Brig, Brigantine

Pirate Ship

The brigs were quite small ships, one of the smallest in a long period, with only 150 - 250 tons of capacity. Therefore, they were extremely fast. The other advantage was that brig had supreme maneuver abilities. Ship required a lot of skilled men to control it. It contained two masts, both square rigged. They were mostly used as the merchant ships, but sometimes even for a war purposes. The brigs were very similar to the snows and brigantines, but with some varieties. While brigantine's fore-mast was also square rigged, basic difference was that the main-mast carried fore-and-aft sails. This was the big advantage because a brigantine sailed fast in every possible wind condition. There was also a hermaphrodite brig (brig-schooner) which was almost identical to a brig, except the main-mast was lateen-rigged.