jib, sloops often set a variety of extra sails. These might include up to three extra foresails (two jibs and a staysail), plus a jib-topsail and a square sail set on the mainmast, in addition to the gaff-mainsail. The sloop is the preferred vessel of pirates and smugglers. She mounts a bowsprit almost as long as the hull, allowing an enormous amount of sail area in relation to size. She is very fast and manoeuvrable, making it possible to sail circles around larger merchant ships and men-of-war. The main weakness of the sloop is that running before strong winds she is slower than a square-rigged ship.
All guns are on the main deck. There is no room to mount great guns as chasers.
The workhorse of the sea. Two masts (fore and main), square sails on both but having a gaff mainsail. It weighs in at around 100-200 tons, and is capable of transporting a good deal of cargo. The brig has roughly the same capacity as the sloop in terms of guns and crew, but is capable of carrying a lot more cargo.
Hermaprodite Brig - a combination of brig and schooner rigs, square rigged on the foremast and fore-and-aft on the mainmast. Also known as a Brigantine.
Pink - in the Dutch Fisheries a two-masted boat of the Ketch type. "A name given to a ship with a very narrow stern. Those in the Mediterranean Sea differ from the Xebecs only in being more lofty and not sharp in the bottom; they are vessels of burden, have three masts and carry lateen sails." (Falconer 1790).
Small three-masted ship, with overhanging bow and stern. Lateen rigged but with a square sail on the foremast. Common in the Mediterranean, and the Spanish coastal trade. Popular with Barbary pirates.
Small, three-masted, Dutch ship evolved at the end of the 16th century. Fluytes were square-rigged on the fore- and mainmast, lateen-rigged on the mizzen, with upper and lower spritsails set on the bowsprit. As they never carried any type of topgallants they were easier to handle and needed much smaller crews than other designs of a similar size. These ships were long in relation to their beam with an exceptionally rounded stern and a remarkably narrow deck. Tax was calculated according to the beam on the main deck...
It is not very fast, nor is it manoeuvrable. What makes it a popular vessel is its remarkable cargo capacity, its ease of handling (12 men can sail this vessel easily), and its price; fluytes are cheap to build.
The term 'ship' applies to any three-masted square-rigged vessel of more than around 200 tons, That means merchant and naval vessels of a variety of sizes. On a good day, they can sail at around eight knots. They can manoeuvre fairly well, when not sailing against the wind. The advantage to the ship is its size; they are big. For naval vessels, this means that you can pack them with men and guns. For merchant vessels, this means you can pile on the cargo. The later and larger warships can carry over a hundred guns and over 500 men; and the huge 700-ton East Indiamen can carry vast amounts of cargo in addition to their 54 cannon and 300 men (fortunately for Indian-Ocean pirates, East Indiamen never carried even half that many guns or men - no profit in it).
Pirates often make use of captured square-rigged merchant ships. Their gun capacity (over 30 for a medium-sized merchantman) and crew capacity (around 200) makes them a match even for small warships. By-and-large, however, pirates prefer a small fast vessel - something that can run away from trouble and hide in shallow waters.
The great galleons were the pride of Spain in the C16th. Weighing in at around 500-1500 tons, these ships can mount up to 60 guns and carry a crew of nearly 200, while still carrying 40 passengers as well as a hold full cargo. With their four masts and spritsail, they can manage 8 knots, though the usual cruising speed is around 4. They are extremely sea-worthy vessels, but not terribly fast or manoeuvrable.
Capturing a galleon is a buccaneer's dream. Chances are that a galleon is either headed to Spain with its holds full of booty, of coming from Spain with its holds full of European luxuries. Either way, you could retire on your share from taking one as a prize.
Galleys are not really sailing vessels at all. They are shallow drafted relatively narrow and long vessels propelled primarily by oars. The type of galley found in the colonies is actually know as a 'galleas', and is attempt to make the galley more sea-worthy by raising and broadening the hull, and adding more sail area. A good number of galleys are 'lateen-rigged', meaning that their sails are in a fore-and-aft arrangement, suspended from a diagonal yardarm. Galleys can mount over a hundred oars, each operated by two to four rowers (galley-slaves). The advantages to a galley are its ability to move regardless of the wind conditions, its ability to ram other vessels, and its stability as a fighting platform. Its primary disadvantage is its general unseaworthyness and the limited number of guns it can carry broadside, but often mounting heavy guns as bow and stern chasers.
A ship will carry at least one small boat, most will carry two, and the larger ones three or four. These can also be used for coastal travel and piracy. Boats only have one deck; that is, there is no gun deck, orlop, or cargo deck on a boat, though there will probably be a bilge.
Jollyboat the landsman's rowboat. 6-10 ft long and can be rowed by one man, though more is easier. Carries up to 1000 lb or half a dozen people.
Cockboats 15-24 ft long. 12 oars and a sail. Cockboats can carry 2,800 lbs or 14-20 people.
Longboat at least 27 ft long. 18 oars and a sail. Longboats can carry 4,500 lbs (two tons), enough to carry three dozen people, one cannon or large cask of water.
Pirogue
A Spanish word borrowed from the Carib Indians to describe a dugout canoe, particularly the double-hulled seagoing craft in Central and South America in the 16th and 17th centuries. Much used by buccaneers for clandestine assaults
Jangada
Log-built Brazilian sailing raft. It consists essentially of five light-weight logs pinned together, with a drop keel amidship and a single mast carrying a fore-and-aft sail similar to gaff- and spritsail. Larger versions have a deckhouse aft, made of reeds of thatch.
Fore-and-aft rigged refers to the method of attaching the sails to the mast or masts. Rather than having the sails hanging from yardarms (those horizontal poles lashed to the mast), they are stretched between the boom and the gaff (see diagram) and run more-or-less parallel to the hull of the ship. This allows the ship to sail closer to the wind and, in most cases, faster. This rig is not popular on larger ships, as it provides insufficient sail area to move bulky vessels.
Square-rigged ships include a number of varieties. The smallest has two masts, while the larger have three. They range in size from around 100 tons up to the 700 ton East Indiaman. There are a number of things that they have in common. First, most of their sails will be rigged in the same fashion; that is, hanging from a yardarm which is attached perpendicular to the mast (see diagram, below). Second, they tend to be beamier (wider) and to draw more (deeper) than fore-and-aft vessels. This makes them slower under most conditions, but also means that they can carry a lot more cargo - or guns.
This shows the main parts of a ship - an English race-built galleon of the last age. Not all ships have all the parts shown and some have more, for instance some older galleons have an extra mast at the back - the Bonaventure Mizzenmast.
A. Jib and fore-staysail sheets
B. Upper and lower topsail braces
C. Fore braces
D. Fore sheet
E. Main peak halliards
F. Fore peak halliards
G. Main sheet
H. Main boom topping lift
I. Forestay
J. Fore topmast backstay
K. Main topmast backstay
L. Signal halliards
R.P. Reef points
Rigging can be divided into two categories: standing rigging which helps to maintain masts in their permanent positions, and running rigging which controls the movement of yards and sails.
A forestay passes from the top of a mast downwards in a forward direction. A backstay passes from the top of a mast downwards in an after direction of the ship's sides. Shrouds pass from the top of a mast (or a point on it) to the ship's sides. Ratlines are short lengths of line which cross the shrouds at intervals to form ladders to the upper parts of the masts.
A lift takes the weight of a yard or boom. Halliards raise or lower a spar or sail, or may be used for signal flags. Braces control the fore-and-aft movement of the yards. Clewlines lift the lower comers of a square sail. To bend a sail is to attach it to a yard or boom, and to furl it is to secure it temporarily to a spar by short lengths of line called gaskets.
Skysail
Royal
Upper-topgallant
Lower-topgallant
Upper-topsail
Lower-topsail
Courses
Naming of Sails
Sails on a square rig, Courses are the lowest
(Royals and Skysails are quite rare, usually reserved for warships.)
The individual sails are generally named by mast and sail name: mizzen upper-topgallant is the 5th sail up on the 3rd mast back. Of course it isn't that simple. The mizzen-course is sometimes referred to as the Cro' jack. More generally things are abbreviated: tops'l, t'gallant.
Then there are the fore-and-aft rigged gaff sails such as a main gaff topsail.
And the sails attached to the stays, the ropes that brace the masts fore and aft, such as the fore staysail and main topmast staysail.
The bowsprit can support its spritsails, generally hanging below while the jibsails: jib, outter jib and flying jib are fore and aft suspended between the foremast and bowsprit. Then on older ships there may be a spritsail topsail instead of the jibs. Shall I mention Studding sails (or stun's'ls)?
GURPS: Swashbuckler
ICE: Pirates
A Dictionary of Sea Terms - A Anstead
The Observer's Book of Ships.