same type as the jibs can be set on the stays between the masts of
a full rigged ship, and are then known as staysails. But it can
only be repeated that the variations are innumerable. Studding-sails
are pieces added to increase the breadth (spread) of sails, and
require the support of special yards, booms and tackle.
 Fig. 7.—Cutter Yacht. 1, bowsprit and martingale; 2, jib—behind it is the foresail; 3, cross-trees and topmast-shroud; 4, pennant designating the club to which she belongs.; 5, gaff-topsail; 6, peak of gaff, hoisted by peak and throat halyards; 7, mainsail; 8, end of boom and topping-lift. |
 From Sir George V. C. Holmes’s Ancient and Modern Ships, Part I., by permission of the Controller of H.M. Stationery Office. Fig. 8.—Sail Plan of the “Santa Maria.” |
The development of the rigging of ships is a very obscure subject. It was the work of centuries, and of practical men who wrote no treatises. It has never been universal. A comparison of the four-masted junk given above with the figures of ships on medieval seals shows at least much similarity. Yet by selecting a few leading types of successive periods it is possible to follow the growth of the fully rigged ship, at least in its main lines, in modern times.
Fig. 8 gives the sail plan of the “Santa Maria,” the flagship of Columbus. It is a modern reconstruction, made in 1893 in Spain at the Carraca arsenal, but is based on good authority. She has only the fixed bowsprit, with a yard and a sail hanging from it, the spritsail yard and. spritsail. The foremast has one course, the mainmast a course and topsail, the mizzeri a lateen sail. Fig. 9 is the “Sovereign of the Seas,” a British warship of 1637.
From Sir George V. C. Holmes’s Ancient and Modern Ships, Part I., by permission of the Controller of H.M. Stationery Office.
Fig. 9.—The “Sovereign of the Seas.”
She still has only the fixed bowsprit, but a small upright mast has been erected at the end, which serves to spread a sprit topsail. In some cases at least a sprit topgallant sail was used. The mizzenmast still carries a lateen sail, but topsails have been added, and the whole rigging has multiplied and developed. Between the “Sovereign of the Seas” and the fully developed ship, given in fig. 1 the most apparent differences are in the rigging of the bowsprit and the
mizzenmast. The sprit topmast has disappeared, and is replaced