Ship types - rigging of sailing vessels:

This introduction does not include steamships (S/S). Note: the abbreviation S/S for steamship in English, is often used for sailing-ship (Seilskib or Seilskib) in Norway. The Norwegian abbreviation for steamship is D/S (Dampskib)

Bark - Barque (Norw: Bark)

This vessel is a typical Bark. The reason why this ship is called a bark is the way it is rigged. It has three masts, with the foremast and mainmast square rigged and the mizzenmast fore-and-aft rigged. It wasn't unusual for Barks to be re-rigged as Ships or vice-versa. A "bark" rigged vessel, could sail with fewer crew members than the "ship" rigged.

Ship (Norw: Skib, Skip, Fregattskib, or Fullrigger)

This picture shows a Ship. This Ship is square rigged on all three masts, and it has a gaff sail on the mizzen mast. It was often called a "full rigged ship" or in Norwegian "fullrigger" and "fregattskib". A "ship" is a vessel of at least three square rigged masts, each composed of a lower-mast, top-mast, and topgallant mast. Each is outfitted with a yard and a full complement of square sails. Many ship rigged vessels were converted to barks to reduce the number of crew member, and therefore will appear both as a ship and a bark in the lists. NOTE: in some cases when working with the different sources the term ship (or skib) can be used in the meaning "vessel", and not actually used to a specify the kind of rigging. This may cause some errors to be made when describing the rigging of ships

Brig (Norw: Brigg)

The brig was usually a much smaller vessel than the bark and ship rigged vessels. The brig is a vessel with two masts (fore and main), both of which are square rigged. The foremast is made in three spars and square-rigged. On the mainmast there is a standing gaff to which is rigged a small fore-and-aft sail.

Schooner (Norw: Skonnert)

This is a schooner with topsails. It has two masts, the mainmast of which has a fore-and-aft mainsail and gaff topsail identical to those of an ordinary schooner. The schooner was usually smaller than the brig, bark and ship rigged vessels.