Hello from Serbia!

[Trumpet_Doot]

Hello everyone!

I'm a big fan of sailships. And I mean sailships, not sailboats. Don't get me wrong, sailboats are cool, too. It's just that I'm absolutely fascinated by sailships, watching them sail is downright hypnotic for me.

I don't actually own any sort of vessel, but I came here just to ask questions about different types of ships, different ways of rigging, all the different bits and pieces of a ship(their names and purpose) etc. I know some basics such as the masts and their names, the helm, the rudder, what's the bow and stern, the shrouds and such. But when I look at a ship and see all the different details that exist on it I want to know all about them!

I do hope this is the right place to ask these questions, if I'm wrong please do tell me and I'll clean myself out of here.

I hope I can learn about sailships here, I really want to know all the little parts that make them so damn cool. Cheers!

[thesaltytar]

Welcome aboard!

This forum deals mostly with sailboats and people who cruise or live aboard them. But some of us are familiar with traditional rigging and boats, so this can still be a good resource for questions.

You may find more in depth answers over in the Wooden Boat Forum, as there are more traditional rigging styles on older boats typically of wooden construction. Again, some of those people may hang out here, so don't give up on us entirely!

I also love sailing ships and have sailed or worked on several. Some fishing schooners, some topsail schooners, a brig, a square rigged ketch, a Spanish galleon, a 285' three masted sloop of war, which is really a flush decked corvette, and little 30' open decked pulling boats (think of them as the quarter boats that an old time sailing ship might carry). Each vessel was constructed in or represented a different period in history and they are all a blast.

It was a passion of mine for a number of years which is why I now own and sail a gaff rigged schooner, but a small 36' one.

If you have the time you should consider shipping out and sailing on a few!

Feel free to ask any questions.

[Adelie]

Welcome.

I would suggest updating your profile with your boat make & model or “Looking” in the "Boat" category. This info shows up under your UserName in every post in the web view. Many questions are boat and/or location dependent and having these tidbits under your UserName saves answering those questions repeatedly. If you need help setting up your profile then click on this link: https://www.cruisersforum.com/forums...ml#post3308797

I would happily help more if the link above is not enough.

[JPA Cate]

Welcome aboard CF, Trumpet_Doot.

There are a series of novels by Patrick O'Brian, which have a diagram of the sails involved in sailing ships of the 1700's. The novels are historical fiction about the men and ships.

Most likely Mr. Google and Wikipedia can help you with specific questions relative to ships.

Sailing Routes by Jimmy Cornell is one of the reference books from before climate change was such an issue.

Just let us know what, specifically, you want to learn about, and probably someone can help.

Ann

[TrentePieds]

Hello Trumpet, and welcome.

Just last night I happened upon a website about the Danish School Ship "København" which disappeared in the South Atlantic in 1928. She was a five-masted barque, and the biggest "windbag" in the world when she was launched in 1921. My father had been accepted as a cadet for that voyage, but lost an eye in an accident and was therefore disqualified from joining the ship.

I grew up in Denmark when sailing ships were still active in the Baltic Sea. These were smaller ships of course, generally topsail schooners and galeases, so, like you, I have a SERIOUS interest in the ships that bestrode the world in the last half of the 19th century and the first half of the twentieth.

One of the treasures I have carried around the world with me is a book called Haandbog i Praktisk Sømandsskab ( Manual of Practical Seamanship) which has all the terminology pertaining to "windbags" in it, in several languages. Serbia was not as far as I know a seafaring nation, and it is unlikely therefore that the Serbian language has a "sailors' lexicon". And even if it did, I have no familiarity with Serbian. Your English is obviously very good, so you are very, very welcome to ask about the rigging and the gear aboard these magnificent ships, and I will be able to help you along in English, Danish, German and to some degree in Dutch and French.

So don't feel shy - I'll be glad to help :-)!

All the best

TrentePieds

[thesaltytar]

Originally Posted by TrentePieds

... My father had been accepted as a cadet for that voyage, but lost an eye in an accident and was therefore disqualified from joining the ship ...

...he was DISQUALIFIED for having an EYE PATCH??

[emoji15]

[TrentePieds]

Damn Danes! They are SO particular, eh :-)?

You probably know that what is now the USVIs were until 1917 Dansk Vestindien. Lots of interesting history and politics surrounding the sale of St.John, St.Thomas and St.Croix by Denmark to America, but what strikes me most is that the price America paid back then was in today's money about equivalent to three single family residences on, the admittedly well-to-do, Chancellor Boulevard at the University of British Columbia here in Vancouver :-)!

We wuz fleezed :-)!

TrentePieds