Rigging Period : Fore-and-Aft Craft by Petersson Lennarth

Author:Petersson, Lennarth [Petersson, Lennarth]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Seaforth Publishing
Published: 2015-01-29T16:00:00+00:00

Profile & Deck Plan

Belaying Plan

Channels

Shrouds

Toprope

Topmast Shrouds

Forestay

Backstay

Bowsprit Guys

Jib Outhaul & Inhaul

Jib Halliard

Lower yard Sling

Topsail Yard Halliard

Lifts

Cluelines & Sheets

Lower Yard Braces & Topsail Yard Braces

Throat Halliard

Peak Halliard

Topping Lift

Mainsheet

Jib

Foresail

Pendant & Flag Hoists

The French Lugger

T HE FRENCH LUGGER that is depicted on the following pages is a typical three-masted type that was used by the French privateers during the Napoleonic Wars, particularly in the English Channel where they harried and harassed British shipping. The corsairs, as privateers were known as in France, mostly operated out of Dunkirk and St Malo and were responsible for the capture of hundreds of British ships during the wars. Able to lie at sea, sometimes even with their gear down, perhaps in the lee of a headland, they would be practically invisible to a merchant ship making its way up or down Channel.

These armed luggers developed from the three-masted luggers that were used in the North Sea fisheries and the type survived through to the twentieth century in the form of the French chasse marée. They were fine-lined and light and very fast, particularly when hard on the wind – perhaps their fastest point of sailing – and it is, therefore, of little surprise that the type was also favoured by English smugglers who found it a weatherly contender to the British revenue cutter. With reduced resistance and turbulence from their minimal rigging they sailed in much cleaner air than the heavily-spared and rigged cutters and also pointed higher. The loose-footed sails were very powerful and these craft required large crews to sail them, but this was hardly a disadvantage to their employment as privateers where a large crew was required to fight.

The model at the National Maritime Museum is built to the scale of 1:24 and is dated around 1800. It is a contemporary full hull model, built plank on frame of clinker construction and it depicts a vessel with eight guns. The model is decked, equipped and fully rigged, with sails set, and both the rigging and the sails are original. At this scale the model represents a prototype of some 76ft length overall with a beam of 20ft and an approximate tonnage of 110 burden. One distinct characteristic can be seen in the stepping of the topmast abaft the mainmast; though the practice was very occasionally found on cutters it is generally a peculiarity of the big luggers of this period. Le Coureur was one such vessel, built by Denys of Dunkirk in 1776. She was captured by the Royal Navy cutter Alert on 17 June 1778 and there are both original plans of her as well as drawings made after her capture.

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