The International Sail Training Associtation, which organized in the 1950's, has brought some order to the confusion, establishing three classes of tall ships, which helps to even the field when the vessels are racing.
Class A: All vessels with a length of 160 feet or greater, regardless of its rigging; and/or, all square-rigged vessels, regardless of length, although square topsail schooners are excluded.
Class B: All vessels with a length greater than 100 feet but less than 160 feet.
Class C: All sailing vessels at least 30 feet long at the waterline, but not longer than 100 feet overall.

The 115 brig-sloops of the `Cherokee` class were armed with 8 x 18-pdr. carronades and 2 x 6-pdr. long guns.
The 110 brig-sloops of the `Cruiser` class were armed with 16 x 32-pdr. carronades and 2 x 6-pdr. long guns.

Top Spritsail - the topmost sail on the spritsail extended by a sprit(pole) diagonally upward from a mast to the topmost corner of a fore-and-aft sail

Spritsail - a sail extended by a sprit(pole) diagonally upward from a mast to the topmost corner of a fore-and-aft sail

Outer jib - the outer most triangular sail projecting ahead of the foremast on a spar fixed to and extending beyond the bowsprit of a ship

Inner jib - triangular sail projecting ahead of the foremast on a spar fixed to and extending beyond the bowsprit of a ship

Fore Course - a sail on the lowest yard on the mast forward most mast of the ship

Fore Topsail - in a square-vessel, the square sail, or either of a pair of square sails, next above the lowest sail on a mast of the forward most mast of the ship

Fore Topgallant Sail - a sail situated above the topsail of the forward most mast of the ship

Main Course - a sail on the lowest yard on the principal mast of a vessel: in a schooner, brig, bark, etc., the mast second from the bow; in a ketch or yawl, the mast nearer the bow.

Main Topsail - in a square-vessel, the square sail, or either of a pair of square sails, next above the lowest sail on a mast of the principal mast

Main Topgallant Sail - a sail situated above the topsail on the principal mast of the ship

Mizzen Course - a sail on the lowest yard on the mast closest to the stern in a ship with two or three masts

Mizzen Topsail - in a square-vessel, the square sail, or either of a pair of square sails, next above the lowest sail on a mast of the mast closest to the stern in a ship with two or three masts

Mizzen Topgallant Sail - a sail situated above the topsail and below the royal mast of the mast closest to the stern in a ship with two or three masts

Here be a directory of different classes of ships, Click on the thumbnails for a bigger picture as well as details about the vessel.

Select a picture
Bark	Brig	Brigantine	Carrack
Cutter	Frigate	Full-Rigged	Galleon
East-Indiaman	Junk	Ketch	Man-O-War
Merchantbrig	Sloop	Staysail Schooner	Topsail Schooner

There were three qualities required in a pirate ship: she had to be fast , seaworthy, and well armed. A fast ship enabled the pirates to catch their prey and to make a quick getaway, "a light pair of heels being of great use either to take or to escape being taken" in the words of Captain Johnson. For this reason, many of the pirates in the West Indies used the single-masted sloops built in Bermuda and Jamaica which had a well-deserved reputation for speed. The pirates kept them in good order, careening them regularlay to keep the hulls smooth and clear of seaweed, and they could usually outsail any craft sent after them.
The Barbary corsairs of the Mediterranean used oar-powered galleys rowed by slaves. These were long, slender craft which were renowned for their speed, and sailing ships becaomed in the light airs of the Mediterranean were at their mercy. Their oars acted like engines, enabling them to maneuver easily and to come racing alongside a victim. When the wind came up, the corsairs hoisted a large lateen sail on the single mast amidships. The galleys were armed with one or more big guns in the bows, and swivel guns mounted along the rails, but their principal armament was the complement of one hundred fighting men who swarmed aboard the victim and swept aside all opposition.
A Pirate ship also had to be seaworthy--capable of riding out local storms, and able to make sea passages and, in some cases, ocean crossings. One of the most impressive aspects of the early-eighteenth-century pirates is the enormous voyages which they made in search of plunder. The cruised the North American coast from Newfoundland to the Caribbean. They crossed the Atlantic to the Guinea coast of Africa,. And they rounded the Cape of Good Hope to Madagascar in order to plunder ships in the Indian Ocean.
The armament of the selected vessel was less important than speed and seaworthiness because guns could always be added later. Since this fitting out was carried out in a secluded location out of reach of the authorities, there are no accounts in official records, but a close reading of Johnson's General History of the Pirates suggest that it was normal practice for pirates to take over a ship and set the carpenter and gunners to work.





The Treasure Fleet
In the decades following Christopher Columbus' first voyage to the New World in 1492, Spanish conquistadores explored and claimed lands ranging from present day Argentina to California and Florida. Included in this vast new empire was Mexico, the Caribbean islands, and all of South America except for Brazil, which went to Portugal by papal agreement.
Spanish kings soon learned however that claiming the land and holding on to it were separate achievements. Foreign interlopers overran the edges of the empire in ensuing centuries, including most of North America, Jamaica, parts of Hispaniola, and many smaller Caribbean islands. Nevertheless the bulk of the empire remained in Spanish hands until the revolutionary wars of the nineteenth century when Spanish rule was overthrown and independent republics were established.
Trade between Spain and the new colonies, although heavily regulated by the Crown, initially proved profitable. These first links between the old and new worlds comprised of merchant and naval vessels sailing sporadically between March and October, when Atlantic waters were calmest. By the early 1500s however, richly laden merchant ships were already falling prey to foreign pirates.
Depradations by foreign corsairs led the Spanish crown to order merchant vessels to sail in flotas of ten or more and to arm themselves for self-protection. In 1543, King Charles V ordered by decree that one war galleon accompany each fleet to and from the Americas. Shortly thereafter a war with France rendered even this protection inadequate, and from the 1550s onwards an armada of galleons was dispatched to protect the flota's annual voyages.
The treasure fleet -- so much an object of popular lore -- actually comprised of two separate fleets of merchant vessels protected by respective armadas of war galleons. The first fleet, the Tierra Firme flota, entered the Caribbean near Margarita in April or May and sailed west along the Spanish Main with ships splitting off to call at various towns along the way, including Caracas, Maracaibo, Rio de la Hacha and Santa Marta. Meanwhile the remaining merchant ships and accompanying war galleons put in at Cartagena, then sailed the short voyage west to Porto Bello, (Nombre de Dios prior to 1595) where a huge trade fair was held and silver from the mines in Peru was loaded aboard. The fleet then returned to the safer anchorage at Cartagena to spend the winter and wait for the merchant ships that had earlier detached from the flota.
The second fleet, the New Spain flota, sailed directly to Mexico in the spring and wintered over in Vera Cruz where another large trade fair was held. Meanwhile the ships were refitted and loaded with the gold and silver from mines in the Mexican hinterland.
During most years the two flotas' accompanying war galleons, collectively known as the Armada de la Guardia, did not winter over in the New World with the merchant ships, but instead collected the Crown's taxes and treasure and sailed for Havanna. In Havanna the war galleons rendezvoused with the merchant ships from the previous years' New Spain and Tierra Firme flotas. Together, in a vast fleet that might number upwards of fifty ships, the combined armada would depart Havanna in late August or September and return to Spain.
During war the Armada de la Guardia might winter over in the New World to add better protection to the colonies. But most years the Spanish admiralty, the Junta de Armadas, preferred a quick turn around for the war galleons since it saved six months of extra provisioning costs and, more importantly, assured that the same fleet of galleons could escort next year's flotas to the New World in the spring.

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