Ship Types

There was a great variety of types of sailing vessels in use in the 18th and early 19th centuries. To make the situation confusing, the terminology of the day included a bewildering set of names for the vessels; and far too many of these terms were vague, changed over time, or varied by geographic location. Further, many of the terms are used today, often with different meanings. Fortunately, some of the terms were duplicates or addressed fine distinctions between basically similar vessels, and may be ignored for the needs of the information presented here. For gaming purposes there are two important sets of terms that need to be understood; the types of craft, and the rating system. Within the types of craft there were also the distinctions made between craft used for the merchant trade and those used as ships of war.

General

In Great Britain all sailing craft were divided into two broad groups; ships and other vessels. The following are the most common types used for naval and merchant purposes and are the ones most likely to be found in battles.

Ships. A "ship" was technically a three (later more) masted craft with square rigging (i.e., square sails were the most common type of sails on all of the masts). Ships were generally the largest and most common ocean-going craft. In the British system of rating warships, only ships were rated (although some of the smallest ships were not included in the rating system). All of the larger warships were ships.

With the introduction of steam propulsion, and the reduced use of sails, the term "ship" came to be applied to any vessel which would have been a ship if it were fully equipped with sails. Later, and to the present, the term became even more generalized, often referring to almost anything that floats.

Vessels. All craft which were not "ships" (as defined above) were officially "vessels". Vessels include all craft which had fewer than three masts or were not square rigged. Any small warship or merchant vessel could be of this type.

Boats. A boat is a small craft. A simple generalization is; "boats are carried by ships (or vessels)."