Brig

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For other uses, see Brig (disambiguation).

Brig
The Brig Lady Washington
Type	Naval vessel
Place of origin	Mediterranean
Specifications
Weight	Tonnages up to 350
Length	75 and 130 ft (23-40 m)
Crew	Varies, 12 to 16 to sail (more to man cannons and board prizes)

Armour	Wood
Primary armament	10 cannon (pound of ball varies per cannon)
Secondary armament	Carronades
Speed	Varies per conditions, up to 11 knots reported

In nautical terms, a brig is a vessel with two square-rigged masts. During the Age of Sail, brigs were seen as fast and maneuverable and were used as both naval war ships and merchant ships. While their use stretches back before the 1600s the most famous period of the brig was during the 1800s when they were involved in famous naval battles such as the Battle of Lake Erie. Because they required a relatively large crew and the difficulty of sailing into the wind (a trait common to all square-rigged ships), brigs were phased out of use by the arrival of the steam boat. They are not to be confused with a brigantine which has different rigging.

1 Rigging
2 Hull material
3 Development of the brig
4 Historic usage
5 Historic examples
6 Brigs in fiction
7 Modern recreations
8 See also
9 External links
10 References

[edit] Rigging

In sailing, a full-rigged brig is a vessel with two square-rigged masts (fore and main).^[1] The main-mast of a brig is the aft one. To improve maneuverability, the mainmast carries a small fore-and-aft sail (also called a gaff sail).^[2]

Brig sails are named after the masts to which they are attached, the main-sail; above that the main-top-sail; above that the main-top-gallant-sail; and occasionally a very small sail, called the royal, is above that. Behind the main-sail there is a small fore-and-aft sail called the boom-main-sail (it is similar to the main-sail of a schooner). On the fore-mast is a similar sail, called the try-sail. Attached to the respective yards of square-rigged ships are smaller arms, which can be extended, thus lengthening the yard, thus receiving an additional sailor wing on each side. These are called studding-sails or stun-sails, and are used with fair and light wind only. The wings are named after the sails to which they are fastened, i.e. the main-stun-sails, main-top-stun-sails, and the main-top-gallant-stun-sails, etc.^[3]

The brig’s fore-mast is smaller than the main-mast. The fore-mast holds a fore-sail, fore-top-sail, fore-top-gallant-sail, and fore-royal. Between the fore-mast and the bowsprit are the fore-stay-sail, jib, and flying-jib. All the yards are manipulated by a complicated arrangement of cordage named the running-rigging. This is opposed to the standing-rigging which is fixed, and keeps mast and other things rigid.^[3]

[edit] Hull material

Brigs are “generally built on a larger scale than the schooner, and often approaches in magnitude to the full-sized, three-masted ship.”^[3] Brigs vary in length between 75 and 130 ft (23-40 m) with tonnages up to 350.^[4] Historically most brigs were made of wood, although some latter brigs were built with hulls and masts of steel or iron (such as the brig Bob Allen^[5]).^[2] A brig made of pine in the nineteenth century was designed to last for about twenty years (many lasted longer).^[2]

[edit] Development of the brig

The word "brig" has been used in the past as an abbreviation of brigantine (which is the name for a principally fore-and-aft two-masted rig with a square rigged foremast). The brig actually developed as a variant of the brigantine. By re-rigging a brigantine with two square sails instead of one it gained greater sailing power. The square-rigged brig's advantage over the fore-and-aft rigged brigand was "that the sails, being smaller and more numerous, are more easily managed, and require fewer men or 'hands' to work them."^[3] The variant was so popular that the term "brig" became to exclusively signify a ship with this type of rigging.^[6] By the 1600s the British royal navy defined "brig" as having two square rigged masts.^[7]

[edit] Historic usage

Brigs were used as small warships (carrying about 10 guns)^[4] and because of their speed and maneuverability were popular among pirates (though they were rare among American and Caribbean pirates).^[3]^[6] In the 1800s the brig was a standard cargo ship. It was seen as "fast and well sailing", but required a large crew to handle its rigging.^[8] A skilled captain on a brig could "maneuver it with ease and elegance; a brig could for instance turn around almost on the spot".^[9] The need for large crews is what caused the decline of the production of brigs. They were replaced in commercial traffic by gaffsail schooners (which needed less personnel) and steam boats (which did not have the windward performance problems of square rigged ships).^[8]

[edit] Historic examples

Painting of the brig USS Niagara in the Battle of Lake Erie.

The brig USS Argus used during the First Barbary War and the War of 1812.
The brig HMS Beagle which Charles Darwin sailed on.
The cargo hauling brig Farmer owned by George Washington.
The cargo hauling brig Fleetwing.
The brig Leonora of Captain Bully Hayes.
The brig USS Niagara captained by commander Oliver Hazard Perry in the Battle of Lake Erie, a pivotal victory for the United States in the War of 1812.
The brig USS Oregon used in the U.S. Exploring Expedition.
The cargo brig Pilgrim, whose 1834 trading voyage from Boston, Massachusetts to California is described in the book Two Years Before the Mast
The brig Rebecca captained by Robert Jenkins whose boarding triggered the War of Jenkins' Ear.
The brig USS Reprisal that fought in the American Revolution.
The brig USS Somers, sunk in the Mexican-American War.

Note that while the famous ghost ship Mary Celeste is sometimes called a brig, she was probably a brigantine.

[edit] Brigs in fiction

Cover of Richard Woodman's book from the Nathaniel Drinkwater series

The brig Lightning in Joseph Conrad's “The Rescue”
The brig Sea Hawk in "The Pirate of the Mediterranean" by William Henry Giles Kingston.
The brig Interceptor in the film Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl (portrayed by the brig Lady Washington).
The brig Enterprise in the film Star Trek: Generations (also portrayed by the brig Lady Washington).
The brigs Porta Coeli and Amélie appear in the Horatio Hornblower series by C. S. Forester (which was later adapted to films and television).
The brig HMS Sophie in Master and Commander by Patrick O'Brian later adapted into a film.
The brig Molly Swash, in James Fenimore Cooper’s book “Jack Tier”.
The brig Hellebore in the Nathaniel Drinkwater series by Richard Woodman.
The brig Isle of Skye in Iain Lawrence's “The Wreckers (High Seas Trilogy)”.