Brig (ship): description, design features, famous ships

2024 Author: Howard Calhoun | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:16

The first sailing ships appeared, according to historians, about 3000 years ago in ancient Egypt. Images of such ancient ships are available, among other things, on artifact vases and camphors. The design of the world's first ships, of course, was as simple as possible. But later, the boats were gradually improved.

Design of the brig ship. Short Description

Sailing ships, as you know, can have a different number of masts. Such ships can be equipped with them in the amount of 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5 pieces. Brig - a ship with two masts and direct sailing weapons. From 6 to 24 guns can be on board a warship of this type.

Sailing rigging is a rigging system used to transfer wind energy to the hull. At the brig, the fore and main masts are responsible for moving through the water. These ships do not have mizzen masts.

One of the sails - gaff - is oblique for the brigs. It has an irregular trapezoid shape and helps the ship to maneuver. Such a sail is called a mainsail-gaf-trisel.

Design features of the first ships

The first floating craft,used by people were very simple. Movement was carried out with the help of oars. Also in ancient times, small cargo ships were quite widespread. They were moved through the water by workers or animals walking along the shore.

Somewhat later, people began to use sailboats for river and sea travel. For example, such boats in ancient times were widespread in Phenicia.

Of course, the first sailboats were single-masted and relatively small. Ships of this design were used by people for a very long time - until the end of the Middle Ages.

Three-masted ships

The simplest boats were quite convenient to use and allowed to carry a large amount of cargo. However, with the development of trade and military craft in the Renaissance, people, of course, began to miss their potential.

It would be more logical to assume that immediately after single-masted sailors began to use double-masted ships. But it's not. The next type of ships used by man were three-masted ships with a mizzen mast. In the XVI-XVII centuries, there were practically no two-masted watercraft in the world, for example. This situation continued for a century and a half.

First two-masted ships

Of course, attempts to make such things were made in those days. But the then shipbuilding traditions interfered with the implementation of plans for assembling two-masted ships:

• Special case shape.
• Traditionput the mainmast in the middle of the ship.

Shnyavy and bilanders

All the two-masted ships of those times, unfortunately, were poorly controlled. But in the end, people still learned how to build comfortable and fast ships of this variety. Shnyava and bilander were the first such two-masted ships.

The last type of watercraft was used mainly by merchants. Bilanders first appeared in the Netherlands, and were later adopted by the French and the British. Such ships were not used for long-distance voyages. Merchants transported their goods mainly only in coastal waters. The rigging of ships of this type, like others in Europe at that time, was made from hemp ropes of multiple lays.

Shnyavs began to be used by people for movement on water around 1700. Who first invented and designed these ships, history, unfortunately, is silent. Presumably, the mizzen mast was once simply removed from ordinary ships. Ships of this type could be used as both merchant and military.

First brigs

How and when did brigs appear in the history of navigation? Ships, including two-masted ones, used by people in the 17th-18th centuries, of course, were also gradually improved. In the end, sailors began to swim on a special variety of shnyavs - langars.

Ships of this type were almost already brigs. In such vessels, the main mast was tilted slightly forward. This was an important change. There was also an independent gaffsail. This innovation has improved the performance of boats.

Actually, ships-brigs of the design familiar to us appeared in the fleet around the middle of the 18th century. In particular, such ships were widely used in the 19th century. There were ships of this type in those days, of course, in the Russian fleet.

Brigs in the 18th century: what they were used for

In the middle of the XVIII century. such ships belonged mainly to merchants. They transported a wide variety of goods. Most often, such vessels cruised in the coastal waters of Europe and the UK. During the wars, the same type of boats were most often used as mail. But by the end of the 18th century, brigs found other, more interesting uses in navigation as comfortable sailing ships.

Ships of this type then began to be used by people in all sorts of research sea expeditions. Vitus Bering was the first to make a voyage to North America on such a vessel. Two such ships took part in this journey:

• “The Holy Apostle Paul”;
• "Holy Apostle Peter".

Both of these brigs reached the coast of Alaska, but only one of them returned home. Vitus Bering on the ship "Pavel", unfortunately, crashed in the area of the Commander Islands. The ship's crew then escaped. However, not all members of the expedition managed to survive the forced wintering in a harsh climate. Bering himself and 18 other sailors never returned to their homeland.

Brigs in the 19th century: description of ships

Even later, such boats from research and trade practicallycompletely transformed into the military. For example, such ships took an active part in the naval battles of the American Revolution and the Russian-Turkish war.

According to historical documents, a brig ship of the early 19th century. had a displacement of about 350 tons. At the same time, the length of such ships was usually 30 m, and the width almost never exceeded 9 m. The guns on military ships of this type, as already mentioned, could be set from 6 to 24.

One of the features of the brigs, therefore, was their small size. Accordingly, the weapons themselves on ships of this type were usually placed on deck.

Brigantine as a variety

In sailing times, of course, such vessels were also widely used. The brigantines were a simplified version of the brigs. The sizes of such ships were medium or small. At the same time, the foremast of such ships was armed in the same way as that of the brig. This was the main similarity between these courts.

The main mast on the brigantines was installed the same as on the schooners. The dimensions of the ships of this type were smaller than those of the brigs. At the same time, they were inferior to such ships as military equipment. In the Mediterranean Sea, ships of this type were very often used by pirates. Even the word "brigantine" itself does not come from "brig", as one might think, but from "robber" - brigand.

Famous brigs

Sailboats of this type served people faithfully, thus, for more than a hundred years. The most famous in historyuse, in addition to "Paul" and "Peter", the following ships-brigs can be considered:

• Niagara.
• Mercury.

Also quite famous sailboat-brig is the American "Lady Washington".

"Mercury": what is famous for

This ship was laid down in Sevastopol in the winter of 1819. It was launched into the water in the spring of 1820. After 9 years, this brig won a brilliant victory in one of the battles of the Russian-Turkish war in an unequal struggle with two enemy battleships. These two ships were called "Real Bay" and "Selimiye". They were armed with a total of 184 guns against 18 "Mercury".

Chronology of the battle

There was a battle between Russian and two Turkish ships on May 14, 1829. On this day, three Russian warships - the Shtandart frigate, the Orpheus brigs and the Mercury - were cruising abeam Penderaklia. When the commanders of these sailboats saw a huge Turkish squadron on the horizon, they decided to turn towards Sevastopol, since there was no particular need to accept an unequal battle.

However, the wind that day was weak, and "Mercury", which had the worst driving performance, could not get away from the chase. The ship was overtaken by two of the largest and fastest enemy ships.

The Mercury team had to face an unequal battle. At the same time, Captain A. Kazarsky, on the advice of the oldest sailor - navigator lieutenant Prokofiev, decided to fight to the end, and when the spars were shot down (this is a device for setting sails, as well as rigging for ships of almost anyconstruction is the Achilles' heel) and the brig will give a strong leak, grapple with one of the enemy ships and blow it up.

The first "Mercury" attacked "Selimiye" with 110 guns. This huge sailboat tried to approach the stern of the Russian vessel. However, the brig managed to dodge and fire a full salvo on the sides of the enemy.

A few minutes later, the Real-Bey approached the port side of the Mercury, and the Russian ship was sandwiched between two enemy ships. The Turks from the Selimiye shouted to the crew of the brig: “Surrender!”. However, Russian sailors shouting "Hurrah!!!" opened fire with all guns and guns.

The Turks had to remove the boarding team and start shelling the Mercury brig. Not only cannonballs flew into the ship, but also brandskugels and knippels. Fortunately, despite heavy fire, the ship's masts remained intact for a long time, and it remained mobile. Because of the shelling on the Mercury, fires broke out three times, which the sailors quickly liquidated.

Victory

The gunner Ivan Lisenko provided a respite for the brig under fire. With a successful shot, he managed to damage the bayfoot and the water-rods of the Selimiye main-mars-ray. The enemy ship had to be brought to the wind for repairs. Finally, "Selimiye" fired a volley at the Russian ship from all guns at once. However, the ship still remained afloat.

After some time, the team of the brig "Mercury" managed to inflict serious damage on the second enemy ship. The fore-bram-ray was killed at Real-bey, which caused the fall of the foxes. The latter closed the portsnasal guns. In addition, the ship lost the ability to maneuver, as a result of which it had to drift.

Having lost 10 people killed and wounded out of 115, "Mercury" by the evening of the next day joined the fleet moving from Sizopol. For the victory won at the cost of the sailors' lives, this ship was subsequently awarded the stern St. George's flag. The emperor also signed a decree to always have a brig called "Mercury" in the Black Sea Fleet.

Of course, all team members received high awards. The officers were promoted in ranks and from now on they could put on their coats of arms the image of that Tula pistol, which was supposed to blow up barrels of gunpowder in case of a leak.

What is the famous brig "Niagara"

This ship once played a decisive role in the battle between British and American ships in the 1912-14 war. on Lake Erie. The tactics in this battle were dictated by the peculiarities of the weapons of the enemy ships. The short Yankee corronades were quick-firing and gave advantages in close combat. They had a short range. Therefore, it was important for the Americans to "win" the wind and take the best distance position against the British long-barreled guns.

While the Yankees were maneuvering in this manner, one of their two brigs, the Lawrence, was attacked by three of the strongest British ships. Almost all the sailors of this ship were killed or wounded, and the guns were damaged. The captain of the attacked ship moved to the second American brig, the Niagara, on a boat, and sent it to the center of the battlefield. English lines. The largest British sailing ships ended up in the corronade kill zone as a result. This, in turn, led to the fact that the British could no longer cope with the Yankee fleet, and after 15 minutes they lowered their flags.

Thus the Americans won the first naval battle against the British by capturing their ships. Some British ships tried to escape but were intercepted. The least damaged of the British ships were subsequently converted by the Americans into hospital ships. The remaining boats, since it was no longer possible to repair them, were simply burned. The hospital ships of the former enemy did not serve the Americans for too long either. After some time, they all sank in a strong storm.

Pirates of the Caribbean

This popular series is known to have been filmed using sailing ships. In the Curse of the Black Pearl series, the role of the Interceptor was played by a brig, which is a copy of the Lady Washington ship. This ship was built in 1750 and once carried goods from China across the Pacific Ocean. In 1775 it was converted into a military private. That is, his team was engaged in pirate seizures of enemy ships at the direction of the government.

One of the exploits of this legendary sailing brig was the victory over four enemy ships at once and the capture of a large cargo of sugar. One of the captains of this ship was Robert Gray, the first American to circumnavigate the world. Among other things, this ship is the first American watercraft to reach the shores of Japan.

Of course, the movie does not feature the real Lady Washington brig. It was an exact copy of this ship, built in 1989. Today, this ship is used for sailing cruises in the Caribbean and along the coast of America. The very old brig "Lady Washington" once sank in the Philippine Islands.

What other two-masted sailboats exist

In addition to brigs, brigantines, shnyavs and bilanders, ships of this type plowed the seas at different times:

• yols - vessels with a mizzen mast, located next to the rudder and oblique sailing equipment;
• kechi - ships that differ from yols in a larger mizzen mast.

Also sailors once sailed on ships with two masts and slanting sails, called Bermuda schooners.