Pirate Ships

Here I will provide definitions of various seacraft used in the late age of sail from the smallest to the largest. By the golden age of piracy, most vessels sailing vessels were square-rigged, as opposed to fore-and-aft rigged, and came in various shapes and sizes for different purposes.

Launch: A low, long, flat-bottomed ship's boat designed for rowing to and from shore.

Yawl: A small ships boat rowed by 4 to 6 oars.

Whaleboat: A pointed rowboat used for whaling and beach work.

Pettiauga: a canoe made of two tree trunks hollowed and united into one fabric for shallow water.

Longboat: the largest and strongest boat belonging to any ship. Usually used for carrying heavy burdens such as anchors or ballast, generally furnished with a mast and sails. Some longboats belonging to warships would be decked and armed and fitted for cruising short distances.

Galley: A low flat fishing vessel furnished with one deck and fitted with sails and oars.

Pinnace: A small single-decked vessel navigated with oars and sail having generally two masts.

Menchew: a single-masted vessel, usually a cargo boat much used on the Malabar coast.

Pink (aka. Hagboat): A general name given to sailing ship with narrow rounded sterns.

Shallop: A large boat with two masts, propelled by oars and sail.

Gallivat: A large naval boat equipped with four to eight swivel guns, of 40 ton 70 tons burthen, carrying about 100 men for landing. It sailed with a peak-sail and was rowed with 30 or 40 oars. It held 20 fighting men besides the rowers.

Sloop: A small vessel furnished with one mast, the mainsail of which is attached to a gaff above, to the mast on its foremost edge and to a long boom below. Sloops were often small warships with two or three masts.

Schooner: A small ship with two masts whose mainsail and foresail are suspended from gaffs reaching from the mast towards the stern.

Galliot: A Dutch flat-bottomed two masted vessel.

Brigantine (aka. Brig): A two-masted merchant vessel.

Ketch: A vessel equipped with two masts from 100 to 250 tons burthen. Principally used as a bomb vessel to bombard fortresses.

Snow: The largest of all two masted vessels, with a small mast behind the mainmast similar to a mizenmast on a larger ship.

Frigate: A light nimble ship mounting 20 to 38 guns. Frigates had a descent of four or five steps from the quarter deck to the main deck.

Barca-longa: A large Spanish fishing boat with two or three masts used for coastal trading and offshore fishing.

Grab: A large coasting merchany vessel of India, generally two or three masts without a bowsprit, 150 to 300 tons burthen.

Fly-boat: A large Dutch flat-bottomed vessel of 400 to 600 tons burthen, notable for its unusually high stern resembling a gothic turret.

Man-O'-War: A broad term used by the English Navy for large well-armed warships.

Galleon: A large warship with three or four batteries of cannon. By the 18th Century the term referred specifically to the largest of the Spanish merchant vessels usually with four decks.

Ship of the Line: The largest, best-armed ship on the sea (pictured). Designed principally for broadsides and naval combat.