A brig is a sailing vessel with two square-rigged masts. During the Age of Sail, brigs were seen as fast and maneuverable and were used as both naval warships and merchant vessels. They were especially popular in the 18th and early 19th centuries. Brigs fell out of use with the arrival of the steam ship because they required a relatively large crew for their small size and were difficult to sail into the wind. Their rigging differs from that of a brigantine which has a gaff-rigged mainsail, while a brig has a square mainsail with an additional gaff-rigged spanker behind the mainsail.
Brig
Brigg (norwegian bokmål), Brigg (swedish)
Description
Two-masted vessels carrying a full set of square sails on each mast, although the mainmast also carries a gaff-rigged spanker or driver sail; the mainmast is taller than the foremast.
Broader concept
Dataset owner
National Maritime Museums in Sweden (Government agency) owns the information on this page
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Last changed
01/06/2015 15:03:33
Label
Brig
English
Brigg
Brigg
Description
Two-masted vessels carrying a full set of square sails on each mast, although the mainmast also carries a gaff-rigged spanker or driver sail; the mainmast is taller than the foremast.
English
Wikipedia (via Wikidata)
Broader concept
Narrower concept
See also