Schooner Man 

"Schooner man" is a site for lovers of all tall ships! Here you will find schooners, brigs, brigantines, barks and fully rigged tall ships. If you love the history of the sea or the feel of the wind in your sails enjoy these tall ships of yesterday and meet the seafaring men that sailed them.

Photo on right is of the "ALMA". The 80-foot Alma as built on the shores of San Francisco Bay, near present-day Hunters Point, in 1891. She is a scow schooner: a wide, flat sailing boat with gaff-rigged sails. At the turn of the century, scow schooners moved the kind of heavy cargo that trucks carry today. They criss-crossed the Bay and sailed up into the Delta delivering hay, salt and bricks.

In these pages we have a wide range of nautical items. There are some examples of modern ships but most are of traditionally rigged vessels Schooners were first used by the Dutch in the 16th or 17th century however, much of their development took place in America from the time of the American Revolution.

. Photo to right is of the " PACIFIC SWIFT" --a square topsail schooner. Photo by Thad Koza.for more photos visit Tall Ships '97

Schooners out-number square riggers in America. The reasons for this are that they could sail closer to the wind and they could be sailed with a smaller crew.

Schooners have carried every conceivable cargo. They were used for coastal work, ocean voyages and on the Great Lakes, In the late 1800's there were over two thousand schooners on the Great Lakes, hauling everything from lumber to apples. Over the years schooners have been used as pleasure craft, cargo carriers, privateers, slavers, fishing boats and pilot boats.

Photo to right is of the "ADVENTURE". She was a bowspritless "knockabout". She was 121'6" from stem to stern. "ADVENTURE" was solidly built of oak and pine in Essex, Massachusetts in 1926. Carrying a full sailing rig, diesel engine and 14 dories, she spent the next 27 years fishing the North Atlantic's bountiful outer banks from her home port of Gloucester. For more information their For more information visit the "ADVENTURE"

Today most schooners are charter ships, school ships, or historical replicas. A schooner has two or more masts with the forward being shorter or the same height as the rear masts. Most of these schooners are gaff rigged. As trade increased they needed larger hulls so more masts were added. Three masted "terns" were a favourite rig of Canada's Maritime Provinces.

The two masted and gaff-rigged "LADY MARYLAND" is a full size replica of a "pungy schooner". An elegant work boat of a kind that used to transport perishable cargo and luxury items around Chespeake Bay. Photo by Thad Koza.for more photo visit Tall Ships '97

. In the 1900 the first six master schooner was built George W Wells. In 1902 the seven master Thomas L Lawsonwith a length of 395 ft. carried 27 Sails with 43.000 sq. ft. of sail.

In his excellent note upon "The Origin of the Schooner Rig,'' Mr. L. G. Carr-Laughton, the Librarian of the British Admiralty, says that the essentials of the schooner rig are two gaff sails and a headsail, all beyond is accidental. He also says that embryonic schooners without a headsail were being used in Holland as early as 1630.

One of the earliest representations of a true schooner is to be found in Richard Houston's engraving of " A Fresh Gale," after W. Van de Velde, and although an exact date cannot be assigned to the painting it is reasonable to assign the picture, and consequently the schooner, to the last quarter of the 17th Century.

This site is design and maintained by Tom Van Oosterhout tom@seatalebooks.com

01/25/2008