Xebec

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article discusses the sailing vessel. For the Japanese animation studio, see XEBEC.

The term xebec (also variously spelled chebec, chebeck, jabeque, sciabecco, shebec, xebeque, and zebec) refers to a small, fast vessel of the 16th to 19th centuries, used almost exclusively in the Mediterranean Sea. Early xebecs had two masts; later ones three. Xebecs featured a distinctive hull with pronounced overhanging bow and stern, and rarely displaced more than 200 tons, making them slightly smaller and with slightly fewer guns than frigates of the period.

In the 18th and early 19th centuries, a large xebec carried a square rig on the foremast, lateen sails on the other masts, a bowsprit, and two headsails. The square sail distinguished the form of a xebec from that of a felucca.

Sea-going Mediterranean peoples greatly favoured xebecs as corsairs, and for this purpose built them with a narrow floor to achieve a higher speed than their victims, but with a considerable beam in order to enable them to carry an extensive sail-plan. When used as corsairs they carried a crew of 300 to 400 men and mounted perhaps 16 to 40 guns according to size. In peacetime operations, the xebec could transport merchandise.

Words similar in form and meaning to xebec occur in French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Arabic and Turkish. The Online Etymology Dictionary regards the Arabic shabbak (meaning "a small warship") as the source form.

The Spanish jabeque had only lateen sails, as portrayed in the Cazador.*[1] This ship was built and used by the Spanish crown in the mid XVIII century to fight Algerian corsairs (privateers) in the Mediterranean Sea. Algerian Berber corsairs also used three lateen sails xebecs in their raids on Mediterranean trade.

Types of sailing vessels and rigs

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../x/e/b/Xebec.html"

Category: Ship types

Xebec

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Views

Navigation

Search

In other languages