tcetera, are hoisted and shifted, and held in their
position, by a complicated arrangement of cordage, which in the mass is
called the running-rigging, in contradistinction to the
standing-rigging, which, as we have said, is _fixed_, and keeps the
masts, etcetera, immovably in position. Yet every rope, in what seems
to a landsman's eye a bewildering mass of confusion, has its distinctive
name and specific purpose.

Brigs and schooners, being light and handy craft, are generally used by
pirates and smugglers in the prosecution of their lawless pursuits, and
many a deed of bloodshed and horror has been done on board such craft by
those miscreants.

THE BRIGANTINE.

The rig of this vessel is a mixture of that of the sloop and brig. The
brigantine is _square_-rigged on the fore-mast, and sloop-rigged on its
after or mizzen mast. Of its two masts, the front one is the larger,
and, therefore, is the main-mast. In short, a brigantine is a mixed
vessel, being a brig forward and a sloop aft.

Such are our coasting-vessels; but it must be borne in mind that ships
of their _class_ are not confined to the coast. When built very large
they are intended for the deep ocean trade, and many schooners approach
in size to full-rigged "ships."

CHAPTER ELEVEN.

VESSELS OF LARGE SIZE.

We now come to speak of ships of large size, which spread an imposing
cloud of canvas to the breeze, and set sail on voyages which sometimes
involve the circumnavigation of the globe.

THE BARQUE.

This vessel is next in size larger than the brig. It does not follow,
however, that its being larger constitutes it a barque. Some brigs are
larger than barques, but _generally_ the barque is the larger vessel.
The difference between a barque and a brig is that the former has
_three_ masts, the two front ones being square-rigged, and the mizzen
being fore-and-aft rigged. The centre mast is the main one. The
rigging of a barque's two front masts is almost exactly similar to the
rigging of a brig, that of the mizzen is similar to a sloop. If you
were to put a fore-and-aft rigged _mizzen-mast_ into the after part of a
brig, that would convert it into a barque.

The term _clipper_ simply denotes that peculiar sharpness of build and
trimness of rig which insure the greatest amount of speed, and does not
specify any particular class. There are clipper sloops, clipper yachts,
clipper ships, etcetera. A clipper barque, therefore, is merely a
f