have been sailed at about that time, of which no record has been preserved.
It is difficult to determine the exact date of the introduction of the cutter rig into England. And while various English writers have described it as the "national rig"—which was quite true in the nineteenth century—it did not originate in England. It was, indeed, a slow, gradual evolution of the Sloepe rig of Holland, by the addition of a gaff, boom, and topmast, but retaining the running bowsprit. When the bowsprit was fixed, or standing, the name "sloop" was still retained.
There is no evidence that the cutter rig was introduced into England prior to 1761. And it is clear that the royal yachts in England were not rigged as cutters at this period. Falconer's Marine Dictionary, published in 1771, defines a ketch as follows:
"A vessel equipped with two masts, viz., a mainmast and mizzenmast, and usually from 100 to 200 tons burden. Ketches are principally used as yachts, or as bomb-vessels, the former of which are employed to convey princes of the blood, ambassadors, or other great personages from one port to another and the latter are used to bombard citadels, or towns, or other fortresses." In 1745 the portrait of one of the royal yachts, painted by Monamy and engraved by Canot, was published by John Bowles, London. It is here reproduced, showing a ketch-rigged yacht of that period. Nowhere do we find royal yachts in England rigged as cutters during the eighteenth century, although
